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Original Little Prince drawing found in Japan

From the Japan Times Online and also at the CBC:

A watercolor believed to have been painted by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry for his novel “The Little Prince” has turned up in Japan and will go on display April 25 in Tokyo* (…).

Of the 47 Saint-Exupéry paintings that illustrate the book, only a handful have been found. The French novelist and aviator was lost in a flying mission in 1944, according to the organizers.

(…) The watercolor was found in 1994 at a secondhand book fair in Tokyo by Minoru Shibuya, 60, curator of Ehon Museum Kiyosato — a picture book museum in the resort area of Kiyosato, Yamanashi Prefecture. He who bought it for 1.2 million yen, the organizers said.

* There’s a Little Prince exhibition happening somewheres in Tokyo on April 24th. I tried finding more info at the Japanese Petit Prince museum (???) website, but no luck.

Personal note: This probably makes me a bad person somehow, but The Little Prince always gave me the creeps since I was a kid; I have yet to ever read it for that very reason. It’s so bad that, uh… I knew about this news item almost two weeks ago, but it creeped me out too much to post about it! I’ll try reading the Wiki entry for it. Maybe… maybe… (shudder!)

  • linseed

    I thought I was the only one! Not only do the drawings give me the creeps, but when I was a kid I saw the movie on the big screen at a Saturday matinee. I was so depressed by the confusingly pointless banality of the film that – and this is no exaggeration – I nearly threw myself in front of a car on the walk home.

  • linseed

    I thought I was the only one! Not only do the drawings give me the creeps, but when I was a kid I saw the movie on the big screen at a Saturday matinee. I was so depressed by the confusingly pointless banality of the film that – and this is no exaggeration – I nearly threw myself in front of a car on the walk home.

  • pynnski

    I always wondered if I was alone in thinking that the Little Prince was creepy. Good to know that I am not! And I will still probably never touch it, har.

  • pynnski

    I always wondered if I was alone in thinking that the Little Prince was creepy. Good to know that I am not! And I will still probably never touch it, har.

  • Kerrydammit

    On the creep factor — in the old movie called “My Dinner with Andre,” the theater innovator Andre Gregory goes off on what’s creeps him out about The Little Prince, which he was trying to produce as a Broadway play with a Buddhist monk playing the lead character. I believe he said it was something like a “Fascistic love of engine grease and masculinity.” Movie’s worth a look if you haven’t seen it, sort of the 80s version of “Waking Life” except it’s not animated and it only involves two people talking instead of a whole lot.

  • Kerrydammit

    On the creep factor — in the old movie called “My Dinner with Andre,” the theater innovator Andre Gregory goes off on what’s creeps him out about The Little Prince, which he was trying to produce as a Broadway play with a Buddhist monk playing the lead character. I believe he said it was something like a “Fascistic love of engine grease and masculinity.” Movie’s worth a look if you haven’t seen it, sort of the 80s version of “Waking Life” except it’s not animated and it only involves two people talking instead of a whole lot.

  • http://www.luclatulippe.com/ Luc

    Wow, I feel like I’m coming out all over again! LOL! Good to know I’m not the only one creeped out by TLP! There’s enough of us to start a support group I think. :)

    I had no idea of the reference to it in MDWA either!

  • http://www.luclatulippe.com Luc

    Wow, I feel like I’m coming out all over again! LOL! Good to know I’m not the only one creeped out by TLP! There’s enough of us to start a support group I think. :)

    I had no idea of the reference to it in MDWA either!

  • sephil

    The exhibition is at the Matsuya department store in Ginza ,Tokyo beginning April 25th.

  • sephil

    The exhibition is at the Matsuya department store in Ginza ,Tokyo beginning April 25th.