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Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900-1944) - in full Antoine-Marie-Roger de Saint-Exupéry

 

French aviator and writer, a real life hero, and a poet of adventure and danger. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's most famous work, The Little Prince (1943), illustrated by the author himself, looked at fundamental questions of life from the viewpoint of a child. One of the classics of children's literature of the 20th century, it became in 2017 the most translated book in the world. During World War II Saint-Exupéry served as a pilot. He was shot down on a mission over France in 1944.

The first night, then, I went to sleep on the sand a thousand miles from any inhabited country. I was more isolated than a man shipwrecked on a raft in the middle of the ocean. So you can imagine my surprise when I was awakened at daybreak by a funny little voice saying, "Please . . . draw me a sheep . . . " (from The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry with drawings by the author, translated from the French by Richard Howard, Harcourt, 2000, p. 3)

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was born in Lyons into an old family of provincial nobility; one of his ancestors had fought with the Americans at Yorktown. His father was an insurance company executive, who died of a stroke in 1904. His artistic talented widow, Marie de (Fonscolombe) Exupéry (1875-1972), moved with her children to Le Mans in 1909. Saint-Exupéry spent his childhood years at the castle of Saint-Maurice-de-Rémens, surrounded by sisters, aunts, cousins, nurses, and fräuleins. He was educated at Jesuit schools in Montgré and Le Mans, and in Switzerland at a Catholic boarding school (1915-1917), run by the Marianist Fathers in Fribourg. After failing his final examination at a university preparatory school, he entered the École des Beaux-Arts to study architecture.

The turning point in Saint-Exupéry's life came in 1921 when he started his military service in the 2ND Regiment of Chasseurs, and was sent to Strasbourg for training as a pilot. He had flown, with a pilot, for the first time in 1912. On July 9, 1921, he made his first flight alone in a Sopwith F-CTEE. Next year Saint-Exupéry obtained his pilot's licence, and was offered a transfer to the air force. However, when his fiancée's family objected, he settled in Paris where he took an office job and started to write. The following years were unlucky. His engagement with Louise de Vilmorin broke off, and he had no success in his work and business – he had several jobs, including that of bookkeeper and automobile salesman. Saint-Exupéry's first tale, 'L'Aviateur' was published in 1926 in the literary magazine Le Navire d'argent. His true calling Saint-Exupéry then found in flying the mail for the commercial airline company Compagnie Latécoère. He flew the mail over North Africa for three years, escaping death several times.

In 1928 Saint-Exupéry became the director of the remote Cape Juby airfield, one of Latécoère's ports of call between Casablanca and Dakar, on the southern coast of Morocco. The sea around it had an ominous reputation – in ancient times Cathagians, Greeks, and Romans did not sail beyond this section of the coast. Saint-Exupéry's house was a wooden shack, where he slep on a thin straw mattress. "I have never loved my house more than when I lived in the desert," he recalled. At that time Cape Juby was controlled by Spain. The mail passed through Cape Juby only every eight days and Saint-Exupéry had plenty of free time for flying the planes left at the station. 

In this isolation Saint-Exupéry learned to love the desert, and used its harsh beauty as the background for The Little Prince and The Wisdom of the Sands (1948). During these years Saint-Exupéry wrote his first novel, Southern Mail (1929), which celebrated the courage of the early pilots, flying at the limits of safety, to speed on the mail and win a commercial advantage over rail and steamship rivals. Another story line in the work depicted the author's failed love affair with the novelist Louise de Vilmorin.

In 1929 Saint-Exupéry moved to South America, where he was appointed director of the Aeroposta Argentina Company.

Saint-Exupéry flew post through the Andes. This experience gave the basis for his second novel, Night Flight. It became an international bestseller, won the Prix Femina, and was adapted for screen in 1933, starring Clark Gable and Lionel Barrymore. In the story Rivière, the hard-bitten airport chief, has left behind all thoughts of retirement and sees the work of flying the mail as his fate. "He fingered absent-mindedly the messages from the northern airports. "We do not pray for immortality," he though, "but only not to see our acts and all things stripped suddenly of all their meaning for then it is the utter emptiness of everything reveals itself."" (from Night Flight, preface by André Gide, translated from the French by Stuart Gilbert, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1974, p. 78) 

Saint-Exupéry married in 1931 Consuelo Gómez Carillo, a widow, whose other literary friends included Maurice Maeterlinck and Gabriele D'Annunzio. "He isn't like other men," she wrote later in Mémoires de la rose (2000, The Tale of the Rose). "Such a child, such an angel fallen from the sky. I could have gone out like the other women, taken walks, gone to the parties, but the mail flights were the only thing that mattered to me. They were my despair." (Tale Tale of the Rose: The Passion That Inspired The Little Prince, translated by Esther Allen, New York: Random House, 2001, p. 98) The marriage was stormy. Consuelo was jealous for good reasons and felt neglected, when her husband did not spend much time at home. "Ah, the pilots' wives! It wasn't easy for the men or their wives. They felt sorry for us and they loved us. Our husbands needed to win out against the night, to reach the next stop, because we were waiting for them." (Ibid., p. 100) He also had affairs with other women.

After the air mail business in Argentina was closed down, Saint-Exupéry started to fly post between Casablanca and Port-Étienne and then he served as a test pilot for Air France and other airline companies. He wrote for Paris-Soir and covered the May Day events in Moscow in 1936, and wrote a series of articles on the Spanish Civil War. Saint-Exupéry lived a traveling, adventurous life: he persuaded Air-France to let him fly a Caudron Simoun (F-ANRY), and had an aviation accident in 1935 in North Africa. He walked in the desert for days before being saved by a caravan. In 1937, he bought another Caudron Simoun, and was severely injured in Guatemala in a plane crash.

Encouraged by his friend André Gide, Saint-Exupéry wrote during his convalescence a book about the pilot's profession. Wind, Sand and Stars, which came out in 1939, won the French Academy's 1939 Grand Prix du Roman and the National Book Award in the United States. The director Jean Renoir (1894-1979) wanted to shoot the film and had conversations with the author, mostly about literary subjects which he recorded. At that time Renoir worked in Hollywood where everyone shot on sets. Renoir's idea was to make the film at the locations described in the text. The book had been successful in the U.S. but nobody wanted to produce its film version.

After the fall of France in World War II Saint-Exupéry joined the army, and made several daring flights, although he was considered unable to fly military planes because of his several injures. However, he was awarded the Croix de Guerre. In June he went to live with his sister in the Unoccupied Zone of France, and then he escaped to the United States. When the Vichy régime appointed him to its National Council, he protested at this "untimely appointment." Saint-Exupéry was criticized by his countrymen for not supporting de Gaulle's Free France forces in London. Flight to Arras (1942), published in New York, depicts his hopeless flight over the enemy lines, when France was already beaten. The book was banned in France by the German authorities. In 1943 he rejoined the French air force in North Africa. Also in Algiers he continued his lifelong habit of writing in the air. After a bad landing his commanding officer decided that he was too old to go on flying, but after a pause he was allowed to rejoin his unit. In 1943 Saint-Exupéry published his best-known work, The Little Prince (1943), a children's fable for adults, which has been translated into over 150 languages. It has been claimend that The Little Prince is the best-selling book after the Bible and Karl Marx's Das Kapital. Saint-Exupéry devoted to book to his friend Léon Werth. Its narrator is a pilot who has crash-landed in a desert. He meets a boy, who turns out to be a prince from another planet. The prince tells about his adventures on Earth and about his precious rose from his planet. He is disappointed when he discovers that roses are common on Earth. A desert fox convinces him that the prince should love his own rare rose and finding thus meaning to his life, the prince returns back home. The rare rose is usually interpreted as Consuelo.

On July 31, 1944 Saint-Exupéry took off from an airstrip in Sardinia on a flight over southern France. His plane disappeared – he was shot down over the Mediterranean, or perhaps there was an accident, or it was suicide. Saint-Exupéry had felt isolated and alone his squadron, and was pessimistic about the future. On one mission he had trouble with his oxygen mask and nearly passed out. Saint-Exupéry left behind the unfinished manuscript of La Citadelle (1948, Wisdom of the Sands) and some notebooks, which were published posthumously. "For I perceived that man’s estate is as a citadel: he may throw down the walls to gain what he calls freedom, but then nothing of him remains save a dismantled fortress, open to the stars. And then begins the anguish of not-being. Far better for him were it to achieve his truth in the homely smell of blazing vine shoots, or of the sheep he has to shear. Truth strikes deep, like a well. A gaze that wanders loses sight of God." (from Wisdom of the Sands, translated by Stuart Gilbert, New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1950, pp. 13-14) The book reflects Saint-Exupéry's increasing interest in the philosophy of life, and his later social ideals. The author's last flight inspired Hugo Pratt's comics Saint-Exupéry (1996). In 1998, a fisherman found Saint-Exupéry's bracelet from the sea, 150 kilometers west from Marseilles. His and Conzuela Gomez Castillo's name were recognized from it. However, later news revealed, that the bracelet was probably a forgery. Eventually Saint-Exupéry plane, Lockheed Lightning P-38, was found in May 2000.

For further reading: Saint-Exupéry by M. Migeo (1932); Saint-Exupéry by P. Chevrier (1950); Saint-Exupéry par lui-même by L. Estang (1956); L'Esthétique de Saint-Exupéry by C.François (1957); Antoine, mon frère by Simone de Sait-Exupéry (1963); Antoine De Saint-Exupery by Joy Marie Robinson (1984); Antoine De Saint-Exupery: His Life and Times by Curtis Cate (1990); Saint-Exupéry by Stacy Schiff (1994); Poet and Pilot Antoine De Saint-Exupery by John Phillips and Charles-Henri Favrod (1994); Mémoires de la rose by Consuelo de Saint-Exupéry (2000); 'Writing from above: representations of landscapes, places and people in the works of Antoine de Saint-Exupery' by B. Daley, in Journal of Cultural Geography, Vol 26; Number 2 (2009) ; Dictionnaire Saint-Exupéry: sa famille, ses amis, son œuvre, préface de François d'Agay (2013); Saint-Exupéry: un homme d'exception by Gérard Fayet; préface de Patrick Poivre d'Arvor; avant-propos de Bertrand Piccard (2014); La sagesse du Petit prince: à la recherche de l'enfant perdu avec Saint-Exupéry by Pierre Lassus (2014); The Pilot and the Little Prince: The Life of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry by Peter Sis (2014); Saint-Exupéry à New York: "la naissance du Petit Prince" by Jean-Claude Idée (2016); Renaissance de Saint Exupéry: le pilote, l'écrivain, l'homme, sous la direction de Alain Vircondelet (2016); Saint-Exupéry et les femmes: histoire d'un malentendu by Thierry Dehayes (2017); Discovering the Hidden Wisdom of The Little Prince: In Search of Saint-Exupéry's Lost Child by Pierre Lassus; translated from the French by Gretchen Schmid (2017); Saint-Exupéry Paraclet by Sylvain Fort (2017); "Que peut-on dire aux hommes?": Saint Exupéry en approche de Dieu: biographie spirituelle by Stan Rougier; avec la collaboration de Béatrice Guibert; préface de François d'Agay; postface d'Olivier de Lestrange (2017); Saint-Exupéry écrivain: poétique et politique de la gravité by Olivier Odaert (2018); Saint Exupéry dans la guerre: légendes et vérités by Alain Vircondelet (2018); Saint-Exupéry: ses combats by Bernard Bacquié (2018); Saint-Exupéry en Suisse: Fribourg 1915-1917 by Alain-Jacques Tornare, Jean Rime (2018); L'enfance de Saint-Exupéry by Thierry Dehayes (2019); Antoine de Saint-Exupéry by Paul Marane (2020); Antoine de Saint Exupéry: The Last Knight of the Heavens by George C. Papageorgiou; translation: Anna Stefanou and Philo Stefanides (2020); Antoine de Saint Exupéry: l'aventure des ailes à la plume by François Suchel (2021); Saint-Exupéry: la spiritualité au désert by Michel Faucheux; préface de Stan Rougier (2022); Saint-Exupéry: un petit prince en exil: les années américaines (1940-1943) by Jean-Claude Perrier (2024);The Little Prince: The Visual Encyclopedia by Christophe Quilien (2024) 

Selected works:

  • L’Aviateur, 1926
  • Courrier-sud, 1929
    - Southern Mail (translated by Stuart Gilbert, 1933; Curtis Cate, 1971)
    - Filmed by Pierre Billon in 1936, prod. Pan-Ciné, starring Pierre Richard-Willm, Jany Holt and Raymond Aimos
  • Vol de nuit, 1931 (preface by André Gide)
    - Night Flight (translated by Stuart Gilbert, 1932)
    - Yölento (suom. Anni Mannerkorpi, 1947)
    -
    Films: 1933, dir. Clarence Brown, starring John Barrymore, Clark Gable, Helen Hayes, Myrna Loy, Lionel Barrymore; TV film 1979, The Spirit of Adventure: Night Flight, dir. Desmond Davis, starring Trevor Howard, Bo Svenson and Céline Lomez
  • Terre des hommes, 1939
    - Wind, Sand, and Stars (translated by Lewis Galantière, 1939)
    - Siipien sankarit (suom. Eino Ismala, 1945)
  • Pilote de guerre, 1942
    - Flight to Arras (translated by Lewis Galantière, 1942)
    - Lento Arrasiin (suomentanut Seppo Sipilä, 2011)  
  • Lettre à un otage, 1943
    - Letter to a Hostage (translated by Jacqueline Gerst, 1950)
  • Le Petit Prince, 1943 (illust. by Saint-Exupéry)
    - The Little Prince (translated by Katherine Woods, 1943; Richard Howard, 2000; Ros and Chole Schwarz, 2010; Michael Morpurgo, 2018)
    - Pikku prinssi (suom. Irma Packalén, 1951)
    - Films: Der kleine Prinz, TV film 1954, with Friedrich Schoenfelder; De kleine prins, TV film 1960, with Frieda Pittoors and Julien Schoenaerts; Le petit prince, TV film 1965, dir. Jörg A. Eggers; Der kleine Prinz, TV film 1966, dir. Konrad Wolf, with Christel Bodenstein, Eberhard Esche and Inge Keller; Malenkiy prints, 1966, dir. Arunas Zebriunas, with Donatas Banionis, Otar Koberidze and Evaldas Mikaliunas; The Little Prince, 1974, dir. Stanley Donen, with Richard Kiley, Steven Warner and Joss Ackland; The Little Prince, 1979, dir. Will Vinton, with Cliff Robertson, Michele Mariana and Dal McKennon; Le petit prince, 1990, dir. Jean-Louis Guillermou, with Guy Gravis, Daniel Royan and Alexandre Warner; Der kleine Prinz, TV movie 1990, dir. Theo Kerp, with Sabine Bohlmann, Joachim Höppner and Christian Marschall; Le petit prince, TV series 1990, narrated by Richard Bohringer; The Little Prince, TV film in Great Performances, 2005, dir. Francesca Zambello, with Teddy Tahu Rhodes, Joseph McManners and Mairead Carlin; A kis herceg, TV film 2005, dir. Zsolt Balogh, with Bendegúz Rebrus, Márton Gerlóczy and Kata Kánya
  • Citadelle, 1948
    - The Wisdom of the Sands (translated by Stuart Gilbert, 1950)
  • Œuvres complètes, 1950 (7 vols.)
  • Œuvres, 1953 (foreword Roger Caillois)
  • Lettres de jeunesse, 1923-31, 1953 (eds. Renée de Saussine, Michel Autrand and Michel Quesnal)
  • Carnets, 1936-1944, 1953 (edited by Michel Quesnel and Pierre Chevrier)
  • Lettres à sa mère, 1955
  • Un sens à la vie, 1956 (edited by Claude Reynal)
    - A Sense of Life (translated by Adrienne Foulke, 1965)
  • Lettres de Saint-Exupéry, 1960 (edited by Claude Reynal)
  • Lettres aux americains, 1960 (edited by Claude Reynal)
  • Écrits de guerre, 1939-1944, 1982 (foreword Raymond Aron)
    - Wartime Writings (tr. 1986)
  • Œuvres complètes de Saint-Exupéry, 1985 (7 vols., 2nd ed., illustrared by Roger Mühl and Maurice-Élie Sarthou)
  • Œuvres complètes, 1994-1999 (2 vols., edited by Michel Autrand and Michel Quesnel)
  • Manon, danseuse, et autres textes inédits, 2007 (textes réunis, établis et présentés par Alban Cerisier)
  • The Little Prince, 2015 (translated by Richard Howard)
  • The Little Prince, 2018 (75th anniversary edition; translated from French by Vali Tamm)
  • Correspondance, 1930-1944 / Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Consuelo de Saint-Exupéry, 2021 (édition établie et présentée par Alban Cerisier; avant-propos de Martine Martinez Fructuoso et Olivier d'Agay)


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