Production History
Other Editions |
The Little Prince saw immediate and long-term success. It went through at least three printings between April 1943 and December 1943 ("Publication History"). The French and English editions were published concurrently in the USA, but the French edition in France was not published until 1945. There were some differences between the French and English versions in the USA to begin with, including the French version featuring a flying crow (which disappeared after the 5th printing) and the English version featuring a 5-lines colophon (scroll down to "Other features" on this page to view) at the end of the book ("Flying Crow").
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First Edition printings and impressions |
There are six official printings of the first edition of The Little Prince. Although the text did not change after the sixth printing, the 5-lines colophon was no longer printed at the end of the book after the sixth printing ("Publication History"). After the sixth print run, it became difficult to decipher the year that a specific copy was printed, as the copyright date did not change on the title page verso. One easy way to tell whether or not a copy is an early edition is by looking at the publisher that is listed on the title page. Copies printed prior to 1948 were published by Reynal & Hitchcock while those printed during and after 1948 were published by one form or another of the Harcourt, Brace family.
Until 1995, Katherine Woods' translation of The Little Prince was the only English translation available, and therefore the first edition was in print for nearly 52 years before a second English translation was published, albeit with different covers throughout those many years. Three new translations were offered up in 1995 by Irene Testot-Ferry, Alan Wakeman, and T.V.F. Cuffe (Patoche). In 2000, poet Richard Howard offered his "colloquial" translation of The Little Prince, which was met with mixed reviews (see "Translator Controversy" on this page). Ros and Chloe Schwarz did a translation in 2010 which is available in the United Kingdom. The most recent translation is that of David Wilkinson, from 2011, which is the translation that is currently available for the Kindle version of The Little Prince (Amazon.com). He is also the translator of a French/English version intended for students (Long 2012). |
Editions from other publishers |
The original French version was published by Gallimard in France in 1945. In 1948, Curtice Hitchcock passed away and his publishing partner, Eugene Reynal, joined the company and its associations with Harcourt, Brace & Company ("Timeline for Antoine de Saint-Exupéry"). In 1960, Harcourt, Brace & Company merged with World Book Company, becoming Harcourt, Brace & World. In 1970, Harcourt, Brace & World changed its name to Harcourt Brace Jovanovich to accommodate its new chairperson, William Jovanovich, who was also the President of the company at the time. In 1993, the company renamed itself Harcourt, Brace & Company (International Directory of Company Histories). The Harcourt General company was then acquired by Houghton Mifflin in 2007, who is now responsible for the publishing of The Little Prince in the United States (Reed Elsevier 2007).
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Last date in print |
The Little Prince has never gone out of print. Certain translations may be out of print, but there has always been at least one English translation of this book in print since 1943 (Long 2012). You can currently buy The Little Prince in paperback for $8.00 on Amazon.com.
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Total copies sold |
Figures range from about 80 million copies (Griese 2010) to more than 200 million copies sold since 1943 (Inman 2011).
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Sales by year |
More than one million copies are sold per year (Van Gelder 2000).
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Performances in other media |
The Little Prince has been adapted into the following:
("List of The Little Prince adaptations") |
Translations |
The Little Prince has been translated into more than 240 languages and dialects. The first ten languages (year, publisher, title) into which The Little Prince was translated (after English) are: Polish (1947, Spóldzielnia Wydawnicza Plomienie, called Mały Książę), German (1949, Karl Rauch Verlag, called Der Kleine Prinz), Italian (1949, Valentino Bompiani, called Il Piccolo Principe), Danish (1950, Jespersen og Pios Forlag, called Den Lille Prins), Dutch (1951, Ad. Donker, called De Kleine Prins), Finnish (1951, Werner Söderström Osakeyhtiö, called Pikku Prinssi), Spanish (1951, EMECÉ Editores SA, called El Principito or El Pequeño Principe), Brazilian (1952, Livraria AGIR Editôra, called O Pequeno Principe), Hebrew (1952, Am Oved Publishers Ltd, called הנסיך הקטן), and Swedish (1952, Rabén & Sjögren, called Lille prinsen).
A full list of languages into which The Little Prince has been translated can be found by going to http://www.petit-prince-collection.com/languages/EN/translations.php. This list was developed by a collector of all things related to The Little Prince. This particular collector does not yet have several of the languages into which the book has been translated and those languages can be found in the "Wanted Books" link under the "Collections" tab. These ten images are credited to the collector whose website is listed above (name unknown).
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Serialization |
The France3 television station in France broadcast 52 episodes of an animated series based on The Little Prince. Each episode was 26 minutes long. Each episode takes the little prince and his fox to a different planet to try to alleviate some problem, whether it be intolerance or wastefulness, while at the same time, emphasizing the importance of friendship, family bonds, and saving the planet. The snake is the antagonist in one form or another in every episode ("The Values of an Animated Serie").
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Sequels or Prequels? |
No prequels or sequels to The Little Prince were ever written by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Likewise, there are no known prequels or sequels to The Little Prince written by any other author, either.
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Other interesting/ significant information |
Between each edition and/or printing, changes of certain aspects of the illustrations were noted. For example, in the first edition (1943) of The Little Prince in the USA, there were 44 sunsets and the Prince’s gown was green. In France’s first edition (1945), there were 44 sunsets and the Prince’s gown was a dark or navy blue. The number of sunsets in any version printed after the sixth print run is either 43 or 44 and the Prince’s gown is either dark/navy blue or green, depending on region of the world, publisher, and edition ("Publication History").
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Resources:
- "Display Ad 115." New York Times. 25 Apr. 1943. Print.
- "Display Ad 124." New York Times. 11 Apr. 1943. Print.
- "Flying Crow." Rassemblement du Petit Prince. 21 Nov. 2011. Web. 5 Dec. 2012. <http://lepetitprince.net/frameset-E.html>.
- Griese, Noel L. "Bible vs. Mao: A "Best Guess" of the Top 25 Bestselling Books of All Time." Publishing Perspectives. Publishing Perspectives, 7 Sept. 2010. Web. 4 Dec. 2012.
- "Harcourt Brace and Co." International Directory of Company Histories. Ed. Tina Grant. Vol. 12. Detroit: St. James Press, 1996. 223-226. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 4 Dec. 2012. <http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CCX2841600080&v=2.1&u=uiuc_uc&it=r&p=GVRL.intdircomphist&sw=w>.
- Inman, William H. "Hotelier Saint-Exupéry's Princely Instincts." Institutional Investor 45.2 (2011): 15. Business Source Complete. Web. 4 Dec. 2012.
- "List of the foreign editions of The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupéry." Patoche. Patoche.org, 2012. Web. 4 Dec. 2012. <http://www.patoche.org/lepetitprince/gallima.htm>.
- "List of The Little Prince adaptations." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 25 Nov. 2012. Web. 16 Oct. 2012.
- Long, Nick. "On Translation and The Little Prince." Ephemeral Pursuits. N.p. 8 Oct. 2012. Web. 4 Dec. 2012.
- Petit Prince Collection. 2012. Web. 1 Dec. 2012. <www.petit-prince-collection.com>.
- "Publication History of The Little Prince in U.S.A." Rassemblement du Petit Prince. 21 Nov. 2011. Web. 4 Dec. 2012. <http://www.lepetitprince.net/sub_ochibo/americanprince-E.html>.
- Reed Elsevier. "Reed Elsevier announces sale of Harcourt US Schools Education Business to Houghton Mifflin Riverdeep Group for $4.0 billion." Press Releases. Reed Elsevier. 17 July 2007. Web. 4 Dec. 2012. <http://web.archive.org/web/20070928133646/http://www.reedelsevier.com/index.cfm?articleid=2110>.
- "The Values of an Animated Serie." The Little Prince. 2012. Web. 3 Dec. 2012. <http://www.thelittleprince.com/tv-serie/the-values-of-an-animated-serie/>.
- "Timeline for Antoine de Saint-Exupéry." Harcourt Trade Publishers. Harcourt, Inc., 2005. Web. 15 Nov. 2012. <http://www.harcourtbooks.com/littleprince/timeline.asp>.
- Van Gelder, Lawrence. "Footlights." New York Times. New York Times, 9 May 2000. Web. 4 Dec. 2012.
This website was created by Kristin Unruh as a project for LIS514A: History of Children's Literature at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the Fall 2012 Semester.