Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900–1944) was known not only for his literary works but also for his career as a pilot. He earned his pilot’s license in 1921 while serving in the military. Starting in 1926, he flew for the Aéropostale, becoming part of the generation of aviation pioneers who established the first airmail routes in Africa and South America in the 1920s. In 1935, his attempt to break the long-distance record on the Paris–Saigon route failed. Saint-Exupéry and his mechanic crashed in the Libyan desert. The two survived for days with almost no water and suffered severe hallucinations before being rescued by a caravan. He processed this traumatic experience in the opening scene of *The Little Prince*, in which the pilot also becomes stranded in the desert after his engine fails. He spent the war years from 1940 to 1943 in exile in New York, where he wrote and illustrated The Little Prince, among other works. His first literary breakthrough came as early as 1931 with the novel Night Flight (Vol de nuit).
On July 31, 1944, Saint-Exupéry disappeared during a reconnaissance flight over the Mediterranean Sea near Marseille. In 1998, a fisherman found Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s silver bracelet east of Île de Riou. The bracelet is engraved with his name and that of his wife, Consuelo, as well as the name and address of his New York publishers, Reynal & Hitchcock. The wreckage of the aircraft was located in 2000, and the Lockheed P-38 Lightning was identified.
In his writings, Saint-Exupéry constantly sought the deeper meaning of being human, often finding it in camaraderie, responsibility, and a bird’s-eye view of a fragile world. His language is characterized by a poetic clarity that addresses existential questions of the heart while conveying timeless wisdom.
June 29, the birthday of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, is International Little Prince Day.
