Quick Facts
French aviator-poet who flew mail planes across deserts and oceans, wrote of human connection from cockpits at thirty thousand feet, and created the Little Prince before vanishing into the Mediterranean sky.
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Life Journey
Born Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger, comte de Saint-Exupéry on June 29, 1900, in Lyon. His family was aristocratic but not wealthy. The boy dreamed of flight before flight was common.
His father died when Antoine was four. Raised by his mother in ancestral homes, he grew up dreamy, artistic, and fascinated by machines. A happy childhood despite loss.
Took his first airplane flight at age twelve. The experience was transformative. He would later write that the earth seen from above revealed truths invisible from the ground.
Began military service in aviation. Learned to fly, crashed several times, earned his pilot's license. The sky became his element.
Joined Latécoère, later Aéropostale, flying mail routes over deserts and mountains. The dangerous pioneering flights would provide material for all his books.
Became station chief at Cap Juby in the Sahara. Living among desert tribes, rescuing downed pilots, he found the solitude that shaped his philosophy.
Published 'Courrier Sud' (Southern Mail), his first novel based on his flying experiences. The poetic prose about pilots and deserts found immediate acclaim.
Published 'Vol de Nuit' (Night Flight), with a preface by André Gide. The novel won the Prix Femina and established him as a major writer. He was equally famous as pilot and author.
Married Consuelo Suncín, a Salvadoran artist. Their marriage was passionate and turbulent. She would inspire the rose in The Little Prince.
Attempting a speed record from Paris to Saigon, crashed in the Libyan desert. He and his navigator nearly died of thirst before being rescued by a Bedouin. The experience informed all his later work.
Published 'Terre des Hommes' (Wind, Sand and Stars), his philosophical meditation on flying and humanity. The book won the Grand Prix du Roman de l'Académie Française.
Flew reconnaissance missions as France fell. Evacuated to New York where he spent the war years writing and longing to return to combat.
Published 'Le Petit Prince' (The Little Prince) in New York, illustrated with his own drawings. The children's book about a prince on an asteroid became one of the most translated books in history.
Rejoined Free French forces in North Africa, flying reconnaissance despite being overage and in poor health. He had to fight for permission to fly.
On July 31, 1944, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry took off on a reconnaissance mission over southern France. He never returned. His plane was found in the Mediterranean in 2004. He was forty-four.