Ar.itorNE DE Sarrvr-Exupf nv Born: Lyon, France June 29, 1900 Died: Near Corsica July3l ,7944 Throughhis autobiographicalworhs, Saint-Exupery captures therra of earlyaviation uith his$rical prose and ruminations, oftenrnealing deepertruths about the human condition and humanity'ssearch for meaningand fulfillrnar,t. teur" (the aviator), which appeared in the maga- zine LeNauired'Argentin 1926.Thus began many of National Archive s Saint-Exup6ry's writings on flying-a merging of two of his greatestpassions in life. At the time, avia- Brocnaprrv tion was relatively new and still very dangerous. Antoine Jean-Baptiste Marie Roger de Saint- The technology was basic, and many pilots relied Exup6ry (sahn-tayg-zew-pay-REE)rvas born on on intuition. Saint-Exup6ry,however, was drawn to June 29, 1900, in Lyon, France, the third of five the adventure and beauty of flight, which he de- children in an aristocratic family. His father died of picted in many of his works. a stroke lvhen Saint-Exup6ry was only three, and Saint-Exup6rybecame a frontiersman of the sky. his mother moved the family to Le Mans. Saint- He reveled in flying open-cockpit planes and loved Exup6ry, knor,vn as Saint-Ex, led a happy child- the freedom and solitude of being in the air. For hood. He wassurrounded by many relativesand of- three years,he r,vorkedas a pilot for A6ropostale, a ten spent his summer vacations rvith his family at French commercial airline that flew mail. He trav- their chateau in Saint-Maurice-de-Remens. eled berween Toulouse and Dakar, helping to es- Saint-Exup6ry went to Jesuit schools and to a tablish air routes acrossthe African desert. He be- Catholic boarding school in Switzerland. His came the director of CapeJuby airfield in Rio de dream was to become an officer in the naly, and Oro in the Sahara. He had many accidents, en- from 1917 to 1919 he attended the naval prepara- countering near death experiencesin the desert.It tory schools Ecole Bossuet and Lyc6e Saint-Louis. was the isolation of the Sahara that inspired his After failing his final exam, he went on to attend later depictions of the desert in such works asLe Pe- the Ecole desBeaux-Arts to studyarchitecture. The tit Prince (1943; TheLittle Prince,1943) and Citadelle year 1921 was a turning point in his life as he (1948; TheWisdom of theSands,1950). started his military servicein the SecondRegiment In 1929,he published his first book, Courriersud of Chasseursand r,ventto Strasbourg to train as a (SouthernMail, 1933).In the sameyear, he became pilot. He earned his license in a year, and though the director of the Aeroposta Argentina Company he wasoffered a position in the air force, he turned and made many perilous flights over the Andes it down because of the objections of his fianc6's Mountains. His experiences in Argentina became family. Eventually,the engagementwasbroken off, the basis for his second novel, Vol de nuit (1931; and he started writing and holding severaljobs,in- Night Flight, 1932). cluding that of a bookkeeper and an automobile The same year that Night Flight was published, salesman. Saint-Exup6ry married Consuelo Suncin Sando- His first publication was a short story, "L'Avia- val, who was a Salvadoran writer and artist. They 2250 Antoine de Saint-Exultdrn had first met in Buenos Aires in 1930; he was found in his net a bracelet engravedwith the name a lonely man of grand dreams, and she was a vi- Consuelo. The find triggered the memory of a brant and exotic young widow. Her personality local diver, Luc Vanrell, who remembered see- became the inspiration for the rose in The Littk ing parts of a crashed plane in the sea. Over the Prince. Their relationship was tumultuous, since span of several years, parts of the plane were grad- Saint-Exup6ry was often away on his travels and ually dug up. It was not until April 7, 2004, that had many affairs. After Saint-Exup6ry's disappear- the French Underwater Archaeological Depart- ance in flight, she wrote a memoir about their rela- ment finally confirmed that the wreckagewas that tionship, Mimoires de la Rose(2000; The Tale of the of Saint-Exup6ry's Lockheed Lightning P-38. Rose:The Passion That Inspired "The Little Prince," No bullet holes were found in the wreckage, 2001), which was not published until after her though onlyafewpieces of the plane have been dis- death. covered. The causeof the crash still remains a mys- When the AeropostaArgentina Company closed tery. down, Saint-Exup6ryrnade postal flights between Casablancaand Port-Etienne, and then served as a Annr-vsrs test pilot for Air France. In 1935, he began writing Antoine de Saint-Exup6ry'sworks often contain asa foreign correspondent for various newspapers, autobiographical elements and are characterized traveling all over the world. He tried to set a record by poetic llricism and philosophical meditation. in 1935 by flyrng from Paris to Saigon, but ended Although he is celebrated internationally for The up crashing in the Libyan desert,where he and his Li.ttlePrince, which has become a children's classic, copilot subsisted on meager supplies and nearly in his native France he is known for his reflective died. They were rescued three days later by the stories on the early days of aviation. Bedouins. Saint-Exup6ry's writings are mostly drawn from When World War II began, Saint-Exup6ry en- his experiences as a pilot. Some of his works are listed in the army and flew for the French air force. overtly autobiographical, including Terredes hommcs He was severelyinjured in another plane crash in (1939; Wind, Sand,and Stars,1939), Pilotede guerre 1938, when he was flying between New York City (1942; Flight to Arras, 1942), and The Wisdomof the and Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. He stayedin New Samds,which was published posthumously. Others York to recover, living in Asharoken on the north are stories inspired by his adventures, including shore of Long Island. He ended up becoming a lec- the novels SouthernMail, NightFli,ghr, and the chil- turer and freelance writer there and eventually dren's tale The Littlz Prince.As a result of his train- wrote his most famous work, The Littk Prince. Dwr- ing and knowledge, his descriptions of flight cap- ing this time, he also became an important figure tured the world of aviation when it was still a in the French Resistancemovement. developing field. His stories depict various aspects In 1942, after the American troops had landed of the pilot's life that resonate on a more universal in North Africa, Saint-Exup6ryvolunteered asa pi- level-the risk of embarking on a journey; the Iot for the U.S. Army. At age forfy-two, he was de- longing for freedom, solitude, and comradeship; clared too old, but on his insistencehe wasallowed the devotion to dury; and the search for under- to fly. In 1943, he flew for the French air force again standing among humankind. in North Africa. The subject of flying also becomes a vehicle of On July 31, \944, Saint-Exup6ry took off from expressionfor the author. His storiesare steepedin Sardinia on a reconnaissancemission and never re- the imagery of flight-soaring, survival,Ioneliness, turned. He might have been shot down by enemy and wandering. The journeys his characters take aircraft while flying over the Mediterranean, or are as much internal as they are external. Even perhaps he had an engine failure while in flight, or when his stories have a clear narrative, Saint- he might even have committed suicide. He wasde- Exup6ry often weavesin the reflections of his char- clared missing in action, and ayear later hewas pre- acters or of himself as the narrator, as is true of the sumed to be dead. His last manuscript, Wisdomof novel NightFlighl. In flight and in travel, the charac- theSctnds, was published posthumously. ters are in a sort of exile. far from home and in In 1998, a fisherman off the coast of Marseille search of a suitable place to land. In their explora- 2251 Antoine de Saint-Exupery tions, the charactersmake note of the people and tina, Didier Daurat, to whom Saint-Exup6ry dedi- sights around them, taking on the outside ob- cated the book. server'spoint of view,as the narrator does in Wind, The story is about the pilots who make night Sand,and Stars.In this sense,even while the charac- flights to deliver mail from Patagonia, Chile, and ters experience the thrill of adventure, there is al- Paraguay to Argentina. During these early days waysthe pervasivelonging for a deeper connection of aviation, such journeys were extremely danger- with another human being. This interconnection ous, and these courageous is experienced through the companionship of men risked their lives for shared experience, just as in the pilots' brotherly their work. The two cerr- support of one another in their devotion to their tral characters are Fabien, mission. In The Little Prince,friendship is experi- one of the best pilots of enced through the time the charactersspend gain- the company, and Riviere, ing understanding of one another. the director. One night, Flying and writing were the two propelling Fabien is lost in a storm, forces of Saint-Exup6ry's life. He has been lik- and rvhen he does not re- ened to writer Joseph Conrad in that both were turn from hisflight, Riviere men of action and men of thought. Drawing from is faced with the possibil- his personal experiences and observations, Saint- ity of having lost his best Exup6ry's writing is infused with the life he so fully pilot. lived. His talesof adventure, imbued with his ideals The narrative weaves of self-transcendence,beauty, and devotion, con- back and forth between tinue to inspire and captivate readers.