Antoine de saint-exupéry short biography. Antoine Saint Exupery: biography

The life and work of Exupery, the biography of this man and his personal life are what interests many readers of our time. There were many interesting moments in his life that are worth talking about. Facts from the life of Saint Exupery is a biography of one of the most mysterious authors of that time. The fate of a writer and a pilot in one person is an interesting mixture, and we invite you to plunge into the past and live some moments of that time together with a talented person.

Antoine Exupery: biography

Antoine was born on June 26, 1900 in the beautiful town of France - Lyon. His father was a nobleman of not very high level, count. The boy's full name was given to Antoine de Saint Exupery. His biography is filled with various events, and the first of them was the loss of his father at the age of 4 years. His further education was taken over by his mother. First, she made sure that he graduated from a Jesuit school, and then sent him to study in a private Swiss boarding school. In 1917, Antoine became an architectural student at the École des Arts in Paris. Thus, the mother fulfilled her parental duty and gave her son a decent education.

New stage

In 1921, Antoine was drafted into the army, and his fate changed dramatically. At first he worked in workshops at the airfield, but soon passed the exam and received the pilot's license, while only a civilian. A little later, he retrained as a military pilot and improved his skills in Istra. After completing officer courses in Avor, Antoine was promoted to junior lieutenant. He made many flights as an officer in the 34th regiment, but in 1923 his plane crashed and Exupery suffered a severe head injury. Returning from the army, he moved to the capital of France and became interested in writing. Not very successful at first. But Antoine de Exupery, whose biography is still connected with literature, did not despair.

Antoine's activities

Since his work as a writer was not successful, he had to change his occupation and take up trade. First, he got a job at a car company and sold cars, and then changed cars for books, worked in a bookstore. But he could not engage in this type of activity for a long time. In 1926 he was fortunate enough to find a job at Aeropostal. By flying the plane, Antoine delivered mail to the African continent. Then he continued to work on a mail plane, but changed directions - from Toulouse to Dakar. After being promoted, Antoine became stationmaster at Villa Bens. It was in this place that he wrote his first story - "Southern Postal". After that, Exupery received another promotion and moved to South America, where he became director of the Aeropostal branch. While working there, he was a member of the team that was looking for the missing person, friend of Antoine, Guillaume. An important point is that Exupery was awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor for his significant contribution to the work of aviation. The whole life of De Saint Exupery, the biography of this man and even his death - everything is in one way or another connected with aviation, so this award was very important for the writer.

The character of the writer

Everyone who knew this man said that he was a unique person. There was always a smile on Antoine's face, and he loved all people in an amazing way. The small nose gave him a perky look. The generous character of the writer was distinguished by the fact that he selflessly helped everyone who needed it. However, he never expected anything in return. Count Antoine de Saint Exupery, whose biography interests us, was, first of all, a man with a capital letter. He never lied because he couldn't. He was sure that hatred was not a way out of the situation. Only love can conquer hatred. Therefore, he was loving and very kind. With all this, Antoine was extremely He could forget to turn off the tap and flood the neighbors below, he could sit on the wrong lane, flying the plane, or forget to slam the apartment door. However, this did not in any way detract from his merits.

Romance in the life of a writer

For the first time, the writer's heart fluttered when he met his first love, Louise Willmorn, who was from a very wealthy family. He sought her location in every possible way, but she did not reciprocate and ignored his ardent advances. When Antoine was hospitalized after the plane crash, she completely forgot about his existence. Exupery took this tragedy hard and suffered for a long time, experiencing the torment of unrequited love. Even when the writer became famous and recognized in the world, this did not in any way affect Louise's attitude towards Saint Exupery. Antoine's biography was no longer associated with this woman. But the other ladies really liked him. Many found him attractive, and almost everyone found him charming. The smile that always adorned his face made him very good-natured and attractive.

Muse of genius

Once, having endured suffering because of unrequited love, Antoine was in no hurry to plunge into this pool again. He wanted to find a woman with whom he could start a family. And I found it. Such a woman turned out to be Consuelo Carilo. There are many options for how exactly the future newlyweds met, but the best version is the one in which they were introduced by a mutual friend, Benjamin Cramier. Consuelo was a widow, her previous husband, also a writer, died, and she fled from sorrow into the arms of Antoine. They got married in France in the spring of 1931. The wedding was very magnificent and attracted many guests. As for Consuelo, reviews about the character of this woman are not always positive. She had an explosive character, was rather unbalanced and hysterical. But Antoine was madly in love with his wife. She had an extraordinary mind, read a lot and was an interesting conversationalist. She always behaved slightly arrogantly, although no one could call her a beauty. Exupery, whose biography interests the reader in all the details, considered his wife the most beautiful, and she gave him strength both in writing and in work in aviation.

Correspondent

In parallel with his personal life, the writer's professional life in the field of aviation developed. After the Aeropostal company went bankrupt, Antoine worked as an airplane tester, where he was hired by his friend, Didier. The work was very dangerous, and once Antoine almost died while testing another plane. A new activity was the work of a correspondent. Having signed an agreement with the Paris Soir newspaper, Exupery traveled to different countries and wrote essays. One of the significant journeys was a trip to the USSR. Having felt the whole atmosphere of the Stalinist regime, he tried to express his impressions in his essay, which was published by the newspaper. Later, Antoine traveled from the Entrance newspaper to the region of Spain, where the civil war was going on at the time. Many of the essays from those places are the result of the work of Exupery. The biography of this man is full of danger and extreme, and this always pushed him to further crazy deeds. For example, he bought a plane and wanted to set a record by flying the Paris-Saigon line. But the plane crashed right in the middle of the desert. Antoine miraculously survived. The Bedouins saved him and the plane's mechanic when they were almost dying of thirst.

Great writer

Virtually all of Exupery's books came from his work in aviation and his experience as a pilot. His novels are imbued with the perception of the world through the eyes of an airplane pilot. Antoine received literary awards that praised him as a writer:

Femina Literary Prize.
Grand Prix du Roman (France).
National (USA).

Exupery's works were always multifaceted, each of them had a deep meaning. Some novels concerned only the pilot, others expressed purely personal relationships. He loved to philosophize in his works, and this made readers think about the main idea that Exupery wanted to put in. Biography, short or detailed, in any case will reveal Antoine first of all as a writer, and then as a pilot. But here you can argue. Indeed, without Antoine the pilot, there would be no successful writer Antoine. Therefore, who is in charge, a pilot or a writer, a question similar to the one that appeared first: an egg or a chicken.

Literary heritage

The modern reader has the opportunity to get acquainted with the various works of Exupery. These are both articles and essays. But the main indicator of his talent as a writer is such novels as:

"Southern Postal".
"Night flight".
"The Land of People".
"Wind, Sand and Stars".
"Military pilot".
"Little Prince".

The death of a writer

Much has been and is being said about the writer's death. Indeed, like Antoine himself, his death was not simple and unambiguous. When the Second World War began, he did not stay at home for a day, and the next day after the declaration of war, he was already in a military unit. Friends discouraged him, but he was relentless. Enrolled in a reconnaissance detachment. Made many combat and reconnaissance missions. One day, July 31, 1944, he flew to reconnaissance and never returned. For a very long time he was considered missing. It was only in 1998 that a bracelet was found near Marseille in the sea, on which the name "Consuelo" could be seen. Even later, in 2000, the wreckage of the plane on which Antoine flew was discovered. And even later, in 2008, the pilot of the German squadron admitted that it was he who shot down Exupery's plane. The biography of this talented person is so vivid that even death should have become a kind of mystery and worthily end the life of a great man. Lyon Airport is named in honor of Antoine de Saint Exupery, and this is also done for a reason.

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 -) - French writer who was a professional pilot, was born in León on June 29, 1900. His father-count passed away when Antoine was 4 years old, and the boy was completely taken care of by his mother. From 1908 to 1904, Antoine was educated at Mans, the Jesuit College of Saint-Croix, then was a pupil of a Catholic boarding school located in Friborg, Switzerland, completed his education as a free student at the Academy of Fine Arts, the department of architecture.

Much in his further biography was determined by 1921, when Saint-Exupery was drafted into the army. Antoine ended up in the 2nd Fighter Regiment stationed in Strasbourg. At first, he was a worker in a repair shop, then, after completing pilot courses, he successfully passed the exam for a civilian pilot. Later in Morocco, he became a military pilot.

In October 1922, he was sent to the 34th Aviation Regiment near Paris, and already in January of the next year, the first plane crash happened in his life, of which he had to go through a lot. The commissioned Saint-Exupery settles in the capital, where he tries to earn money through literary work. However, this occupation did not bring him much success, so he had to look for other sources of income, in particular, working as a seller.

In 1925 Saint-Exupery became a pilot of the Aeropostal company, which was engaged in the delivery of mail to North Africa. During 1927-1929 he worked as the head of the airport in these parts. To the same period of his biography, the first story, entitled "The Pilot", appeared in print. Since 1929 he has been the head of the Buenos Aires branch of the airline. For his contribution to the development of civil aviation, in 1930 he was awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor. In 1931 he returned to Europe, where he again worked for the postal airline. 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 was an attempt to reveal the essence of Stalin's policy. As a war correspondent, he collaborated with the newspaper in August 1936, while in Spain, which was engulfed in the 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 National Book Prize of the United States. In the same year, he received a military award - the Military Cross of the French Republic.

From the very first days of the Second World War, Saint-Exupery joined the fight against the Nazis both as a publicist and as a military pilot. When the Germans occupied France, he first moved to an unoccupied part of the country, and then emigrated to the United States. In 1943 he ended up in North Africa, where he served as a military pilot. It was there that the fairy tale that glorified the writer was written, recognized as the highest achievement of his literary work - "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-Exupery were not known for a long time. In 1998, not far from 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 "Citadel" was published, which remained unfinished.

Biography from Wikipedia

Childhood, adolescence, youth

Birthplace of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry - 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 (fr. rue Peyrat, now fr. rue Antoine de Saint Exupéry), 8, to the insurance inspector Count Jean-Marc Saint-Exupéry (1863-1904) and his wife Marie Bois de Foncolomb. The family came from an old family of Perigord noblemen. Antoine (his family nickname was "Tonio") was the third of five children, he had two older sisters - Marie-Madeleine "Bichet" (born in 1897) and Simone "Monod" (born in 1898), a younger brother François (born 1902) and younger sister Gabriela "Didi" (born 1904). Exupery spent his early childhood in an apartment on Rue Peyrat in Lyon, but in 1904, when Antoine was 4 years old, his father died of intracerebral hemorrhage, after which Antoine began to spend six months a year in the castle of the commune that belonged to his great-aunt - Marie, Countess Tricot Saint-Maurice-de-Rement in the department of Ain, and the rest of the time - at the apartment of Countess Tricot in Place Bellecour in Lyon or in the castle of the commune of La Mol 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 the street Clos-Margot (fr. Rue du Clos-Margot).

Exupery entered the école chrétienne de la Montée Saint-Barthélemy School of Christian Brothers in Lyon (1908), then, together with his brother François, studied at the Jesuit College of Saint-Croix in Le Mans - until 1914.

In 1912, Saint-Exupéry first took to the air in an airplane at the airfield at Ambrieu-en-Bugey. The car was driven by the famous pilot Gabriel Wroblewski.

In 1914-1915, the brothers studied at the Jesuit College Notre-Dame-de-Montreux in Villefranche-sur-Saone, 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, François died of rheumatic heart disease, his death shocked Antoine. In October 1917, Antoine, preparing to enter the Ecole Naval, took a preparatory course at the Ecole Bossuet, Lyceum Saint-Louis, then, in 1918, at the Lycée Lacanal, but in June 1919 he failed to oral entrance exam to Ekol Naval. In October 1919, he enrolled as a volunteer at the National High School of Fine Arts in the department of architecture.

The turning point in the fate of Antoine was 1921, when he was drafted into the army. Interrupting the grace period he received when he entered the university, Antoine enrolled in the 2nd Fighter Regiment in Strasbourg. At first he was assigned to a working team at repair shops, but soon he managed to pass the exam for a civilian pilot. Exupery was transferred to Morocco, where he received the rights of a military pilot, and then sent to Istres for improvement. In 1922, Antoine graduated from the courses for reserve officers in Avora and was promoted to junior lieutenant. In October, he was assigned to the 34th Aviation Regiment at Bourget near Paris. In January 1923, the first plane crash happened to him, Exupery received a head 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 of the Aeropostal company, which delivered mail to the northern coast of Africa. In the spring, he began to work on the transport of mail on the Toulouse - Casablanca line, then Casablanca - Dakar. On October 19, 1926, he was appointed head of the Cap Jubi intermediate station (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 higher aviation courses of the navy in Brest. Soon the publishing house of Gallimard published the novel Southern Postal, and Exupery went to South America as the technical director of Aeropost - Argentina, a subsidiary of Aeropostal. In 1930, Saint-Exupery was promoted to the 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 Guillaume, who had an accident while flying over the Andes. In the same year, Saint-Exupéry wrote the novel "Night Flight" and met his future wife, Consuelo from El Salvador.

Pilot and Correspondent

In 1930, Saint-Exupery returned to France and received a three-month vacation. In April, he married Consuelo Sunxin (April 16, 1901 - May 28, 1979), but the spouses generally lived separately. On March 13, 1931, Aeropostal 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 airline Latecoer; as a co-pilot, he flew a seaplane serving the Marseille-Algeria line. Didier Dora, a former Aeropostal pilot, soon hired him as a test pilot, and Saint-Exupéry nearly died while testing a new seaplane in Saint-Raphael Bay.

From 1934, Exupery worked for Air France (formerly Aeropostal); as a company representative he traveled to Africa, Indochina and other countries.

In April 1935, as a correspondent for the Paris-Soir newspaper, Saint-Exupery 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-Exupery became the owner of his own aircraft C.630 "Simun" and on December 29, 1935, he attempted to set a record for 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 the Bedouins.

In August 1936, as a correspondent for the Entrancian newspaper, Exupery traveled to Spain, where the civil war was raging, 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, The Planet of Men. On February 15, he began the flight New York - Tierra del Fuego, but suffered a serious accident in Guatemala, after which he recovered his health 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 appeared at the mobilization site at the Toulouse-Montodran 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 the persuasion of friends to abandon the risky career of a military pilot. Many have tried to convince Saint-Exupery that he will bring much more benefit to the country, as a writer and journalist, that pilots can be trained in thousands and he should not risk his life. But Saint-Exupery achieved an appointment to the combat unit. In a letter in November 1939, he wrote: “I am obliged to participate in this war. Everything I love is at stake. In Provence, when the forest is on fire, everyone who cares grabs buckets and shovels. I want to fight, I am forced to do this by love and my inner religion. I cannot stand aside and calmly look at it. "

Saint-Exupéry flew several combat missions on a Block-174 aircraft, performing aerial 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 an unoccupied part of the country, and later left for the United States. He lived in New York, where in 1942 he created his most famous work "The Little Prince", published a year later in French and English with illustrations by the author (in France, the tale was published in 1946). In 1943 he joined the Fighting France Air Force and with great difficulty achieved his enlistment in the combat unit. He had to master piloting the new high-speed P-38 Lightning. To Jean Pelissier July 9-10, 1944, Exupery wrote: “I have a funny craft for my age. The next person behind me is six years younger than me. But, of course, my current life - breakfast at six in the morning, a dining room, a tent or a room whitewashed with lime, flights at an altitude of ten thousand meters in a world forbidden for a person - I prefer the unbearable Algerian idleness ... ... I chose work for maximum wear and, as needed always squeeze myself to the end, I will no longer back down. I only wish that this heinous war would end before I melt like a candle in a stream of oxygen. I have something to do after it. "

On July 31, 1944, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry departed 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 the bracelet.

It bore several inscriptions: “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 publisher that published Saint-Exupery's books. In May 2000, diver Luc Vanrell announced that he had discovered the wreckage of an aircraft, possibly belonging to Saint-Exupéry, at a depth of 70 meters. The remains of the aircraft were scattered over a strip a kilometer long and 400 meters wide. Almost immediately, the French government banned all searches in the area. The permit was obtained only in the fall of 2003. Specialists raised the fragments of the plane. One of them turned out to be part of the cockpit, the serial number of the aircraft was preserved: 2734-L. According to the American military archives, scientists have compared all the numbers of the aircraft that disappeared during this period. So, it turned out that the side serial number 2734-L corresponds to the aircraft, which was listed in the US Air Force under the number 42-68223, that is, the P-38 Lightning aircraft, modification of the F-5B-1-LO (long-range photo reconnaissance aircraft), which piloted by Exupery.

Luftwaffe journals do not contain records of aircraft shot down in this area on July 31, 1944, and the wreckage itself has no obvious traces of shelling. The remains of the pilot were not found. To many versions of the crash, including versions of a technical malfunction and a pilot's suicide (the writer suffered from depression), versions of Saint-Exupery's desertion were added.

According to press releases from March 2008, the German Luftwaffe veteran, 86-year-old Horst Rippert, pilot of the Jagdgroup 200 squadron, then a journalist, said that it was he who shot down Antoine de Saint-Exupery on his Messerschmitt Bf.109 fighter (apparently, he killed him or seriously wounded him, and Saint-Exupery lost control of the plane and could not jump with a parachute). The plane entered the water at high speed and almost vertically. There was an explosion at the moment of collision with water. The plane was completely destroyed. Its fragments are scattered over a vast area under water. According to Rippert's statements, he confessed to clear the name of Saint-Exupery from charges of desertion or suicide, since he was already a big fan of Saint-Ex's work and would never have shot at him, but he did not know who was at the helm of the plane. enemy:

I did not see the pilot, only later I learned that it was Saint-Exupery

That Saint-Exupéry was the pilot of the downed plane, the Germans learned in those days from the radio interception of the negotiations of French airfields, which was carried out by German troops. Meanwhile, Luftwaffe pilots who served with Horst Rippert express doubts about the veracity of his words that he hid the fact of the destruction of a rather large aircraft from his own command. The researchers note that such a victory does not appear in the archives of the Luftwaffe, American radars did not record flights of unknown aircraft, and the aircraft itself does not have any traces of shelling. Therefore, many researchers believe that the main version is the fall of the Saint-Exupery plane from a malfunction, and Horst Rippert is not telling the truth.

Now the wreckage of the plane is in the Museum of Aviation and Astronautics 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 "The Planet of Men";
1939 - US National Book Award - for the novel "Wind, Sand and Stars" ("The Planet of the People").

Military awards

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

Bibliography

Post-war publications

Lettres de jeunesse. Editions Gallimard, 1953. Préface de Renée de Saussine. Letters of youth.
Carnets. Editions Gallimard, 1953. Notebooks.
Lettres à sa mère. Editions Gallimard, 1954. Prologue de Madame de Saint-Exupery. Letters to the mother.
Un sens à la vie. Editions 1956. Textes inédits recueillis et présentés par Claude Reynal. Give meaning to life. 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: E.V. Baevskaya

Small works

Who are you, soldier? Translations into Russian: Ginzburg Yu.A.
Pilot (first story, published on April 1, 1926 in the magazine "Silver Ship").
Morality of necessity. Translations into Russian: Tsyvyan L.M.
It is necessary to give meaning to human life. Translations into Russian: Ginzburg Yu.A.
Appeal to the Americans. Translations into Russian: Tsyvyan L.M.
Pan-Germanism and its propaganda. Translations into Russian: Tsyvyan L.M.
Pilot and 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 the "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, the voices of enemies echo from the trenches. Translations into Russian: Ginzburg Yu.A.
Citadel themes. Translations into Russian: E.V. Baevskaya
France first of all. Translations into Russian: Baevskaya E.V.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery.
Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger de Saint-Exupery is a French writer, born June 29, 1900 in Lyon (France). Saint-Exupery's parents come from aristocratic families. When Antoine was only four years old, his father died of a cerebral hemorrhage, after which Antoine spent 5 years almost all the time with his relatives.
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 made an attempt to enter the Naval Academy, listened to lectures on architecture.

Military career

In 1921, Antoine went to the army, to the aviation. Love for the sky appeared from the age of 12, when he was first able to fly in the cockpit. At first, he was a member of the working team, but soon passed the examination test as a civilian pilot, was later transferred to Morocco and became a military pilot - junior lieutenant.
In October 1922, he was enlisted in an air regiment near Paris, but at the beginning of 1923 he got into a plane crash, which resulted in a head injury, and soon he was 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 - he delivered mail to Africa. It was there, near the Sahara, that Saint-Exupery wrote his first novel, Southern Postal, published in 1929. Despite the high marks from critics, Antoine did not continue to write, but entered aviation courses. Also in 1929 he was transferred to South America as technical director. He worked there for two years, the company went bankrupt, and the novel Night Flight (1931) was the result of his work in South America.
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 work related to flights to Africa. In 1932 he began flying as a co-pilot on a seaplane, later became a test pilot, which almost cost him his life.
For several years he worked in civil aviation and combined this with the work of a correspondent. He penned essays on the brutal policy of I. V. Stalin and reports on the civil war that was taking place in Spain at that time, in which 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 "The Planet of People" - a collection of autobiographical sketches (1939).

The Second World War

September 3, 1939. All friends were against the fact that Antoine would go to war, nevertheless, on September 4, he was already at the military airfield. Friends assured him that he was more needed at home, as a writer and journalist, but Saint-Exupery could not look calmly at how they were destroying his homeland, could not stay idle. 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 aircraft "Lightning". On July 31, 1944, Saint-Exupery 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 for 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 couple lived separately, she lied, he cheated. He could not be with her, but even without her he could not imagine his existence.

de Saint-Exupery 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. Little Antoine was raised by his mother.

Exupery graduated from the Jesuit school in Montreux, studied at a Catholic boarding school in Switzerland, and in 1917 he entered the Paris School of Fine Arts at the Faculty of Architecture. The turning point in his life was 1921, when he was drafted into the army and took a pilot course. A year later, Exupery received his 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 company Aeropostal, which delivered mail to the northern coast of Africa. Two years later, he was appointed head of the airport in Cap Jubi, on the very edge of the Sahara. In 1929, Exupery took over the office of his airline in Buenos Aires. In 1930 he received the Femina literary prize for the novel Night Flight. Saint-Exupery's major books grew out of his experience as a pilot.

The novels "Southern Postal" and "Night Flight" are a vision of the world through the eyes of a pilot and a keen sense of solidarity among people who share the danger. "The Land of People" consists of dramatic episodes, portraits of pilots and philosophical reflections. In 1935 he visited Moscow as a correspondent. Correspondent went to the war in Spain. In 1939 he received two literary awards "Grand Prix du Roman of the French Academy" and "National Book Prize of the United States" 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" belongs to this period. Saint-Exupery also owns the fairy tale "The Little Prince", which he himself illustrated.

On July 31, 1944, the writer left the airfield on the island of Sardinia on a reconnaissance flight - and never returned.

For a long time nothing was known about his death. And only in 1998, in the sea near Marseille, a fisherman discovered the bracelet. It bore several inscriptions: the name of the pilot's wife and the address of the publishing house in which Saint-Exupery's books were published. In May 2000, diver Luc Vanrell announced that he had discovered the wreckage of an aircraft, possibly belonging to Saint-Exupéry, at 70 meters depth. Experts picked up the wreckage, and it turned out that the side serial number corresponds to the plane that Exupery was flying.

In March 2008, the 88-year-old Luftwaffe veteran Horst Ripper admitted that he was the one who shot down the plane of the famous writer.

The Lyon airport and the asteroid are named after Exupery.

Comments (1)

bunny, do you understand that all unnecessary moments are cut off here, and all the events from his life are collected in 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 are great and you try hard. I like! Not that there are little blots, everyone is mistaken and ... still the site is class. It helps me a lot! Good luck in the future !!!

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