Antoine de Saint - Exupéry Antoine de Saint - Exupéry ( ) , officially Antoine Marie Jean - Baptiste Roger , comte de Saint Exupéry ( 29 June 1900 – 31 July 1944 , " Mort pour la France " ) , was a French aristocrat , writer , poet , and pioneering aviator . He became a laureate of several of France ' s highest literary award s and also won the U . S . National Book Award . He is best remembered for his novella " The Little Prince " ( " Le Petit Prince " ) and for his lyrical aviation writings , including " Wind , Sand and Stars " and " Night Flight " . Saint - Exupéry was a successful commercial pilot before World War II , working airmail routes in Europe , Africa and South America . At the outbreak of war , he joined the French Air Force ( " Armée de l ' Air " ) , flying reconnaissance missions until France ' s armistice with Germany in 1940 . After being demobilised from the French Air Force , he travelled to the United States to persuade its government to enter the war against Nazi Germany . Following a 27 - month hiatus in North America , during which he wrote three of his most important works , he joined the Free French Air Force in North Africa , although he was far past the maximum age for such pilots and in declining health . He disappeared over the Mediterranean on his last assigned reconnaissance mission in July 1944 , and is believed to have died at that time . Prior to the war , Saint - Exupéry had achieved fame in France as an aviator . His literary works , among them " The Little Prince " , translated into over 250 languages and dialects , propelled his stature posthumously allowing him to achieve national hero status in France . He earned further widespread recognition with international translations of his other works . His 1939 philosophical memoir " Terre des hommes " became the name of a major international humanitarian group , and was also used to create the central theme ( " Terre des hommes – Man and His World " ) of the most successful world ' s fair of the 20th century , Expo 67 in Montreal , Canada . Youth and aviation . Saint - Exupéry was born in Lyon to an aristocratic family that could trace its lineage back several centuries . He was the third of five children of the Countess Marie de Fonscolombe and Count Jean de Saint - Exupéry ( 1863 - 1904 ) . His father , an executive of the " Le Soleil " ( The Sun ) insurance brokerage , died of a stroke in Lyon ' s " La Foux " train station before his son ' s fourth birthday . His father ' s death would greatly affect the entire family , transforming their status to that of ' impoverished aristocrats ' . Saint - Exupéry was the third of five children , with three sisters and a younger blond - haired brother , François , who at age 15 would tragically die of rheumatic fever contracted while both were attending the Marianist College Villa St . Jean in Fribourg , Switzerland during World War I . Saint - Exupéry attended to his brother , his closest confidant , beside François ' death bed , and later wrote that François " . . . remained motionless for an instant . He did not cry out . He fell as gently as a [ young ] tree falls " , an imagery which would much later be recrafted in the climactic ending of " The Little Prince " . At age 17 , and now the only " man " in the family following the death of his brother , the young author was left as distraught as his mother and sisters , but he soon assumed the mantle of a protector and took to consoling them . After twice failing his final exams at a preparatory Naval Academy ( intentionally , some believe ) , Saint - Exupéry entered the École des Beaux - Arts as an auditor to study architecture for 15 months , again without graduating , and then fell into the habit of accepting odd jobs . In 1921 , Saint - Exupéry began his military service with the " 2e Régiment de chasseurs à cheval " ( 2nd Regiment of Light Cavalry ) and was sent to Neuhof , near Strasbourg . While there he took private flying lessons and the following year was offered a transfer from the French Army to the French Air Force . He received his pilot ' s wings after being posted to the 37th Fighter Regiment in Casablanca , Morocco . Later , being reposted to the 34th Aviation Regiment at Le Bourget on the outskirts of Paris and then experiencing the first of his many aircraft crashes , Saint - Exupéry bowed to the objections of the family of his fiancée , future novelist Louise Lévêque de Vilmorin , and left the air force to take an office job . The couple ultimately broke off their engagement and he worked at several more odd jobs without success over the next few years . By 1926 , Saint - Exupéry was flying again . He became one of the pioneers of international postal flight , in the days when aircraft had few instruments . Later he complained that those who flew the more advanced aircraft had become more like accountants than pilots . He worked for Aéropostale between Toulouse and Dakar , and then also became the airline stopover manager for the Cape Juby airfield in the Spanish zone of South Morocco , in the Sahara desert . His duties included negotiating the safe release of downed fliers taken hostage by hostile Moors , a perilous task which earned him his first Légion d ' honneur from the French Government . In 1929 , Saint - Exupéry was transferred to Argentina , where he was appointed director of the Aeroposta Argentina airline . He surveyed new air routes across South America , negotiated agreements and even occasionally flew the airmail as well as search missions looking for downed fliers . This period of his life is briefly explored in " Wings of Courage " , an IMAX film by French director Jean - Jacques Annaud . Writing career . Saint - Exupéry ' s first novella , " L ' Aviateur " ( " The Aviator " ) , was published in a short - lived literary magazine " le Navire d ' argent " ( " The Silver Ship " ) . In 1929 , his first book , " Courrier Sud " ( " Southern Mail " ) was published ; his career as an aviator and journalist was about to burgeon . That same year , Saint - Exupéry flew the Casablanca – Dakar route . The 1931 publication of " Vol de nuit " ( " Night Flight " ) established Saint - Exupéry as a rising star in the literary world . It was the first of his major works to gain widespread acclaim and became the winner of the prix Femina . The novel mirrored his experiences as a mail pilot and director of the Aeroposta Argentina airline , based in Argentina . That same year , at Grasse , Saint - Exupéry married Consuelo Suncin ( née Suncín Sandoval ) , a twice - widowed Salvadoran writer and artist , who possessed a bohemian spirit and a " viper ' s tongue " . Saint - Exupéry , thoroughly enchanted by the diminutive woman , would leave and then return to her many times — she was both his muse and over the long term , the source of much of his angst . It was a stormy union , with Saint - Exupéry travelling frequently and indulging in numerous affairs , most notably with the Frenchwoman Hélène de Vogüé ( 1908 – 2003 ) , known as " Nelly " and referred to as " Madame de B . " in Saint - Exupéry biographies . De Vogüé became Saint - Exupéry ' s literary executrix after his death , and also wrote her own Saint - Exupéry biography under a pseudonym , Pierre Chevrier . Desert crash . On 30 December 1935 , at 2 : 45 a . m . , after 19 hours and 44 minutes in the air , Saint - Exupéry , along with his mechanic - navigator André Prévot , crashed in the Sahara desert . They were attempting to break the speed record in a Paris - to - Saigon air race ( called a " raid " ) and win a prize of 150 , 000 francs . The crash site is thought to have been near the Wadi Natrun valley , close to the Nile Delta . Both Saint - Exupéry and Prévot miraculously survived the crash , only to face rapid dehydration in the intense desert heat . Their maps were primitive and ambiguous , leaving them with no idea of their location . Lost among the sand dunes , their sole supplies were grapes , two oranges , a thermos of sweet coffee , chocolate , a handful of crackers , and a small ration of wine . The pair had only one day ' s worth of liquid . They both began to see mirages and experience auditory hallucinations , which were quickly followed by more vivid hallucinations . By the second and third day , they were so dehydrated that they stopped sweating altogether . Finally , on the fourth day , a Bedouin on a camel discovered them and administered a native rehydration treatment that saved their lives . The near brush with death would figure prominently in his 1939 memoir , " Wind , Sand and Stars " , winner of several awards . Saint - Exupéry ' s classic novella " The Little Prince " , which begins with a pilot being marooned in the desert , is , in part , a reference to this experience . American and Canadian sojourn and " The Little Prince " . Saint - Exupéry continued to write until the spring of 1943 , when he left the United States with American troops bound for North Africa in World War II . During the war , he initially flew a Bloch MB . 174 with the GR II / 33 reconnaissance squadron of the Armée de l ' Air . After France ' s 1940 armistice with Germany , he voyaged to North America , escaping through Portugal and arriving in New York on the last day of 1940 with the intention of convincing the U . S . to enter the conflict against Nazi Germany quickly . On 14 January 1941 , at a Hotel Astor author luncheon attended by approximately 1 , 500 , he belatedly received his National Book Award for " Wind , Sand and Stars " , won a year earlier while he was occupied witnessing the destruction of the French Army . Consuelo followed him to New York several months later after a chaotic migration to the southern French town of Oppède , where she lived in an artist ' s commune , the basis of her autobiography , " Kingdom of the Rocks : Memories of Oppède " . Between January 1941 and April 1943 , the Saint - Exupérys lived in New York City ' s Central Park South in twin penthouse apartments , as well as The Bevin House mansion in Asharoken on Long Island , New York and a townhouse on Beekman Place in Manhattan . Some researchers have implied that during his stay in the United States , Saint - Exupéry became intimate with Anne Morrow Lindbergh , wife of the famous American aviator Charles Lindbergh . Ironically , while his intention was to convince the U . S . Government of the need to fight fascism , both Anne and her husband Charles were strongly advocating against American intervention in the European war . Anne wrote a 41 - page booklet , " The Wave of the Future " , in support of her husband , who was lobbying for a U . S . – German peace treaty similar to Stalin ' s treaty with Hitler . The Roosevelt administration subsequently attacked " The Wave of the Future " as " the bible of every American Nazi , Fascist , Bundist and Appeaser " , and the booklet became one of the most despised writings of the period . With further irony , Saint - Exupéry and Charles Lindbergh both became P - 38 pilots during World War II , with a disgraced Lindbergh fighting surreptitiously in the Pacific War , and with Saint - Exupéry fighting and dying very publicly over the Mediterranean . It was after Saint - Exupéry ' s arrival in the United States that the author adopted the hyphen within his surname , as he was annoyed with Americans addressing him as " Mr . Exupéry " . It was also during this period that he authored " Pilote de guerre ( Flight to Arras ) " , which earned widespread acclaim , and ( " Letter to a Hostage " ) , dedicated to the 40 million French living under Nazi oppression , plus numerous shorter pieces in support of France . The Saint - Exupérys also resided in Quebec City , Canada for several weeks during the late spring of 1942 , during which time they met a precocious eight - year - old boy with blond curly hair , Thomas , the son of philosopher Charles De Koninck , with whom the Saint - Exupérys resided . After he returned from his stay in Quebec , which had been wrought with illness and stress , the French wife of one of his publishers helped convince Saint - Exupéry to produce a children ' s book , hoping to calm his nerves and also compete with the new series of " Mary Poppins " stories by P . L . Travers . Saint - Exupéry wrote and illustrated " The Little Prince " in New York City and the villiage of Asharoken in mid - to - late 1942 , with the manuscript being completed in October . It would be first published months later in early 1943 in both English and French , but only in the United States , and would later appear in his native homeland posthumously , after the liberation of France . Return to war . In April 1943 , following his 27 months in North America , Saint - Exupéry departed with an American military convoy for Algiers , to fly with the Free French Air Force and fight with the Allies in a Mediterranean - based squadron . Then 43 , soon to be promoted to the rank of commandant ( major ) , he was far older than most men in operational units . Although eight years over the age limit for such pilots , he had petitioned endlessly for an exemption which had finally been approved by General Dwight Eisenhower . However , Saint - Exupéry had been suffering pain and immobility due to his many previous crash injuries , to the extent that he could not dress himself in his own flight suit or even turn his head leftwards to check for enemy aircraft . Saint - Exupéry was assigned with a number of other pilots to F - 5 Lightning s , which an officer described as " war - weary , non - airworthy craft " . The Lightnings were also more sophisticated than models he previously flew , requiring him to undertake seven weeks of stringent training before his first mission . After wrecking a P - 38 through engine failure on his second mission , he was grounded for eight months , but was then later reinstated to flight duty on the personal intervention of General Ira Eaker , Deputy Commander of the U . S . Army Air Forces . After Saint - Exupéry resumed flying , he also returned to his longtime habit of reading and writing while flying his single seat F - 5B ( a specially configured P - 38 reconnaissance variant ) . His prodigious studies of literature gripped him , and on occasion he continued his readings of literary works until moments before takeoff , with mechanics having warmed up and tested his aircraft for him in preparation for his flight . On one flight , to the chagrin of his colleagues awaiting his arrival , he circled the airport for an hour after returning , so that he could finish reading a novel . Saint - Exupéry frequently flew with a lined notebook ( " carnet " ) during his long solitary flights , and some of his philosophical writings were created during such periods when he could reflect on the world below him . Disappearance . Prior to his return to flight duties with his squadron in North Africa , the collaborationist Vichy Regime unilaterally promoted Saint - Exupéry as one of its members — quite a shock to the author , himself . Subsequently , French General ( later , French President ) Charles de Gaulle , whom Saint - Exupéry and others held in low regard , publicly implied that the author - pilot was supporting Germany . Depressed at this , he began to drink heavily . Additionally , his health , both physically and mentally , had been deteriorating . Saint - Exupéry was said to be intermittently subject to depression and there was discussion of taking him off flying status . Saint - Exupéry ' s last assigned reconnaissance mission was to collect intelligence on German troop movements in and around the Rhone Valley preceding the Allied invasion of southern France ( " Operation Dragoon " ) . Although he had been reinstated to his old squadron with the provision that he was to fly only five missions , on 31 July 1944 , he took off in an unarmed P - 38 on his ninth reconnaissance mission from an airbase on Corsica . To the great alarm of the squadron compatriots who revered him , he did not return , dramatically vanishing without a trace . Word of his disappearance shortly spread across the literary world and then into international headlines . A French woman reported much later having watched an aircraft crash around noon near the Bay of Carqueiranne off Toulon . An unidentifiable body wearing French colors was found several days after his disappearance , east of the Frioul archipelago south of Marseille , and buried in Carqueiranne in September . Discovery at sea . In September 1998 , Jean - Claude Bianco , a fisherman , found east of Riou Island , south of Marseille , a silver identity bracelet ( " gourmette " ) bearing the names of Saint - Exupéry and of his wife Consuelo and his American publisher , Reynal & Hitchcock , hooked to a piece of fabric , presumably from his flight suit . The recovery of his bracelet was an emotionally - laden event in France , where Saint - Exupéry had by then assumed the mantle of a national icon , and some disputed its authenticity as it was found far from his intended flight path , implying that the aircraft may not have been shot down . In May 2000 , Luc Vanrell , a diver , found the partial remains of a Lockheed P - 38 Lightning spread over thousands of square metres of the seabed off the coast of Marseille , near to where the bracelet was previously found . The discovery galvanized the country , which for decades had conducted searches for his aircraft and speculated on Saint - Exupéry ' s fate . After a two - year delay imposed by the French government , the remnants of the aircraft were recovered in October 2003 . On 7 April 2004 , Patrick Granjean , head of the French Ministry of Culture , Captain Frederic Solano of the French Air Force , plus investigators from the French Underwater Archaeological Department confirmed that the remnants of the crash wreckage were , indeed , from Saint - Exupéry ' s P - 38 F - 5B reconnaissance variant . No marks or holes attributable to gunfire were found ; however , that was not considered significant as only a small portion of the aircraft was recovered . In June 2004 , the fragments were given to the Air and Space Museum in Le Bourget , Paris , where Saint - Exupéry ' s life is commemorated in a special exhibit . The location of the crash site and the bracelet are less than 80 km by sea from where the unidentified French serviceman was found in Carqueiranne , and it remains plausible , but has not been confirmed , that the body was carried there by sea currents after the crash over the course of several days . Speculations in 1981 and 2008 . In March 2008 , a former Luftwaffe pilot , 85 - year - old Horst Rippert ( the brother of the singer Ivan Rebroff ) , told " La Provence " , a Marseille newspaper , that he engaged and downed a P - 38 Lightning on 31 July 1944 in the area where Saint - Exupéry ' s aircraft was found . Rippert , who was on a reconnaissance mission over the Mediterranean sea , said he saw and engaged a P - 38 with a French emblem near Toulon . Rippert , who said he saw the P - 38 crash into the sea , was the second Luftwaffe fighter pilot to state this publicly , after Robert Heichele reported in 1981 that he had shot down Saint - Exupéry ' s aircraft . Two books were published by French and German researchers discussing the alleged Saint - Exupéry shootdown . Rippert ' s and Heichele ' s stories are unverifiable , possibly self - promotional , and have met with criticism from German , French and British investigators . Contemporary archival sources , including intercepted Luftwaffe signals , strongly suggest that Saint - Exupéry was not shot down by a German aircraft , although an American Lightning flown by Second Lieutenant Gene Meredith was shot down the previous day on 30 July . By contrast , there were no claims on file from either of the Luftwaffe pilots , Heichele or Rippert , for a Lightning on 31 July 1944 , nor any supporting Allied signals intelligence or radar reports for that area on that date . Rippert ' s explanation that he and his Luftwaffe squadron colleagues immediately ' covered up ' the shootdown after - the - fact due to Saint - Exupéry ' s stature was met with scepticism , as the Allies had made no mention of the author ' s status for two to three days after he failed to return from his mission . Literary works . While not precisely autobiographical , much of Saint - Exupéry ' s work is inspired by his experiences as a pilot . One notable example is his novella , " The Little Prince " , a poetic tale self - illustrated in watercolours in which a pilot stranded in the desert meets a young prince fallen to Earth from a tiny asteroid . " The Little Prince " is a philosophical story , including societal criticism , remarking on the strangeness of the adult world . One biographer wrote of his most famous work : " Rarely have an author and a character been so intimately bound together as Antoine de Saint - Exupéry and his Little Prince " , and remarking of their dual fates , " . . . the two remain tangled together , twin innocents who fell from the sky " . Saint - Exupéry ' s notable literary works ( published English translations in brackets ) are constituted by : Other works . During the 1930s , Saint - Exupéry led a mixed life as an aviator , journalist , author and publicist for Air France , Aéropostale ' s successor . His journalistic writings for " Paris - Soir " , " Marianne " and other newspapers covered events in Indochina and the Far East ( 1934 ) , the Mediterranean , Soviet Union and Moscow ( 1935 ) , and the Spanish Civil War ( 1936 – 1937 ) . Saint - Exupéry additionally wrote a number of shorter pieces , essays and commentaries for various other newspapers and magazines . Notable among those during World War II was " An Open Letter To Frenchmen Everywhere " , which was highly controversial in its attempt to rally support for France against Nazi oppression . It was published in " The New York Times Magazine " in November 1942 , and also in its original French in " Le Canada , de Montréal " at the same time , and in " Pour la Victoire " the following month . Other shorter pieces included : Censorship and publication bans . " Pilote de guerre " ( " Flight To Arras " ) , describing the German invasion of France , was slightly censored when it was released in its original French in his homeland , by removing a derogatory remark made of Hitler ( which French publisher Gallimard failed to reinsert in subsequent editions after World War II ) . However , shortly after the book ' s release in France , Nazi appeasers and Vichy supporters objected its praise of one of Saint - Exupéry ' s squadron colleagues , Captain Jean Israël , who was portrayed as being amongst the squadron ' s bravest defenders during the Battle of France . In support of their German occupiers and masters , Vichy authorities attacked the author as a defender of Jews ( in racist terms ) leading to the praised book being banned in France , along with prohibitions against further printings of Saint - Exupéry ' s other works . Prior to France ' s liberation new printings of Saint - Exupéry ' s works were made available there only by means of covert print runs , such as that of February 1943 when 1 , 000 copies of an underground version of " Pilote de guerre " were printed in Lyon . A further complication occurred due to Saint - Exupéry ' s and others ' view of General Charles de Gaulle , who was held in low regard . Early in the war , de Gaulle became the leader of the Free French Forces in exile , with his headquarters in London . Even though both men were working to free France from Nazi occupation , Saint - Exupéry viewed de Gaulle with apprehension as a possible post - war dictator , and consequently provided no public support to the General . In response , de Gaulle struck back at the author by implying that the author was a German supporter and having his literary works banned in France ' s North African colonies . Saint - Exupéry ' s writings were , with irony , banned simultaneously in both occupied France and Free France . Extension of copyrights in France . Due to Saint - Exupéry ' s wartime death , his estate received the civil code designation " Mort pour la France " ( English : " Died for France " ) , which was applied by the French Government in 1948 . Amongst the law ' s provisions is an increase of 30 years in the duration of copyright ; thus most of Saint - Exupéry ' s creative works will not fall out of copyright status in France for an extra 30 years . Honours and legacy . Museums and exhibits . Museum exhibits , exhibitions and theme villages dedicated to both him and his diminutive Little Prince have been created in Le Bourget , Paris and other locations in France , as well as in the Republic of South Korea , Japan , Morocco , Brazil , the United States and Canada . Other . Numerous other tributes have been awarded to honour Saint - Exupéry ' s most famous literary creation , his " Little Prince " : Popular culture . Theatre . In August 2011 , the world premiere of " Saint - Ex " , a theatrical production of Saint - Exupéry ' s life , was launched at the Weston Playhouse in Weston , Vermont . The live theatre musical explores in drama and song the aviator - author ' s early life , the aerial band - of - brothers he flew with at Aéropostale , and the raucous relations between him and his fiery Latin writer - artist wife , born Consuelo Suncín Sandoval Zeceña . The production was written by the husband and wife team of lyricist Sean Barry and composer Jenny Giering , and staged with the assistance of director Matt Castle and set designer Tim Mackabee , plus choreography by Jennifer Turey . The leading cast members include Alexander Gemignani ( playing Saint - Exupéry ) , Krysta Rodriguez ( playing his tempestuous wife Consuelo ) , Cass Morgan ( Saint - Exupéry ' s mother , author Countess Marie de Fonscolombe ) , plus Charlie Brady ( Aéropostale pilot and Air France director Henri Guillaumet ) . Although the musical production successfully debuted on 25 August 2011 , the theatre was soon deluged with two - to - four metres of water generated by Hurricane Irene , which struck the east coast of the United States three days later . After pumping the floodwaters from the building and partially restoring the costumes and stage sets , the musical production " resurfaced " on 2 September .