Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1900-1944), French writer and aviator. Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger de Saint-Exupéry was born in Lyon and educated at the University of Fribourg. He joined the French air force in 1921 and became a commercial pilot in 1926.

His first two books, Southern Mail (1929; translated 1933) and Night Flight (1931; translated 1932), are novels distinguished by a poetic evocation of the romance and discipline of flying, which requires devotion to duty at the risk of death. His later works, including Wind, Sand and Stars (1939; translated 1939) and Flight to Arras (1942; translated 1942), stress the humanistic philosophy of Saint-Exupéry. His popular children’s book The Little Prince (1943; translated 1943) is also read by adults for its allegorical meaning.

During World War II, Saint-Exupéry rejoined the French air force, was shot down, escaped to the United States, and later joined the Free French forces. On a reconnaissance mission over southern France in 1944, his plane was lost. The remains of the aircraft were not found until 2004 when scuba divers recovered a tailpiece bearing the serial number of the aircraft Saint-Exupéry was flying, a Lockheed P-38 Lightning. The cause of the crash, which occurred about 5 km (3 mi) off the French coast, between the cities of Marseille and Cassis, is still unknown. Saint-Exupéry’s notebooks, collected under the title Wisdom of the Sands (1948; translated 1950), were published posthumously.