Great news for the friends of The Little Prince from the land of the rising sun: one of the original illustrations for the world-famous book has come to light!
In 1994, Minoru Shibuya, a museum curator from Japan, purchased a signed drawing at a book fair; the drawing showed the Businessman\’s planet visited by The Little Prince on his travels. Although he believed that the drawing was indeed by the hand of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Mr. Shibuya also thought it was nothing more than a draft. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was known for drawing whenever and wherever he could, even on restaurant table-cloths. Indeed, that is precisely why there are so many sketches all over the world, points out François d’Agay, the writer\’s nephew. « Seeing it gives me a great deal of pleasure. I am much moved to see a drawing by Saint-Exupéry, » he said. The mystery as to how the drawing came to be in Japan remained unsolved, however.
The drawing was recently examined by experts and identified as very probably being one of the drawings used by the US publisher Reynal & Hitchcock for the very first edition of The Little Prince in 1943. If this is really the case, it represents an incredible find, since the original drawings for The Little Prince were believed lost after the death of the author and aviator. It would be only the fourth drawing discovered to date! The news was released in Tokyo, at a press conference attended by François d’Agay.

On 27 March at the 27 Paris Book Fair, the L’Express-Lire group officially presented a cheque for 28,000 euros to the voluntary group Dessine-moi un Mouton which works with families affected by AIDS. The cheque represents the proceeds of sales of a special issue of Lire magazine, devoted entirely to The Little Prince, to mark the 60^th anniversary of its publication in France. For every copy sold, 50 centimes was donated to the association.
For the past 17 years, Dessine-moi un Mouton has been offering social and psychological support to families affected by AIDS. A team of experts helps families try and keep life on an even keel for children and parents alike, to re-establish family ties, to be part of mainstream society despite the disease, as well as helping keep track of their medical follow-up. Since 1990, the group has reached out and provided support to over 1,000 families.

Find out more: www.dessinemoiunmouton.org