Antoine Saint Exupery: biography. Literary heritage
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Name: Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger de Saint-Exupery
Birthday: June 29, 1900
Place of Birth: Lyon, France
Date of death: July 31, 1944
A place of death: Mediterranean Sea
Biography of Antoine de Saint-Exupery
The famous French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was born in Leon. The father died when the boy was 4 years old, so his mother was engaged in his education. First, the future writer studied at Mans, at the Jesuit College of Sainte-Croix. After that, in Sweden in Friborg in a Catholic boarding house. Graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts, Department of Architecture. 
The year 1921 had a great influence on the further fate of Saint-Exupery. At this time, he is sent to the army. He ended up in Strasbourg in the fighter aviation regiment. At first he was just doing the renovation. After special courses, he becomes a civilian pilot. After that, he was sent to Morocco, where Saint-Exupéry became a military pilot.
In 1922, Antoine was sent to an air regiment near Paris, where he first got into a plane crash. It is worth noting that he will have to go through a lot of such disasters in his life.
After that, Saint-Exupery stops in Paris and for the first time tries to make money with his writing skills. However, this venture turns out to be a failure, therefore, out of despair, Antoine works as a bookseller, and also sells cars.
In 1925, Saint-Exupery got a job as a pilot in the Aeropostal company, which was engaged in the delivery of mail to North Africa. From 1927 to 1929 he worked as the head of the airport.
At this very time Saint-Exupery writes and publishes his first story entitled "The Pilot". In 1931 he was awarded the Femina Prize for the story "Night Flight".
In the mid-1930s, Saint-Exupery began working as a journalist. In 1935, he visited the USSR and wrote several sketches, in one of them he even tried to show the essence of Stalin's rule.
In 1939, Saint-Exupery received the French Academy Prize for the book "Planet of Men", and for the book "Wind, Sand and Stars" he was awarded the US National Book Prize.
When the Second World War broke out, Snt-Exupery immediately went to serve. He was in a region of France, free of the Germans, when the latter occupied it, and later left for the United States. In 1943 he again went to North Africa and served there as a military pilot. It was here that his world famous work "The Little Prince" was created. 
In July 1944, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry went on reconnaissance from the island of Corsica, and after that his plane disappeared. For a very long time, no one knew anything about the death of the writer. Only in 1998, a fisherman near Marseille fished out a bracelet that belonged to the pilot, and in 2000 his wrecked plane was found.
The investigation showed that there was no obvious damage to the aircraft's hull, so the plane crash could have happened due to equipment malfunction or due to the pilot's suicide. Later, it nevertheless became known that the plane was shot down by a German military, who admitted this only in 2008.
In 1948, the book "Citadel" was published, which collected the parables and aphorisms of the pilot-writer, which remained unfinished.
Documentary
To your attention a documentary film, a biography of Antoine de Saint-Exupery.
Bibliography by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Major works:
- Southern Postal (1929)
- Mail - South (1931)
- Night Flight (1938)
- The Land of People (1942)
- Military pilot (1943)
- Letter to the Hostage (1943)
- (1948)
- Citadel
Post-war publications:
- Letters of Youth (1953)
- Notebooks (1953)
- Letters to Mother (1954)
- Give meaning to life. Unpublished Texts Collected by Claude Raynal. (1956)
- Military notes. 1939-1944 (1982)
- Memories of some books. Essay
Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger de Saint-Exupery was born on June 29, 1900 in Lyon (France) into an aristocratic family. He was the third child of Count Jean de Saint-Exupéry.
The father died when Antoine was four years old, and his mother was engaged in raising the boy. He spent his childhood in the estate of Saint-Maurice near Lyon, which belonged to his grandmother.
In 1909-1914, Antoine and his younger brother Francois studied at the Jesuit College of Le Mans, then at a private educational institution in Switzerland.
After receiving a bachelor's degree at the college, for several years Antoine studied at the Academy of Arts at the architectural department, then entered the air force as a private. In 1923 he was issued a pilot's license.
In 1926 he was hired by the General Company of Aviation Enterprises, owned by the famous designer Latecoer. In the same year, Antoine de Saint-Exupery's first story "The Pilot" appeared in print.
Saint-Exupery flew on the postal lines Toulouse - Casablanca, Casablanca - Dakar, then became the head of the airfield at Fort Cap Jubi in Morocco (part of this territory belonged to the French) - on the border of the Sahara.
In 1929 he returned to France for six months and signed an agreement with the book publisher Gaston Guillimard for the publication of seven novels, in the same year the novel "Southern Postal" was published. In September 1929 Saint-Exupéry was appointed director of the Buenos Aires branch of the French airline Aeropostal Argentina.
In 1930 he was promoted to the Knight of the Order of the Legion of Honor of France, and at the end of 1931 he became a laureate of the prestigious literary prize "Femina" for the novel "Night Flight" (1931).
In 1933-1934 he was a test pilot, made a number of long-distance flights, suffered accidents, and was seriously wounded several times.
In 1934, he filed the first application for the invention of a new aircraft landing system (in total, he had 10 inventions at the level of scientific and technical achievements of his time).
In December 1935, during a long flight from Paris to Saigon, Antoine de Saint-Exupery's plane crashed in the Libyan desert, he miraculously survived.
From the mid-1930s he worked as a journalist: in April 1935, as a special correspondent for the Paris-Soir newspaper, he visited Moscow and described this visit in several essays; in 1936, as a front-line correspondent, he wrote a series of war reports from Spain, where the civil war was raging.
In 1939, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was promoted to officer of the Order of the Legion of Honor of France. In February, his book "The Planet of People" (in Russian translation - "Land of People"; American name - "Wind, Sand and Stars") was published, which is a collection of autobiographical essays. The book was honored with the French Academy Prize and the National Prize of the Year in the United States.
When World War II broke out, Captain Saint-Exupéry was drafted into the army, but was deemed fit only for service on the ground. Using all his connections, Saint-Exupéry secured an appointment to the air reconnaissance group.
In May 1940 he flew a reconnaissance flight over Arras on a Block-174 aircraft, for which he was awarded the Military Cross "For Military Merit".
After the occupation of France by Nazi troops in 1940, he emigrated to the United States.
In February 1942, his book "The Military Pilot" was published in the United States and was a great success, after which Saint-Exupery in late spring received an order from the publishing house Raynal-Hitchhock to write a fairy tale for children. He signed a contract and began work on a philosophical and lyrical fairy tale "The Little Prince" with author's illustrations. In April 1943, "The Little Prince" was published in the United States, and in the same year the story "A Letter to a Hostage" was published. Then Saint-Exupery worked on the novella The Citadel (unfinished, published in 1948).
In 1943, Saint-Exupéry left America for Algeria, where he underwent a course of treatment, from where in the summer he returned to his air group based in Morocco. After great difficulties in obtaining permission to fly, thanks to the support of influential figures of the French resistance, Saint-Exupéry was allowed to carry out five reconnaissance flights with aerial photography of enemy communications and troops in the area of \u200b\u200bhis native Provence.
On the morning of July 31, 1944, Saint-Exupery set off on a reconnaissance flight from the Borgo airfield on the island of Corsica in a camera-equipped and unarmed Lightning P-38 aircraft. His task on that mission was to collect intelligence in preparation for the landing operation in the south of France, occupied by the Nazi invaders. The plane did not return to base and its pilot was reported missing.
The search for the remains of the plane was carried out for many years, only in 1998 Marseille fisherman Jean-Claude Bianco accidentally discovered a silver bracelet near Marseille with the name of the writer and his wife Consuelo.
In May 2000, professional diver Luc Vanrell told authorities that he had found the remains of the plane on which Saint-Exupery made its last flight at 70 meters. From November 2003 to January 2004, a special expedition removed the remains of the aircraft from the bottom, and on one of the parts they managed to find the marking "2374 L", which corresponded to the Saint-Exupery aircraft.
In March 2008, a former Luftwaffe pilot, 88-year-old Horst Rippert, said he was the one who shot down the plane. Rippert's statements are corroborated by some information from other sources, but at the same time in the logs of the German Air Force there were no records of the plane shot down that day in the area where Saint-Exupéry disappeared, the wreckage of his plane found had no obvious traces of shelling.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery was married to the widow of the Argentine journalist Consuelo Sunqing (1901-1979). After the disappearance of the writer, she lived in New York, then moved to France, where she was known as a sculptor and artist. She devoted a lot of time to perpetuating the memory of Saint-Exupery.
The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources
Antoine de Saint-Exupery is an outstanding French writer of the first half of the twentieth century. Coming from an aristocratic family, he managed to break with the bohemian lifestyle of the rich, became a professional pilot and always followed his philosophical convictions.
Saint-Ex said: "A person must come true ... Action saves from death ... fear, from all weakness and disease." And it came true. He came true as a pilot - a professional in his field, as a writer who presented the world with immortal works of art, as a person - a bearer of high moral qualities.
During his life, Exupery has flown half the world: he carries mail to Port Etienne, Dakar, Algeria, works in the branches of French airlines in South America and exotic Sahara, as a political correspondent he visits Spain and the USSR. Long-term flights are thought-provoking. Saint-Ex puts everything far-fetched and experienced on paper. This is how his subtle philosophical prose was created - the novels "Southern Postal", "Night Flight", "Planet of People", "Citadel", stories "Pilot" and "Military Pilot", numerous essays, articles, reasoning and, of course, not on -childly deep and sad fairy tale "The Little Prince".
Childhood (1900-1917)
"I'm not really sure I lived after my childhood."
Antoine de Saint-Exupery was born on June 22, 1900 in Lyon into an aristocratic family. His mother - Maria De Foncolomb - was a representative of an old Provencal family, his father - Count Jean De Saint-Exupery - from an even more ancient Limousin family, whose members were knights of the Holy Grail.
Antoine did not know his father's affection - the parent died when the young Exupery was only four years old. A mother with five young children (Marie-Madeleine, Simone, Antoine, François and Gabrielle) remains with a sonorous name, but no means of subsistence. The family is immediately taken under their patronage by wealthy grandmothers, the owners of the castles of La Mol and Saint Maurice de Remance. In the picturesque surroundings of the second, Tonio's happy childhood (Antoine's home nickname) takes place.
He fondly recalls the fabulous "upper room" where the children lived. Each had his own corner there, furnished in accordance with the tastes of the little owner. From a very young age, Tonio has two passions - invention and writing. So, in college, Antoine demonstrates good results in French literature (his school essay on the life of the Cylinder and poems are still preserved).
Young Exupery was inclined to think, he could think, for a long time looking somewhere in the sky. For this feature he was given a comic nickname "Lunatic", but they called him that behind the back - Tonio was not a timid boy and could stand up for himself with fists. This explains that Exupery always had the lowest score in behavior.
At the age of 12, Antoine makes his first flight. At the helm, the renowned pilot is Gabriel Wrabblewski. Young Exupery in the cockpit. This event is mistakenly considered decisive in the choice of a future career, allegedly from the first flight, Antoine "fell ill with the sky." In fact, at the age of 12, young Exupery's ideas about the future were more than vague. He was indifferent to the flight - he wrote a poem and happily forgot.
When Tonio turns 17, his younger brother François, with whom they were inseparable, dies. The tragic event was a hard shock for the teenager. For the first time he is faced with the harshness of life, from which he was carefully protected for all these years. This is how a bright childhood ends. Tonio turns into Antoine.
Choosing a career. The first steps in literature (1919-1929)
"One has only to grow up, and the merciful God leaves you to your fate."
After graduating from college, Antoine Exupery is faced with his first serious choice. He painfully tries to chart his path in life. Enters the Naval Academy, but fails the exams. Attends the Academy of Arts (architectural department), but fed up with an aimless bohemian life, gives up his studies. Finally, in 1921, Antoine enrolls in the Strasbourg Aviation Regiment. He again acts at random, not suspecting that this adventure will become his favorite business of life.
1927 year. Behind the shoulders of 27-year-old Antoine Saint-Exupéry successfully passed exams, the title of civil pilot, dozens of flights, a serious crash, acquaintance with exotic Casablanca and Dakar.
Exupery always felt in himself a literary inclinations, but did not take up the pen due to lack of experience. "Before you write," said Saint-Ex, "you have to live." Seven years of experience gives him the moral right to present to the world his first literary work - the novel "Southern Postal", or "Post-South".
In 1929, the independent publishing house of Gaston Gallimard (Gallimard) publishes the Southern Post Office. To the surprise of the author himself, critics greeted his work very warmly, noting a new range of problems raised by the novice writer, dynamic style, narrative capacity, musical rhythm of the author's syllable.
After receiving the position of technical director, the certified pilot Exupery goes overseas to South America.
Consuelo. Other publications. Exupery Correspondent (1930-1939)
“To love is not to look at each other. To love is to look in one direction "
The result of the American period in the life of Exupery was the novel "Night Flight" and the acquaintance with the future wife of Consuelo Sunsin Sandoval. Expressive Argentinean later became the prototype of Rose from "The Little Prince". Life with her was very difficult, sometimes unbearable, but even without Consuelo Exupery could not imagine his existence. "I have never seen," sarcastically Saint Ex, "such a small creature make so much noise."
Back in France, Exupery hands over Night Flight to print. This time Antoine is pleased with the work done. The second novel is not a test of the pen of an aspiring immature writer, but an elaborate work of fiction. Now they are talking about the writer Exupery. Fame came to him.
Award and film adaptation of the book
For his novel Night Flight, Exupery was awarded the prestigious Femina literary prize. In 1933, the United States released the film adaptation of the book of the same name. The project was directed by Clarence Brown.
Saint Ex continues to fly: it delivers mail from Marseille to Algeria, operates private domestic flights, earns money for its first plane, the Simun, and nearly crashes on it after crashing in the Libyan desert.
All this time, Exupery does not stop writing, showing himself as a talented publicist. In 1935, on the instructions of the Paris-Soir newspaper, a French correspondent visits the USSR. The result of the trip was a series of interesting articles about the mysterious power behind the Iron Curtain. Europe traditionally wrote about the Land of the Soviets in a negative way, but Exupery diligently avoids such categoricality and tries to figure out how this unusual world lives. Next year, the writer will try his hand at being a political correspondent again, going to Spain, which has been torn apart by the civil war.
In 1938–39, Saint-Ex flew to America, where he worked on the third novel, The Planet of Men, which became one of the writer's most biographical works. All the heroes of the novel are real faces, and the central character is Exupery himself.
The Little Prince (1940-1943)
“Only the heart is sharp-sighted. You will not see the most important thing with your eyes "
The world is at war. Fascists occupy Paris, more and more countries are drawn into a bloody war. At this time, on the wreckage of humanity, a kind, painfully nagging story-allegory "The Little Prince" is created. It was published in 1943 in the USA, so at first the main characters of the work addressed readers in English and only then in the original language (French). The classic Russian translation was made by Nora Gal. The Soviet reader got acquainted with The Little Prince in 1959 on the pages of the Moscow magazine.
Today it is one of the most widely read works in the world (the book has been translated into 180 languages), and the interest in it continues unabated. Many quotes from the story became aphorisms, and the visual image of the Prince, created by the author himself, was mythologized and turned into the most recognizable character in world culture.
The last year (1944)
"And when you are comforted, you will be glad that you knew me once ..."
Friends and acquaintances strongly discouraged Exupery from participating in the war. At this point, no one doubts his literary talent. Everyone is sure that Saint-Ex will bring the country much more benefit by remaining in the rear. It is likely that the Exupery writer would accept such a position, but the Exupery pilot, the Exupery citizen, the Exupery man cannot sit idly by. It is with great difficulty that he knocks out a place for himself in the French Air Force. Exupery is allowed to fly five times on an exceptional basis. But he begs for new assignments by hook or by crook.
On July 31, the ninth flight of the military intelligence officer Antoine Exupery took place. Having taken off early in the morning from the Borgo airfield in Corsican, the pilot never returned. He was declared missing.
There are many versions about the death of Saint-Ex: engine failure, enemy aircraft shelling, even the classic suicide for writers. To date, none of the versions has been finally substantiated. Half a century later, a local fisherman Jean-Claude Bianco found a bracelet on the Marseille coast. It was engraved with the names of Saint-Exupery and his Rose - Consuelo Sunsin.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery is known all over the world, mainly due to his philosophical work "The Little Prince". But what kind of person was Exupery? The biography of this writer-pilot is very little familiar to many, despite the fact that his fate is full of interesting twists and turns. She had dramatic love, and great friendship, and adventures, many of which are reflected in his books.
The de Saint-Exupéry family
The biography of the future writer begins in the French city of Lyon, where he was born on June 29, 1900. He was the third child of the Comte de Saint-Exupéry and his wife. In just 4 years of marriage, the couple managed to acquire two daughters, Marie-Madeleine and Simone, and a son. Soon after Antoine was born his brother François, and two years later, his younger sister Gabrielle de Saint-Exupery.
The biography of the future writer soon darkened. Immediately after the birth of the youngest daughter Jean de Saint-Exupery, whom Georges Sand herself christened a real French chevalier, died, leaving his wife alone with five children and without a livelihood.
Antoine Exupery: A Brief Biography. Childhood
After the death of their father and husband, the family settles with Aunt Marie in Lyon on the Place Bellecour, but often the children visit their grandmother's castle, where Queen Margot herself once visited.
Despite the poverty, the family is very friendly, and all the children get along well with each other. Of course, Antoine is attached to his sisters, but his real friendship is with his younger brother François. Loves his little son and his mother, she calls him the Sun King for his blond curls, upturned nose and light character, which remained with Exupery for life.
His biography is full of memories of his contemporaries and family that the boy grew up very cheerful and inquisitive, adored animals, and also loved to delve into engines, perhaps from here came his love for aviation, which will receive its development much later.
Education
At the age of 8, Antoine entered a Christian school in Lyon, and after that he and his brother continued their education at a Jesuit college in Montreux. The next stage is a college in Switzerland, where the boy entered at the age of 14. Having received a bachelor's degree three years later, the young man plans to enter the Naval Lyceum in Paris, even attends preparatory courses, but does not pass the competition.
When Antoine turns 17, his brother Francois dies unexpectedly from articular rheumatism. The young man is deeply worried about the loss of a person close to him, he withdraws into himself.
After failing the exams at the military lyceum, Saint-Exupéry was forced to be content with attending lectures on architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts.
Acquaintance with the sky. Pilot
Exupery, whose biography is inextricably linked with the sky, dreamed of it since childhood. The first flight happened in his life when he was only 12 years old. The famous pilot Gabriel Wroblewski, despite the prohibitions of Antoine's mother, took him with him to the airfield in Ambier. This short flight impressed the boy so much that it left a mark on his entire life.
However, the next chance to get closer to heaven was presented to him only at the age of 21, when he entered the army and became a soldier of Exupery. His biography from this moment is full of flights. First, he enrolled in an aviation regiment in Strasbourg, where he was assigned a non-flying soldier in repair shops. However, the sky beckoned him, and de Saint-Exupéry decided to pass the exam for a civilian pilot. In parallel with the service, he learns to fly, and at the end of the year he is transferred to Casablanca, where he passes the exam and receives the rank of officer.
During this period, he writes in his diaries that he has an irresistible desire to fly. Soon after gaining the opportunity to be a civilian pilot, he also received the right to fly a military aircraft, and then, having received the rank of junior lieutenant in the reserve, he was transferred to serve in an aviation regiment near Paris.
At 23, Exupery gets into his first accident, gets severely injured and temporarily ties up with aviation. He works in a tile factory, sells trucks, until fate finally gives him a chance to realize the young man's second passion and talent - writing.
First pen attempts
Antoine began to write quite early and immediately successfully - his first work, the tale "The Odyssey of the Top Hat", written by him in college in 1914, wins first prize in a literary competition.
However, the door to serious literature will open for him much later. In 1925, at the invitation of his cousin, Antoine comes to her salon, where he meets writers and publishers. They are literally fascinated by the young man and his works and offer to publish his stories. And already in April of the next year, his story “Pilot” was published in the Serebryany Ship magazine.
Return to the sky
The first public success brings Exupery together with a wealthy entrepreneur, de Massim, who introduces him to the management of Aeropostal. At first, Exupery works only as a mechanic, and then as a pilot of a mail plane. Moreover, he began to fly not just anywhere, but to Africa. He soon became the head of a small airport in the city of Kap Jubi in the heart of the Sahara Desert. To the surprised questions from his family about his fate and career as a writer, he always replied that in order to write, you first need to live. And his life here is amazing. In addition to his main job, Saint-Ex, as his friends came up to call him, uses all his diplomatic talents and now reconciles warring African tribes with each other, then pacifies the warlike Moors, then rescues the pilots who have crashed from their captivity, or even tames a wild fox.
This work and travel to new amazing places did not change the character of Exupery. His big kind heart was ready to give everything to people. He spent money and time helping his friends and family, helped solve their problems and believed that hatred can only be defeated by love. Thanks to this work, Antoine has his closest friends - Jean Mermoz and Henri Guillaume. Together they will make a significant contribution to the development of aviation not only in Europe, but also in Africa and even in South America.
New points on the map
After Africa, Exupery returned to France for a short time, where he began to collaborate with book publishers, and also improved his pilot skills. And soon a new appointment - a branch of the airline "Aeropostal" in South America, in Buenos Aires. Regular night flights over Casablanca are the main work that Antoine Exupery does.
A brief biography of the subsequent period of his life was marked by the financial collapse of his native airline in 31, after which Exupery left it. Later he works on postal lines linking Dakar, Marseille and Algeria, tests new seaplanes and again gets into a serious accident. He miraculously survives, and divers hardly find him. And his next accident happened soon in Saigon, in the Mekong Valley.
In 33, Exupery entered the service of the Paris-Soir newspaper, where he became a correspondent. Among other countries, he visits the USSR, where he meets Bulgakov. Exupery's essays on the Soviet Union are very popular with readers. He soon organized a large air tour over the Mediterranean to promote aviation.
Collapse of plans
Being not only a pilot, but also an inventor, he borrowed money, buys an airplane and participates in the development of a project for a high-speed flight from Paris to Saigon. He is in a hurry, because in order to get money for the task, you need to complete it by December 31st. On the night of December 30, Exupery, together with his mechanic, crash in the Libyan desert, miraculously do not die, and for several more days they try to survive without food and water. They are rescued by nomadic Bedouins.
The last serious accident occurs on a flight from New York to Tierra del Fuego. Several days after the accident, the pilot was in a coma, he had serious head injuries and other injuries, so he can no longer put on the parachute on his own due to a shoulder injury. The short biography of de Saint-Exupéry is literally full of similar accidents.
Literary success
While still working in the hot desert Cap Jubi, Antoine writes his first great work at night, the book "Southern Postal". In 29, returning to France, Exupery signed a contract with the publishing house of Gaston Gallimard for the release of seven of his novels. The second piece is “Night Flight” written in Argentina. In 1931, Exupery received the prestigious Femina Prize for this novel, and a year later American filmmakers shot a full-length film based on it.
Exupery's adventures and travels have always been reflected in his works. Thus, an accident in the Libyan desert and subsequent wanderings through it formed the basis of the novel "The Land of People". Influenced the work and the trip to the USSR, which was made by Antoine de Saint-Exupery.
The biography is short, but full of emotions is included in the novel "Military Pilot". It is inspired by the Second World War. Taking a direct part in it and doing everything in his power, Exupery puts all his confusion, all his mental anguish into the book. In the United States, it is a huge success, and in its native France, it is banned by censorship. In the wake of popularity, an order for a children's fairy tale comes from America. In the course of work, the writer creates his most famous work - "The Little Prince" with author's illustrations.
Personal life
Exupery, whose biography (brief) would not have been disclosed without personal relationships, really loved only two women. Despite the fine mental organization and, undoubtedly, lyrical character, Antoine was not very lucky with the girls. At the age of 18, he first met the one he fell in love with. Her name was Louise, and she was the sister of his friend. Louise came from a noble wealthy family and had a very absurd and capricious character. Antoine, falling in love with her without memory, made an offer, but did not receive a definite answer. Some time later, when the young man was in the hospital with the first injury, he learned about the final break of the engagement. It was a hard blow for him. And Louise only considered him a failure; even the literary success that Antoine de Exupery received did not change her opinion.
The biography of a tall, stately, handsome and charming French pilot, however, could not do without the attention of women, but he himself, having once experienced disappointment, was in no hurry to start novels. At the same time, he was worried about wasting youth and life. In letters to his mother, he complained that he could not meet a woman who could calm his anxiety.
However, soon such a woman was met by Antoine Exupery. His biography at that time continues in Buenos Aires, where the writer meets Consuelo Carrilo. It is not known exactly how they met, but it must be assumed that they were introduced by a mutual friend, writer Benjamin Crepier. Consuelo was the widow of the writer Gomez Carrilo and had a rather complex character. A short, dark, not too beautiful woman was nevertheless the center of attention. She carried herself proudly and haughtily, like a queen, was well educated, well-read and intelligent. She brought confusion into Exupery's life, pestering him with violent scandals and tantrums, but it seemed that this was the only thing he lacked.
The uneasy love of a writer
The memoirs of Ksenia Kuprina, the daughter of the Russian writer A. Kuprin, are curious. She met Consuelo in Paris and was fascinated by her intelligence and grace. Once the Argentinean called Xenia in the middle of the night and begged to come. She told a 19-year-old girl a story that she met an amazing man whom she loved incredibly deeply. But they were not destined to be together, since he was shot by the revolutionaries right in front of her. Shocked Kuprina took Consuelo to her country house and for several days consoled her friend, literally pulled her out of the lake, in which she with obsessive persistence wanted to drown herself.
Imagine Kuprina's indignation when it turned out that the shot lover was Exupery, while alive and well. Consuelo was so angry with him and wanted to leave that she thought he was dead and made others believe it.
They got married just a few months after they met, but pretty soon their life together ceased to be joyful and happy. Consuelo literally went crazy, bullying her husband with her antics. She then arranged a fight and threw dishes in front of guests, then went to bars until morning and told vile false stories about her wife. However, he endured everything with a smile and calmness. Perhaps only he knew what she really was, and saw the other side of her unbearable character. Be that as it may, this love was as devoted and passionate as the first day they met.
World War II period
Antoine de Saint-Exupery, whose biography falls on the war years, ended up at 37 in Hitler's Germany. He was unpleasantly amazed at what Nazism was doing to the people. When England and France declare war on Germany, Exupery is assigned for service on the ground for health reasons, but he connected all communications and was assigned to the air reconnaissance group.
After living and working in the United States in 44, Exupery returns to his homeland again, but is not allowed to conduct intelligence activities, since he is already in the reserve. And again you have to connect the connections. Despite serious health problems, he is allowed to make 5 more flights to obtain images of the area. On July 31, an airplane piloted by Antoine Saint-Exupery took off on a mission. The biography of the writer ends at this point, since the plane did not return in due time. Only 60 years later, in 2004, the remains of the kindest writer on the planet were raised and identified from the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery is a writer whose name is known to everyone who is familiar with the book "The Little Prince". The biography of the author of an unforgettable work is full of incredible events and coincidences, because his main activity was associated with aviation.
Childhood and youth
The full name of the writer is Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger de Saint-Exupery. As a child, the boy's name was Tony. He was born on June 29, 1900 in Lyon, in the family of a nobleman, and was the 3rd child of 5 children. The head of the family passed away when little Tony was 4 years old. The family was left without funds and moved to an aunt, who lived in the Place Bellecour. Money was sorely lacking, but this was compensated by friendship between brothers and sisters. Antoine was especially close to his brother François.
The mother instilled in the child a love of books and literature, talking about the value of art. Published letters remind of her tender friendship with her son. Interested in his mother's lessons, the boy was also fond of 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. A bachelor with a diploma in hand was preparing to enter the naval lyceum, but failed in the competitive selection. A heavy loss for Antoine was the death of his brother from articular rheumatism. He experienced the loss of a loved one, withdrawing 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 away for fun at an airdrome in Ambier. The impressions received were enough for the young man 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 owner of a civil pilot's certificate. Exupery later upgraded his qualifications to a military pilot.
After completing his officer training, Antoine flew as a junior lieutenant and served in the 34th regiment. After an unsuccessful flight in 1923, Exupery, having received a head injury, left the aviation. The pilot settled in Paris and decided to try himself in the literary sphere. Success didn't come. To make a living, Exupery was forced to sell cars, work in a tile factory and even sell books.
It soon became clear that Antoine was not capable of continuing such a lifestyle. He was rescued by a chance acquaintance. In 1926, the young pilot was promoted to a mechanic at Aeropostal Airlines, and later became a pilot of an aircraft delivering mail. During this period of time, was written "Southern Postal". The new promotion was followed by another transfer. After becoming 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 branch. He made regular flights over Casablanca. The company, for the benefit of which the writer worked, soon went bankrupt, so from 1931 Antoine again worked in Europe.
At first he worked on the postal airlines, and then began to combine the main work with a parallel direction, becoming a test pilot. On one of the tests, an aircraft crashed. Exupery survived thanks to the operational work of the divers.
The life of the writer was connected with extreme sports, and he was not afraid to take risks. While participating in the development of a high-speed flight project, Antoine purchased an aircraft for operation on the Paris-Saigon line. The ship had an accident in the desert. Exupery survived by chance. He, along with the mechanic, who were on their last legs from thirst, were rescued by the Bedouins.
The worst accident that the writer was in was a plane crash while flying from New York to the territory of Tierra del Fuego. After him, the pilot was in a coma for several days, having received a head and shoulder injury.
In the 1930s, Antoine became interested in journalism and became a correspondent for the Paris Soir newspaper. As a spokesman for the Entrance newspaper, Exupery was in the Spanish war. He also fought in the battles against the Nazis in World War II.
Books
Exupery wrote his first work in college in 1914. It was the fairy tale "The Odyssey of the Cylinder". The author's talent was appreciated and awarded 1 place in a literary competition. In 1925, at the house of his cousin, Antoine met the popular authors and publishers of the time. They were delighted with the talent of the young man and offered cooperation. The very next year the story “Pilot” was published on the pages of the Serebryany Ship magazine.
Exupery's works are associated with the sky and aviation. The writer had two callings, and he shared with the public the 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 the statements of Exupery on the pages of works are used today as quotations.
As a pilot at Aeropostale, the pilot did not think of stopping his literary career. Returning to his native France, he signed a contract with the publishing house of Gaston Gallimard to create and publish 7 novels. The Exupery-writer existed in close co-creation with the Exupery-pilot.
In 1931, the author received the Femina Prize for Night Flight, and in 1932 a film was shot 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 "The Land of People" ("The Planet of People"). The work is also based on the emotions from the acquaintance with the Stalinist regime in the Soviet Union.
The novel "Military Pilot" became an autobiographical work. The author was influenced by the experiences associated with participation in the Second World War. The book, banned in France, was an incredible success in the United States. Representatives of the American publishing house ordered Exupery's fairy tale. This is how The Little Prince saw the light, accompanied by the author's illustrations. He brought the writer worldwide fame.
Personal life
At the age of 18, Antoine fell in love with Louise Villemorn. The daughter of wealthy parents did not pay attention to the courtship of an ardent young man. After the plane crash, the girl deleted him from her life. The pilot took 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 with his attractive appearance and charm, but he was in no hurry to build his personal life. Consuelo Sunxin managed to find an approach to the man. According to one version, Consuelo and Antoine met in Buenos Aires thanks to a mutual friend. The woman's former husband, writer Gomez Carillo, has passed away. She found solace in an affair with the pilot.
A magnificent wedding took place in 1931. The marriage was not easy. Consuelo constantly rolled up scandals. She had a bad character, but the intelligence and education of her wife pleased Antoine. The writer, adoring his wife, endured what was happening.
Death
The death of Antoine de Saint-Exupery was shrouded in a veil of secrecy. During the Second World War, he considered it his duty to defend the honor of the country. For health reasons, the pilot was assigned to the ground regiment, but Antoine connected communications and ended up in the flight reconnaissance detachment.
On July 31, 1944, he did not return from the flight and was listed as missing. In 1988, near Marseilles, the writer's bracelet was found with the engraved name of his wife, and in 2000 - parts of the plane he was flying. In 2008, it became known that the cause of the death of the writer was an attack by a German pilot. The pilot of an enemy aircraft years later publicly admitted this. 60 years after the crash, photos from the crash site were published.
The writer's bibliography is small, but it contains a description of a bright and adventurous life. The brave pilot and good writer of the 20th century lived and died, preserving his dignity. Lyon Airport was named in memory of him.
Bibliography
- 1929 - "Southern Postal"
- 1931 - "Post - South"
- 1938 - Night Flight
- 1938 - "Planet of the People"
- 1942 - "Military Pilot"
- 1943 - "Letter to the Hostage"
- 1943 - The Little Prince
- 1948 - Citadel
