Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Flight to Arras. Reynal et Hitchcock, 1942.
Price: US$387.84 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: Edition de 1942. Second printing February. Exemplaire toilé bleu sous jaquette illustrée. Couleur de la toile un peu passée, jaquette élimée. Envoi autographe de l'illustrateur, Bernard Lamotte On joint quelques photos de la maison ou était installé l'atelier de Bernard Lamotte et deux photocopies d'articles concernant le séjour de Saint-Exupéry à cet endroit.
Seller: Hubert Colau, La Bazoche gouet, France
Saint-Exupery, Antoine de and Lewis Galantiere. FLIGHT TO ARRAS. Reynal & Hitchcock: NY, 1942.
Price: US$862.50 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Illus. by Bernard Lamotte, 8.5 x 6", gilt-lettered blue cloth, 255pp, covers rubbed, faded and soiled, extremities bumped and fraying, pp a bit toned, in a rubbed, spine-sunned, extremity-worn/torn/chipped and soiled dustjacket. Third Printing (March 1942) but INSERTED LOOSELY IS A HALF-TITLE PAGE FROM ANOTHER COPY, SIGNED AT THE TOP BY THE AUTHOR, ANTOINE DE SAINT-EXUPERY.
Seller: John K King Used & Rare Books, Detroit, MI, U.S.A.
De Saint-Exupery, Antoine. Flight To Arras. Reynal & Hitchcock, United States, 1942.
Price: US$1600.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Signed by the Author. Clean text. Gently read. Heavy uniform toning to the edges of the text block. Toning to the edges of the cloth boards with light wear to the spine heel and crown. Blue cloth boards & spine, gold spine lettering. Dust cover has been clipped to the top corner of the front panel with the original price still intact to the bottom corner. Heavy chipping to the jacket extremities, rubbing to the flap creases and sunning to the spine. New mylar cover. Very interesting copy in that it contains a monologue written in pencil to the second FEP by an unnamed previous owner outlining a journey taken by aircraft from Berlin to Paris in 1945 in which he visited the WWI battlefield at Arras en route.
Seller: The Casemaker, Troup, TX, U.S.A.
Price: US$1750.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Handsomely bound in blue leather spine stamped brightly in gold, and sturdy woven linen boards. Splendid colored pictorial endpapers and numerous full-page drawings by Lamotte throughout. The leather spine is rubbed at the top and the bottom of the spine ends, and there is a short, closed tear at the top left edge, not affecting the gold lettering. Also light edge-wear and occasional scuffing to the blue leather. With the original box which is sunfaded along the edges and split along the top left-hand side. With a protective acetate jacket. A scarce copy of this classic Saint-Exupery adventure in aviation by the author of Night Flight and The Little Prince. Flight to Arras (French: Pilote de guerre) is a memoir by French author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Written in 1942, it recounts his role in the Armée de l'Air (French Air Force) as pilot of a reconnaissance plane during the Battle of France in 1940. The book condenses months of flights into a single terrifying mission over the town of Arras. Saint-Exupéry was assigned to Reconnaissance Group II/33 flying the twin-engine Bloch MB.170. At the start of the war there were only fifty reconnaissance crews, of which twenty-three were in his unit. Within the first few days of the German invasion of France in May 1940, seventeen of the II/33 crews were sacrificed recklessly, he writes "like glasses of water thrown onto a forest fire". Saint-Exupéry survived the French defeat but refused to join the Royal Air Force over political differences with de Gaulle and in late 1940 went to New York where he accepted the National Book Award for Wind, Sand and Stars. He remained in North America for two years, and then in the spring of 1943 rejoined his old unit inNorth Africa. In July 1944, "risking flesh to prove good faith", he failed to return from a reconnaissance mission over France.This work was adapted as a radio drama for American audiences by the NBC Red Network and broadcast on 7 October 1942 at the Author's Playhouse. The work was later adapted, by Rod Wooden, in 1998 as a radio drama by BBC Radio 4, with David Threlfall playing the role of the pilot. (Wikipedia) Signed Limited Edition, this is #456/500 copies signed by Saint-Exupery and the illustrator.
Seller: Brainerd Phillipson Rare Books, Holliston, MA, U.S.A.
Price: US$2500.00 + shipping
Description: Limited Edition of 500 copies of which this is No. 241, signed by the author and illustrator on the limitation page. Octavo (8vo). 255pp. + 13 lithographs. Bound in the publisher's quarter leather over cloth boards. Pictorial endpapers. Top edge is gold gilt. VERY GOOD in Fair slipcase. The book itself shows some marginal scuffing of the spine, otherwise the binding is strong and tight, the text is clean and unmarked, and the boards remain bright and distinct. The slipcase shows some rubbing and discoloration, shelf rubbing along the edges with some loss, back has lifted significantly, otherwise the gold paper title label remains distinct and the structure sound. As pictured.
Seller: North Books: Used & Rare, St. Louis, MO, U.S.A.
SAINT-EXUPERY, Antoine de. FLIGHT TO ARRAS. Reynal & Hitchcock (1942), New York, 1942.
Price: US$2500.00 + shipping
Description: Bound in publisher's blue leather-backed boards. Copy #31 of 500 numbered copies SIGNED by the author and the illustrator Bernard Lamotte. Saint-Exupery is best known, of course, for writing THE LITTLE PRINCE. Usually found with severe rubbing to the spine, this copy has virtually no wear but the slightest rubbing to the spine tips. Just about Fine, lacking the slipcase
Seller: Charles Agvent, est. 1987, ABAA, ILAB, Fleetwood, PA, U.S.A.
DE ST. EXUPERY, ANTOINE. Flight to Arras. Reynal & Hitchcock, Inc., New York, 1942.
Price: US$3000.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Quarter blue leatehr over tan cloth. Housed in cloth slipcase with paper label. Edition limited to 500 copies signed by the author and the illustrator. This is copy #119. Some restoration work to head of spine o/w nice copy
Seller: Contact Editions, ABAC, ILAB, Toronto, ON, Canada
SAINT-EXUPERY, Antoine de. FLIGHT TO ARRAS. Reynal & Hitchcock (1942), New York, 1942.
Price: US$3125.00 + shipping
Description: Bound in publisher's blue leather-backed boards. Copy #198 of 500 numbered copies SIGNED by the author and the illustrator Bernard Lamotte. Saint-Exupery is best known, of course, for writing THE LITTLE PRINCE. Usually found without the slipcase and with severe rubbing to the spine, this copy has no rubbing to the spine but does have some minor chipping to the spine tips and some soiling to the covers. What appears to be original glassine protects the book. Of the thirty or so copies we have seen or handled over the years, this is the first we have encountered with a glassine cover. Near Fine in glassine and a Near Fine slipcase with sunning to the outer edges
Seller: Charles Agvent, est. 1987, ABAA, ILAB, Fleetwood, PA, U.S.A.
Saint-Exupery, Antoine de. Flight to Arras. Reynal & Hitchcock, New York, 1942.
Price: US$3500.00 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: SIGNED LIMITED EDITION of 500 copies. This copy is authentically SIGNED by Saint-exupery and Lamotte on the limitation page. A beautiful copy. The book bound in the publisher's ORIGINAL cloth and is in excellent condition. The binding is tight and the boards are crisp with minor wear to the edges. The pages are clean with NO writing, marks or bookplates in the book. A wonderful copy with the publisher's slipcase SIGNED by the author.
Seller: Magnum Opus Rare Books, Missoula, MT, U.S.A.
Saint-Exupery, Antoine de. Flight to Arras. Reynal & Hitchcock, New York, 1942.
Price: US$4000.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: First trade edition, first printing. Signed by Antoine de Saint-Exupery on the half-title page. Bound in publisher's blue cloth lettered in gilt. Very Good with pages toned and spine a little dulled, in a Very Good price-clipped dust jacket, with edge wear and spine sunning, scuff and stray graphite marks to spine, creases to front flap.
Seller: Burnside Rare Books, ABAA, Portland, OR, U.S.A.
Saint-Exupery, Antoine de. Flight to Arras. Reynal & Hitchcock, 1942.
Price: US$4500.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: A very good first US edition in a very good dust jacket, with a long inscription in French from the author (and one in English from the prior owner) on the half-title page. Housed in a custom-made collector's slipcase.
Seller: Bookbid, Beverly Hills, CA, U.S.A.
Saint-Exupery, Antoine de. Flight to Arras. Reynal & Hitchcock, New York, 1942.
Price: US$4750.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: SIGNED LIMITED EDITION. This copy is SIGNED by Saint-exupery and Lamotte on the limitation page. A wonderful copy. The book is in great shape with light wear to the spine. The binding is tight and the boards are crisp. The pages are clean with minor wear. There is NO writing, marks or bookplates in the book. A lovely copy SIGNED by the author.
Seller: Magnum Opus Rare Books, Missoula, MT, U.S.A.
Price: US$45211.51 + shipping
Description: First edition, first printing, number 10 of 50 large-paper copies on papier Texte, presentation copy from the author to his closest American friend and partial inspiration for The Little Prince, inscribed warmly by the author on the half-title, "Pour Sylvia Hamilton, Avec la profonde et tendre amitié de son vieil ami, Antoine". Silvia Hamilton, later Reinhardt, was an inspiration for key aspects of Saint-Exupéry's most famous work, written while he was living in New York City for two years during the Second World War, where he acted as an expatriate voice of the French Resistance, hoping that his presence there might help bring the United States into the war. In New York the author, who was married, developed a strong bond with Reinhardt, who was divorced, and wrote some of the book in her apartment. She was the model for the character of Saint-Exupéry's fox, who uttered the book's oft-quoted line, "What is essential is invisible to the eye." Her black poodle inspired the sheep character, and her mop-topped doll, the little prince himself. The presentation of this copy was likely made on Saint-Exupéry's final visit to Sylvia. He was leaving New York, bound for Algiers, where he planned to serve again as a French military pilot - a mission from which he never returned, disappearing on a 1944 reconnaissance flight from Corsica to Germany. At the same time, he presented her with the original manuscript of Le Petit Prince, which Reinhardt later donated to the Morgan Library. Pilote de guerre, which relates Exupéry's own experiences flying with the Free French on reconnaissance missions during the Battle of France, was published in February 1942 simultaneously in French and English (as Flight to Arras, in an edition of 500 copies), under the auspices of the New York publishing house Reynal & Hitchcock, the French version carrying the imprint of the publishing arm of La Maison française, a showcase for French culture in New York established at Rockefeller Center in 1932. The French edition was issued in the traditional three-tiered French format aimed at both connoisseurs and readers: the total edition was 526 copies, with 50 large paper, 26 lettered, and a further 450 trade copies on papier Corsican. The book reached France towards the end of 1942 where it was banned by both the Nazis and the Vichy government because of Saint-Exupéry's praise for the courage of a Jewish pilot, Jean Israël. Small quarto. Original pale brown wrappers printed in black and red, edges untrimmed, pages unopened. Housed in a custom chemise and slipcase by Devauchele. Tiny chips at extremities, spine a little rubbed, contents clean and unopened. An excellent copy.
Seller: Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB., London, United Kingdom