The manuscript, with the author's handwritten corrections and changes, has a starting price of 1.2 million dollars. The author's French passport is included in the purchase.
Saint-Exupéry's saga has been translated into more than 300 languages and sold over 200 million copies.
Only with the Heart
The manuscript to be sold was purchased earlier this year by an English bookstore specializing in sought-after, rare objects. In addition to the text, it contains drawings by the author and his famous phrase (freely translated): "Only with the heart can one see clearly, the most important is invisible to the eye".
The manuscript is said to be one of three existing, the other two being handwritten. Unlike the other two, one of which is located at the French National Library, this was the one Saint-Exupéry kept and worked with.
One rarely comes across something of this magnitude, says Sammy Jay from the seller Harrington Books.
More than Potter
He compares it to the typed draft of the cult novel "On the Road" by Jack Kerouac, which was sold for 2.4 million dollars in 2001.
Saint-Exupéry wrote the book in exile in the USA in 1942. The book was published the following year and has sold more copies than, for example, the first "Harry Potter".
The author, who was a pilot and explorer, left the USA in 1943 to participate in the war against the Nazis on the North African front. He disappeared the following year during a mission over the Mediterranean.
