Many prominent figures in history begin life as prodigies or show early signs of greatness. For Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger, comte de Saint-Exupéry, more commonly known as Antoine de Saint-Exupery, failure and grief were more common companions than glory. The author of Le Petit Prince (English title: The Little Prince) and recipient of France’s highest literary honors was born into an aristocratic family. Nevertheless, the deaths of his father and younger brother before Antoine's 18th birthday shaped his life.
The amazing writer also loved to live on the edge.
Over the course of Saint-Exupery’s relatively short life, a few motifs become apparent. First, he followed his passions with incredible zeal. He loved to write and he loved to fly. It was said he often began writing at 11 pm, with sessions routinely continuing until daybreak.
Despite becoming a famous pilot, he first failed the naval exams and dropped out of architecture school. Regardless, his literary and aviation feats lived on long after his mysterious disappearance while on a reconnaissance mission over the Mediterranean at the age of 44.
A Writer Through And Through
"The Little Prince" has been a movie, television show, musical, opera, a ballet and a theme park. (literaryhub)
Those inspecting his planes would regularly find balled up pieces of paper with scribbles. They described him as a “distracted flier,” one who would refuse to land until he finished reading a particularly good novel.
Inspirational Living
Antoine de Saint-ExupeÌry on the right with his dashing mechanic Andre Prevot, 1938. (Getty Images)
His first flying job came with Aéropostale, who owned notoriously unreliable planes that “crashed all the time.” As a result, he became very friendly with his fellow pilots, including Frenchmen Henri Guillaumet and Jean Mermoz, who saved each other on more than one occasion.
Stranger Than Fiction
Among friends Saint-Exupéry's nicknames were "Saint-Ex" and "Toni."
Many of Saint-Exupery’s misadventures became intertwined in his writing. The most infamous December 1936 crash into the Libyan desert made its way into the The Little Prince. It occurred after 19 hours and 44 minutes in the air, as he and his navigator tried to break the speed record in a Paris-to-Saigon air race for a prize -- nearly 4 million francs, adjusted for inflation. Also, his fiery but complicated marriage to Consuelo Carrillo from El Salvador inspired the The Little Prince’s Rose.
World War II Anguish
Consuelo's memoir, "The Tale of the Rose," published many years after her death, disclosed Saint-ExupeÌry's womanizing and childishness. (Getty)
When World War II broke out, Saint-Exupery, a proud nationalist, began flying "near suicidal" reconnaissance missions until France fell. His unit disbanded and he left for New York City, a depressed and dejected man. He itched to return home and fight, "I feel like I am watching the war from a theatre seat.” In an effort to cheer him up, his wife rented the “Bevin House” on Long Island. It was there that he wrote much of “The Little Prince.”
Lifelong Idea
One of his mistresses, Nelly de Vogüé, wrote a biography of Saint-Exupéry in 1949 under the pen name Pierre Chevrier.
When people asked where Saint-Exupery got the inspiration for The Little Prince, he would respond
I looked down at a blank sheet of paper one day and a figure looked back at me and said 'I am the little prince.'
Since childhood the famous author drew the same little figure, thousands of times. The same month his enduring passion was published in 1943, was also when Saint-Exupery rejoined the French war effort.
Reactions to 'The Little Prince'
Saint-Exupery was rather tall at six foot two. (refresher.sk)
Saint-Exupery biographers disagree on whether The Little Prince was published before or after he left for Europe. The book did make the New York Times Bestseller list, but only for a week or two. Many reviewers were confused as to whether it was a children’s book or an adult fairy tale. P.L. Travers, author of Mary Poppins, wrote that the book would "shine upon children with a sideways gleam" and "strike them in some place that is not the mind."
Mysterious Disappearance
"The Little Prince" is estimated to have sold 200 million copies worldwide.
On July 31, 1944, Saint-Exupéry left the island of Corsica in a Lockheed Lightning P-38 reconnaissance plane. He never returned. The remains of the airplane and a silver bracelet bearing the names of his New York publisher were found but never his body. In 2006, after some exhaustive reporting, Horst Rippert, a German pilot, admitted to shooting down Saint-Exupéry.
Lingering Doubts
Antoine de Saint-Exupery's "The Little Prince" was translated into over 300 languages and and outlawed in Hungary. Photo colorized by Klimbim
Saint-Exupéry’s grandnephew, Olivier d’Agay, spokesman for the family announced, “The lack of evidence, beyond circumstances, has prompted some to express mild disbelief, Mr. von Gartzen among them. It’s beyond the normal principles of probability,” he said, adding: “It nonetheless remains a hypothesis that is well-founded. Rippert said he often felt desperate. If he had known what he was doing, he never would have done it.”
The photo at the top of this story was colorized by Olga Shirnina, aka Klimbim; you can see more of her work at her Flickr page.
