SAINT-EXUPÉRY, Antoine de.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Vers la vallée du Nil. First edition, number 4 of only 8 copies printed on vélin chiffon bleu. Issued in memory of Saint-Exupéry after his disappearance on 31 July 1944 during a reconnaissance flight from Corsica. This slight pamphlet is his account of his near-fatal desert crash.On 30 December 1935, Saint-Exupéry and his mechanic-navigator André Prévot crashed in the Libyan Desert during an attempted Paris-to-Saigon speed record, surviving for four days before being rescued by Bedouin tribesmen. Saint-Exupéry later drew on the experience in Terre des hommes (1939), published in English as Wind, Sand and Stars, and the desert ordeal also shadows the opening of Le Petit Prince.

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