Self-respect in a dispute. Letter seventeen: be able to argue with dignity

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is a writer whose name is known to everyone who is familiar with the book “The Little Prince”. The biography of the author of the unforgettable work is full of incredible events and coincidences, because his main activity was related to aviation.

Childhood and youth

The full name of the writer is Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger de Saint-Exupéry. As a child, the boy's name was Tony. He was born on June 29, 1900 in Lyon, into a noble family, and was the 3rd child of 5 children. The head of the family died when little Tony was 4 years old. The family was left without funds and moved to their aunt, who lived on Place Bellecour. There was a catastrophic lack of money, but this was compensated by the friendship between brothers and sisters. Antoine was especially close to his brother Francois.

The mother instilled in the child a love of books and literature, talking about the value of art. Published letters remind us of her tender friendship with her son. Interested in his mother's lessons, the boy was also interested in technology and chose what he wanted to devote himself to.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery studied at a Christian school in Lyon, and then at a Jesuit school in Montreux. At the age of 14, through the efforts of his mother, he was sent to a Swiss Catholic boarding school. In 1917, Antoine entered the Faculty of Architecture at the Paris School of Fine Arts. The bachelor, with a diploma in hand, was preparing to enter the Naval Lyceum, but failed in the competitive selection. A great loss for Antoine was the death of his brother from articular rheumatism. He experienced the loss of a loved one by withdrawing into himself.

Aviation

Antoine dreamed of the sky since childhood. He first flew at the age of 12 thanks to the famous pilot Gabriel Wroblewski, who took him to the airfield in Amberier for fun. The impressions he received were enough for him to understand what would become the goal of his whole life.

1921 changed a lot in Antoine's life. After being drafted into the army, he completed aerobatics courses and became a member of the aviation regiment in Strasbourg. At first, the young man was a non-flying soldier in a workshop at the airfield, but soon became the holder of a civilian pilot’s certificate. Later, Exupery upgraded his qualifications to a military pilot.

After completing officer training, Antoine flew with the rank of junior lieutenant and served in the 34th regiment. After an unsuccessful flight in 1923, Exupery, having received a head injury, left aviation. The pilot settled in Paris and decided to try himself in the literary field. Success did not come. To make a living, Exupery was forced to sell cars, work at a tile factory and even sell books.

It soon became clear that Antoine was no longer capable of leading such a lifestyle. A chance acquaintance helped him out. In 1926, the young pilot received a position as a mechanic at the Aeropostal airline, and later became a pilot of an aircraft delivering mail. "Southern Postal" was written during this time period. The new promotion was followed by another transfer. Having become the head of the airport in Cap Jubi, located in the Sahara, Antoine took up creativity.

In 1929, the talented specialist was transferred to the position of director of the Aeropostal branch, and Exupery moved to Buenos Aires to manage the entrusted department. It operated regular flights over Casablanca. The company for which the writer worked soon went bankrupt, so from 1931 Antoine again worked in Europe.

At first he worked on postal airlines, and then began to combine his main job with a parallel direction, becoming a test pilot. During one of the tests, a plane crashed. Exupery survived thanks to the prompt work of divers.

The writer's life was connected with extreme sports, and he was not afraid to take risks. Participating in the development of a high-speed flight project, Antoine purchased an aircraft for operation on the Paris-Saigon route. The ship had an accident in the desert. Exupery survived thanks to chance. He and the mechanic, who were on their last legs from thirst, were saved by the Bedouins.

The worst accident the writer was in was a plane crash while flying from New York to Tierra del Fuego. Afterwards, the pilot was in a coma for several days, having suffered head and shoulder injuries.

In the 1930s, Antoine became interested in journalism and became a correspondent for the Paris Soir newspaper. As a representative of the newspaper "Entrance" Exupery was at war in Spain. He also fought in battles against the Nazis in World War II.

Books

Exupery wrote his first work in college in 1914. It was the fairy tale “Odyssey of the Cylinder”. The author's talent was appreciated and awarded 1st place in a literary competition. In 1925, at his cousin's house, Antoine met popular authors and publishers of the time. They were delighted with the young man’s talent and offered cooperation. The very next year, the story “The Pilot” was published in the pages of the Silver Ship magazine.

Exupery's works are associated with the sky and aviation. The writer had two callings, and he shared with the public his perception of the world through the eyes of a pilot. The author talked about his philosophy, which allowed the reader to look at life differently. That is why Exupery’s statements on the pages of his works are used today as quotes.

As an Aeropostale pilot, the pilot did not think of stopping his literary activity. Returning to his native France, he entered into a contract with the publishing house of Gaston Gallimard to create and publish 7 novels. Exupery the writer existed in close collaboration with Exupery the pilot.

In 1931, the author received the Femina Award for “Night Flight”, and in 1932 a film was made based on the work. The accident in the Libyan desert and the adventures that the pilot experienced while wandering through it, he described in the novel “Land of People” (“Planet of People”). The work was also based on emotions from acquaintance with the Stalinist regime in the Soviet Union.

The novel “Military Pilot” became an autobiographical work. The author was influenced by experiences associated with participation in the Second World War. Banned in France, the book was an incredible success in the United States. Representatives of an American publishing house ordered a fairy tale from Exupery. This is how “The Little Prince” was released, accompanied by the author’s illustrations. He brought the writer world fame.

Personal life

At the age of 18, Antoine fell in love with Louise Vilmorne. The daughter of wealthy parents did not pay attention to the advances of the ardent young man. After the plane crash, the girl crossed him out of her life. The pilot perceived the romantic failure as a real tragedy. Unrequited love tormented him. Even fame and success did not change the attitude of Louise, who remained impartial.

Exupery enjoyed the attention of the ladies, charming him with his attractive appearance and charm, but was in no hurry to build his personal life. Consuelo Sunsin managed to find an approach to the man. According to one version, Consuelo and Antoine met in Buenos Aires thanks to a mutual friend. The woman's ex-husband, writer Gomez Carillo, has died. She found solace in an affair with a pilot.

A magnificent wedding took place in 1931. The marriage was not easy. Consuelo constantly made scandals. She had a bad character, but her wife’s intelligence and education pleased Antoine. The writer, adoring his wife, tolerated what was happening.

Death

The death of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was shrouded in secrecy. During World War II, he considered it his duty to defend the honor of the country. Due to health reasons, the pilot was assigned to a ground regiment, but Antoine made connections and ended up in a flight reconnaissance squad.

On July 31, 1944, he did not return from the flight and was listed as missing in action. In 1988, near Marseille, a writer’s bracelet with his wife’s name engraved was found, and in 2000, parts of the plane he flew were found. In 2008, it became known that the cause of the writer’s death was an attack by a German pilot. The pilot of the enemy aircraft publicly admitted this years later. 60 years after the crash, photos from the scene of the collision were published.

The writer's bibliography is small, but it contains a description of a bright and adventurous life. The brave pilot and kind writer of the 20th century lived and died maintaining his dignity. Lyon Airport was named in his memory.

Bibliography

• 1929 – “Southern Postal”
• 1931 – “Mail to the South”
• 1938 – “Night Flight”
• 1938 – “Planet of Men”
• 1942 – “Military pilot”
• 1943 – “Letter to a Hostage”
• 1943 – “The Little Prince”
• 1948 – “Citadel”

Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger de Saint-Exupéry is a famous French writer, poet and professional pilot, essayist. Read below the biography of Antoine Exupery.

The writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was born in the city of Lyon, France, into a noble family (count). I lost my father very early - at the age of four. That is why all upbringing fell on the mother’s shoulders. In Le Mans, Exupery graduated from a Jesuit school, and then continued his studies at a Catholic boarding school in Switzerland. In 1917, Antoine entered the School of Fine Arts in Paris, the Faculty of Architecture.

In 1921, he was drafted into the army, and he was sent to pilot courses - this year became a turning point in the biography of Antoine Exupery. Literally a year later, Exupery received a pilot's license and decided to go live in Paris - there he began to create. But, unfortunately, at first Antoine did not achieve serious success in his writing, and he had to earn his living differently - he sold cars and traded in a bookstore. It was only in 1925 that the Aeropostal company offered Exupery to become a full-time pilot to deliver mail to Africa. In 1927, two years later, he received the appointment of the head of Cap Jubie airport on the very edge of the Sahara, and it was at that moment that Antoine finally felt and experienced what was later reflected in the literary biography of Antoine Exupery.

In 1929, Exupery became the head of the airline department where he worked in Buenos Aires, and in 1931 he returned to Europe, where he again flew on postal lines, was also a test pilot, and from the mid-1930s. He also acted as a journalist, in particular, in 1935 he visited Moscow as a correspondent and described this visit in five interesting essays. He also went to the war in Spain as a correspondent. At the beginning of World War II, Saint-Exupery made several combat missions and was nominated for the Croix de Guerre award. In June 1941, he moved to his sister in a zone not occupied by the Nazis, and later moved to the United States. He lived in New York, where, among other things, he wrote his most famous book, “The Little Prince” (1942, published 1943). In 1943 he returned to the French Air Force and served in the North African campaign.

On July 31, 1944, he set off from Borgo airfield on the island of Corsica on a reconnaissance flight - and did not return. For a long time, in the biography of Antoine Exupery, nothing was known about his death. And only in 1998, in the sea near Marseille, a fisherman discovered a bracelet. There were several inscriptions on it: “Antoine”, “Consuelo” (that was the name of the pilot’s wife) and “c/o Reynal & Hitchcock, 386 4th Ave. NYC USA." This was the address of the publishing house where Saint-Exupery's books were published. In May 2000, diver Luc Vanrel testified that at a depth of 70 meters he discovered the wreckage of an airplane that may have belonged to Saint-Exupéry. The remains of the plane were scattered over a strip one kilometer long and 400 meters wide. Almost immediately, the French government banned any searches in the area. Permission was received only in the fall of 2003. Experts recovered fragments of the plane. One of them turned out to be part of the pilot's cabin; the serial number of the aircraft was preserved: 2734-L. Using American military archives, scientists compared all the numbers of aircraft that disappeared during this period. Thus, it turned out that the onboard serial number 2734-L corresponds to the aircraft, which in the US Air Force was listed under the number 42-68223, that is, the Lockheed P-38 Lightning aircraft, a modification of the F-4 (long-range photo reconnaissance aircraft), which was flown by Exupery.

The logs of the German Air Force do not contain any records of any aircraft shot down in that area on July 31, 1944, and there are no obvious traces of shelling directly on the wreckage of the aircraft. This gave rise to many guesses and hypotheses about the crash of Exupery's plane, including the version of technical problems and even the suicide of the pilot. In 2008, the press wrote that the German Luftwaffe veteran, 88-year-old Horst Rippert, said that it was he who shot down the plane of Antoine Saint-Exupery. According to him, Horst did not know who exactly was at the controls of the enemy plane: “I did not see the pilot, only later did I find out that it was Saint-Exupery.” These data were obtained on the same days from radio interceptions of negotiations at French airfields carried out by German troops.

If you have already read the biography of Antoine Exupery, you can rate the writer at the top of the page. In addition, you can get acquainted with apt quotes from the book “The Little Prince”.

In addition, in addition to the biography of Antoine Exupery, we invite you to visit the Biography section to read about the life and work of other popular writers.

Biography

Childhood, adolescence, youth

Antoine de Saint-Exupery was born in the French city of Lyon, came from an old provincial noble family, and was the third of five children of Viscount Jean de Saint-Exupery and his wife Marie de Fontcolombes. At the age of four he lost his father. His mother raised little Antoine.

Here he writes his first work - “Southern Postal”.

Soon, Saint-Exupéry became the owner of his own aircraft, the C.630 “Simun”, and on December 29, 1935, he attempted to set a record on the Paris-Saigon flight, but suffered an accident in the Libyan Desert, again barely escaping death. On the first of January, he and the mechanic Prevost, dying of thirst, were rescued by Bedouins.

Saint-Exupery made several combat missions on a Block-174 aircraft, performing aerial photographic reconnaissance missions, and was nominated for the Military Cross award (Fr. Croix de Guerre) . In June 1941, after the defeat of France, he moved to his sister in the unoccupied part of the country, and later went to the USA. He lived in New York, where, among other things, he wrote his most famous book, “The Little Prince” (1942, published 1943). In 1943, he joined the Air Force of “Fighting France” and with great difficulty achieved his enrollment in a combat unit. He had to master piloting the new high-speed Lightning P-38 aircraft.

Saint-Exupéry in the cockpit of the Lightning

“I have a funny craft for my age. The next one in age is six years younger than me. But, of course, I prefer my current life - breakfast at six in the morning, a dining room, a tent or a whitewashed room, flying at an altitude of ten thousand meters in a world forbidden to humans - to unbearable Algerian idleness... ... I chose work for maximum wear and tear and, because necessary I always push myself to the end, I won’t back down anymore. I just wish this vile war would end before I fade away like a candle in a stream of oxygen. I have something to do after it."(from a letter to Jean Pelissier, July 9-10, 1944).

According to press publications from March 2008, the German Luftwaffe veteran 88-year-old Horst Rippert, a pilot of the Jagdgruppe 200 squadron, stated that it was he who shot down the plane of Antoine de Saint-Exupery in his Messerschmitt Me-109 fighter. According to his statements, he did not know who was at the controls of the enemy aircraft:

The fact that Saint-Exupéry was the pilot of the downed plane became known to the Germans on the same days from radio interceptions of negotiations at French airfields carried out by German troops. The absence of corresponding entries in the Luftwaffe logs is due to the fact that, apart from Horst Rippert, there were no other witnesses to the air battle, and this plane was not officially counted as shot down.

Bibliography

Major works

• Courier Sud. Editions Gallimard, 1929. English: Southern Mail. Southern Postal. (Option: “Mail - to the South”). Novel. Translations into Russian: Baranovich M. (1960), Isaeva T. (1963), Kuzmin D. (2000)
• Vol de nuit. Roman. Gallimard, 1931. Préface d'André Gide. English: Night Flight. Night flight. Novel. Awards: December 1931, Femina Prize. Translations into Russian: Waxmacher M. (1962)
• Terre des hommes. Roman. Editions Gallimard, Paris, 1938. English: Wind, Sand, and Stars. Planet of people. (Option: Land of People.) Novel. Awards: 1939 Grand Prize of the French Academy (05/25/1939). 1940 Nation Book award USA. Translations into Russian: Velle G. “Land of People” (1957), Nora Gal “Planet of People” (1963)
• Pilote de guerre. Recit. Editions Gallimard, 1942. English: Flight to Arras. Reynal&Hitchcock, New York, 1942. Military pilot. Tale. Translations into Russian: Teterevnikova A. (1963)
• Lettre à un otage. Essai. Editions Gallimard, 1943. English: Letter to a Hostage. Letter to a hostage. Essay. Translations into Russian: Baranovich M. (1960), Grachev R. (1963), Nora Gal (1972)
• The Little Prince (fr. Le petit prince, English The little prince) (1943). Translation by Nora Gal (1958)
• Citadel. Editions Gallimard, 1948. English: The Wisdom of the Sands. Citadel. Translations into Russian: Kozhevnikova M. (1996)

Post-war editions

• Lettres de jeunesse. Editions Gallimard, 1953. Préface de Renée de Saussine. Letters from Youth.
• Carnets. Editions Gallimard, 1953. Notebooks.
• Lettres à sa mère. Editions Gallimard, 1954. Prologue de Madame de Saint-Exupery. Letters to mother.
• Un sens à la vie. Editions 1956. Textes inédits recueillis et présentés par Claude Reynal. Give life meaning. Unpublished texts collected by Claude Raynal.
• Ecrits de guerre. Préface de Raymond Aron. Editions Gallimard, 1982. War notes. 1939-1944
• Memories of some books. Essay. Translations into Russian: Baevskaya E. V.

Small jobs

• Who are you, soldier? Translations into Russian: Ginzburg Yu. A.
• Pilot (first story, published on April 1, 1926 in the Silver Ship magazine).
• The morality of necessity. Translations into Russian: Tsyvyan L. M.
• We need to give meaning to human life. Translations into Russian: Ginzburg Yu. A.
• Appeal to the Americans. Translations into Russian: Tsyvyan L. M.
• Pan-Germanism and its propaganda. Translations into Russian: Tsyvyan L. M.
• Pilot and the elements. Translations into Russian: Grachev R.
• Message to the American. Translations into Russian: Tsyvyan L. M.
• A message to young Americans. Translations into Russian: Baevskaya E. V.
• Foreword to Anne Morrow-Lindbergh's The Wind Rises. Translations into Russian: Ginzburg Yu. A.
• Preface to the issue of Document magazine dedicated to test pilots. Translations into Russian: Ginzburg Yu. A.
• Crime and punishment. Article. Translations into Russian: Kuzmin D.
• In the middle of the night, enemy voices echo from the trenches. Translations into Russian: Ginzburg Yu. A.
• Citadel Themes. Translations into Russian: Baevskaya E. V.
• France first. Translations into Russian: Baevskaya E. V.
• The Tale of Tsar Saltan.

Editions in Russian

• Saint-Exupéry Antoine de. Southern Postal. Night flight. Planet of people. Military pilot. Letter to a hostage. The Little Prince. Pilot and the elements / Intro. Art. M. Gallaya. Artist G. Klodt. - M.: Artist. lit., 1983. - 447 p. Circulation 300,000 copies.

Literary awards

• - Femina Prize - for the novel “Night Flight”;
• - Grand Prix du Roman of the French Academy - “Planet of People”;
• 1939 - US National Book Award - “Wind, Sand and Stars” (“Planet of Men”).

Military awards

In 1939 he was awarded the Military Cross of the French Republic.

Names in honor

• Lefty.
• During his entire piloting career, Saint-Exupéry suffered 15 accidents.
• During a business trip to the USSR, he flew on board the ANT-20 Maxim Gorky aircraft.
• Saint-Exupery mastered the art of card trick perfectly.
• He became the author of several inventions in the field of aviation, for which he received patents.
• In the dilogy “Seekers of the Sky” by Sergei Lukyanenko, the character Antoine Lyonsky appears, combining the profession of a pilot with literary experiments.
• In Vladislav Krapivin’s story “Pilot for Special Assignments,” there is a connection between this work and the fairy tale parable “The Little Prince” and its author.
• Suffered an accident on the plane Codron S.630 Simon (registration number 7042, onboard - F-ANRY) during the flight

Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger de Saint-Exupéry (French: Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger de Saint-Exupéry) was born on June 29, 1900 in Lyon (France) into an aristocratic family. He was the third child of Count Jean de Saint-Exupéry.

His father died when Antoine was four years old, and his mother raised the boy. He spent his childhood on the Saint-Maurice estate near Lyon, which belonged to his grandmother.

In 1909-1914, Antoine and his younger brother Francois studied at the Jesuit College of Le Mans, then at a private educational institution in Switzerland.

Having received a bachelor's degree in college, Antoine studied for several years at the Academy of Arts in the architectural department, then entered the aviation troops as a private. In 1923 he was given a pilot's license.

In 1926, he was accepted into the service of the General Company of Aviation Enterprises, owned by the famous designer Latekoer. In the same year, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s first story, “The Pilot,” appeared in print.

Saint-Exupery flew on the postal lines Toulouse - Casablanca, Casablanca - Dakar, then became the head of the airfield at Fort Cap Jubie in Morocco (part of this territory belonged to the French) - on the border of the Sahara.

In 1929, he returned to France for six months and signed an agreement with book publisher Gaston Guillimard to publish seven novels; in the same year, the novel “Southern Postal” was published. In September 1929, Saint-Exupéry was appointed director of the Buenos Aires branch of the French airline Aeropostal Argentina.

In 1930 he was made a Knight of the Order of the Legion of Honor of France, and at the end of 1931 he became a laureate of the prestigious literary prize "Femina" for the novel "Night Flight" (1931).

In 1933-1934, he was a test pilot, made a number of long-distance flights, suffered accidents, and was seriously wounded several times.

In 1934, he submitted the first application for the invention of a new aircraft landing system (in total he had 10 inventions at the level of scientific and technical achievements of his time).

In December 1935, during a long flight from Paris to Saigon, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's plane crashed in the Libyan desert; he miraculously survived.

From the mid-1930s, he worked as a journalist: in April 1935, as a special correspondent for the Paris-Soir newspaper, he visited Moscow and described this visit in several essays; in 1936, as a front-line correspondent, he wrote a series of military reports from Spain, where the civil war was going on.

In 1939, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was promoted to officer of the French Legion of Honor. In February, his book “Planet of People” (in Russian translation - “Land of People”; American title - “Wind, Sand and Stars”), which is a collection of autobiographical essays, was published. The book was awarded the French Academy Prize and the National Prize of the Year in the USA.

When World War II began, Captain Saint-Exupéry was conscripted into the army, but was found fit only for ground service. Using all his connections, Saint-Exupéry achieved an appointment to an aviation reconnaissance group.

In May 1940, on a Block 174 aircraft, he made a reconnaissance flight over Arras, for which he was awarded the Military Cross for Military Merit.

After the occupation of France by Nazi troops in 1940, he emigrated to the United States.

In February 1942, his book “Military Pilot” was published in the USA and was a great success, after which Saint-Exupery at the end of spring received an order from the publishing house Reynal-Hitchhok to write a fairy tale for children. He signed a contract and began work on the philosophical and lyrical fairy tale “The Little Prince” with his own illustrations. In April 1943, "The Little Prince" was published in the USA, and in the same year the story "Letter to a Hostage" was published. Then Saint-Exupéry worked on the story "The Citadel" (not finished, published in 1948).

In 1943, Saint-Exupery left America for Algeria, where he underwent treatment, from where he returned to his air group based in Morocco in the summer. After great difficulty in obtaining permission to fly, thanks to the support of influential figures in the French resistance, Saint-Exupéry was allowed to fly five reconnaissance flights to take aerial photographs of enemy communications and troops in the area of ​​his native Provence.

On the morning of July 31, 1944, Saint-Exupery set off on a reconnaissance flight from Borgo airfield on the island of Corsica in a Lightning P-38 aircraft equipped with a camera and unarmed. His task on that flight was to collect intelligence in preparation for the landing operation in the south of France, occupied by the Nazi invaders. The plane did not return to base and its pilot was declared missing.

The search for the remains of the plane lasted for many years; only in 1998, Marseille fisherman Jean-Claude Bianco accidentally discovered a silver bracelet near Marseille with the name of the writer and his wife Consuelo.

In May 2000, professional diver Luc Vanrel told authorities that he had discovered the remains of the plane on which Saint-Exupéry made his last flight at a depth of 70 meters. From November 2003 to January 2004, a special expedition recovered the remains of the plane from the bottom; on one of the parts they were able to find the marking “2374 L”, which corresponded to Saint-Exupéry’s plane.

In March 2008, former Luftwaffe pilot Horst Rippert, 88, said he was the one who shot down the plane. Rippert's statements are confirmed by some information from other sources, but at the same time, no records were found in the logs of the German Air Force about the plane shot down that day in the area where Saint-Exupéry disappeared; the found wreckage of his plane did not have obvious traces of shelling.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery was married to the widow of the Argentine journalist Consuelo Songqing (1901-1979). After the writer's disappearance, she lived in New York, then moved to France, where she was known as a sculptor and painter. She devoted a lot of time to perpetuating the memory of Saint-Exupéry.

The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources

His short life was not easy: at the age of four he lost his father, who belonged to the dynasty of counts, and his mother took upon himself all the upbringing. During his entire pilot career, he suffered 15 accidents and was seriously injured several times, coming close to death. However, despite all this, Exupery was able to leave his mark on history not only as an excellent pilot, but also as a writer who gave the world, for example, “The Little Prince.”

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was born in the French city of Lyon to Count Jean-Marc Saint-Exupéry, who was an insurance inspector, and his wife Marie Bois de Fontcolombes. The family came from an old family of Perigord nobles.

Young writer. (Pinterest)

First, the future writer studied in Mansa, at the Jesuit College of Sainte-Croix. After that - in Sweden in Friburg in a Catholic boarding school. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in the department of architecture. In October 1919, he enrolled as a student at the National Higher School of Fine Arts in the department of architecture.

The turning point in his fate was 1921 - then he was drafted into the army in France. At first he is assigned to a work team at repair shops, but soon he manages to pass the exam to become a civilian pilot.

In January 1923, he suffered his first plane crash and suffered a traumatic brain injury. Afterwards, Exupery moved to Paris, where he devoted himself to writing. However, at first he was not successful in this field and was forced to take on any job: he sold cars, he was a salesman in a bookstore.

Only in 1926 did Exupery find his calling - he became a pilot for the Aeropostal company, which delivered mail to the northern coast of Africa.

Pilot. (Pinterest)

On October 19, 1926, he was appointed head of the Cap Jubi intermediate station, on the very edge of the Sahara. Here he writes his first work - “Southern Postal”. In March 1929, Saint-Exupery returned to France, where he entered the highest aviation courses of the naval fleet in Brest. Soon, Gallimard's publishing house published the novel "South Postal", and Exupery left for South America.

In 1930, Saint-Exupéry was made a Knight of the Legion of Honor for his contribution to the development of civil aviation. In the same year, Saint-Exupéry wrote “Night Flight” and met his future wife Consuelo from El Salvador.

In the spring of 1935, Antoine became a correspondent for the Paris-Soir newspaper. He was sent on a business trip to the USSR. After the trip, Antoine wrote and published an essay “Crime and Punishment in the Face of Soviet Justice.” This work became the first Western publication in which the author attempted to comprehend and understand Stalin's strict regime

Soon, Saint-Exupéry became the owner of his own aircraft, the S. 630 “Simun”, and on December 29, 1935, he attempted to set a record on the Paris-Saigon flight, but suffered an accident in the Libyan desert, barely escaping death.

Officer. (Pinterest)

In January 1938, Exupery went to New York. Here he proceeds to work on the book “Planet of People”. On February 15, he begins the flight from New York to Tierra del Fuego, but suffers a serious accident in Guatemala, after which he recovers for a long time, first in New York and then in France.

During World War II, Saint-Exupery made several combat missions in a Block 174 aircraft, performing aerial photographic reconnaissance missions, and was nominated for the Military Cross award. In June 1941, after the defeat of France, he moved to his sister in the unoccupied part of the country, and later went to the United States. He lived in New York, where, among other things, he wrote his most famous book, The Little Prince.

On July 31, 1944, Saint-Exupery set off from Borgo airfield on the island of Corsica on a reconnaissance flight and did not return. For a long time nothing was known about his death, and they thought that he crashed in the Alps. And only in 1998, in the sea near Marseille, a fisherman discovered a bracelet.

Saint-Exupéry's bracelet, found by a fisherman near Marseille. (Pinterest)

In May 2000, diver Luc Vanrel said that at a depth of 70 meters he discovered the wreckage of an airplane that may have belonged to Saint-Exupéry. The remains of the plane were scattered over a strip one kilometer long and 400 meters wide.

Monument to Antoine de Saint-Exupéry in Tarfaya. (Pinterest)

In 2008, German Luftwaffe veteran 86-year-old Horst Rippert said that it was he who shot down Antoine de Saint-Exupery in his Messerschmitt Me-109 fighter. According to Rippert, he confessed in order to clear Saint-Exupéry's name from accusations of desertion or suicide. According to him, he would not have fired if he had known who was at the controls of the enemy plane. However, pilots who served with Rippert express doubt about the veracity of his words.

Now the raised wreckage of Exupery's plane is in the Aviation and Space Museum in Le Bourget.