My personal favorite is Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s dedication on The Little Prince. What are your favorites?
“To Leon Werth
I ask children to forgive me for dedicating this book to a grown-up. I have a serious excuse; this grown-up is the best friend I have in the world. I have another excuse: this grown-up can understand everything, even books for children. I have a third excuse: he lives in France where he is hungry and cold. He needs to be comforted. If all these excuses are not enough, then I want to dedicate this book to the child whom this grown-up once was. All grown-ups were children first. (But few of them remember it.) So I correct my dedication:
To Leon Werth When he was a little boy”
I enjoyed Chuck Palahniuk’s dedication at the beginning of Invisible Monsters, rather more than I enjoyed the novel itself. It goes:
For Geoff, who said, “This is how to steal drugs.”
And Ina, who said, “This is lip liner.”
And Janet, who said, “This is silk georgette.”
And my editor, Patricia, who kept saying, “This is not good enough.”