Antoine de Saint-ExupŽry





Antoine de Saint-ExupŽry (June 29, 1900 July 31, 1944) was a French writer
and aviator, born in Lyon, into a noble family.

Count Antoine Jean-Baptiste Marie Roger de Saint-ExupŽry was one of the
pioneers of international postal flights, an aviator in the days when
aircraft had few instruments and flying was done "by the seat of the pants".
Later he complained that those who flew the more advanced aircraft were more
like accountants than pilots.

He first worked on the AŽropostale between Toulouse, France and Dakar,
Senegal, while writing his first book, L'Aviateur (The Aviator). In 1928, he
published Courrier-Sud and flew the route between Casablanca and Dakar. In
1931, Vol de Nuit (Night Flight), which received the Prix Femina, was
published. He kept writing and flying (in Africa and South America) until
the beginning of the war.

During World War II, he would escape to City of New York, but would soon
come back to fight with the Allied forces, in a squadron based in the
Mediterranean area. At 43 years old, he was about to quit flying, but his
F-5 reconnaissance aircraft crashed in the Mediterranean Sea on what should
have been his last mission. In 1998, a silver chain bracelet was found near
the reported site of the crash, off the coast of Marseille, and identified
as being Saint-ExupŽry's: It was engraved with the name of his wife and of
his publishers, Reynal & Hitchcock, and tangled in a piece of fabric from
the pilot's flight suit.

If not always autobiographical, Saint-ExupŽry's work is greatly inspired by
his experience as a pilot on the postal flights. An exception is Le Petit
Prince (The Little Prince), his most famous book, a poetic illustrated tale
in which he imagined himself to be stranded in the desert where he met The
Little Prince, a young boy from a tiny asteroid. In many ways The Little
Prince is a philosophical story, with emphasis on criticising society and
the adult world. Saint-ExupŽry had a new asteroid (#2578) named after him in
1975, in recognition of his worldwide fame.

In 1931, Saint-ExupŽry married Consuelo Suncin Sandoval de G--mez (died
1979), a twice-widowed Salvadoran artist and writer who was the model for
the temperamental Rose in "Le Petit Prince." The couple was portrayed by
Bruno Ganz and Miranda Richardson in the 1997 British film "Saint-Ex." And
in 2001, Countess de Saint-ExupŽry's memoir of their marriage, "The Tale of
the Rose," was published by Random House.

Works

   * L'aviateur (1926)
   * Courrier sud (1929)
   * Vol de nuit (Night Flight) (1931)
   * Terre des Hommes (1939) (Translated into English as Wind, Sand and
     Stars)
   * Pilote de Guerre (Flight to Arras ) (1942)
   * Lettre ˆ un Otage (1943)
   * Le Petit Prince (1943) (Translated into English as The Little Prince)
   * Citadelle (1948)

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 ˆ ajouter, mais quand il ne reste
     rien ˆ enlever.)

   * Grown-ups never understand anything for themselves, and it is tiresome
     for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.

   * Voici mon secret. Il est tr�s simple : on ne voit bien qu'avec le
     coeur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux. (It is only with the
     heart that one can see rightly; What is essential is invisible to the eye.)