SAINT EXUPÉRY Antoine de

Biography

Born of aristocratic parents, St. Exupéry was an aviator who strived for experiencing adventure and elsewhere, a humanist writer and an idealist, in addition to being a man of science, with a dozen patented inventions. Despite a failure at the Naval Academy, he had succeeded in aviation during his military service in 1921.

In 1926, he was commissioned to run the Toulouse-Dakar couriers, and was appointed, in October 1927, as head of the station at Cap Juby, where he had the task of establishing a link with the Moorish tribes and managed a number of rescues. He became a privileged interlocutor with the Moors and was made a Knight of the French Legion of Honor for Aeronautics for his services. There were many other missions and responsibilities in aeronautics, such as the head of the Aéropostale Argentina (1929), a short career as a seaplane test pilot (1933), a mission to Saigon for Air France (1934-1935), and a failed raid on the New York-Land of Fire journey (1938). But the rise of Nazism (the dangerosity of which he understood during a short trip to Germany in August 1937) and the declaration of war by France and England to Germany on September 2, 1939 made him reorient his career to engage in the efforts of the Resistance. In November 1939, he was assigned to the great recognition group 2/33, which he joined in 1943 after an exile in the United States.

St. Exupéry was especially a writer of meaningful books, emphasizing the human values of respect, welcome, openness and love. The best known, the Little Prince "One can only truly see with the heart. The essential is invisible to the eyes" is the most read youth novel worldwide. All his books without exception are highly worth reading for their human wisdom.