In 1998, Saint-Exupery's bracelet was found in the net of a fisherman from Marseille. Along with his own name, his wife Consuelo's name was engraved on his bracelet. Although the wreckage of the plane was found in 2000, his body was not found.
French writer and pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900 – 1944) wrote his best-known work, The Little Prince, in 1943. The book has become a classic for children and adults and has now been translated into many languages of the world. Apart from The Little Prince, he also wrote many books and novels and wrote articles on aviation history and experiences. In this article, we will introduce you to his life and most important works.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was born in Lyon on June 29, 1900, as the third of five children. He lost his father in 1904, and after his death, the family became poorer. His mother, a cultured woman, becomes her children's first teacher. Little Antoine's biggest dream was to be in one of the planes that flew over his head. He sneaks into the airport near their home and, at the age of 12, a pilot takes him on his plane, flying for the first time.
Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger, comte de Saint-Exupéry, simply known as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (29 June 1900 – 31 July 1944), was a French writer, poet, journalist and pioneering aviator. He became a laureate of several of France's highest literary awards and also won the United States National Book Award. He is best remembered for his novella The Little Prince (Le Petit Prince) and for his lyrical aviation writings, including Wind, Sand and Stars and Night Flight.
Although he wanted to be a pilot when he finished high school, he fulfills his mother's request and takes the exams of the Military Maritime School and fails. He then studied architecture at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. When the First World War started, he left his education halfway and went to the army, and was appointed to his first duty as one of the test pilots of the Air Corps.
Although he wants to fly, his first job is to inspect the runway. During his military service, he also received pilot training in Strasbourg. Sitting in his plane, the life below is like childhood dreams; a blue brook, a few green trees, a pinch of sadness…
“My dear mother, Strasbourg is such a sweet city. It has all the features of a big city. Bigger than Lyon. I found a great room. I saw the commander in Féligonde, he was very nice to me. He'll take care of my pilot job. I guess it's going to be pretty tough because of a lot of restrictive circulars. And of course after two months at the earliest. I am writing to you from the barracks (canteen). Since the morning, under the leadership of a chubby-cheeked, fatherly soldier, we have been wandering from warehouse to warehouse and buying a plate of boats and trailers. Unity is a very lively place. Your respectful son Antoine.” (Strasbourg, 1921)
When the war is over, his youthful dreams are also in ruins. His mother doesn't like him flying. So he sells trucks in an office, but all Antoine's dream is to be in the sky. He reluctantly goes to work, but to satisfy his passion for flying, he travels to Orly for short flight trials. He writes to his sister, Marie-Madeleine:
“I lead such a lonely life that I am always on the road… Nothing happens in my life. I get up in the morning, I drive out, I eat lunch, I eat dinner, I don't think about anything. It's sad... I want to get married and live in a house where little Antoines are swarming around me."
In 1922, he met Louise de Vilmorin at a dinner organized by his relatives, they got engaged, but they separated after a while.
In 1926, he started to work as one of the pilots of Toulouse-Dakar Airlines. Even when it lands on land, it cannot stay away from the sky. This time his fingers use his pen, not his plane. He published his first story in a magazine in 1928, and his first book, Courrier Sud, in 1929. In his book, he tells the story of the beginning of commercial aviation, the mail flight he made between France and North Africa. He comes to life as Geneviéve at the Southern Post, with his fiancé, Louise de Vilmorin.
In 1927, he began his career as a reconnaissance pilot at Cape Juby. Cape Juby was a Spanish territory between Casablanca and Dakar. His main task was to search for lost planes in the area. Lost planes would be reported to him, and then the wait would begin. Sometimes it would take days to find. Trying to help people who were waiting in desperation was often fruitless. It was between the Spanish deserts, where the sea, the sky, and eternity intersect. In a small hut, his typewriter, his coffee, and his thin bed on the sand became his home. When his 18-month mission was over, he left the desert as if saying goodbye to an old friend.
It was 1929 when he started working as an air mailman for Argentina Post. He wants to control the mail, take responsibility, be in the sky in the plane every day. Making great contributions to the development of devices that regulate night flights, Saint-Exupéry also takes part in the establishment of the France-Africa-South America postal line. Develops air mail in South America.
Antoine, who frequently shuttles between Argentina and France, goes to Buenos Aires to organize a conference with his Alliance Française group. At a reception there, he meets Consuelo Suncín de Gómez Carrillo, widow of Enrique Gomez Carrillo, a Guatemalan diplomat, and journalist. He is immediately impressed by this attractive woman who writes poems, stories, and deals with all branches of art by painting and sculpting. They get married in 1931.
In 1931, he published his second book, Night Flight (Vol de Nuit), in which he describes the fears he experienced during night flights, the excitement and adventures of a pilot. Andre Gide writes the foreword to his book, and the book wins the Femina Award. It was filmed in 1933 under the same name.
His relationship with Consuelo, a capricious, combative woman, is passionate but always controversial. This is also caused by Saint-Exupéry's infidelities. In the midst of all these fights, he expresses his feelings by saying "I want to take a break from being a husband for a while and go on vacation". When the company he worked for collapsed in 1931, he started working again between Casablanca and Dakar. He survives a serious accident in 1934, interrupting his piloting career again. He is assigned to the advertising department of Air France. At least he can travel the world in the passenger seat. But this is not an acceptable situation for him.
To get back in the pilot's seat, Caudron Simoun buys a C630 airplane. He wants to break the flight record between Paris and Saigon in 1935, but he comes back from the dead on his first try. They fall into the desert with their helper, and they are saved from their struggle for three days when a Bedouin finds them. Although this situation led him to stay away from piloting for a while, he decided to cross the ocean by using his New York flight as an excuse due to his journalism during this period. Again, he survives a major accident, remains in a coma for days, and takes months to recover.
The Second World War has begun. 39-year-old Antoine de Saint-Exupery has deteriorated health due to irregular diet and excessive alcohol consumption, but is still enlisted as a member of the Air Force and serves as a military reconnaissance pilot. In 1938, when the German army invaded France, he left his country and settled in New York, and then his wife came with him. While there, he wrote the book Terre des Hommes in 1939, in which he narrates with poetic sensibility the adventures that he lived in the Sahara and the Andes and while he was a postal pilot. The book receives the National Book Award.
He published his book, Pilote de Guerre, in 1942. In the book, besides the experiences of brave pilots during their reconnaissance flights, we also read Saint-Exupéry's thoughts on the meaning of man and life, and the situation of the French people.
Le Petit Prince, who will affect many artists in the world and is the most widely read after the Bible and Marx's Capital, was born in 1943 in America. Between the fights and conflicts with Consuelo, he feels more and more alone. He writes The Little Prince, which includes childhood innocence and hope, and unwittingly writes a story of love and hope that will affect the whole world. The journey of the Little Prince and the journey of the pilot, the hero of the work, to his inner world, are the same.
In the preface to The Little Prince, Saint-Exupéry dedicates the book to his best friend Léon Werth, apologizing to the children. Their friendship with Werth, an art critic, writer, journalist, and essayist, continues with a strong bond since they met in 1931.
Although Antoine de Saint-Exupéry planned to write Lettre à un Otage, which he wrote at the same time as The Little Prince, as a preface to his book 33 Jours, written by his friend Léon Werth, he had to publish it as a small booklet due to the lack of communication caused by the war. During the Nazi occupation of France, Léon Werth was forced to flee to a mountain village in Switzerland with his wife due to his Jewish identity. He describes this escape in the book 33 Jours.
The Little Prince tells us that children lose their sensitivity and purity as they grow up, that getting rid of the destructive effects of war can be solved with love, simplicity, and honesty, and that these only take place in the child's perspective and world. His wife Consuelo is shocked to learn that the author did not dedicate the Little Prince to her. However, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, in a letter he left afterward, pleases his wife by telling her that she is the rose in The Little Prince.
On July 31, 1944, one year after publishing The Little Prince, he left American Airspace for another reconnaissance mission. He is never heard from again. It is said that he was shot down by a German plane that day. Some sources say that his plane crashed due to a technical malfunction. However, his plane and body could not be found until in 1998, Saint-Exupery's bracelet was found in the net of a fisherman from Marseilles. Along with his name, his wife Consuelo's name and the address of the Little Prince editor, which he had published in New York a year before his death, are written on the bracelet. Although the wreckage of the plane was found in 2000, his body could not be found. Who knows, maybe he went to see The Little Prince on Asteroid B-612.