Vol de nuit
An important family presentation copy, inscribed by Saint-Exupéry to his uncle and aunt:
“Pour mon oncle Emmanuel de Fonscolombe et ma tante Yvonne. Avec toute la respectueuse affection de leur neveu, Antoine.”
Night Flight was an immediate success. Shortlisted for the Prix Goncourt, it was awarded the Prix Femina in December 1931, to Saint-Exupéry’s surprise and delight. The novel nevertheless aroused controversy among some critics and even among fellow aviators, who resented the literary fame that was rapidly making Saint-Exupéry France’s most celebrated pilot-writer.
The public thought otherwise. Night Flight sold more than 150,000 copies; Jacques Guerlain created a perfume of the same name in its honor. In the United States, its immediate translation became a bestseller and was selected by the Book of the Month Club. In 1953, it became one of the very first titles issued in the new Livre de Poche series, as no. 3.
This copy has a particularly intimate provenance. Emmanuel and Yvonne de Fonscolombe belonged to Saint-Exupéry’s maternal family and were closely associated with the Château de La Môle in the Var, where the writer spent part of his childhood. After the death of his father in 1904, Saint-Exupéry’s early years were divided between La Môle and the family property at Saint-Maurice-de-Rémens—two places that would form part of the enchanted landscape of his childhood.
The Fonscolombe family also played an important role in Saint-Exupéry’s musical education. Music had long been a family tradition: his ancestor Emmanuel de Fonscolombe was a composer and maître de chapelle, while Saint-Exupéry himself chose the violin. Music remained important to him into adulthood.
A rare and moving presentation copy of one of Saint-Exupéry’s major works, preserved within his own family.