Dido Freire and Jean Renoir's Copy of Pilote de guerre: Rare Book of the Week

This week's Rare Book of the Week is a presentation copy of Antoine Saint-Exupéry’s Pilote de guerre inscribed to husband and wife scriptwriters Dido Freire and Jean Renoir.

Coming up at Dominic Winter's Printed Books, Maps & Documents auction on June 18 is the first edition limited edition copy, dedicated to his close friends with whom he stayed in Hollywood while he wrote it (and with whom he happened to share a cabin when the three were travelling to the U.S. at the start of the war). 

It includes a beautiful presentation inscription - "En souvenir d'une vielle amitié ... et pour qu'elle me pardonne d'être falument insupportable dans les discussions" - and drawing by Saint-Exupéry on the half-title at the front of the book featuring a self-portrait in pencil which bears a remarkable similarity to the iconic front cover of Le Petit Prince which he did not write until the following year.

The lot also includes another drawing of Saint-Exupéry smoking a cigarette by the story's illustrator Bernard Lamotte on the blank facing page, and two related letters from Saint-Exupéry in early 1942 to the couple, one of which features another pen and ink self-portrait which again recalls The Little Prince.

Renoir was keen to make a film of the book, with Antoine Saint-Exupéry as the scriptwriter, but could not get backing and abandoned the project. The uncut book has come from the Renoir family by direct descent.