Kanagawa: Museum connects author's life to 'Little Prince' magic

Various photos of Antoine de Saint-Exupery are on display in the museum's main hall. The interior is designed to look like a building that would have existed in France about a century ago. (Credit: The Yomiuri Shimbun)

The top three best-selling books in the world are said to be the Bible, "Capital" by Karl Marx, and "The Little Prince (Le Petit Prince)."

This Little Prince Museum opened 22 years ago in the hope that many people would become familiar with the book and the life of the book's author, Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1900-1944).

The main hall showcases the author's life divided into nine periods. He was the eldest son of an aristocratic family in Lyon, France, and loved airplanes, painting, poetry and plays.

The books of "The Little Prince" written in different languages are on display. (Credit: The Yomiuri Shimbun)

"For him [Saint-Exupery], flying and writing were inseparable," said Kazumi Toro, an official of the museum.

After World War I, he joined the French air force for his two-year compulsory military service and became a pilot, which was his lifelong dream. Following his military service, he started delivering mail as a pilot for an aviation company. At the same time, he started writing and wrote his first novel "Southern Mail" in 1929. In 1931, he wrote "Night Flight," which firmly established his reputation as a novelist.

When World War II started, he went to the United States to gain political asylum. In 1943, he wrote "The Little Prince" as a Christmas gift for children.

A metal sculpture of a boa constrictor that swallowed an elephant, which appears at the beginning of the story, is seen outside the museum. (Credit: The Yomiuri Shimbun)

At 43, he returned to France to rejoin the air force, even though he was over the age limit of 30 years old. One day, he went missing after leaving for a mission from Corsica and was never found.

In 2004, 60 years after he went missing, a wreckage of a plane was discovered at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea off Marseille. It was identified as Saint-Exupery's plane.

The museum exhibits the flight routes he took as a pilot, including those between Europe, Africa and South America. It also displays photographs taken in various parts of the world he went to. Episodes of him raising a fox in Morocco and making a crash landing in a Libyan desert are also featured, allowing visitors to look at his life and see which parts he weaved into his books. The museum also has rose and fox sculptures, both of which appear in "The Little Prince."

(Credit: The Yomiuri Shimbun)

"The Little Prince" has been published in more than 300 countries and territories and still moves the hearts of readers worldwide. Visitors will definitely want to get a hold of the book when they leave the museum.

Little Prince Museum: 909, Sengokuhara, Hakone-machi, Kanagawa Prefecture

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