The Little Prince turned 80 this Thursday, April 6. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s masterpiece has been a great classic of world literature for years now, having gone far beyond French borders. And for good reason: as soon as it was published, it was already expected across the Atlantic. It had even been commissioned from the start in the United States, as La Croix points out. The Little Prince was only released posthumously in 1946 in France. Here are five facts you may not know:
Each year, The Little Prince sells 400,000 copies in France, and 1.5 million in China. In all, more than 5 million books of The Little Prince are sold worldwide every year. With more than 150 million copies sold, it is one of the best-selling books in the world. At the top of this ranking, the Bible (about five billion copies), the Koran (about 3 billion copies) or even… The Little Red Book (800 million copies), a book of quotes from Mao Zedong.
Excluding religious books, The Little Prince is the most translated book in the world, with versions in 382 languages, including ancient Egyptian, for example. The book exists in more than 1,300 different editions.
The book has fallen into the public domain in most countries. In France, it will not be until 2032. Copyright protection (which here benefits the nephews and grand-nephews of the author) normally applies for 70 years post-mortem in France. The case here is different, since Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is considered dead for France, thus extending the time limit.
The work that everyone knows was in fact originally a commission for… a Christmas story, in the United States. The order was placed in 1942 by New York publishers, Reynal
Everything about The Little Prince turns into a success. Each adaptation (comics, cinema, musical…) is a great success. As for derivatives, they would amass 200 million euros per year.
Eighty years later, the work of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry continues to be a hit as on the first day.
