Saint-Exupéry, Antoine de

(1900-1944)

   writer, aviator

   Born in lyon, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry joined the French air force in 1921 and in 1926 became a commercial pilot flying the Toulouse-Casablanca route and later flew in Patagonia, at the southern end of South America. He then took part in important missions as a test pilot and as a military aviator. A man of action with a humanistic spirit, saint-Exupéry sought to uncover the spiritual and moral significance in human activity, and his writings poetically evoke the romance and discipline of flying and its needs for devotion and the taking of great risks (Courrier Sud, 1928; Vol de nuit, 1931). He sought through his personal experience a sense of the universal, and found the peace of meditation through the dangerous solitude of the solo flyer or in desert terrains. in a classic work, Terre des hommes (1939), he insisted on a rigorous self-examination to become a full human being. in works such as Pilote de guerre (1942) and Lettre à un otage (1943), saint-Exupéry underscores the need to link individual courage with sacrifice for the human community and exalted love for the Earth itself. The same spirit is found in Écrits de guerre (reedited in 1982). Emphasizing the virtue of love over intellect, he translated these thoughts in Le Petit Prince (1943), a popular children's book read by adults for its allegorical meanings, and later in Citadelle (posthumous, 1948). During World War II, Saint-Exupéry was shot down by Germans and later joined charles de gaulle's Free French forces in North Africa. On a reconnaissance mission near Corsica, his plane was lost and never recovered.