Previously undiscovered sketches from 'The Little Prince' have been found in Switzerland, offering a fresh glimpse into the world of this timeless story.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the French aviator and author, penned 'The Little Prince' in 1943, a book that has become one of the most profound literary works of the 20th century. Inspired by his own aviation experiences, Saint-Exupéry tells the story of a stranded pilot in the Sahara who befriends a young boy claiming to hail from another planet. The book features Saint-Exupéry's own illustrations. Recently, the Smithsonian reported the discovery of some of the original preparatory sketches.

As reported by France24.com, these sketches—featuring scenes like the Little Prince conversing with a fox, a boa constrictor swallowing an elephant, and a character named the Tippler—were acquired at auction in 1986 by art collector Bruno Stefanini. After Stefanini's death in December 2018, workers from his non-profit Foundation for Art, Culture, and History in Winterthur, Switzerland, uncovered the airmail paper sketches that had been stored away.

The organization plans to present its discoveries to the Morgan Library and Museum in New York, where the original manuscript of the book—complete with drafts of its famous line, 'What is essential is invisible to the eye'—is housed alongside 35 other sketches.

The Stefanini collection also holds a deeply personal artifact: a sketch that features a love letter written by Saint-Exupéry to his wife while he was in New York in 1942, following Germany’s invasion of France. It was in New York that Saint-Exupéry wrote 'The Little Prince,' which was published in 1943. In 1944, Saint-Exupéry was shot down by a German pilot over the Mediterranean.