The Strange But True Stories Behind Your Favorite Childhood Books

The Little Prince Was Based On A Fever Dream

Photo Credit: REMY GABALDA/AFP/Getty Images

The internationally-beloved story The Little Prince was inspired by the visual and auditory hallucinations the author experienced after he crash-landed his plane in the desert and nearly died of dehydration.

The story begins with a pilot being marooned in the desert. Although it was originally published in 1943, The Little Prince still sells 1.8 million copies every year.