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Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

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File:Saint-exupery.jpg
Antoine Saint-Exupery in Toulouse

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (June 29 1900 - July 31 1944) was a French writer and aviator.

Life

Antoine Marie Roger de Saint-Exupéry was born in Lyon into an old family of provincial nobility; one of his ancestors fought with the Americans at Yorktown. After failing his final exams at a preparatory school, he entered the École des Beaux-Arts to study architecture. In 1921, he began his military service in the 2nd Regiment of Chasseurs, and was sent to Strasbourg for training as a pilot. The next year, he obtained his license, and was offered a transfer to the air force. But his fiancée's family objected, so he settled in Paris and took an office job. His engagement ultimately broke off, however, and he worked at several jobs over the next few years without success.

By 1926, he was flying again. He became one of the pioneers of international postal flight in the days when aircrafts had few instruments and pilots flew by instinct. Later he complained that those who flew the more advanced aircraft were more like accountants than pilots. He worked on the Aéropostale between Toulouse and Dakar. His first tale L'Aviateur (The Aviator) was published in the magazine Le Navire d'argent. In 1928, he published his first book, Courrier-Sud (Southern Mail), and flew the Casablanca/Dakar route. He became the director of Cap Juby airfield in Rio de Oro, Sahara. In 1929, Saint-Exupéry moved to South America, where he was appointed director of the Aeroposta Argentina Company. In 1931, Vol de Nuit (Night Flight), which won the Prix Femina, was published. He kept writing and flying until the beginning of the war.

On April 11, 1931, he married Consuelo Suncin Sandoval de Gómez, a widowed Salvadoran artist and writer who was the model for the temperamental Rose in Le Petit Prince. Theirs was a stormy union as Saint-Exupéry traveled frequently and indulged in numerous affairs.

During World War II, he would escape to New York City, but came back to fight with the Allies in a squadron based in the Mediterranean. Now age 44, he was about to quit but agreed to one last mission: to collect data on German troop movements in the Rhone River Valley. He took off the night of July 31, 1944, and was never seen again. A lady reported having seen a plane crash around noon of August 1 near the Bay of Carqueiranne. A body wearing a French uniform was found several days later and was buried in Carqueiranne that September. In 1998, a fisherman found a silver chain bracelet south of Marseille. At first it was thought a hoax, but it was identified later as Saint-Exupéry's. On April 7, 2004, officials confirmed that the twisted wreckage of a Lockheed P-38 Lightning, found on the seabed off the coast of Marseille in 2000, is Saint-Exupéry's. The discovery is akin to solving the mystery of where Amelia Earhart's plane went down in the Pacific Ocean in 1937. However, the cause of the crash remains a mystery.

Works

If not always autobiographical, Saint-Exupéry's work is greatly inspired by his experiences as a pilot. An exception is The Little Prince, his most famous book, a poetic illustrated tale in which he imagines himself stranded in the desert where he meets The Little Prince, a young boy from a tiny asteroid. In many ways The Little Prince is a philosophical story, with emphasis on criticizing society and the excesses of the adult world.

Quotes

  • Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but rather when there is nothing more to take away. (La perfection est atteinte non quand il ne reste rien à ajouter, mais quand il ne reste rien à enlever.)
  • Grown-ups never understand anything for themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them. (Les grandes personnes ne comprennent jamais rien toutes seules, et c'est fatigant, pour les enfants, de toujours leur donner des explications.)
  • Here is my secret. It is very simple: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; What is essential is invisible to the eye. (Voici mon secret. Il est très simple : on ne voit bien qu'avec le coeur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux.)
  • "Men have forgotten this truth," said the fox. "But you must not forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed."
  • If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.
  • As for the future, your task is not to forsee it, but to enable it.
  • A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.
  • Love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking outward together in the same direction.
  • There is no hope of joy except in human relations.

Notes

  • Saint-Exupéry and his wife were portrayed by Bruno Ganz and Miranda Richardson in the British film "Saint-Ex." In 1979, Madame de Saint-Exupéry published her memoirs, The Tale of the Rose. She died in 2001.
  • Saint-Exupéry is commemorated by a plaque in the Panthéon.
  • Until the euro was introduced in 2002, his image appeared on France's 50-franc note.

Named after Saint-Exupéry

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