Biography of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Ageless

June 29, 1900
July 31, 1944
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was born in Lyon (France) on 29 June 1900, into an aristocratic family: Father Jean was the insurance Inspector and her mother Marie, a talented painter. His father died just four years, is lovingly raised by mother who moves at Le Mans in 1909. Antoine's childhood is very happy, maybe a little too spoiled, in the large residence of Saint Maurice de Rémens, classic style in the middle of a park of fir trees and lime trees. Among his friends and playmates, it's the most imaginative, overbearing, adventurous. The turning point in his life is the year 1921 when part for military service and was sent to Strasbourg to become an Aviator. On 9 July 1921 accomplished made his first solo flight on board a Sopwith F-CTEE. Get a pilot's license in 1922 and then returns to Paris where he began to devote himself to writing. These are unfortunate years. Performs several works, including the accounting officer and car salesman. In 1928 becomes Director of Cap Juby field remote near Rio de Oro, Sahara. In 1929 Saint-Exupéry moved to South America to carry mail over the Andes. And ' the famous period of Aeropostale.
His most sensational flight accidents become proverbial: what takes place in 1938, when attempting to establish the record flight from New York to Tierra del Fuego. After the invasion of France in World War II, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry entered the air force and fulfills several missions of war, despite being considered unfit for flight because of too many ills. Will still be awarded the Croix de guerre. Even today he is remembered as "romantic hero," a man away, vanished, almost unreal, both for his adventurous life and his death in mysterious circumstances at the age of 44 years. July 31, 1944 day part for the ninth and final mission, with the aim of flying over the region of Grenoble-Annecy. Not coming back: is reported missing and you don't know anything. Among the various hypotheses, the most striking would be one that would see rushed into the sea due to an engine failure while trying to escape the German anti-aircraft fire, after being turned away from the established route to give a nostalgic look at the sites of his beloved childhood.
Antoine was an idealist, a brave pilot, a man of great passions with a troubled and unhappy love life. What made him extraordinary was the literature that for him was life itself, indissoluble. He stated that "one must live in order to write", and in fact most of his works take autobiographical insights, transformed into romantic Chronicles of true events. Perhaps because of this ended up making his life a novel. His best known book is undoubtedly "the little Prince", a fairy tale dedicated to his friend Léon Werth, but not adult friend, but the child, a dedication retroactive, a childhood that endures in all ages.
Article contributed by the team of collaborators.