Background

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was born into an aristocratic family in Lyon, France, on June 29, 1900. His father died when he was a young boy, and his mother moved him and his four siblings to a relative’s château in the east. Saint-Exupéry enjoyed a mostly carefree and privileged life, and in 1912, he took his first trip in an airplane - an experience that would have a profound and lasting impression on him.

Education

At the age of eight, Antoine was accepted to study at the School of Christian Brothers of St. Bartholomew in his own city. A little later he transferred to the Jesuit College of Saint-Croix (Mannes, France). In 1914, Antoine entered the Friborg Marista College (Freiburg, Switzerland). After college, the boy planned to enter the Paris Naval Lyceum Saint-Louis, but he did not pass the competition. As a result, in 1919, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry became a volunteer lecturer on architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts.

1921 was a turning point in the life of Antoine. That year he was drafted into the French army. The young man enlisted in the second regiment of fighter aircraft in Strasbourg. Initially, Saint-Exupéry was identified in the working team at the repair shops. These facts are very interesting in his biography. But the passion for the sky, which appeared in childhood, did not give Antoine peace.

In 1922, Antoine de Saint-Exupery successfully completed courses for reserve officers and became a junior lieutenant. In October of the same year, he was assigned to the 43rd Aviation Regiment in the town of Bourges.

Career

Despite his disappointing rejection from the naval academy, in 1921, Saint-Exupéry was given the opportunity to realize his dreams of flying during his compulsory service in the military. Initially working as a mechanic in the army, he learned how to fly. Saint-Exupéry became a pilot in the air force the following year, based in North Africa. His engagement to a young woman resulted in Saint-Exupéry leaving the air force in 1922. However, when their relationship failed shortly thereafter, Saint-Exupéry returned to his first love, flying, and developed a new passion as well - writing.

While working various jobs, Saint-Exupéry began to write stories inspired by his experiences as a pilot. He published his first work, "The Aviator," in 1926, the same year that he returned to flying as a mail pilot with the aviation company Aéropostale in Toulouse, covering routes between France, Spain, and North Africa. The remainder of Saint-Exupéry’s life would be defined by the intertwining of his dual occupations as aviator and author, with the former providing the inspiration for his literary work.

In 1927, Saint-Exupéry was placed in charge of an airfield in the Sahara. His experiences there informed his first novel, Southern Mail, which celebrated the courage of pilots, and was published in 1929. His similarly themed Night Flight was published in 1931 after he returned from a two-year posting in Argentina, where he had helped to establish an airmail system. Night Flight would become his first true literary success, receiving the Prix Femina literary prize and later being adapted into a 1933 Hollywood film starring John Barrymore, Helen Hayes, and Clark Gable.

In 1931, Saint-Exupéry also married for the first time, to Salvadoran writer and artist Consuelo Suncin. Though they would remain together, by all accounts their marriage was a troubled one due to Saint-Exupéry’s infidelities and frequent absences. Among the most eventful of these sojourns was his 1935 attempt to break the air-speed record between Paris and Saigon. En route, his plane crashed in the Sahara, and he and his copilot wandered the desert for days, nearly dying of exposure and dehydration before being rescued by a wandering Bedouin. Saint-Exupéry’s 1939 memoir Wind, Sand, and Stars, which includes an account of the events, surpassed the success of his earlier works, winning the prestigious Grand Prize for Novel Writing from the Académie Française and the National Book Award in the United States.

Neither Saint-Exupéry’s growing literary success nor the disabilities resulting from several plane crashes could tear him away from his calling as a pilot. When World War II erupted, he became a military reconnaissance pilot until the German occupation forced him to flee France. Relocating to New York City, he lobbied the United States government to intervene in the conflict and also continued to document his adventures, publishing Flight to Arras in 1942 and Letter to a Hostage in 1943.

However, from a literary perspective, his most important work during this period was the children’s fable for adults, The Little Prince. The poetic and mystical tale of a pilot stranded in the desert and his conversation with a young prince from another planet, it was written and illustrated by Saint-Exupéry and published in both French and English in the United States in 1943, and later in more than 200 other languages. It is considered one of the greatest books in the 20th century and is one of the bestselling books of all time, becoming the subject of numerous adaptations, including a Grammy Winning children’s album featuring Richard Burton and a 1974 musical film featuring Gene Wilder and Bob Fosse.

In 2015, a new testament to the staying power of Saint-Exupéry’s cherished tale came in the form of a new 3D-animation adaptation with a star-studded cast that includes Jeff Bridges, Rachel McAdams, Paul Rudd, Marion Cotillard, James Franco, Benicio Del Toro, Ricky Gervais, and Paul Giamatti. The Little Prince was released in the United States in 2016.

Never one to rest on his laurels, in 1943 Saint-Exupéry returned to France and rejoined his squadron, insisting on flying despite his age and infirmities. On July 31, 1944, he left Corsica for a reconnaissance mission over occupied France. He never returned, and when neither he nor his plane was found, he was deemed killed in action. Saint-Exupéry’s mysterious disappearance made international news and was the cause of much speculation until 2000 when a scuba diver exploring the Mediterranean Sea near Marseille discovered the wreckage of a plane that was later raised and identified as Saint-Exupéry’s. Though evidence indicated that he had likely been shot down, the true cause of his death remains unknown.

Achievements

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  Prior to the war, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry had achieved fame in France as an aviator. His literary works, among them The Little Prince, translated into over 250 languages and dialects, propelled his stature posthumously allowing him to achieve national hero status in France. He earned further widespread recognition with international translations of his other works. His 1939 philosophical memoir Terre des hommes became the name of a major international humanitarian group and was also used to create the central theme of the most successful world's fair of the 20th century, Expo 67 in Montreal, Canada.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Southern Mail

    (In his first novel, Saint-Exupéry pays homage to "those e...)

    1929
  • Night Flight

    (In this gripping novel, Saint-Exupéry tells about the bra...)

    1931
  • Flight to Arras

    (A recollection of the shattering days during World War II...)

    1942
  • Airman's Odyssey

    (Three classic adventure stories, reminders of both the ro...)

    1984
  • Wind, Sand and Stars

    (Recipient of the Grand Prix of the Académie Française, Wi...)

    1939
  • The Little Prince

    (Richard Howard's translation of the beloved classic beaut...)

    1943
  • Wartime Writings 1939-1944

    (This volume includes the aviator's letters to friends, au...)

    1944
  • Letter to a Hostage

    (Letter to a Hostage is a book by the author Antoine de Sa...)

    1944

Religion

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was raised in an aristocratic Catholic family.

Politics

It is reported that Saint-Exupery was politically at odds, with many of his compatriots in exile, stubbornly remaining neutral, and perceived as a Pétainist in the face of the majority support for de Gaulle.

Views

During his life, Exupery flew around half of the world: he carries mail to Port-Etienne, Dakar, Algeria, works in branches of French airlines in South America, and the exotic Sahara, as a political correspondent visits Spain and the USSR. Hours of travel have to think about. All contrived and experienced Saint-Exupery puts on paper. Thus, his subtle philosophical prose was created - the novels Southern Post, Night Flight, Planet of the People, Citadel, the stories Pilot and Military Pilot, numerous essays, books, articles, arguments and, of course, not for children deep and sad tale "the Little Prince": "I’m not very sure that I lived after my childhood."

Quotations: "I know but one freedom and that is the freedom of the mind."

"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."

"A goal without a plan is just a wish."

"You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed."

"One sees clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes."

"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."

"Grown-ups never understand anything for themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them."

"Love is not just looking at each other, it's looking in the same direction."

"What makes the desert beautiful is that somewhere it hides a well."

"It is such a secret place, the land of tears."

"Language is the source of misunderstandings."

Personality

Saint-Exupéry was an inventive child, conducting bathtub experiments, attaching wings to his bicycle, and writing poetry about his home, four siblings, and his mother.

In a 1941 interview with Harper's Bazaar, Saint-Exupéry revealed that the first book he ever loved was a collection of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales.

Saint-Exupéry was a "distracted flier." People said they'd find balled up pieces of paper in the cockpit and there were times Saint-Exupéry refused to land until he finished the novel he was reading.

Saint-Exupéry once moved to New York City with the intention of leaving after a few weeks. He ended up staying for over two years. Saint-Exupéry made little to no effort to learn English and relied heavily on his publisher and friends to get by. During this period, Saint-Exupéry became very depressed and longed to re-join the war effort, saying "I feel like I am watching the war from a theatre seat."

It's said that Saint-Exupéry's writing day began at 11 p.m. and went on until daybreak. Friends recall Saint-Exupéry calling them up in the middle of the night and reading them drafts.

Physical Characteristics: Saint-Exupéry was quite tall, at 6 foot 2.

Interests

• Aviation, writing

• Writers

  "The Lamplighter" by Maria Cummins, "The Country of Thirty-Six Thousand Wishes" by André Maurois, Hans Christian Andersen

Connections

Consuelo Carrillo met the famous French writer and pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupéry in Buenos Aires within a year of being widowed from her first husband. The smitten Antoine proposed on the night they met. Overwhelmed by his romantic interest in her, Consuelo fled to France - and Antoine (bearing the gift of a caged puma) quickly followed. This present would prove an apt metaphor for her relationship with the voluble aviator, for Consuelo suffered greatly from the mercurial Antoine’s impulsiveness. Even while Antoine was still deeply in love with her, he always seemed to be on the move, either leaving for one of his flights or uprooting their home and relocating it to some new part of Europe or French West Africa.

Finally, after he crashed in Libya and went missing for several days, Consuelo had what can only be described as a nervous breakdown. It was after this that Antoine withdrew emotionally as well as physically from his troubled wife, taking on a mistress and setting up separate homes for himself and Consuelo. Yet he could not bring himself to break completely with his wife, and whenever she seemed on the verge of leaving him for good either circumstance or Antoine himself would conspire to bring her back. He had an endearing childlike wonder at the world around him (matched by equally childlike selfishness), and he would inevitably repeat his pattern of physical and emotional abandonment upon Consuelo’s returns. This she endured until Antoine disappeared over France during a reconnaissance mission in 1944.

Saint-Exupéry had no children but is survived by his nephews, now in their 90s, who can recall stories of their uncle meeting a little prince in the desert.

Father:

Jean de Saint-Exupéry

Mother:

Marie de Fonscolombe

Spouse:

Consuelo Carrillo

Friend:

Henri Guillaumet

Friend:

Jean Mermoz

Friend:

Silvia Hamilton Reinhardt

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry met Sylvia Hamilton, a young New York journalist at the beginning of 1942, thanks to his translator Lewis Galantière, of whom she was a friend. Antoine didn't speak English, she didn't speak French.

They form a brief and intense loving friendship, labile, and comforting. Antoine spent afternoons in Sylvia's plush apartment, who cooked fried eggs for him. He worked on his book The Little Prince and to illustrate it he made drawings using his dog, his stuffed animals, or Sylvia herself as a model. According to Sylvia, the famous phrase of the Fox: "one sees well only with the heart," is addressed to him.

If they didn't have dinner at home, they would go out to chic places in New York, at Club 21 for example, Antoine letting himself be invited by this wealthy young woman. Then they separated and Antoine returned to work on his books, of which Sylvia was one of the rare people not to benefit from a reading by the author, given his too basic knowledge of French.

When he saw her for the last time before leaving America in April 1943, Antoine left her what he had most precious in the world: his camera, a Zeiss Ikon, and the manuscript of The Little Prince (acquired later by the Morgan Library in New York). From North Africa, he sent her several letters. The last, shortly before his disappearance, is illustrated with two drawings representing The Little Prince and the sheep.

References

• The Pilot and the Little Prince: The Life of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
  2014
• Antoine De Saint-Exupéry: His Life & Times
  1970
• Saint-Exupery
  2006