( A recollection of the shattering days during World War ...)
A recollection of the shattering days during World War II when, though the fall of France was imminent, a handful of French pilots continued to fight on against the Germans. Translated by Lewis Galantière.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0156318806/?tag=2022091-20
( Recipient of the Grand Prix of the Académie Française, ...)
Recipient of the Grand Prix of the Académie Française, Wind, Sand and Stars captures the grandeur, danger, and isolation of flight. Its exciting account of air adventure, combined with lyrical prose and the spirit of a philosopher, makes it one of the most popular works ever written about flying. Translated by Lewis Galantière.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0156027496/?tag=2022091-20
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0156012197/?tag=2022091-20
( In this gripping novel, Saint-Exupéry tells about the b...)
In this gripping novel, Saint-Exupéry tells about the brave men who piloted night mail planes from Patagonia, Chile, and Paraguay to Argentina in the early days of commercial aviation. Preface by André Gide. Translated by Stuart Gilbert.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0156656051/?tag=2022091-20
( In his first novel, Saint-Exupéry pays homage to those...)
In his first novel, Saint-Exupéry pays homage to those elemental divinities-night, day, mountain, sea, and storm, turning an account of a routine mail flight from France to North Africa into an epic rendering of the pioneer days of commercial aviation. The book is also a poignant reminiscence of a tragic affair, in which the uncertainties of love and flight enhance the mystery of one another. Translated by Curtis Cate.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0156839016/?tag=2022091-20
(Letter to a Hostage is a book by the author Antoine de Sa...)
Letter to a Hostage is a book by the author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Saint-Exupéry initially wrote this piece as a preface for his best friend, Léon Werths novel: Trente-trois jours (Thirty Three Days). Werth had been forced to take refuge in the Jura region of France during the autumn of 1940 because of his Jewish origins. His book, however, could not be published, and so the author significantly revised his preface, removing any direct references to his friend and making him anonymous within the text and a symbol for France as the hostage of the occupying forces. This version was published independently in June 1943. The work is comprised of six short chapters which reflect upon recent aspects of the authors life (travelling to Portugal, impressions of the Sahara, living in the USA...), and combines references to his friendship with Werth and to his love for his country.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XSVF2VJ/?tag=2022091-20
He was born on June 29, 1900 into an poor aristocratic family of Count Jean de Saint-Exupery and his wife, Countess Marie de Fonscolombe. He was the third of their five children. His father’s untimely death, plunged the whole family into financial hardship.
He spent his childhood at the castle of Saint-Maurice-de-Remens.
He had his early education at Jesuit Schools in Montgre and Le Mans. In 1915, he went a Catholic boarding School in Switzerland which he had to leave in 1917 due to his bad performance in final examination. He joined a naval preparatory academy, which he had to leave due to his successive failure in the final examinations. He got admitted at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts to pursue a course in architecture but later gave it up as a result of failure in examinations.
In 1921, he began his military training and was conscripted into the French air force near Strasbourg a little later. He left the service after two years due to few personal issues and took up odd jobs for the next few years. In 1926, he returned to his earlier profession of a pilot and joined a private airline Aeropostale, which flew mail from Toulouse, France to Dakar, Senegal. In the following year, he got appointed as an air field chief for Cape Juby in Southern Morocco, in Sahara Desert.
In 1929, he got transferred to Argentina where he was appointed as a director of Aeroposta Argentina Company, which was the subsidiary of French airmail carrier ‘Aeropostale’. In 1935, he survived a plane crash in the Sahara Desert along with the mechanic navigator Andre Privot while flying from Paris to Saigon. They wandered in the desert for 3-4 days and were about to die of dehydration before they were miraculously saved by the native tribes. He mentioned about his 1935 plane crash near-death experience in his 1939 memoir ‘Wind, Sand and Stars’.
During Second World War he was initially with the French Air force but after France’s 1940 armistice with Germany, he escaped to New York He lived in New York between January 1941 and April 1943 and it was during this period that he wrote extensively and emerged as a prolific writer. Some of his major works during this period include: 'Pilote de guerre', 'Lettre un otage', and 'The Little Prince'. In 1943, he served in the Second World War along with the United States of American’s troop and flew a famous French reconnaissance bomber, Bloch MB. 170. In the same year, he joined Free French Air Force and fought in a Mediterranean based squadron after which he got promoted to the commandment rank. On the night of July 31, 1944, he set out from Borgo, Corsica in an unarmed P-38, from where he never returned, disappearing without a trace.
The remains of his plane were found in September 1998 in south of Marseille and in 2004, the French Ministry of Culture confirmed that the wreckage was of Saint-Exupery's P-38 reconnaissance variant.
Saint-Exupéry was a successful commercial pilot before World War II, working airmail routes in Europe, Africa and South America.
His literary works – among them The Little Prince, translated into 300 languages and dialects – posthumously boosted his stature to national hero status in France. He earned further widespread recognition with international translations of his other works.
In 1975, Asteroid #2578 was named after this great personality.
Google celebrated his 110th birthday with a special logotype depicting The Little Prince being hoisted through the heavens by a flock of birds.
In 1993, until the introduction of Euro in market, French government issued a commemorative bank note of 50-franc comprising of his portrait and several of his drawings from ‘The Little Prince’. They also issued a 100-franc commemorative coin in his honor.
In 1999, Quebec government put a plaque at family home of Charles de Konick, head of the Philosohy department at Universite Laval, to commemorate the stay of Saint-Exupery during May-June 1942 when he lectured in Canada.
In 2000, on his birth centenary, the Lyon Satolas Airport was renamed in his honor as ‘Lyon-Saint Exupery Airport’. A bullet train station in the same city was also renamed after him as ‘Gare de Lyon Saint-Exupery’.
A Street in Montesson in North-central France was named after him as Rue Antoine de Saint-Exupery.
He earned a full ‘Prix Femina’, a French literary prize, in 1931 for his book ‘Vol de nuit’ (Night Flight). The book was also made twice as a motion picture as well as a TV film in English.
In 1939, he won a French literary award, ‘Grand Prix du roman de l’Academie francaise’, for his book ‘Terres de hommes’. In the same year, he received a US National Book Award for his book, ‘Wind, Sand and Stars’.
In 1942, he won the ‘Grand Prix Litteraire de l'Aero-Club de France’, for his book ‘Pilote de guerre’ (Flight to Arras). The book recounts his role as a pilot in French Air Force during the Battle of France in 1940.
( In his first novel, Saint-Exupéry pays homage to those...)
( In this gripping novel, Saint-Exupéry tells about the b...)
( A recollection of the shattering days during World War ...)
( Recipient of the Grand Prix of the Académie Française, ...)
(Letter to a Hostage is a book by the author Antoine de Sa...)
Quotations:
"If you want to build a ship, don't summon people to buy wood, prepare tools, distribute jobs, and organize the work; teach people the yearning for the wide, boundless ocean. "
"Of course I’ll hurt you. Of course you’ll hurt me. Of course we will hurt each other. But this is the very condition of existence. To become spring, means accepting the risk of winter. To become presence, means accepting the risk of absence. "
"Every person that comes into our life comes for a reason; some come to learn and others come to teach. "
"As for the future, your task is not to foresee it, but to enable it. "
"Let your dream devour your life, not your life devour your dream. "
In 1931, he married a widow, Consuelo Gomez Carillo, a Salvadoran-French writer and artist. Their marriage was a stormy one and they broke up eventually due to his involvement with other women after marriage.
