The Little Prince author dedication, Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1943) [literature]
"All grown-ups were children first. (But few of them remember it)"
One of my all-time favorite children’s books has one of my all-time favorite dedications. It reads:
“To Leon Werth
I ask children to forgive me for dedicating this book to a grown-up. I have a serious excuse; this grown-up is the best friend I have in the world. I have another excuse: this grown-up can understand everything, even books for children. I have a third excuse: he lives in France where he is hungry and cold. He needs to be comforted. If all these excuses are not enough, then I want to dedicate this book to the child whom this grown-up once was. All grown-ups were children first. (But few of them remember it.) So I correct my dedication:
To Leon Werth
When he was a little boy”
More to buzz about
Antoine de Saint-Exupery was a French pilot and writer. He disappeared while flying over the Mediterranean in 1944. Werth found out about his friend’s death by radio broadcast over a month later. Several months after that, Werth learned of The Little Prince and the dedication.
Saint-Exupery also dedicated Letter to a Hostage to Werth.