There was Antoine de Saint Exupery. Antoine Saint Exupery: biography

1. Biography of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

2. Major works of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

3. " A little prince" - characteristics and analysis of the work.

4. "Planet of People" - characteristics and analysis of the work

1. Biography of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was born in the French city of Lyon, descended from an old family of Périgord nobles, and was the third of five children of Viscount Jean de Saint-Exupéry and his wife Marie de Fontcolombes. 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. Exupery entered the School of the Christian Brothers of St. Bartholomew in Lyon (1908), then with his brother François he studied at the Jesuit College of Sainte-Croix in Manse - until 1914, after which they continued their studies in Friborg (Switzerland) at the Marist College, preparing to enter the Ecole Naval (he took a preparatory course at the Naval Lyceum Saint-Louis in Paris), but did not pass the competition. In 1919, he enrolled as a volunteer student at the Academy of Fine Arts in the architecture department.

The turning point in his fate was 1921 - then he was drafted into the army in France. Having interrupted the deferment he received upon entering higher education educational institution, Antoine enlisted in the 2nd Fighter 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 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 devoted himself to writing. However, at first he was not successful in this field and was forced to take on any job: he sold cars, he was a salesman in a bookstore.

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

In 1930, Saint-Exupéry returned to France and received a three-month vacation. In April, he married Consuelo Sunsin, 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 the Femina literary prize. 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 the Air France airline (formerly Aeropostal), as a representative of the company, traveling to Africa, Indochina and other countries.

In August 1936, according to an agreement with the newspaper Entransijan, he went to Spain, where he Civil War, and publishes a number of reports in the newspaper.

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

Saint-Exupery made several combat missions in a Block 174 aircraft, performing aerial photographic reconnaissance missions, and was nominated for the Military Cross award. In June 1941, after the defeat of France, he moved to his sister in the unoccupied part of the country, and later went to the United States. He lived in New York, where, among other things, he wrote his most famous book, “The Little Prince” (1942, published 1943).

On July 31, 1944, Saint-Exupery set off from Borgo airfield on the island of Corsica on a reconnaissance flight and did not return.

Saint-Exupéry Antoine de
Born: June 29, 1900.
Died: July 31, 1944.

Biography

Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger de Saint-Exupéry (French: Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger de Saint-Exupéry; June 29, 1900, Lyon, France - July 31, 1944) - famous French writer, poet and professional pilot.

Childhood, adolescence, youth

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was born in the French city of Lyon at 8 Rue Peyrat to Count Jean-Marc Saint-Exupéry (1863-1904), who was an insurance inspector, and his wife Marie Bois de Fontcolombes. The family came from an old family of Perigord nobles. Antoine (his nickname at home was "Tonio") was the third of five children, he had two older sisters - Marie-Madeleine "Biche" (born in 1897) and Simone "Monot" (born in 1898), - younger brother Francois (born 1902) and younger sister Gabriela "Didi" (born 1904). Early childhood Exupery's children passed away at the estate of Saint-Maurice de Remans in the department of Ain, but in 1904, when Antoine was 4 years old, his father died of a cerebral hemorrhage, after which Marie moved with the children to Lyon.

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 Gabriel Wroblewski.

Exupery entered the School of the Christian Brothers of St. Bartholomew in Lyon (1908), then with his brother Francois he studied at the Jesuit College of Sainte-Croix in Manse - until 1914, after which they continued their studies in Friborg (Switzerland) at the Marist College, preparing to enter the Ecole Naval (he took a preparatory course at the Naval Lyceum Saint-Louis in Paris), but did not pass the competition. In 1919, he enrolled as a volunteer at the Academy. fine arts to the Department of Architecture.

The turning point in his fate was 1921 - then he was drafted into the army in France. Having interrupted the deferment he received upon entering a higher educational institution, Antoine enrolled 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 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 devoted himself to writing. However, at first he was not successful in this field and was forced to take on any job: he sold cars, he was a salesman in a bookstore.

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

In March 1929, Saint-Exupery returned to France, where he entered the highest aviation courses of the naval fleet in Brest. Soon, Gallimard's publishing house published the novel "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 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 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 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 to work as a pilot for the France-Africa postal line and served the Casablanca-Port-Etienne-Dakar section. In October 1931, Night Flight was published, and the writer was awarded the Femina literary prize. 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, 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. The seaplane capsized, and he barely managed to get out of the cabin of the sinking car.

In 1934, Exupery went to work for the Air France airline (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 Stalinism. On May 1, 1935, he attended a meeting to which M. A. Bulgakov was also invited, which was recorded in E. S. Bulgakov’s diary. Her entry from April 30: “Madame Wiley invited us to her place tomorrow at 10 1/2 p.m. Boolen said he would send a car to pick us up. So, American days! And from May 1: “We got enough sleep during the day, and in the evening, when the car arrived, we drove around through the embankment and the center to see the illumination. Wiley had about 30 people, among them the Turkish ambassador, some French writer who had just arrived in the Union, and, of course, Steiger. All our acquaintances were there - secretaries of the American embassy. From the spot - champagne, whiskey, cognac. Then - dinner a la fourchette, sausages and beans, spaghetti pasta and compote. Fruits".

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.

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 Saint-Exupéry 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 burns, everyone who cares grabs buckets and shovels. I want to fight, I am forced to do so by love and my internal religion. I can’t stand by and watch this calmly.”

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, “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.

“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 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 aircraft, possibly belonging to Saint-Exupery. 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, modification F-5B-1-LO (long-range photo reconnaissance aircraft), which was 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 were added about the desertion of Saint-Ex.

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 Me-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-Exupery.” The Germans learned that the pilot of the downed plane was Saint-Exupery on the same days from radio interceptions of negotiations at French airfields carried out by German troops.

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.

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Biography, life story of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger de Saint-Exupery - French writer and 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 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 People” and the National book prize USA for "Wind, Sand and Stars". In the same year he was awarded the Military Cross of the French Republic.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is an outstanding French writer and pilot. The author managed to combine the flight of fantasy and the flight of an aviator in his work and life, to display in his works artistic details the usual romance of the sky. A philosopher and humanist, he insisted that writing and flying were the same thing.

Features of creativity

The work of Antoine de Saint-Exupery is associated with biography; most of his books talk about flights, the sky, pilots and airplanes. However main theme any narrative still remains philosophical issues human personality, matters of life and death. The author wanted to understand, comprehend and convey to the audience of readers his vision of “a person when choosing a path in life.”

Most famous book Exupery is "The Little Prince". Many call it a fairy tale, and indeed, the writer, with the help of allegories, presents the basic laws of society. “We are responsible for those we have tamed.” In this phrase you can see help, sympathy, support, compassion.

It’s easy to read Exupery’s books, the writer demonstrates the philosophy of action and life, tries to find answers to questions that torment many people: “how to live correctly?”, “what to do?”. Books by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry online:

"Planet of People".

Brief biography of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Was born future writer in 1900 in Lyon. At the age of four he lost his father and was raised by his mother. He received his first education at the Jesuit school in La Mana, then he studied at a Catholic boarding school in Switzerland, and in 1917 he graduated from the School of Fine Arts in Paris.

An important period in his life was 1921, when Exupery was drafted into the army and sent to pilot training. After a year of hard training, he received a pilot's license and moved to Paris, where he became interested in literature. At first, his work did not win laurels. Exupery had to constantly change professions and take on any job.

Luck smiled only in 1925, Exupery became a pilot for Aeropostal, a company delivering mail to northern Africa. A few years later he became the head of the airport of a small town in Africa. In 1929 he was transferred to Buenos Aires.

Returning to Europe, he worked for a short time on postal airlines and tried himself as a test pilot. From the mid-1930s he was engaged in journalism, and in 1935 he visited Moscow as a correspondent. I devoted five interesting essays to this event. As a correspondent, he went to war in Spain and actively fought against the Nazis. In 1944 he went to the Sardinian islands for reconnaissance and did not return.

The details of Exupery's death were unknown. Only in 1998, near Marseille, a fisherman discovered a bracelet that belonged to the writer, and a year later the wreckage of the plane was found.

In one of his letters to his mother, Saint-Exupery admitted: “I hate people who write for fun, looking for effects. You have to have something to say.” He, the romantic of heaven, who did not shy away from earthly joys, who loved, according to his friends, “writing, speaking, singing, playing, getting to the bottom of things, eating, attracting attention, caring for women,” a man of a discerning mind with his own advantages and disadvantages , but always stood on defense universal human values, there was “what to say.” And he did it: he wrote the fairy tale “The Little Prince”, about the most important thing in this life, life on planet Earth, increasingly so unkind, but beloved and the only one.

Before you is a truly unique book - a collection of journalism by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, which was compiled by the French publisher Claude Raynal and published in the writer’s homeland more than half a century ago. Selected works are published for the first time in Russian, some were published in other publications, but this book is published in Russia for the first time in its original composition.

The essays, speeches, articles and letters collected here represent true value not only for fans of Saint-Exupery’s work and allow, in addition to the usual heroic image of the writer-pilot, to see in the author of these texts a journalist, mentor, speaker, soldier, as well as an outstanding person who devoted himself to searching for the meaning of life, determining the place and role of people in it.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is a writer who has become a “golden classic” of French and world literature, the author of “The Little Prince,” familiar to many since childhood, the creator of the best best novels about the war and its free and unwilling heroes and victims. A writer whose books have the amazing ability to remain modern in any era and attract the attention of readers of any age.

"Citadel" is the most original and, perhaps, the most brilliant work Exupery. A book in which the facets of this writer’s talent sparkled in a new way. A book in which the motives of reasons and military prose, memoirs and literary legends, reflections on the meaning of life and the spiritual quest of the great Frenchman.

Saint-Exupéry spent 1927-1929 in Africa, working as the head of the intermediate airfield of Cap Jubi on the southern border of Morocco (this airfield is described in “Southern Postal”); there he finished his first book, begun several years earlier. It was first published in 1929.

Saint-Exupéry's first story is still imperfect in many ways. In particular, it turned out to be inorganic for the work of this writer love line its plot; in general, the plot structure of the book rather prevents the free expression of ideas and problems that worried its author. Nevertheless, many important meaningful motives are already heard here - the motive of human connections connecting the narrator with his friend Jacques Bernis, the thought of the order that a person brings into the world through his activities. The intense (at times not yet clear enough) style of the story foreshadows the style of mature philosophical prose of Saint-Exupery.

The central place in this book is occupied by two short stories: “Manon, dancer” - the first completed work of Exupery, unfortunately not published during the author’s lifetime, and “The Aviator” - a short story that became the first publication of the writer, as well as Starting point on the way to creating his eternal creations. These early works, of course, are extremely significant in the work of Saint-Exupéry; in them those artistic merits are fully felt high craftsmanship and the depth of thought that readers value so much in him.

In addition, the collection includes previously unknown essays by the writer, unpublished chapters and fragments of the novels “Southern Post Office” and “Night Flight”, as well as accurately reproduced letters and documents representing unique evidence of the life and history of his creation. immortal works. Will cause great interest to the reader Love letters to the granddaughter of Tsar Alexander II, actress and socialite Natalie Paley, full of piercing lyricism and revelation.

The texts are published for the first time in Russian.

Preface

Manon, dancer

Around the novels “Southern Post Office” and “Night Flight”

This summer I went to see my plane. Pilot. You can believe in people

Letters to Natalie Paley

Before you are the legendary works of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, writer and pilot. Works in which the writer’s talent serves only as a means and form to express the pilot’s feelings.

The once wise Jean Cocteau called Exupery a “flying soul.” Now you have to plunge into the flight of this soul - and, together with Exupery, “go into the sky”...

“Military Pilot” is a book about defeat and about the people who endured it in the name of future victory. In it, Saint-Exupéry takes the reader back to the initial period of the war, to the days of May 1940, when “the retreat of the French troops was in full swing.” In its form, “Military Pilot” is a report on the events of one day. He talks about the flight of a French reconnaissance plane to the city of Arras, which found itself behind German lines. The book is reminiscent of Saint-Exupery's newspaper reports about events in Spain, but it is written in a different, more high level. Saint-Exupery wrote “The Military Pilot”, addressing defeated France, and his task was to find out, first of all, for himself, and then for everyone, defeated the main problem: what can a person who finds himself in captivity do, where and in what should he look for support, where can he draw hope for salvation. Therefore, an integral part of the report about the war includes memories of his childhood, of his nanny from Tyrol - Paula, and of his years in college.

de Saint-Exupéry Antoine (1900-1944)

French writer and professional pilot. Born in the French city of Lyon, in the family of a provincial nobleman (count). At the age of four he lost his father. His mother raised little Antoine.

Exupery graduated from the Jesuit school in Montreux, studied at a Catholic boarding school in Switzerland, and in 1917 entered the Faculty of Architecture at the Paris School of Fine Arts. The turning point in his fate came in 1921, when he was drafted into the army and enrolled in pilot courses. A year later, Exupery received a pilot's license and moved to Paris, where he turned to writing, so far unsuccessful.

Only in 1925 did Exupery find his calling - he became a pilot for the Aeropostal company, which delivered mail to the northern coast of Africa. Two years later he was appointed head of the airport at Cap Jubi, on the very edge of the Sahara. In 1929, Exupery headed the branch of his airline in Buenos Aires. In 1930 he received the Femina literary prize for his novel Night Flight. Saint-Exupéry's main books grew out of his experience as a pilot.

The novels “Southern Post Office” and “Night Flight” are a vision of the world through the eyes of a pilot and acute feeling solidarity of people who share danger. "Land of Men" consists of dramatic episodes, portraits of pilots and philosophical reflections. In 1935 he visited Moscow as a correspondent. He also went to war in Spain as a correspondent. In 1939 he received two literary prizes“Grand Prix du Roman of the French Academy” and “US National Book Award” for the novel “Wind, Sand and Stars”. In the same year he was awarded the Military Cross of the French Republic. From the first days of World War II, he fought the Nazis, but did not stop writing. The deeply personal work “Military Pilot” dates back to this period. Saint-Exupéry also owns the fairy tale “The Little Prince,” which he himself illustrated. On July 31, 1944, the writer set off from an airfield on the island of Sardinia on a reconnaissance flight - and did not return.

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: the name of the pilot’s wife and the address of the publishing house where Saint-Exupéry’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. Experts recovered the wreckage, and it turned out that the onboard serial number corresponded to the plane flown by Exupery. In March 2008, 88-year-old Luftwaffe veteran Horst Ripper admitted that it was he who shot down the famous writer’s plane.

An airport in Lyon and an asteroid are named after Exupery.

bunny, do you understand that all unnecessary moments are cut off here, and all the events from his life are collected on this page?

I completely agree with (I.Aer). And thanks to the people who made such a wonderful page, I’m always looking for biographies of writers, etc. I go to this site. Developers (it’s easier to call you that), you’re great and you’re trying hard. I like! It’s okay that there are little mistakes, everyone makes mistakes and... still the site is great. Helps me a lot! Good luck to you in the future!!!