The “Little Prince” took flight from 240 Central Park South, but the landlord may not want him to land there again.
French aviator and best-selling author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry lived in the art-deco building where the beloved literary classic began as a few ideas scrawled on a napkin.
His New York publisher rented him a top-floor apartment during his US exile from German-occupied France in 1941. Saint-Exupéry became a regular at the French cafe in the building and launched paper airplanes into the park from a roof deck.
But when a French group wanted to affix a plaque to the building in 2000, it was refused.
“They said it would attract too much traffic, too many tourists,” said Jean Lachaud, president of the American Society of Le Souvenir Français.
In 2001, his group was able to put up a plaque outside a French restaurant on East 52nd that Saint-Exupéry frequented.
Buoyed by last week’s opening of the exhibit “The Little Prince — A New York Story” at the Morgan Library and Museum, Lachaud is determined to try again.
A spokeswoman for the Central Park South building said it is going through its records to research Saint-Exupéry’s apartment.