Nieman: The Little Prince gifts lessons to children, adults and even doctors

In 1943, something historic took place in the book publishing industry. In April of that year, a book was published which, to this day, continues to be read by both adults and children all around the world.

By November 2024, the book had been translated into 600 languages, and an estimated 140 million copies have been sold worldwide, making it the second most-translated work ever published. (The Bible remains the most-translated book ever.)

The Little Prince was written and illustrated by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. The original manuscript was written in French, and a number of English translations are available — the original translation by Katherine Woods being the most popular.

The book starts with a narrator remembering his first drawing of a boa constrictor that had eaten an elephant. Adults did not see the actual drawing properly; they thought it was a hat. They told the narrator to be practical, grow up, and do something useful. The narrator kept the drawing and showed it to other adults; all saw a hat rather than the boa constrictor.

Later, the narrator became a pilot. The story draws on his experience in 1935 when he flew from France toward Saigon. Unfortunately, he had to crash-land his plane in the Sahara Desert.

In this fable, the narrator has to fix his own plane before his supply of water runs out. But then, out of nowhere, he encounters a little boy, known as the Little Prince, who instantly recognizes the narrator’s first drawing as a boa constrictor that swallowed an elephant.

In their subsequent conversation, the prince asks the narrator, “Please draw me a sheep.” But none of the drawings satisfy the little prince’s desires. He is only satisfied when the pilot draws a picture of a box containing a sheep inside.

The Little Prince then tells the pilot about his experiences with adults and a fox. On different planets, this “strange” little guy had key encounters with a king, a businessman, a lamp lighter, a conceited adult, and a fox.

It becomes a story of imagination, the wisdom of children as teachers to adults, love, loneliness, friendship, growing up … the innocence of a child yet uncontaminated by cynics and the uncertainties of the world. It is a philosophical story disguised as a children’s book.

The book captured the attention of developmental pediatricians, including one in Calgary. A 2018 article in the Archives of Disease in Childhood written by Dr. J.F. Lemay and his colleagues examined the little prince as a way of thinking about autism, socialization and how children experience the world.

Psychologists have also used this book to dive deeper into how children relate to adults and how they use their imagination to teach adults all kinds of valuable life lessons.

A structured mental health program called The Little Prince Is Depressed is used in some schools to teach about depression, anxiety, stigma and how to seek help. In fact, a very good friend of mine, Dr. Donsky, a child psychiatrist, invited me many moons ago to attend a play based on the story of The Little Prince.

Following the play, I started to consider the multiple layers of this influential book.

Some of the key lessons for me as a pediatrician are to remind parents and teachers that their words and judgments can have a deep and lasting impact on the psyche of a child.

When a child sincerely creates something out of a mystical imagination, we are not to outright discourage them. Instead, we are to do what Dale Carnegie taught about human relations: honestly and sincerely look at things from the other person’s point of view.

Parents and educators strive to express their love by being better listeners and observers, but it is not always possible. We can only aspire not to miss important lessons, often offered to us when we only look at things from the outside.

One of the most famous lines in the book is a conversation between the fox and the little prince: “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

Before I type my columns, I use fountain pens to jot down ideas and outlines by hand first. The pen I used for this column is an Italian fountain pen, and what I wrote this month comes to you from Italy. The pen is rather special: It is a Visconti edition to honour the story of The Little Prince.

I am excited to see how this pen will help me outline ideas for a future book about what my little and not so little patients taught me about my vocation as a pediatrician.

Dr. Nieman is the founder of Centre 70 Pediatrics. His columns for the Herald have appeared monthly since 1999.