Fascinating partly-printed DS, signed “Saint-Exupery,” one page, 6.75 x 9.75, June 30, 1938. An official “Accidents at Work” document from a justice of the peace in Paris, sent to Saint-Exupery to inform him “of the closure of the investigation which was carried out after the accident which occurred on February 16, 1938, in your establishment in Guatemala and of which Mr. Andre Prevot was a victim.” Signed vertically on the left side in ink by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. In fine condition.
Three years after his famous airplane crash in the Libyan desert with his mechanic-navigator Andre Prevot on December 30, 1935, Saint-Exupery experienced his second, this time while taking off from the Guatemala City airport in February 1938, on his way to South America. The airplane, accidentally overloaded with fuel, crashed about 10 miles from the airport; the plane was destroyed and both Saint-Exupery and Prevot were seriously injured. Saint-Exupery spent time in La Antigua, Guatemala recovering from his injuries. Some say that asteroid B612 in The Little Prince is based on La Antigua, with one legend noting that Saint-Exupery came to Lake Atitlan where he saw Cerro de Oro, the ‘hill of gold,’ which became the model for ‘the boa constrictor digesting an elephant’ on the book’s opening page.
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