SAINT-EXUPERY (Antoine de). Pilote de guerre. New York, Reynal & Hitchcock for Éditions de la Maison française, (February 1942). In-12, half black morocco, ribbed spine, gilt head, cons. cover without spine, marbled paper slipcase lined with the same morocco (Atelier Laurenchet). First edition, published at the same time as the English translation. The first edition in France was published by Gallimard in November 1942. This copy bears an autograph signed letter from the author to André Daven. A French film producer, he lived in New York during the Second World War. He had been the director of the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. It also includes an original drawing in black pen and wash, dedicated to the same André Daven and signed by Bernard Lamotte, finely depicting a scene of aerial bombardment. A very interesting provenance: Bernard Lamotte, who had met Saint-Exupéry at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1920, moved to New York in 1935. A close friend of the writer, he illustrated the pre-original edition of Pilote de guerre published in January 1942 in the magazine Atlantic Monthly. And his illustrations were retained for the original English edition of Pilote de guerre - Flight to Arras.