「星の王子さま」のタイプ原稿、ＵＡＥで競売へ 作者の手書き修正も

【ロンドンＡＦＰ＝時事】フランスの作家、アントワーヌ・ド・サンテグジュペリの世界的な名作「星の王子さま」のオリジナルのタイプ原稿が来月、アラブ首長国連邦で競売にかけられる。（写真は、フランスの作家、アントワーヌ・ド・サンテグジュペリの童話「星の王子さま」のタイプ原稿。手書きの修正やイラストなどが残る。英ロンドンの専門書店「ピーター・ハリントン・レア・ブックス」で）
　タイプライターで書かれた原稿はサンテグジュペリ自身が手元に置いていたもので、本人による手書きの修正やメモが見られる他、複数のイラストも描かれている。実際に出版された絵本にはない文章も残っている。
　希少本を取り扱うロンドンの専門書店「ピーター・ハリントン・レア・ブックス」が今年、この希少な原稿を入手した。購入金額については公表されていない。
　原稿はサンテグジュペリのパスポートと共に、１１月２０日に開幕する「アブダビアート２０２４」で競売にかけられる。入札開始価格は１２５万ドル（約１億９０００万円）。
　ピーター・ハリントンの担当者によると、現存するタイプ原稿は３部確認されており、うち１部はフランスの国立図書館に収蔵されている。
　「（出品されるのは）他者の手に渡った２部とは違い、（サンテグジュペリが）手元に置いていた原稿。実際に作業をするための原稿だったため、より特別なものと言える」と説明した。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2024/10/25-21:14）

A specialist London bookstore is selling an original typescript of Antoine de Saint-Exupery's children's classic The Little Prince, complete with the author's hand-written corrections and revisions.
The battered book and Saint-Exupery's passport, issued by the French culture ministry, will go on sale at the Abu Dhabi Art 2024 fair which opens on November 20, with an expected price of at least $1.25 million.
It was acquired earlier this year for an undisclosed sum by rare books specialist store Peter Harrington.
The typescript also contains numerous drawings by the author as well as his famous phrase One only sees clearly with the heart. The essential is invisible to the eyes.
Sammy Jay, of Peter Harrington Rare Books, said it was one of three known versions of the transcript, one of which is held by the National Library of France (BNF).
Unlike the other two which were given to people, he kept this one and it was his own working copy of the typescript so that's what makes it extra special, Jay said.
In addition to the handwritten corrections, the version due to be sold includes passages that were later edited out.
Such a book is extremely unusual in the rare books market, where sky-high prices are not the norm.
You don't usually get something of this status, Jay said, citing the example of the scroll typescript for Jack Kerouac's novel On The Road, which sold for $2.4 million in 2001.
The market for rare and ancient books is very different from any other market in the sense that you don't often sell for millions, he said.
The Little Prince remains one of the world's best-selling books having sold more than the first Harry Potter and The Hobbit combined, according to Jay.
The typescript, he said, had generated a lot of interest and was expected to be snapped up by a museum or private collection, possibly in Asia or the Arab world.
Saint-Exupery wrote his tale about an alien prince and his interstellar travels while in exile in the United States in 1942, having fled France after the Nazi invasion.
The pilot-explorer left the United States in 1943 to fight on the north African front and the book was published the same year in the United States only.
Saint-Exupery disappeared during a flying mission over the Mediterranean in July 1944, and never saw his book's worldwide success.