Do you want to know more about the current exhibition « The Little Prince, a New-York story » ?
Go to see this video !

From now until the end of April, “The Little Prince: A New York Story”, a new exhibition at the Morgan Library & Museum in Manhattan, takes visitors behind the scenes of one of the world’s favourite stories.

“The Little Prince” was written in New York City while its aviator author was in exile there during World War II. The exhibition reveals how Saint-Exupéry transformed his original doodles into a book that captured the imagination of children and adults across the globe.

“He didn’t speak English, he was far from home,” Christine Nelson, the curator of the exhibition, told FRANCE 24. “He was in absolute despair about what was going on in the world, and this book really comes out of that. And yet he managed to create a book that is infused with hope.”

The original hand-written manuscript of that book, and the accompanying watercolours, were bought by the museum in 1968, and are displayed as part of the exhibition. They reportedly have never left Manhattan.

The exhibition also features the bracelet Saint-Exupéry was wearing when his plane went down off the coast of Corsica just weeks before the end of the war. It was found by a fisherman near Marseille more than five decades later.

Nostalgia in New York

The author arrived in New York on the last day of 1940, planning to stay for a month.

He ended up staying for more than two years.

Saint-Exupéry lived for much of that time in a 23rd-floor apartment just south of Central Park, from which he is said to have routinely sent paper airplanes flying.

During the autumn of 1942, he moved into an isolated mansion on the northern shore of Long Island, far from the hustle and bustle of the big city. There, he spent long nights — cigarette in one hand, coffee in the other – delving into his childhood memories. He is said to have called friends at two o’clock in the morning to read them passages.

Gradually, the character forming in Saint-Exupéry’s head blossomed into the hero of the book that would define his legacy.

“One of his main themes is the memory of childhood,” explained Delphine Lacroix, a researcher specialised in Saint-Exupéry’s life and work. “It’s what makes a person who they are and it’s what gives them depth. For Saint-Exupéry, that enchanted world of childhood stayed with him all his life.”

Video by Jessica LE MASURIER , Emmanuel SAINT-MARTIN

Text by FRANCE 24

As you already know, the Morgan Museum and Library is now exhibiting The Little Prince, a New York story.

But, did you know that you can find a stuffed Little Prince in the museum’s shop ?

Find the toy on the Little prince’s shop, and more info here !

copyright : Byron Smith for The New York Times

copyright : Byron Smith for The New York Times

copyright : Byron Smith for The New York Times

The Morgan Library & Museum – Public Programs

Friday, February 7, 2014, 7 p.m.

Film

Only Angels Have Wings

(1939, 121 minutes)
Director: Howard Hawkes
This classic film about mail carriers and their dangerous flights over the Andes strongly resembles Saint-Exupéry’s book Flight to Arras. Features Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, and Rita Hayworth.This film is being screened in conjunction with the exhibition, The Little Prince: A New York Story.

Exhibition-related films are free with museum admission. Advance reservations for Morgan Members only: 212.685.0008, ext. 560, or tickets@themorgan.org. Tickets are available at the Admission Desk on the day of the screening.
Please call (212) 685-0008 ext. 560 or e-mail tickets for information.

Saturday, February 8, 2014, 2–4 p.m.

Family Program

Imagine Your Planet: What Planet Do You Come From?

Imagine that like the little prince, you came from another planet. How would it look? In this workshop families will be invited to travel from planet to planet with the little prince, through Saint-Exupéry’s water colors and sketches. Children will then imagine their very own planet and build it with an array of materials such as clay, wire, beads, fabric, yarn, tissue, and more.

Tickets: $8, $6 for Members, $2 for Children
All Family Programs are appropriate for ages 6-12. Workshops are for families with children, with a limit of two adult tickets per family.
Order tickets Family programs are generously underwritten by Great Circle Foundation Inc. The Morgan’s education programs are generously supported in part by The Alice Tully Fund for Art and Music, the William Randolph Hearst Fund for Educational Programs, and by the Stavros S. Niarchos Foundation Fund for Education and Technology, with further generous assistance from Great Circle Foundation, Inc., the May and Samuel Rudin Family Foundation, Inc., MetLife Foundation, and The Armand G. Erpf Fund.
Please call (212) 685-0008 ext. 560 or e-mail tickets for information.

Friday, February 21, 2014, 6:30 p.m.

Gallery Talk

The Little Prince: A New York Story

Christine Nelson, Drue Heinz Curator, Literary and Historical Manuscripts

All gallery talks and tours are free with museum admission; no tickets or reservations are necessary. They usually last one hour and meet at the Benefactors Wall across from the coat check area.
Please call (212) 685-0008 ext. 560 or e-mail tickets for information.

Tuesday, February 25, 2014, 6:30 p.m.

Lecture

The Little Prince and the Big War
Adam Gopnik

Adam Gopnik, New Yorker essayist and author of The Steps Across The Water, The King In The Window, and Paris to the Moon—and who is currently adapting The Little Prince for the National Ballet of Canada—will talk about Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and the Second World War, and how his haunting children’s masterpiece can be seen as an idiosyncratic piece of war literature.

Tickets: $15; $10 for Members; Free for students with valid ID, subject to availability.
* The exhibition The Little Prince: A New York Story will be open at 5:30 p.m. for program attendees.
Order tickets Please call (212) 685-0008 ext. 560 or e-mail tickets for information.

Saturday, March 1, 2014, 3 p.m.

Gallery Talk

The Little Prince: A New York Story — in French

Marie Trope-Podell, Manager of Gallery Programs

All gallery talks and tours are free with museum admission; no tickets or reservations are necessary. They usually last one hour and meet at the Benefactors Wall across from the coat check area.
Please call (212) 685-0008 ext. 560 or e-mail tickets for information.

Tuesday, March 11, 2014, 6:30 p.m.*

Gallery Talk

Saint-Exupéry in New York: A Conversation with Stacy Schiff

Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Stacy Schiff, author of Saint-Exupéry, Véra (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov), A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America, and Cleopatra: A Life, talks with Christine Nelson, Drue Heinz Curator of Literary and Historical Manuscripts, about Saint-Exupéry’s miserable, insomniacal, brilliantly productive New York years.

Tickets: $15; $10 for Members; Free for students with valid ID, subject to availability.
* The exhibition The Little Prince: A New York Story will be open at 5:30 p.m. for program attendees.

Friday, March 14, 2014, 7 p.m.

Film

The Little Prince

(1974, 88 minutes)
Director: Stanley Donen
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s beloved tale of a stranded pilot who befriends a « little » prince is set to music by Frederick Loewe, with screenplay and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner. Starring Gene Wilder as the Fox and Bob Fosse as the Snake.This film is being screened in conjunction with the exhibition, The Little Prince: A New York Story.

Exhibition-related films are free with museum admission. Advance reservations for Morgan Members only: 212.685.0008, ext. 560, or tickets@themorgan.org. Tickets are available at the Admission Desk on the day of the screening. Please call (212) 685-0008 ext. 560 or e-mail tickets for information.

Friday, April 11, 2014, 7:30 p.m.*

Concert

Michaël Lévinas, piano
Catherine Trottman, mezzo-soprano

Composer and pianist Michaël Lévinas with mezzo-soprano Catherine Trottman present a program of French music, including an excerpt from a newly-commissioned opera, The Little Prince, based on Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s book, premiering at Opera de Lausanne in fall 2014.
Debussy, First book of Preludes
Ravel, Sheherazade
Poulenc, Banalités
Messiaen, « Pourquoi, » « Le sourire »
Levinas, « La rose chante » (extract from the opera Le Petit Prince, « The Rose »)

Tickets: $35; $25 for Members
*The exhibition The Little Prince: A New York Story will be open at 6:30 for program attendees.
Order tickets
Please call (212) 685-0008 ext. 560 or e-mail tickets for information.

Tuesday, April 22, 2014, 6:30 p.m.*

Discussion

The Pilot and the Little Prince: A Conversation with Peter Sís

Internationally acclaimed illustrator, filmmaker, and author of over twenty books, Peter Sís talks about his forthcoming book The Pilot and the Little Prince: The Life of Antoine de Saint-Exupérywith Christine Nelson, Drue Heinz Curator of Literary and Historical Manuscripts.

Tickets: $15; $10 for Members; Free for students with valid ID, subject to availability.
* The exhibition The Little Prince: A New York Story will be open at 5:30 p.m. for program attendees.

Sunday, April 27, 2014, 2–5 p.m.

Family Program

Spring Family Fair

The exhibition The Little Prince: A New York Story is an opportunity to dedicate our Spring Family Fair to the beloved character, whose tale was written and illustrated in New York City by French author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Activities include watching an animated short film (The Little Prince/Will Vinton), composing a large mural made of planets, and trying on fun costumes. The Ben Jam troupe will bring to life the little prince, the fox, and the rose and invite families to follow the mysterious little boy in his magical journey through outer space and planet Earth. Appropriate for ages 6-12.

Tickets: $8, $6 for Members, $2 for Children
Order tickets
Family programs are generously underwritten by Great Circle Foundation Inc.
The Morgan’s education programs are generously supported in part by The Alice Tully Fund for Art and Music, the William Randolph Hearst Fund for Educational Programs, and by the Stavros S. Niarchos Foundation Fund for Education and Technology, with further generous assistance from Great Circle Foundation, Inc., the May and Samuel Rudin Family Foundation, Inc., MetLife Foundation, and The Armand G. Erpf Fund.
Please call (212) 685-0008 ext. 560 or e-mail tickets for information.

Lead funding for this exhibition is provided by Barbara and James Runde, and by The Florence Gould Foundation. Generous support is also provided by Air France, Liz and Rod Berens, and the Caroline Macomber Fund, with additional assistance from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

The Little Prince turns 70 !

Back on the creation of this masterpiece, translated into over 270 languages ​​and dialects and read by over 400 million people.

In 1940, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry moved into an apartment in Manhattan. It took him over two years to develop this story.
This book is considered as classic French work, but it was actually born here in New York, while Saint-Exupéry was staying here. He lived on Central Park South. He also rented a house in Long Island (Northport) for the summer 1942 , says Christine Nelson, curator of historical and literary manuscripts at the Morgan Library & Museum.

The novel was published in New Yorkin 1943 in both French and English, and it arrived in France in 1946.

The original manuscript and watercolor illustrations are here in New York, in the collection of the Morgan Library. This is one of our greatest treasures. In these 300 pages and 35 watercolors, the author refers to Manhattan’s Rockefeller Center, which was replaced in the book for an island in the Pacific.

Christine Nelson added:
In another work, Antoine de Saint-Exupery said : If we build a big building in Manhattan, like the Rockefeller Center, and keep us all very close there, we would have all humanity in a building in Manhattan . And in the manuscript of The Little Prince, we have all these explicit references to the birthplace of the book.

The celebration of the seventieth anniversary of the publication of The Little Prince will last until next year, and will end in style with an exhibition dedicated to the Little Prince organized by the Morgan Library, from January to April 2014.