Biography of Antoine de Saint Exupery brief summary. Antoine de Saint-Exupery short biography


Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was born in the French city of Lyon, in the family of a provincial nobleman (count). At the age of four he lost his father. Education little Antoine mother was doing.

In 1912, at the aviation field in Amberier, Saint-Exupéry took off for the first time in an airplane. The car was driven famous pilot Vedrine.

Exupery graduated from the Jesuit school in Le Mans, studied at a Catholic boarding school in Switzerland, and prepared to enter the naval school, but did not pass the competition. In 1919 he entered the Paris School fine arts at the Faculty of Architecture.

Pilot and writer

The turning point in his fate was 1921 - then he was drafted into the army, interrupting the deferment he received upon entering higher education. educational institution and enlisted in the 2nd Fighter Aviation Regiment in Strasbourg. 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. He is transferred to Morocco, where he receives a military pilot's license, and then is sent to Istres for improvement. In 1922, Antoine completed the course for reserve officers in Aurora and became a junior lieutenant. In October he was assigned to the 34th Aviation Regiment at Bourges near Paris. In January 1923, he suffered his first plane crash and suffered a traumatic brain injury. He will be discharged in March. Exupery moved to Paris, where he turned 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 Exupéry find his calling - he became a pilot for the Aeropostal company, which delivered mail to the northern coast of Africa. In the spring, he begins work transporting 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 writes his first work - “Southern Postal”

In March 1929, Saint-Exupéry returned to France, where he entered higher aviation courses navy in Brest. Soon, Gallimard's publishing house published the novel "Southern Postal", and Exupery left for South America as the technical director of Aeropost - Argentina, a branch of the Aeropostal company. In 1930, Saint-Exupéry was awarded the Knights Order 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 Guillaume, who suffered an accident while flying over the Andes. In the same year, Saint-Exupéry wrote “Night Flight” and met his future wife Consuelo.

Pilot and correspondent

In 1931, Saint-Exupéry returned to France and received a three-month vacation. In April, he married Consuelo Songqing, but the couple, as a rule, lived separately. On March 13, 1931, the Aeropostal company was declared bankrupt. Saint-Exupéry returned to work as a pilot for the France-South America postal line and served the Casablanca-Port-Etienne-Dakar section. In October 1931, “Night Flight” was published and the writer was awarded literary prize"Femina", he takes leave again and moves to Paris.

In February 1932, Exupery again began working for the Latecoera airline and flew as a co-pilot on a seaplane serving the Marseille-Algeria line. Didier Dora, former pilot Aeropostal company, 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. The seaplane capsized, and he barely managed to get out of the cabin of the sinking car.

In 1934, Exupery went to work for Air France (formerly Aeropostal), as a representative of the company, traveling 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 the essence of 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 suffered an accident in the Libyan desert, again barely escaping death. On January 1, he and the mechanic Prevost, dying of thirst, were rescued by Bedouins.

In August 1936, according to an agreement with the newspaper Entransijan, he went to Spain, where there was a civil war, and published a number of reports in the newspaper.

In January 1938, Exupery traveled aboard the Ile de France to New York. Here he begins 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.

War

On September 4, 1939, the day after France declared war on Germany, Saint-Exupéry was mobilized at the Toulouse-Montaudran military airfield, and on November 3 transferred to the 2/33 long-range reconnaissance air unit, which is 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 Exupery that he would bring much more benefit to the country as a writer and journalist, that thousands of pilots could be trained and that he should not risk his life. But Saint-Exupery achieved appointment to a combat unit. In one of his letters, in November 1939, he writes: “I am obliged to participate in this war. Everything I love is at risk. In Provence, when the forest is on fire, everyone who is not a bastard grabs buckets and shovels. I want to fight, I am forced to do so by love and my internal religion. I can't stay away."

Saint-Exupéry 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. He lived in New York, where, among other things, he wrote his most famous book “ A little prince"(1942, publ. 1943). In 1943, he returned to the French Air Force and with great difficulty achieved his enrollment in a combat unit. He had to master piloting the new high-speed Lightning P-38 aircraft.

“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)

On July 31, 1944, 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 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 Lockheed P-38 Lightning aircraft, a modification of the F-4 (long-range photo reconnaissance aircraft), which was flown by Exupery.

Luftwaffe logs contain no records of aircraft shot down in this area on July 31, 1944, and the wreckage itself shows no obvious signs of shelling. This gave rise to many versions of the crash, including versions of a technical malfunction and suicide of the pilot.

According to press publications from March 2008, German Luftwaffe veteran, 88-year-old Horst Rippert, stated that he was the one who shot down Antoine Saint-Exupery's plane. According to his statements, he did not know who 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.

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Biography, life story of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger de Saint-Exupery - French writer, pilot.

Childhood

Antoine was born on June 29, 1900 in Lyon (France). He was the third of five children of Jean de Saint-Exupéry and Marie de Fontcolombes. Antoine's father was a representative of an old noble family. Unfortunately, when little Antoine was only four years old, Jean died. He did not leave any money to his family and his wife and children had to face many troubles.

Despite the financial need, the family lived very amicably. Antoine grew up as a playful and active boy, loved animals, and loved to tinker with various models of engines. Antoine was very friendly with his brother Francois, however, he also had warm feelings for his sisters. Alas, when Antoine was seventeen years old, Francois died of a fever.

In 1912, Antoine first felt the full power and boundlessness of the sky. The famous pilot Gabriel Wroblewski took the boy to fly a plane at the airfield in Amberje. This event impressed Antoine very much, after the flight he still for a long time I was absolutely delighted.

Education

At the age of eight, Antoine was accepted to study at the School of the Christian Brothers of St. Bartholomew in his own hometown. A little later he transferred to the Jesuit College of Sainte-Croix (Mans, France). In 1914, Antoine entered the Friborg Marist College (Friborg, Switzerland). After college, the boy planned to enter the Paris Naval Lyceum Saint-Louis, but he did not pass the competition. As a result, in 1919, Antoine de Saint-Exupery became a volunteer lecturer on architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts.

Military service

1921 was a turning point in Antoine's life. That year he was drafted into the French army. The young man enlisted in the second fighter aviation regiment in Strasbourg. Initially, Saint-Exupéry was assigned to the work team at repair shops. But the passion for the sky, which appeared in childhood, haunted Antoine. He decided to take the civil pilot exam. Having proven to management that he was capable of flying an aircraft, Antoine moved to Morocco (North Africa). There Antoine received his military pilot's license. After Morocco, the young man went to Istres (France).

CONTINUED BELOW


In 1922, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry successfully completed the reserve officer course and became a junior lieutenant. In October of the same year, he was assigned to the 43rd Aviation Regiment in the town of Bourges. At the beginning of 1923, Antoine was in a plane crash. The pilot survived, but suffered a traumatic brain injury. As a result, in March 1923, Saint-Exupery was commissioned.

Pilot and writer

After his life as a military pilot was left far behind, Antoine moved to Paris. At first he tried to make a living by writing, but he didn’t do it very well. Due to an acute shortage of money, Antoine had to grab all the jobs that came his way. At one time he sold cars, sold books... Throughout this joyless period of his life, Antoine dreamed of heaven. In the spring of 1926, he was lucky - he managed to become a pilot for the Aeropostal company, which was engaged in delivering mail to the northern coast of Africa. Having demonstrated his abilities perfectly, in the fall Antoine became the head of the intermediate station in the city of Villa Bens (Morocco). It was there, on the edge of the Sahara Desert, that Antoine de Saint-Exupéry wrote his first work, entitled “Southern Postal”.

In the spring of 1929, Antoine returned to France and enrolled in naval aviation courses in Brest (west of the country). While he was studying, his debut novel was published. After the courses, Antoine moved to South America, where he became the technical director of the local branch of the Aeropostal company.

In 1930, Antoine de Saint-Exupery became a Knight of the Legion of Honor for his impressive contribution to the development of civil aviation. That same year he left America and returned to his native country.

In 1931, the company where Antoine worked went bankrupt. In the same year, Saint-Exupery published his next masterpiece called “Night Flight”.

In February 1932, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry began working for the Latecoera airline. A little later he became a test pilot. True, this work almost ended in tragedy - while testing a new seaplane, Antoine almost died.

Investigative journalism

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 made an attempt to comprehend and understand strict regime.

At the end of the summer of 1936, Antoine visited Spain as a representative of the newspaper Entransigen. Having been in the thick of things (at that time there was a terrible civil war in the country), Antoine wrote several high-profile reports.

Personal life

Antoine first fell in love during his service in Strasbourg. Her name was Louise. She was the daughter of a young and wealthy widow, Madame de Vilmorin. Louise was a very weak and sickly girl, but this is what attracted Antoine to her. Seeing the graceful girl lying on her bed in a light peignoir, the huge Antoine (his height was almost two meters) felt small and defenseless in front of this unearthly beauty. He immediately wrote to his birth mother that he had found his life partner. Soon he proposed to Louise. However, Madame de Vilmorin was categorically against her daughter's marriage to a poor aristocrat. Fate decreed that a few weeks after the marriage proposal, Antoine ended up in the hospital (he had an accident on a new plane). He lay there for several months. During this time, Louise acquired new fans and forgot about her would-be groom. When he left, the girl did not want to see him and demanded that he forget about her.

In 1930, in Benos Aires, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry met a petite and very sweet girl named Consuelo Gomez Carrilo. The charming Consuelo immediately captured Antoine's imagination. She was so fickle, so alive, so... There was a lot of her and she was everywhere, despite her modest proportions. Before meeting Antoine, Consuelo had been married twice (her second husband committed suicide). The young people began dating, and a little later moved to Paris. There they got married. Consuelo simply adored France and, as it turned out a little later, she loved to lie. She lied about everything without even thinking about what she was doing. She made up ridiculous stories and embellished reality. As a result, her passion for lies grew to such an extent that by the end of her days she herself could no longer understand what was true and what was fiction.

Despite this, Antoine adored his wife. He carefully protected her, pampered her, tried to give her all his love. However, she still remained unhappy. However, it was difficult to do happy woman who couldn’t figure out what was real and what wasn’t, a woman who was slowly going crazy every year. Consuelo was always dissatisfied with her husband. As a result, she began to live her own life - she went to bars, did not spend the night at home... Antoine forgave everything to his eccentric wife, but felt that family life exhausted him. Over time, he had other women. True, he had no intention of getting a divorce. He had mixed feelings towards Consuelo - he could no longer live with her under the same roof, but he also could not imagine life without her.

War

On September 3, 1939, France declared war on Germany. The very next day, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry arrived at the military airfield. On November 3 of the same year, he ended up in a long-range reconnaissance aviation unit in Orconte (Champagne, France). Friends tried to dissuade Antoine from becoming a military pilot, assuring him that he would be much more useful to society as a writer. However, Antoine did not listen to them. He said that he could not calmly watch his homeland suffer.

During the war, Saint-Exupéry flew several combat missions as a photographic reconnaissance aircraft. In 1941, when France was defeated, he briefly moved to a safe part of the country to live with his sister, and a little later moved to New York (USA). It was on American soil that Antoine de Saint-Exupéry created “The Little Prince,” his most famous work.

In 1943, Antoine returned to the military. He was assigned to pilot a new high-speed aircraft.

Death

On July 31, 1944, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry went on a reconnaissance flight to the island of Corsica (Mediterranean Sea). Antoine never returned from that flight. This day is considered the official day of death of the talented writer and brave pilot. At the time of his death he was only forty-four years old.

Interesting Facts

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was left-handed.

The image of the rose in the novel “The Little Prince” is based on his beloved wife Consuelo.

Throughout his life, Antoine was involved in fifteen plane crashes.

Saint-Exupery was a master of card tricks.

Antoine created several inventions in the field of aviation and even received patents for them.

Awards and prizes

In 1930, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry received the Femina Prize for his novel Night Flight.

In 1939 he was awarded two awards: the Grand Prix du Roman of the French Academy for "Planet of Men" and the US National Book Award for "Wind, Sand and Stars". In the same year he was awarded the Military Cross of the French Republic.

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. About her tender friendship with my son are reminiscent of published letters. 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. Loss loved one he was worried, withdrawn 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.


Antoine de Saint-Exupery

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. Helped him out casual acquaintance. 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. In the status of 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, awarded 1st place at literary competition. In 1925, at his cousin's house, Antoine met popular authors and publishers of the time. They were delighted with the gift young man and offered cooperation. Already in next year The story “The Pilot” was published on 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 about stopping literary activity. Returning to his native France, he signed 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. The book banned in France had incredible success in USA. 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. Former spouse women, writer Gomez Carillo, 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 bad character, but the intelligence and education of his wife 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”
Awards:

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 Prévost, 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.
  • 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 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. A 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 - National book award USA - “Wind, Sand and Stars” (“Planet of People”).

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 “A 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 de Saint-Exupery.
Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger de Saint-Exupéry French writer, born June 29, 1900 in Lyon (France). Saint-Exupery's parents came from aristocratic families. When Antoine was only four years old, his father died of a cerebral hemorrhage, after which Antoine spent almost all his time with relatives for 5 years.
In 1909, he moved with his family to Le Mans, where he continued his studies at a Jesuit college, and then in Switzerland. Then he attempted to enter the Naval Academy and attended lectures on architecture.

Military career

In 1921, Antoine joined the army and aviation. His love for the sky began at the age of 12, when he was able to fly for the first time in the cockpit. At first, he was a member of the work team, but soon passed the examination test for a civilian pilot, and was later transferred to Morocco and became a military pilot - a junior lieutenant.
In October 1922, he was enlisted in an aviation regiment near Paris, but at the beginning of 1923 he was in a plane crash, which resulted in a traumatic brain injury, and he was soon discharged. This was followed by a move to Paris, where he devoted himself to literary activity.
In 1926, he got a job at the Aeropostal company, delivering mail to Africa. It was there, near the Sahara, that Saint-Exupery wrote his first novel, Southern Postal, published in 1929. Despite high marks from critics, Antoine did not continue writing, but enrolled in aviation courses. Also in 1929, he was transferred to South America as technical director. I worked there for two years, the company went bankrupt, and as a result of work in South America became the novel “Night Flight” (1931).
In 1930 he became a Knight of the Legion of Honor. After the bankruptcy of the company, he was forced to return to his previous job related to flights to Africa. In 1932 he began flying as a co-pilot on a seaplane, and later became a test pilot, which almost cost him his life.
He worked in civil aviation for several years and combined this with the work of a correspondent. He wrote essays about the cruel policies of I.V. Stalin and reports about the events taking place at that time. civil war in Spain, where he was at that time. At this time, he was able to buy his own plane and, in an attempt to break the record, almost died in the Libyan desert, local Bedouins saved him from death.
In 1938, he flew to America and began work on the third book, “Planet of People,” a collection of autobiographical essays (1939).

The Second World War

September 3, 1939 All his friends were against Antoine going to war, however, on September 4, he was already at the military airfield. Friends assured him that he more needed at home, as a writer and journalist, but Saint-Exupery could not look calmly at how his homeland was being destroyed, he could not remain inactive. He was involved in aviation reconnaissance and received the Military Cross award.
In 1941, France was defeated and Antoine moved to his sister, and later to America, where he wrote one of the main masterpieces of world literature - “The Little Prince” (1942).
In 1943, he achieved his return to the unit as a pilot of the high-speed Lightning aircraft. On July 31, 1944, Saint-Exupéry set out from the island of Corsica. This was his last flight. During his life, he survived more than ten different plane crashes; the sky became everything to him, including death.

Personal life

In South America, Antoine met his future wife Consuelo, their wedding took place in 1931. The marriage could not be called ideal: most of the time the spouses lived separately, she lied, he cheated. He couldn’t be with her, but he couldn’t imagine his existence without her either.