The Modern Novel

Biography

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was born in 1900 in Lyon. His father was Count Jean de Saint-Exupéry, an insurance broker. After studying architecture, he enlisted and trained as a pilot. He transferred to the air force but left at the request of his fiancée’s family. After various odd jobs and breaking off the engagement, he again worked as a pilot, flying for the postal service. He started writing stories about his experiences and then published his first novel – Courrier Sud (Southern Mail). He worked in the Sahara before moving to South America, where he met and married the Salvadoran Consuelo Suncin Sandoval Zeceña of Gómez. He continued flying and flew with the French reconnaissance squadron at the beginning of World War II before escaping to North America. He joined the allies in 1944 and was about to quit when he agreed to one last mission to collect information on German troop movements in the Rhône valley. He was never seen again, though a body was found and buried. The French recovered his plane in 2003. He is now best known for his children’s book, Le petit prince (The Little Prince), though his other novels, about flying, are superb works of literature and deserve to be better known.

Books about Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Curtis Cate: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: His Life and Times
Marcel Migeo: Saint-Exupéry. A Biography
Stacy Schiff: Saint-Exupéry: A Biography
Maxwell Austin Smith: Knight of the Air. The Works and Life of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Other sites

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
The Life and Times of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
French find Saint-Exupery’s plane
Wreckage of Little Prince author’s plane found in sea
Wreck of hero author’s plane found
The Luftwaffe and Saint-Exupéry: the evidence
About Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (A bibliography of biographical works in French and English)
Official site (in French)
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (in French)
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (in French)