fr. Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger de Saint-Exupéry
famous French writer, poet and professional pilot, essayist; graph
Antoine de Saint-Exupery
short biography
Antoine de Saint-Exupery (full name- ) - a French writer who was a professional pilot, was born in Leon on June 29, 1900. His father, the count, died when Antoine was 4 years old, caring for the boy fell entirely on the shoulders of his mother. From 1908 to 1904, Antoine was educated at Manse, the Jesuit College of Sainte-Croix, then was a student at a Catholic boarding school located in Friborg, Switzerland, and completed his education as a free student of the Academy fine arts, Department of Architecture.
Much in his further biography determined 1921, when Saint-Exupery was drafted into the army. Antoine ended up in the 2nd Fighter Aviation Regiment stationed in Strasbourg. At first he worked as a repair shop worker, then, after completing a pilot course, he successfully passed the civil pilot exam. Finding himself later in Morocco, he becomes a military pilot.
In October 1922, he was sent to the 34th Aviation Regiment near Paris, and already in January of the following year the first plane crash happened in his life, of which he would have to endure many. The commissioned Saint-Exupery settles in the capital, where he tries to earn money through literary work. However, this activity did not bring him much success, so he had to look for other sources of income, in particular, working as a salesman.
In 1925, Saint-Exupéry became a pilot for the Aeropostal company, which was engaged in the delivery of correspondence to North Africa. During 1927-1929 he worked as the head of the airport in these parts. The first story entitled “The Pilot” appeared in print during the same period of his biography. Since 1929, he has worked as head of the Buenos Aires branch of the airline. For the contribution made to the development civil aviation, in 1930 he was awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor. In 1931, he returned to Europe, where he again worked on postal airlines. In 1931, Saint-Exupery won the Femina literary prize for Night Flight.
Since the mid-30s. Saint-Exupery is engaged in journalistic work. Thus, the result of his visit to the USSR in 1935 was 5 essays, one of which attempted to identify the essence of Stalin’s policies. As a war correspondent, he collaborated with the newspaper in August 1936, while in Spain, gripped by civil war. In 1939, Saint-Exupéry was awarded the prestigious literary prize of the French Academy for the book “The Planet of Men,” and for the book “Wind, Sand and Stars” he was awarded the US National Book Award. In the same year he received a military award - the Military Cross of the French Republic.
From the very first days of World War II, Saint-Exupery became involved in the fight against the Nazis both as a publicist and as a military pilot. When the Germans occupied France, he first moved to a part of the country not occupied by them, and then emigrated to the United States. In 1943 he found himself in North Africa, where he served as a military pilot. It was there that the fairy tale that made the writer famous and recognized as the highest achievement of his literary work was written - “The Little Prince”.
On July 31, 1944, his plane took off on a reconnaissance flight from the island of Sardinia and did not return to the airfield. The details of the death of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry were not known for quite some time. In 1998, near Marseille, a fisherman found a bracelet that belonged to a French writer-pilot. Later, in 2000, the wreckage of his plane was discovered. In 1948, the book of parables and aphorisms “The Citadel” was published, which remained unfinished.
Biography from Wikipedia
Childhood, adolescence, youth
The birthplace of Antoine de Saint-Exupery is house number 8 on the street that now bears his name
Antoine de Saint-Exupery was born in the French city of Lyon on Rue Peyrat (French rue Peyrat, now French rue Antoine de Saint Exupéry), 8, with the insurance inspector Count Jean-Marc Saint-Exupéry (1863-1904) and his wife Marie Bois de Fontcolombes. The family came from an old family of Perigord nobles. Antoine (his pet nickname was "Tonio") was the third of five children, he had two older sisters, Marie-Madeleine "Biché" (born 1897) and Simone "Monot" (born 1898), and a younger brother François (born 1902) and younger sister Gabriela "Didi" (born 1904). Exupery spent his early childhood in an apartment on Rue de Peyrat in Lyon, but in 1904, when Antoine was 4 years old, his father died of an intracerebral hemorrhage, after which Antoine began to spend six months of the year in the commune's castle, which belonged to his great-aunt Marie, Countess of Tricot. Saint-Maurice-de-Remans in the department of Ain, and the rest of the time - at the apartment of Countess Tricot on Place Bellecour in Lyon or in the castle of the commune of La Mole in the department of Var with Marie's parents. This continued until the summer of 1909, when the Saint-Exupéry family, together with Antoine, moved to Le Mans, to house number 21 on rue du Clos-Margot.
Exupery entered the School of the Christian Brothers of Saint Bartholomew (French: école chrétienne de la Montée Saint-Barthélemy) in Lyon (1908), then, together with his brother François, studied at the Jesuit College of Sainte-Croix in Le Mans - until 1914.
In 1912, at the aviation field in Amberieux-en-Buget, Saint-Exupéry took off for the first time in an airplane. The car was piloted by the famous pilot Gabriel Wroblewski.
In 1914-1915, the brothers studied at the Jesuit College Notre-Dame-de-Mongreux in Villefranche-sur-Saône, after which they continued their studies in Friborg (Switzerland) at the Marist College Villa Saint-Jean - until 1917, when Antoine successfully passed the undergraduate exam. On July 10, 1917, Francois died of rheumatic carditis, his death shocked Antoine. In October 1917, Antoine, preparing to enter the École Naval, took a preparatory course at the École Bossuet, the Lycée Saint-Louis, then, in 1918, at the Lakanal Lyceum, but in June 1919 he failed oral entrance exam at "Ekol Naval". In October 1919, he enrolled as a volunteer in the National high school Fine Arts in the Department of Architecture.
The turning point in Antoine’s fate came in 1921, when he was drafted into the army. Having interrupted the deferment he received upon entering the university, Antoine enrolled in the 2nd Fighter Aviation Regiment in Strasbourg. At first he was assigned to a work team at repair shops, but soon he managed to pass the exam to become a civilian pilot. Exupery was transferred to Morocco, where he received a military pilot's license, and then was sent to Istres for improvement. In 1922, Antoine completed courses for reserve officers in Aurora and received the rank of junior lieutenant. In October he was assigned to the 34th Aviation Regiment at Bourges near Paris. In January 1923, his first plane crash occurred; Exupery received a traumatic brain injury. In March he was discharged. Exupery moved to Paris, where he took up literature.
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. In the spring, he began working on the transport of mail on the line Toulouse - Casablanca, then Casablanca - Dakar. On October 19, 1926, he was appointed head of the Cap Jubi intermediate station (city of Villa Bens), on the very edge of the Sahara. Here he wrote his first work - the novel “Southern Postal”.
In March 1929, Saint-Exupery returned to France, where he entered the highest aviation courses navy in Brest. Soon, Gallimard's publishing house published the novel "Southern Post Office", and Exupery went to South America as technical director of Aeroposta Argentina, a subsidiary of Aeropostal. In 1930, Saint-Exupéry was made a Knight of the Legion of Honor for his contribution to the development of civil aviation. In June, he personally participated in the search for his friend, the pilot Henri Guillaumet, who suffered an accident while flying over the Andes. In the same year, Saint-Exupery wrote the novel “Night Flight” and met his future wife, Consuelo from El Salvador.
Pilot and correspondent
In 1930, Saint-Exupéry returned to France and received a three-month vacation. In April, he married Consuelo Sunsin (April 16, 1901 - May 28, 1979), but the couple, as a rule, lived separately. On March 13, 1931, the Aeropostal company was declared bankrupt. Saint-Exupéry returned as a pilot to the France-Africa postal line and served the Casablanca-Port-Etienne-Dakar section. In October 1931, the novel “Night Flight” was published, for which the writer was awarded the Femina literary prize.
From February 1932, Exupery worked for the Latecoera airline; as a co-pilot he flew on a seaplane serving the Marseille-Algeria line. Didier Dora, a former Aeropostal pilot, soon got him a job as a test pilot, and Saint-Exupéry almost died while testing a new seaplane in the Bay of Saint-Raphael.
Since 1934, Exupery worked for Air France (formerly Aeropostal); As a representative of the company, he traveled to Africa, Indochina and other countries.
In April 1935, as a correspondent for the Paris-Soir newspaper, Saint-Exupéry visited the USSR and described this visit in five essays. The essay “Crime and Punishment in the Face of Soviet Justice” became one of the first works of Western writers in which an attempt was made to comprehend Stalinism.
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 crashed in the Libyan Desert, again narrowly avoiding death. On January 1, he and the mechanic Prevost, dying of thirst, were rescued by Bedouins.
In August 1936, as a correspondent for the newspaper "Entrance", Exupery went to Spain, where the civil war was going on, and published a number of reports in the newspaper.
In January 1938, on board the Ile de France liner, Exupery went to New York, where he began work on a collection of autobiographical essays, Planet of Men. On February 15, he began the flight from New York to Tierra del Fuego, but suffered a serious accident in Guatemala, after which he spent a long time recovering his health, first in New York and then in France.
War
On September 4, 1939, the day after France declared war on Germany, Saint-Exupéry reported to the place of mobilization at the Toulouse-Montaudran military airfield and on November 3 was transferred to the 2/33 long-range reconnaissance air unit, which was based in Orconte (Champagne province). This was his response to his friends’ persuasion to abandon the risky career of a military pilot. Many tried to convince Saint-Exupéry that he would bring much more more benefits country, being a writer and journalist, that pilots can be trained in thousands and he should not risk his life. But Saint-Exupery achieved appointment to a combat unit. In one of his letters in November 1939, he wrote: “I am obliged to participate in this war. Everything I love is at risk. In Provence, when the forest burns, everyone who cares grabs buckets and shovels. I want to fight, love and my inner religion force me to do this. I can’t stand by and watch this calmly.”
Saint-Exupery made several combat missions on a Block-174 aircraft, performing aerial photographic reconnaissance missions, and was nominated for the Croix de guerre 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. Lived in New York, where in 1942 he created his own famous work The Little Prince, published a year later in French and English languages with illustrations by the author (in France the fairy tale was published in 1946). 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 P-38 Lightning aircraft. Exupery wrote to Jean Pelissier on July 9-10, 1944: “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.”
On July 31, 1944, Antoine de Saint-Exupery set off from Borgo airfield on the island of Corsica on a reconnaissance flight and did not return.
Circumstances of death
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.
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 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. 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 P-38 Lightning aircraft, a modification of the F-5B-1-LO (long-range photo reconnaissance aircraft), which piloted by Exupery.
Luftwaffe logs contain no records of aircraft shot down in this area on July 31, 1944, and the wreckage itself does not show obvious signs of shelling. The remains of the pilot were not found. To the many versions about the crash, including versions about a technical malfunction and the suicide of the pilot (the writer suffered from depression), versions about Saint-Exupery's desertion were added.
According to press publications from March 2008, the German Luftwaffe veteran 86-year-old Horst Rippert, a pilot of the Jagdgruppe 200 squadron, then a journalist, stated that it was he who shot down Antoine de Saint-Exupery in his Messerschmitt Bf.109 fighter (apparently, he killed him or seriously wounded him, and Saint-Exupery lost control of the plane and was unable to jump out with a parachute). The plane entered the water at high speed and almost vertically. At the moment of collision with water there was an explosion. The plane was completely destroyed. Its fragments are scattered over a vast area under water. According to Rippert, he confessed to clear Saint-Exupéry's name from accusations of desertion or suicide, since even then he was a big fan of Saint-Exupéry's work and would never have shot him, but he did not know who was at the controls of the plane enemy:
I didn’t see the pilot, only later did I find out that it was Saint-Exupéry
The fact that Saint-Exupery was the pilot of the downed plane became known to the Germans on the same days from the radio interception of negotiations at French airfields, which was carried out by German troops. Meanwhile, the Luftwaffe pilots who served with Horst Rippert express doubt about the veracity of his words that he hid the fact of the destruction of a fairly large aircraft from his own command. Researchers note that such a victory does not appear in the Luftwaffe archives, American radars did not record the flights of unknown aircraft, and the aircraft itself does not have any traces of shelling. Therefore, many researchers believe that the main version is that Saint-Exupéry’s plane crashed due to a malfunction, and Horst Rippert is not telling the truth.
Now the wreckage of the plane is in the Air and Space Museum in Le Bourget.
Literary awards
- 1930 - Femina Prize - for the novel “Night Flight”;
- 1939 - Grand Prize of the French Academy for the Novel - for the novel “Planet of Men”;
- 1939 - US National Book Award - for the novel “Wind, Sand and Stars” (“Planet of Men”).
Military awards
In 1939 he was awarded the Military Cross of the French Republic.
Bibliography
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 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.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery- writer, thinker, poet, pilot.
Antoine Marie Roger de Saint-Exupéry was born on June 29, 1900 in Lyon, the third child of Count Jean de Saint-Exupéry and Marie de Fonscolomb. Antoine's mother is from an old Provencal family. Even more ancient is the family of Saint-Exupery - this name was borne by one of the knights of the Holy Grail. In 1904, after the death of her husband, Madame de Saint-Exupery with five children: Marie-Madeleine, seven years old, Simone, six, Antoine, four, François, two, and Gabrielle, who was not yet a year old, moved from Lyon first to her mother in the castle of La Molle near Cogolin in the Massif More, and then to the castle of Saint-Maurice de Remans, which belonged to her aunt Madame de Tricot. Here little Antoine spent his childhood, extraordinary happy time own life. Little Antoine, impetuous, impulsive, passionately attached to his mother. It was from her that Tonio inherited the gift of imagination, poetic and artistic abilities, and an ear for music - he played the violin well. Very early in Antoine, a taste for invention awoke. One day he designed a “bicycle plane” by attaching a screen made of willow twigs and an old sheet. The attempt to take off, of course, failed, but this event already foreshadows great adventures with airplanes.
In 1909, Antoine and his brother Francois entered the Jesuit College of Saint-Croix in Le Mans. College did not leave a noticeable imprint on Tonio's life. He hasn't even made any new friends; he only communicates with his brother. His comrades quickly give Antoine the nickname "Lunatic" for his thoughtful appearance and habit of looking at the sky. However, teasing Antoine is dangerous: he becomes furious, and the offenders get what they deserve.
The college's archives preserved Antoine's first serious work in prose - school work on a rather funny topic: the adventures of a top hat. The theme itself was fairy-tale, and Antoine, who felt more free the more fantastic the proposed plot, wrote an elegant fairy tale. The cylinder in it told about itself: how it was made at the factory and how it subsequently traveled, visiting the honorable gentleman, the coachman, the rag-picker, and even the terrible king of Niger, Bam-Bum.
When Antoine turned twelve, he had the opportunity to fly on an airplane for the first time. This is how Antoine received “baptism by air.” The pilot who took him for a ride was named Jules Vedrine. Before the First World War, he was perhaps the most famous aviator in the world. But the “baptism by air” did not make a strong impression on Antoine, the kind that sometimes determines future fate person. Tonio composed poems about this event, and forgot it for the sake of new amusements.
The first one has begun World War. Madame de Saint-Exupéry, being a certified nurse, is sent to a military hospital, and the boys are sent to Mongreux College in Villefranche-on-Saône on full board, and it only becomes clear how unsuited the children are to life in a closed educational institution: the boys are accustomed to home, servants, and contentment, and they are frightened by a modest lifestyle. And then the mother sends them to neutral Switzerland, to Friborg, where she places them in the Marist college “Villa Saint-Jean”. The children feel good here: there is no strict discipline, although of course there are rules and regulations, the pupils have tennis courts, a fencing hall, a swimming pool at their disposal, they can ski on the snow-capped mountains... Some students - including Antoine - have separate rooms.
The year 1917 will remain in Antoine’s memory overshadowed by a sad event: his fifteen-year-old brother Francois dies of rheumatism of the heart. Antoine was stunned by his brother's death. The writer Saint-Exupery will describe his death in “The Military Pilot.” The death of the child will also be reflected on in The Citadel.
Having received a liberal arts education at college and thorough training in the exact and natural sciences, Antoine goes to Paris, where he takes a course in mathematics, first at the Bossuet school, then at the Lycée Saint-Louis, preparing to enter the Higher naval school.
In Paris, he lives in a familiar environment: friends from aristocratic families, social acquaintances, dinners, music - this is the range of activities and impressions of eighteen-year-old Exupery. But his main passion is writing. Since the age of six, Antoine has been composing poems and fairy tales. In Paris, he read a whole drama in verse to his friends. It was inhabited by noble robbers who terrified all kinds of carriers of evil.
This love of writing, brought by Antoine from childhood, now becomes a burden in his soul, depriving him of balance. The only way to get rid of it is to write. Of course, Antoine does not think about professional writing; he realizes that it is inaccessible to him from any point of view: nothing has been experienced yet, a way to apply forces in life has not been found.
In 1919, Antoine took exams at the Higher Naval Academy. Mathematics writing recognized best job of the entire competition. The topic of the essay - “Tell about the impressions of an Alsatian who returned to his native village, which has again become French” - infuriates Antoine, and instead of writing pseudo-patriotic rubbish in order to get a good grade, Saint-Exupery writes only a few lines. He receives the lowest score, but is still allowed to take the oral exams, which he also fails.
Antoine is confused, he doubts the correctness of the chosen path. Deciding to combine his love for art and attraction to technology, Antoine enters the architectural department of the Academy of Arts. And now fifteen months at the Academy of Arts in Paris. Another fifteen months in which Antoine searches and does not find himself. During this period he reads Dostoevsky, Nietzsche, Plato. He rebels against the life he and his friends lead in Paris. So, fighting with his environment, but in fact fighting with himself, with his habits, with external circumstances pushing him along a smooth path, Antoine wins his first internal victory: in 1921, interrupting the deferment he received upon entering higher educational institution, he quits classes at the Faculty of Architecture and enrolls as a volunteer in the 2nd Fighter Aviation Regiment in Strasbourg. It cannot be said that he is attracted to aviation. For now, this is a leap into the unknown.
Antoine begins taking private flying lessons. Saint-Exupéry quickly mastered aerobatics. Having completed the civilian pilot training course, Exupery asks to be sent to Morocco, where he intends to obtain the rights of a military pilot: the civilian school did not give these rights. In February 1922, Antoine received a diploma as a military pilot and the rank of corporal. And in the fall of the same year, with the rank of junior lieutenant, he was assigned to the 34th Aviation Regiment in Bourges near Paris.
During this period, Antoine experiences his first strong feeling of love. She was a girl from a rich aristocratic family. They are engaged. But plans young man not destined to come true: during one of the training flights, Saint-Exupéry's plane, barely taking off from the ground, loses speed and falls to the ground. Antoine is seriously injured. The bride's parents, having learned about this, put him before a choice: family happiness or dangerous profession. Antoine refuses to accept the proposed choice. Neither family, nor plane. Love brought only wounds, and so did profession. He gives up his military career, but also gives up his girlfriend. And again, like a few years ago, he doesn’t know what to do, who to be?
In March 1923, he entered the office of the Boiron tile factory in Paris, in 1924 he joined the Sorer company as a worker at the Sorer truck plant, then as a traveling salesman from the same plant in Montluçon. But there is another activity that he does at night in his little room: he writes.
In April 1926, the magazine "Le navir d'Argent" published Saint-Exupéry's first story - "The Pilot", or rather, this is an excerpt from the story (later lost), which Antoine himself called "The Flight of Jacques Bernis". Why flight? In this name - moral meaning story: a young pilot runs from the empty and worthless life of salons to a simple and wonderful business that brings him new life, a new and strong connection with the earth.
October 11, 1926 Anutan introduces himself to the director of the airline in Toulouse, Didier Dora. Most of all, he wants to fly, but here, at the Montaudran airfield, wearing a blue mechanic's blouse, Antoine works in the hangar, dismantling engines, cleaning cylinders and spark plugs, and working as an oiler. Saint-Exupery carries out his service without complaint. It was during this period that the first shoots of real friendship with Guillaume and Mermoz, based on common cause and complete trust, arose. A few weeks later, Dora entrusts Antoine with the postal flight to Casablanca. Antoine carries mail on the line Toulouse - Casablanca (Morocco), then Casablanca - Dakar (Senegal).
In 1927, Saint-Exupery was appointed head of the airfield at Cap Jubie.
At that time, the coast of Africa was unsafe due to nomadic tribes who traded in robbery and violence. The death of pilots was not uncommon. The new head of the airfield was tasked with establishing friendly relations with the nomads. In October, Saint-Exupéry arrived in Cap Jubie (Western Sahara). Disregarding all caution, in spite of the surrounding hostility, he achieved coordination of actions from rescue pilots obliged to rescue the crews of crashed aircraft, and most importantly, established good neighborly relations with the nomads. And at night Saint-Exupery writes “Southern Postal”.
Returning to France in March 1929, with bated breath he carries his first book to the publishing house of Gaston Gallimard. After reading the manuscript, the publishing house signs a contract with the author for seven books.
After the publication of “Southern Postal young writer I'm very excited about the reviews, and they are very flattering. Literary connoisseurs are tolerant of the novel's weaknesses and, on the contrary, discover its true merits: a new range of problems, a new, individual view of the world, a unique vision, and its own incomparable voice. The knowledge that your merits did not go unnoticed, that they were appreciated, greatly inspires the writer.
In September 1929, by order of Dora, Saint-Exupery was placed at the disposal of the Aeroposta Argentina company and sailed to Buenos Aires. As technical director, he is responsible for flights over the vast South American continent. Saint-Ex flies a lot on his own, masters new difficult routes, tests new machines. He understands very well what the pilot feels and experiences, being alone in the vast expanse of the sky and knowing that beneath him is the abyss of the ocean. Despite all the dangers, the pilots fearlessly fly out to fight the elements. The writer Saint-Exupery will talk about this in his next book, “Night Flight.” The book, which will be published in 1931, will receive the Femina Prize in France and will bring Saint-Exupéry literary fame and glory.
But this will not happen soon, and now Antoine is lonely. His desire to get married became more and more acute, more and more insistent. And it is not the callousness of the heart, not the inability to love, but the high demands in love - both for himself and for the woman he loves - that explain his failures in love. In November 1930, Benjamin Cremieux, a famous critic and member of the editorial board of the Nouvelle Revue Française magazine, introduced him to Consuelo Songqing, a small, graceful woman with huge, expressive eyes. In the spring of 1931, upon returning to France, they got married.
The young man, who feared a marriage with a woman who would create for him a bourgeois lifestyle and a calm, balanced life, received more than what he was looking for. The eccentric, absurd, impulsive Consuelo created for Antoine that atmosphere of internal anxiety and restlessness that he needed so much in order to create.
In 1931, after his dismissal from the Lines, Saint-Exupéry decided to devote himself entirely to literary work, but very soon he finds out for himself that “if he doesn’t fly, then he doesn’t write.”
Since February 1932, he again works for the airline, but this time on a seaplane serving the Marseille-Algiers line, as a co-pilot. In May 1933, all French airlines merged into one - Air France. Dore's ill-wishers at Air France refuse to accept Saint-Exupéry into service. Dora gets Saint-Ex a job as a test pilot at the Latekoera design bureau. Immersed in his worries, in a depressed state, Saint-Ex begins this dangerous work, which requires special composure from the pilot. One case is typical. One day Saint-Exupery had to test a new model of a three-engine airplane. He rises into the air. During the flight, the engine malfunctioned and smoke came out of it. Having made a turn, Saint-Ex went for landing. Those watching it from the ground noticed with horror that something had separated from the plane - either part of the wing, or a sheet of skin torn off from the fuselage. Meanwhile, the plane continued its descent quite normally. On the ground it turned out that the detached object was the cockpit door, which Saint-Ex forgot to close during takeoff.
In November, while testing a seaplane, Saint-Exupéry almost died in the Bay of Saint-Raphael. Saint-Ex truly owes his salvation to a miracle. He described this miracle - “swimming in Saint-Raphael” in “Land of Men”. The consequence of this accident was temporary forced rest. Saint-Exupéry completes the script for the film “Anne-Marie,” which he began in Buenos Aires, and writes the libretto for the script for the film “Igor.” But not to any practical results Saint-Exupery's attempts to write specifically for cinema did not work: producers and directors deal with the writer's creation at their own discretion, distorting his works as they please to please the tastes of the general public. Saint-Exupery does not like this, and he refuses further attempts in this area.
Saint-Exupéry returns to work for Latecoer. He has some leisure, and at this time he writes the preface to the book by Maurice Bourdais, “The Greatness and Bondage of Aviation.”
Looking for income, he tries himself in the field of journalism. In April 1935, the Paris-Soir newspaper sent him to Moscow as a correspondent for a month. In May, the Soviet propaganda giant Maxim Gorky crashed - Saint-Exupery responded to this tragic event with a sympathetic note in Izvestia. This is followed by a series of essays about the USSR in Paris-Soir - everyday sketches in soft, humorous tones. But lectures and journalism do not satisfy Saint-Ex; he needs to fly.
He decides to break the record set by the French pilot Andre Japy, who connected Paris with Saigon in 47 hours. After two weeks of preparation, on December 29, 1935, Saint-Aix and Prevost took off from Bourget and 4 hours and 15 minutes later the plane crashed in the Libyan desert. With great difficulty, without a drop of water, they reach the caravan route, where a caravan picks them up. Antoine returns to Paris. During this period, Saint-Exupéry made his first notes for The Citadel.
In August 1936, the newspaper Entransijan sent him to Spain, where a civil war was raging. Along with the leading people of his time, Saint-Ex stands on the side of the Spanish Republicans defending their freedom in the fight against fascism. In Spanish correspondence and essays, there is a sincere concern for the fate of Europe, over which the dark shadow of fascism is already hanging. As a result of a second visit to Spain in 1937, the essay “Madrid” appears.
In January 1938, Saint-Exupery in New York. The next day, a port crane unloaded a huge box containing his Simun onto the pier. With this plane, Saint-Ex wanted to try to establish a direct connection between New York and Tierra del Fuego. On February 15, accompanied by Prevost, Saint-Ex takes off from New York and, after a short landing in Brownsville, heads for Veracruz, and from there flies to Guatemala. But immediately after taking off from an airfield in Guatemala, the plane loses speed, falls over and crashes into the ground.
Saint-Ex is saved by a miracle: he is completely wounded, his lower jaw is broken, several fractures of his skull, and his left collarbone is broken. In addition, he has a concussion and is at risk of blood poisoning. He is in a comatose state for several days. But a strong body overcomes the disease. As a memory of what happened, he was left with ankylosis of his left shoulder. This made it impossible for him to jump with a parachute if necessary. It is possible that this circumstance did not play a role last role in his untimely death.
Saint-Ex is delivered to New York. The Guatemalan disaster, which almost ended tragically, thanks to the happy ending, returned Saint-Aix to good spirits and faith in his star. He begins to put in order his rough sketches, notes, articles, essays published in different time. Jean Prevost introduces him to the director of the Raynal Hitchcock publishing house, Curtis Hitchcock. An agreement is concluded between the publisher and Saint-Exupery, according to which the writer undertakes to submit the shortest possible time new book. The name of the future work has already been invented, or, rather, the name under which it will appear in America: “Wind, Sand and Stars.”
On May 25, 1939, the French Academy awarded the Grand Prize of the Novel to Antoine de Saint-Exupéry for his book Land of Men, published three months earlier in February. The honorary award again attracted public attention to the writer-pilot.
The Second World War began. After numerous accidents, Saint-Exupéry’s health is in such a state that doctors do not allow him as a pilot to fly in military aviation. He again has to show extraordinary persistence in order to defend his right to fly, his right to fight the fascists, the enemies of France and all humanity. As part of Air Group 2/33, he conducts reconnaissance and aerial photography of the enemy's position. However, due to the shameful truce concluded in November 1940, the demobilization of French troops is carried out, and Saint-Exupéry emigrates from France.
Now for Saint-Exupery the only weapon is the word. In 1942, “Military Pilot” was published. It is curious that this book was immediately banned by both the Nazis and de Gaulle's supporters. Moreover, the former are for promoting disobedience and resistance, and the latter are for allegedly “defeatist sentiments.”
In February 1943, “Letter to a Hostage” was published, written in the form of a monologue, an appeal to the writer’s friend, communist Leon Werth, where the writer seeks to express his attitude towards the war and fascism. Saint-Exupéry also dedicates his poetic fairy tale “The Little Prince” to Leon Vertue.
In the spring of 1943, pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupéry sails with an American military transport convoy to North Africa, to Algeria. He is 42, his health is poor, but he cannot stand aside while others are fighting. Here he is again among his comrades from Squadron 2/33. He flies again, but after an accident he is transferred to the reserve. But Saint-Ex cannot remain idle: if the pilot Saint-Exupery cannot fly, the writer Saint-Exupery takes up his pen and continues to work on his last book"Citadel", which remained unfinished. This is a book of thoughts, reflections, a parable book. However, in the spring of 1944, pilot Saint-Exupéry, thanks to his friends, again received permission to fly combat reconnaissance missions.
On July 31, 1944, at 8:30 a.m., the plane took off from an airfield in Corsica. Heading to Southern France. In fuel tanks for 6 hours. They waited for his return until 14:30, but after 15:00 it was clear that Saint-Exupéry could not return.
In September 1998 in the Mediterranean Sea, near the island. Rio in the waters of Marseille, on the deck of the ship “Horizon”, owned by J.-C. Bianco, a chain bracelet with a metal plate was picked up. After cleaning, the words “Antoine de Saint-Exupery (Consuelo) - c/o Reynal and Hitchcock Inc.” appeared on it. - 386 4th Ave N.Y. City - USA".
In October 2003, a group of researchers was able to bring the discovered parts of the aircraft to the surface. The parts had a serial number - 2734. Checking the number against the factory technical documentation confirmed the version that it was Saint-Exupéry's plane. The body was never found.
The beautiful legend about the writer-pilot who disappeared in the skies of France, the man whom the Arabs called the Captain of the Birds, continues to live: he disappeared, dissolved in the Mediterranean blue, went towards the stars - just like his Little Prince...
In the last period of his life, Saint-Exupery in his work broke away from the harsh reality of life and turned to the language of allegory. This is how the symbolic fairy tale-parable “The Little Prince” appeared. The “prototype” of this tale can be considered a folklore fairy tale with a wandering plot: a handsome prince, because of unhappy love, leaves his father’s house and wanders along endless roads. The little prince, an alien from the asteroid “planet of childhood”, in search of friends, in the hope of finding true love and exploring the world, sets off on his journey through alien worlds-planets.
Visiting six planets in succession, the Little Prince on each of them encounters human vices in their naked, absurd, grotesque form: power, vanity, drunkenness, pseudo-learning... Having not found on the previous planets what he was looking for, the Little Prince sets off to planet Earth.
The first creature encountered here is a mythological snake. The snake is assigned special role in a fairy tale: it symbolizes miraculous power and sad knowledge of human fate. The snake shows the prince the way to people, and at the end of the story, she, giving her poison, helps him return to his home planet. But if the snake here is some kind of metaphysical element, then the Fox character has nothing to do with ancient mythology. He is a figure from folk tales, the personification of life's wisdom. He introduces the Little Prince to the human heart, to what guides it, teaches him the rituals of love and friendship, which people have forgotten, and therefore have lost friends and lost the ability to love.
The third symbolic figure, along with the snake and the Fox, is the rose, which the Little Prince grows on his planet and which gives him so much care and concern. The beautiful and capricious rose symbolizes, of course, a woman. Many critics believe that the rose is not so much an abstract personification of femininity as a very specific person, the writer’s wife, Consuelo de Saint-Exupéry. And, perhaps, this is not at odds with the truth. The Little Prince's troubles with the rose to a certain extent reflect the difficulties that the writer himself experienced in this regard. Only a deeper understanding of the psychology of love, to which the Little Prince comes with the help of the wise Fox, allows the existing conflict to be resolved and awakens in him the desire to return to the abandoned planet.
“The Little Prince” is a typical fairy tale with a moral, or rather, with many moral teachings, told in simple language. It was written not so much for children as for adults who have not yet completely lost their childish impressionability, their childishly open view of the world and the ability to fantasize.
Another work that is often compared to The Little Prince, The Citadel is a philosophical utopia about a wise ruler who “protects” his people from the hectic and restless world of freedom and leads them to God. Central to the narrative is faith in a better future. But this utopia is not based on external regulation, and on the internal - a change in human consciousness, recognizing the need for a wise king and spiritual mentor. Saint-Exupery's utopia is faith in man as a creator and servant of the Supreme.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry combined in his life and work the flight of a professional pilot with the flight of fantasy of a writer, reflecting in his books an artistic narrative about the most ordinary romantics of the sky. A humanist and philosopher, he argued that “flying and writing are the same thing”.
Saint-Exupery was a talented and versatile person. The scion of an impoverished count's family, Antoine Exupery was born at the very beginning of the last century - June 29, 1900 in Lyon, France. From 8 to 14 years old he studied at a Jesuit college, and continued his education at a Catholic boarding school in Switzerland, where he received a diploma from the architecture department of the Academy of Fine Sciences.
At the age of 21, Saint-Exupéry was drafted into the army, sent to Strasbourg, to the location of a fighter aviation regiment. There his flying career began: at first Antoine worked as a mechanic in a repair shop, and later passed the exam to become a civilian pilot. Work as a pilot began in October 1922 in an air regiment near Paris. But a couple of months later, Exupery had his first plane crash, literally interrupting his flight for several years. During this period, Exupery's career as a writer begins.
Since 1925, Saint-Exupéry's flying activities have continued. He flies a mail plane in North Africa, and after 2 years becomes the head of the airport. At this time, the first story “The Pilot” was published. In 1930, for his active work related to aeronautics, he received the highest award in France - the Order of the Legion of Honor. The following year, his story “Night Flight” was awarded the Femina Prize.
In the period 1935 - 39 the writer actively works in journalism, where he describes the events of the civil military confrontation in Spain, and after visiting Soviet Union- Stalin's policy of the USSR. In 1939, Exupery was awarded the Literature Prize from the Academy of France for the book “Planet of People”, received the US Book Award for the collection “Wind, Sand and Stars”, and was awarded the Military Cross of the French Republic.
The Second World War is a new and main stage in the life of Exupery. Emigrates from occupied France to the United States and goes to the front as a military pilot. In 1943 he served in North Africa, where he created the philosophical parable “The Little Prince” - the creative apogee of the writer. Having set off on a reconnaissance flight on the last day of July 1944, Exupery’s plane crashed and disappeared without a trace. The writer’s last, unfinished work was the collection “Citadel”. Experts compiled it from many passages created by Exupery.
The work of A. Exupery is biographical; all of his works are to varying degrees connected with pilots, airplanes, and the sky. But main topic any narrative – philosophy, problems of man, personality, life and death. Exupery tried to comprehend, understand and convey to readers the vision of the problem of “man on the path of life.”
Many people call The Little Prince a fairy tale. Indeed, the basic human laws are presented in an allegorical form: “We are responsible for those we have tamed” (i.e., compassion, support, sympathy, help), people are “masters of themselves” (i.e., a person must understand, what should he do, what result will such an action bring). A person's thoughts find expression in his own actions.
And since there are no identical people, their thoughts and actions differ; Life values are also different. The King from The Little Prince has the ability to rule the whole world, but this world is comparable to a small asteroid where the king lives. A “business man” is always counting the stars and making worthless deals, but for a drunkard, the meaning of life is drinking. This picture is well known to millions of readers. But Exupery wants to show the audience not the personal values of everyone, but the main values in the life of each of us. Which we very often do not notice.
The philosophy of life and action, as a result of its manifestation, is what Exupery describes in his works, trying to find for himself, among other things, the answer to the question “how to live correctly?” and “what to do?” that arise in each of the people. But not each of us knows where and how to look for the answer to such questions.
Thus, in “The Citadel” he says that the goal is not to teach how to build a ship, but “to awaken in people the desire for the sea.” Then, without a doubt, people will build the ships themselves. The work of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry both teaches and shows the “truth of life” and the place of man in it.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is a famous French writer, poet and essayist, and professional pilot. There were many different things in Saint-Exupéry interesting events, since he devoted most of his life to aviation.
The most famous work Exupery is an allegorical story-fairy tale “The Little Prince”. .
So, in front of you short biography Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
Biography of Exupery
Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger de Saint-Exupéry was born on June 29, 1900 in Lyon. He grew up in an intelligent family, descended from a noble family.
In addition to Antoine, four more children were born into the Exupery family.
When Antoine was barely 4 years old, his father died, and as a result, the family’s financial situation worsened significantly.
As a result, the mother and children were forced to move in with their aunt, whose house was located on Place Bellecour.
Childhood and youth
The early years in Exupery's biography were accompanied by various difficulties. The mother could not afford to buy her son toys or any expensive things.
Saint-Exupery in his youth However, she managed to instill in her son a love of reading and.
Soon Antoine was sent to Christian school. After this, he continued to study at the Jesuit College of Sainte-Croix.
When Exupery turned 14 years old, he was sent to a Catholic boarding school located in.
In 1917, the young man successfully passed the exams at the Paris School of Fine Arts. Having received his diploma, he wanted to enter the Naval Lyceum, but was unable to pass the exams.
During this period of his biography, Antoine Exupery’s beloved brother Francois, with whom he had a very trusting relationship, died.
The death of his brother became a real shock for the future writer, from which he could not recover for a long time.
Pilot Exupery
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry dreamed of becoming a pilot since childhood. When he was 12 years old, he was in the sky for the first time.
The plane was flown by the famous pilot Gabriel Wroblewski, who took a great liking to the boy and decided to take him on a flight.
After this, Antoine began to literally dream of aviation.
In 1921, a significant event occurred in Exupery’s biography. He was called up for service, after which he took aerobatics courses. Soon he was assigned to an aviation regiment in Strasbourg.
Initially, he flew on civilian aircraft, and only over time he was entrusted with flying military aircraft.
Soon Antoine de Saint-Exupéry rose to the rank of junior lieutenant. In 1923, he was involved in a plane crash, resulting in a serious head injury. The commission declared the pilot unfit for further service, and therefore he was forced to leave aviation.
After this, Exupery went to. It is interesting that it was during this period of his biography that he developed a special interest in writing.
However, at first he had to earn a living in a variety of ways. The writer sold cars, worked at a tile factory, and also sold books.
In 1926, Antoine managed to get a job as a mechanic at the Aeropostal airline. He later became a mail plane pilot. At this time, the novel “Southern Postal” came out from his pen.
In 1929, Saint-Exupery was approved for the position of head of the Aeropostal branch located in the capital. A couple of years later, the company went bankrupt, as a result of which he began working as a test pilot and also working on postal airlines.
In Exupery's biography there were many cases when his life hung in the balance of death. During one of the tests, his plane crashed and fell into the water.
The writer survived only thanks to the prompt work of divers. After that, he suffered a plane crash in the desert and did not die only thanks to lucky coincidence circumstances. Dying of thirst, the writer was noticed by Bedouins, who saved his life.
In 1938, a new disaster occurred in Exupery’s biography: he flew from Tierra del Fuego, but crashed in. At the same time, he miraculously remained alive, although he was in a coma for several days. This time he again suffered a serious head injury.
After some time, the writer got a job as a journalist in the Paris Soir building.
During World War II (1939-1945), Antoine de Saint-Exupéry worked as a military journalist and also participated in air battles with Nazi pilots.
Works of Exupery
The first work in creative biography Saint-Exupery became the fairy tale “Odyssey of the Cylinder”, with which he took first place in literary competition. At that time, the writer was only 14 years old.
In 1925, Exupery managed to meet different modern writers. An interesting fact is that many of them appreciated the talent of the aspiring writer and even began to help him with the publication of his works.
Thanks to this, a year later Exupery published the story “The Pilot,” which aroused great interest among readers.
In his stories Saint-Exupéry Special attention devoted to air themes. Since during his biography he had repeatedly witnessed a variety of aviation situations, he could describe them in vivid colors.
Thus, he managed to rivet readers to his works, filled with deep meaning, interesting facts and philosophical reflections.
In 1931, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was awarded the Femina Prize for his novel Night Flight. He then published the book “Land of Men,” in which he masterfully described his wanderings through the Libyan desert after his plane crash.
In 1963, from the pen of Exupery came autobiographical novel"Military pilot". In it, he shared with readers the horrors of World War II, which he had to face personally.
An interesting fact is that this work was banned in the writer’s homeland, while in America it gained enormous popularity.
Personal life
When Antoine de Saint-Exupéry turned 18, he fell in love with Louise Villemorne, who came from a wealthy family. However, no matter how the young man tried to win over the girl, he was rejected by her every time.
Even when he becomes a successful writer in the future, he will never be able to win Louise's heart.
While working in Buenos Aires, Saint-Exupéry met Consuelo Sunsin, with whom he began serious relationship. In 1931 they decided to get married, having a magnificent wedding among close people.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and his wife Consuelo Sunsin It is worth noting that family life was not easy for Exupery, since his wife had a very hot temper. She often caused scandals and scenes for her husband.
However, despite this, Antoine Exupery adored his wife and tolerated her difficult character.
Death
The death of Saint-Exupéry still arouses interest among his biographers and admirers. At the height of World War II, the writer volunteered to go to the front as a military pilot.
Thanks to his connections, he ended up in a reconnaissance detachment.
On July 31, 1944, Antoine went on his next mission, but never returned. In this regard, he ended up on the list of missing persons.
In 1988, the writer’s bracelet, which he wore on his hand, was discovered nearby. In 2000, parts of his plane were found.
After this, a group of experts established that Saint-Exupery died during an air battle with a German pilot. An interesting fact is that later the German pilot publicly admitted that it was he who shot down the military plane in which Exupery was.
Photo of Exupery
There are not many photographs of Antoine Exupery. However, you can see what we managed to find below.
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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 Nazi troops emigrated to the USA in 1940.
In February 1942, his book “Military Pilot” was published in the USA and was a great success, after which Saint-Exupéry 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 was carried out for many years, only in 1998, Marseille fisherman Jean-Claude Bianco accidentally discovered near Marseille silver bracelet 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