Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

section of Lyon, on the street now named after him, in blue at lower left Saint-Exupéry was born in Lyon, into the French aristocratic Catholic family that traced its lineage back several centuries. Their surname references the 5th-century bishop Saint Exuperius. He was the third child of Viscount Jean de Saint-Exupéry (1863–1904) and his wife, Marie Boyer de Fonscolombe (1875–1972). By 1926, Saint-Exupéry was flying again. He became one of the pioneers of international postal flight, in the days when aircraft had few instruments. Later, he complained that those who flew the more advanced aircraft had become more like accountants than pilots. He worked for Aéropostale between Toulouse and Dakar, and then also became the airline stopover manager for the Cape Juby airfield in the Spanish zone of South Morocco, in the Sahara. His duties included negotiating the safe release of downed fliers taken hostage by Saharan tribes, a perilous task that earned him his first Légion d'honneur from the French Government in 1930. In 1929, Saint-Exupéry was transferred to Argentina, where he was appointed director of the Aeroposta Argentina airline. He lived in Buenos Aires, in the Galería Güemes building. He surveyed new air routes across South America, negotiated agreements, and occasionally flew the airmail as well as search missions looking for downed fliers. This period of his life is briefly explored in Wings of Courage, an IMAX film by French director Jean-Jacques Annaud. ==Writing career==

, Québec, in May 1942, on a speaking tour in support of France after its armistice with Germany. Saint-Exupéry was highly stressed and bedridden with cholecystitis at this time in his life. The 1931 publication of Night Flight established Saint-Exupéry as a rising star in the literary world. It was the first of his major works to gain widespread acclaim, and it won the prix Femina. The novel mirrored his experiences as a mail pilot and director of the Aeroposta Argentina. That same year, at Grasse, Saint-Exupéry married Consuelo Suncin (née Suncín Sandoval), a once-divorced, once-widowed Salvadoran writer and artist, who Saint-Exupéry described as having possessed a bohemian spirit and a "viper's tongue". Saint-Exupéry left and returned to his wife many times—he saw her as both his muse, but, over the long term, the source of much of his angst. ==Canadian and American sojourn and The Little Prince==

'' was likely inspired by Saint-Exupéry's Salvadoran wife, Consuelo de Saint-Exupéry. Following the German invasion of France in 1940, Saint-Exupéry flew a Bloch MB.174 with the Groupe de reconnaissance II/33 reconnaissance squadron of the Armée de l'Air. After France's armistice with Germany, Saint-Exupéry went into exile in North America, escaping through Portugal. He stayed in Estoril, at the Hotel Palácio, between 28 November and 20 December 1940. He described his impressions of his stay in . On the same day that he checked out, he boarded the S.S. Siboney and arrived in New York City on the last day of 1940, with the intention of convincing the US to enter the conflict against Nazi Germany quickly. On 14 January 1941, at a Hotel Astor author luncheon attended by approximately 1,500, he belatedly received his National Book Award for Wind, Sand and Stars, won a year earlier while he was occupied witnessing the destruction of the French Army. Consuelo followed him to New York City several months later after a chaotic migration to the southern French town of Oppède, where she lived in an artist's commune, the basis of her autobiography, Kingdom of the Rocks: Memories of Oppède. Between January 1941 and April 1943, the Saint-Exupérys lived in New York City's Central Park South in twin penthouse apartments, as well as The Bevin House mansion in Asharoken on Long Island, New York and a townhouse on Beekman Place in Manhattan. (lower left and upper right, artwork not shown) on display at the Saint-Exupéry exhibit at the Air and Space Museum in Paris, France. Also, upper left: (Letter to a Hostage), and bottom right: (English version: Flight to Arras'') Saint-Exupéry added the hyphen to his surname after his arrival in the United States, saying that he was annoyed with Americans addressing him as "Mr. Exupéry". During this period, he authored Pilote de guerre (Flight to Arras), which earned widespread acclaim, and Lettre à un otage (), dedicated to the 40 million French living under Nazi oppression, in addition to numerous shorter pieces in support of France. The Saint-Exupérys also resided in Quebec City, Canada for several weeks during the late spring of 1942. During their time in Quebec City, the family lived with the philosopher Charles De Koninck and his family, including his "precocious" 8-year-old son, Thomas. After he returned from his stay in Québec, which had been fraught with illness and stress, the wife of one of his publishers helped persuade Saint-Exupéry to produce a children's book, hoping to calm his nerves and also compete with the new series of Mary Poppins stories by P.L. Travers. Saint-Exupéry wrote and illustrated The Little Prince in New York City and the village of Asharoken in mid-to-late 1942, with the manuscript being completed in October. It was published in early 1943 in both English and French in the United States, and only later appeared in France, posthumously, after the liberation of France, as his works had been banned by the collaborationist Vichy Regime. The Little Prince is dedicated to Saint-Exupéry's close friend Léon Werth. ==Return to war==

In April 1943, following his 27 months in North America, Saint-Exupéry departed with an American military convoy for Algiers, to fly with the Free French Air Force and fight with the Allies in a Mediterranean-based squadron. Then 43, soon to be promoted to the rank of commandant (major), he was far older than most men in operational units. Although eight years over the age limit for such pilots, he had petitioned endlessly for an exemption which had finally been approved by General Dwight Eisenhower. However, Saint-Exupéry had been suffering pain and immobility due to his many previous crash injuries, to the extent that he could not dress himself in his own flight suit or even turn his head leftwards to check for enemy aircraft. Saint-Exupéry was assigned with a number of other pilots to his former unit, renamed Groupe de reconnaissance 2/33 "Savoie", flying P-38 Lightnings, which an officer described as "war-weary, non-airworthy craft". The Lightnings were also more sophisticated than models he previously flew, requiring him to undertake seven weeks of stringent training before his first mission. After wrecking a P-38 through engine failure on his second mission, he was grounded for eight months, but was then later reinstated to flight duty on the personal intervention of General Ira Eaker, Deputy Commander of the U.S. Army Air Forces. After Saint-Exupéry resumed flying, he also returned to his longtime habit of reading and writing while flying his single-seat Lockheed F-5B (a specially configured P-38 reconnaissance variant). His prodigious studies of literature gripped him and on occasion, he continued his readings of literary works until moments before takeoff, with mechanics having warmed up and tested his aircraft for him in preparation for his flight. On one flight, to the chagrin of his colleagues awaiting his arrival, he circled the airport for an hour after returning, so that he could finish reading a novel. Saint-Exupéry frequently flew with a lined notebook (carnet) during his long solitary flights and some of his philosophical writings were created during such periods when he could reflect on the world below him. ==Disappearance==

Before his return to flight duty with his squadron in North Africa, the collaborationist Vichy Regime unilaterally promoted Saint-Exupéry as one of its members. Saint-Exupéry was shocked and dismayed by this, in keeping with his historical harsh criticism of the Vichy Regime. Subsequently, French General (later French President) Charles de Gaulle, whom Saint-Exupéry held in low regard, made a public statement that implied that Saint-Exupéry was supporting Germany. Saint-Exupéry became depressed by these events and began to consume alcohol heavily. Rippert was the older brother of the famous bass singer Ivan Rebroff, who was born in Berlin as Hans-Rolf Rippert. In his memoirs, Horst Rippert, an admirer of Saint-Exupéry's books, expressed both fears and doubts that he was responsible, but in 2003 he stated that he became certain that he was responsible when he learned the location of Saint-Exupéry's wreckage. Rippert claimed to have reported the kill over his radio, but there are no surviving records to verify this account. Rippert's account, as it is discussed in two French and German books, was met with both publicity and skepticism. Luftwaffe comrades expressed doubts in Rippert's claim, given that he held it private for 64 years. Very little German documentation survived the war, and contemporary archival sources, consisting mostly of Allied intercepts of Luftwaffe signals, offer no evidence to verify Rippert's claim. The entry and exit points of Saint-Exupéry's mission were likely near Cannes, yet his wreckage was discovered south of Marseille. Though it is possible that German fighters could have intercepted, or at least altered, Saint-Exupéry's flight path, the cause of his death remains unknown, and Rippert's account remains one hypothesis among many. ==Literary works==

While not precisely autobiographical, much of Saint-Exupéry's work is inspired by his experiences as a pilot. One notable example is his novella, The Little Prince, a poetic tale self-illustrated in watercolours in which a pilot stranded in the desert meets a young prince fallen to Earth from a tiny asteroid. "His most popular work, The Little Prince was partially based upon a crash he and his navigator survived in the Libyan desert. They were stranded and dehydrated for four days, nearing death when they miraculously stumbled upon a Bedouin who gave them water." Saint-Exupéry wrote in Wind, Sand and Stars that the Bedouin saved their lives and gave them "charity and magnanimity [by] bearing the gift of water." The Little Prince is a philosophical story, including societal criticism, remarking on the strangeness of the adult world. One biographer wrote of his most famous work: "Rarely have an author and a character been so intimately bound together as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and his Little Prince," and remarking of their dual fates, "...the two remain tangled together, twin innocents who fell from the sky." Published posthumously • Citadelle (1948) (titled in English: as The Wisdom of the Sands) – winner of the Prix des Ambassadeurs • Lettres à une jeune fille (1950) • Lettres de jeunesse, 1923–1931 (1953) • ''Lettres à l'amie inventée'' (1953) • Carnets (1953) • Lettres à sa mère (1955) • Un sens à la vie (1956), (A Sense of Life) In support of their German occupiers and masters, Vichy authorities attacked the author as a defender of Jews (in racist terms) leading to the praised book being banned in France, along with prohibitions against further printings of Saint-Exupéry's other works. Prior to France's liberation new printings of Saint-Exupéry's works were made available there only by means of covert print runs, such as that of February 1943 when 1,000 copies of an underground version of Pilote de guerre were printed in Lyon. A further complication occurred due to Saint-Exupéry's view of General Charles de Gaulle, whom he held in low regard. Early in the war, de Gaulle became the leader of the Free French Forces in exile, with his headquarters in London. Even though both men were working to free France from Nazi occupation, Saint-Exupéry viewed de Gaulle with apprehension as a possible post-war dictator, and he consequently provided no public support to the General. De Gaulle retaliated by implying that the author was a supporter of Germany, and he then had his literary works banned in France's North African colonies. Saint-Exupéry's writings were, with irony, banned simultaneously in occupied France and the territory which was controlled by Free France. Extension of copyrights in France Due to Saint-Exupéry's wartime death, the French government awarded his estate the civil code designation Mort pour la France (English: Died for France) in 1948. Amongst the law's provisions is an increase of 30 years to the duration of the original copyright's duration of 70 years; thus most of Saint-Exupéry's creative works will not fall out of copyright status in France for an extra 30 years. ==Honours and legacy==

File:Panthéon de Paris Saint Exupéry.jpg| Commemorative inscription in the Panthéon of Paris File:50francstexupery.jpg| Portrait and images from The Little Prince on a 50-franc banknote File:St-ExuperyPlaque.jpg| Historical marker where the Saint-Exupérys resided in Quebec • Saint-Exupéry is commemorated with an inscription in the Panthéon in Paris, France's repository of historical greats. Although his body was never identified, his name was added to the Panthéon in November 1967 by a French legislative act. The inscription reads: "''A LA MEMOIRE DE • ANTOINE DE SAINT EXUPERY • POETE ROMANCIER AVIATEUR • DISPARU AU COURS D'UNE MISSION • DE RECONNAISSANCE AERIENNE • LE 31 JUILLET 1944''" (To the memory of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, poet, novelist, aviator, missing during an aerial reconnaissance mission, 31 July 1944). Amongst other honours from France, he was named a in April 1930 and was promoted to in January 1939. He was awarded the in 1940 and was posthumously awarded the in 1944. • From 1993 until the introduction of the euro, Saint-Exupéry's portrait and several of his drawings from The Little Prince appeared on France's 50-franc banknote. • In 2000, on the centenary of his birth, in the city where he was born, he was memorialised when the Lyon Satolas Airport was renamed the Lyon-Saint Exupéry Airport. Lyon's TGV bullet train station was also renamed Gare de Lyon Saint-Exupéry. The author is additionally commemorated by a statue in Lyon, depicting a seated Saint-Exupéry with the little prince standing behind him. • A street in Montesson, a suburb of Paris, is named after him as Rue Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Museums and exhibits , Le Bourget, Paris. in Tarfaya, Morocco. Museum exhibits, exhibitions and theme villages dedicated to both him and his diminutive Little Prince have been created in Le Bourget, Paris and other locations in France, as well as in the Republic of South Korea, Japan, Morocco, Brazil, the United States and Canada: • The Air and Space Museum at Paris's Le Bourget Airport, in cooperation with The Estate of Saint-Exupéry-d'Agay, has created a permanent exhibit of 300 m2 dedicated to the author, pilot, person and humanist. The Espace Saint-Exupéry exhibit, officially inaugurated in 2006 on the anniversary of the aviator's birthday, • In Tarfaya, Morocco, next to the Cape Juby airfield where Saint-Exupéry was based as an Aéropostale airmail pilot/station manager, Antoine de Saint-Exupery Museum was created honouring both him and the company. A small monument at the airfield is also dedicated to them. • In Gyeonggi-do, South Korea, and Hakone, Japan, theme village museums have been created honouring Saint-Exupéry's Little Prince. • In January 1995, the Alberta Aviation Museum of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, in conjunction with the cultural organization Alliance française, presented a showing of Saint-Exupéry letters, watercolours, sketches and photographs. Another asteroid was named as 46610 Bésixdouze (translated to and from both hexadecimal and French as 'B612'). Additionally the terrestrial-asteroid protection organization B612 Foundation was named in tribute to the author's Little Prince, who fell to Earth from Asteroid B-612. • Philatelic tributes have been printed in at least 25 other countries . Other Numerous other tributes have been awarded to honour Saint-Exupéry and his most famous literary creation, his Little Prince: • The GR I/33 (later renamed as the 1/33 Belfort Squadron), one of the French Air Force squadrons Saint-Exupéry flew with, adopted the image of the Little Prince as part of the squadron and tail insignia on its Dassault Mirage fighter jets. • Google celebrated Saint-Exupéry's 110th birthday with a special logotype depicting the little prince being hoisted through the heavens by a flock of birds. • The French 50-franc banknote depicted Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and had several features that allude to his works. • The new flagship of CMA CGM Group for celebrating her 40th anniversary, takes the name of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry to commemorate his achievement. ==In popular culture==

Film • Wings of Courage is a 1995 docudrama by French director Jean-Jacques Annaud. The movie was the world's first dramatic picture shot in the IMAX format and is an account of the true story of early airmail pilots Henri Guillaumet (played by Craig Sheffer), Saint-Exupéry played by Tom Hulce, and several others. • Saint-Exupéry and his wife Consuelo were portrayed by Bruno Ganz and Miranda Richardson in the 1996 biopic Saint-Ex, a British film biography of the French author-pilot. It also featured Eleanor Bron and was filmed and distributed in the United Kingdom, with scripting by Frank Cottrell Boyce. The film combines elements of biography, documentary, and dramatic licence. • The 2024 French film Saint-Exupéry (originally titled Saint-Ex) written and directed by Pablo Agüero depicts Saint-Exupéry's (Louis Garrel) airmail career in the Andes, revolving around his efforts to save his friend, Henri Guillaumet (Vincent Cassel). TV Series • In the 2009 Japanese dorama Karei naru Spy (華麗なるスパイ), produced by Nippon Television, a spy named "Antoine de Saint-Exumopéry" (アントワーヌ ド・サン・テグモペリ ) is played by actor MOUNIR. (Episode 2). The spy works for the evil Mr.Takumi (ミスター匠), leader of an international terrorist organization. Literature • After his disappearance, Consuelo de Saint-Exupéry wrote The Tale of the Rose, which was published in 2000 and subsequently translated into 16 languages. • Saint-Exupéry is mentioned in Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff: "A saint in short, true to his name, flying up here at the right hand of God. The good Saint-Ex! And he was not the only one. He was merely the one who put it into words most beautifully and anointed himself before the altar of the right stuff." • Comic-book author Hugo Pratt imagined the fantastic story of Saint-Exupéry's last flight in Saint-Exupéry: le dernier vol (1994). • Saint-Exupéry is the subject of the 2013 historical novel Studio Saint-Ex (Knopf, New York / Penguin, Canada) by Ania Szado. In the novel Saint-Exupéry awaits the Americans' entry into World War II, while writing The Little Prince in New York. • Wind, Sand and Stars is an important book to narrator Theo Decker, who re-reads it often, in The Goldfinch (2013) by Donna Tartt. • Saint-Exupéry was the principal character in Antonio Iturbe's 2017 Spanish-language novel A cielo abierto which was translated into English and published in 2021 with the title The Prince of the Skies. Music • Saint-Exupéry's death and speculation that Horst Rippert shot him down are the subject of "Saint Ex", a song on Widespread Panic's eleventh studio album, Dirty Side Down. • "P 38", a 1983 song by the Swedish pop band Webstrarna took inspiration from Saint-Ex's disappearance in July 1944. • The Norwegian progressive rock band Gazpacho's concept album Tick Tock is based on Saint-Exupéry's desert crash. • "On the Planet of the Living", a song sung by Eduard Khil, was dedicated to Saint-Exupéry. • "St. Exupéry Blues" – a song by Russian folk-rock band Melnitsa from their album "Alchemy" • In "Far Side of the World", a song by American singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett, he mentions both Saint-Exupery and "Wind, Sand and Stars". Theatre • In August 2011, Saint-Ex, a theatrical production of Saint-Exupéry's life, premiered in Weston, Vermont. • Saint-Exupéry appears as one of the three historical characters in the one-act play, DINNER @ AMELIA'S ((c) 2019) by Myles A. Garcia, an American playwright. The two other historical characters in the same play are Alberto Santos-Dumont, the Brazilian pioneering aviator, and T. E. Lawrence (the future Lawrence of Arabia). ==See also==