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Antoine de Saint-Exupery: biography, photos and interesting facts. Antoine de saint-exupery - biography, information, personal life Message about a de saint-exupery

Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger de Saint-Exupery (fr. 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 Comte Jean de Saint-Exupéry.

The father died when Antoine was four years old, and the 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 François studied at the Jesuit College of Le Mans, then at a private school in Switzerland.

Having received a bachelor's degree at the college, Antoine studied for several years at the Academy of Arts in the architectural department, then he entered the aviation troops as a private. In 1923 he was issued a pilot's license.

In 1926, he was accepted into the service of 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-Exupéry flew on the postal lines Toulouse - Casablanca, Casablanca - Dakar, then became the head of the airfield at Cap Juby Fort 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 Guillimar 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 Order of the Legion of Honor of France, and at the end of 1931 he won the prestigious Femina literary prize for his 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 technological 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 newspaper Paris-Soir, he visited Moscow and described this visit in several essays; in 1936, being a front-line correspondent, he wrote a series of military reports from Spain, where the civil war was going on.

In 1939, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was promoted to officer of the Legion of Honor of France. In February, his book "Planet of People" (in Russian translation - "Land of People"; American title - "Wind, Sand and Stars"), which is a collection of autobiographical essays, was published. The book was awarded the French Academy Prize and the National Prize of the Year in the United States.

When the Second World War began, Captain Saint-Exupery was mobilized into the army, but he was recognized as fit only for service on the ground. Using all his connections, Saint-Exupery achieved an appointment in an aviation reconnaissance group.

In May 1940, on a Blok-174 aircraft, he made a reconnaissance flight over Arras, 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 "Military Pilot" was published in the United States and was a great success, after which Saint-Exupery received an order from Reynal-Hitchhock publishing house to write a fairy tale for children in late spring. He signed a contract and began work on the philosophical and lyrical fairy tale "The Little Prince" with author's illustrations. In April 1943, "The Little Prince" was published in the United States, in the same year the story "Letter to a Hostage" was published. Then Saint-Exupery worked on the story "The Citadel" (not finished, published in 1948).

In 1943, Saint-Exupéry left America for Algiers, where he underwent medical treatment, from where he joined his air group based in Morocco in the summer. After great difficulties in obtaining permission to fly, thanks to the support of influential figures in the French resistance, Saint-Exupery 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-Exupéry, on a Lightning P-38 aircraft equipped with a camera and not armed, went on a reconnaissance flight from the Borgo airfield on the island of Corsica. His task in that sortie was to collect intelligence in preparation for the landing operation in the south of France, occupied by the fascist invaders. The aircraft did not return to base and its pilot was declared missing.

Searches for the remains of the aircraft have been going on for many years, only in 1998 the Marseille fisherman Jean-Claude Bianco accidentally discovered a silver bracelet near Marseilles with the name of the writer and his wife Consuelo.

In May 2000, professional diver Luc Vanrel told the authorities that he had found the remains of the plane on which Saint-Exupery made his last flight at a depth of 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, 88-year-old Horst Rippert, a former Luftwaffe pilot, claimed that he had shot down the aircraft. Rippert's statements are confirmed by some information from other sources, but at the same time, no records were found in the journals of the German Air Force about the plane shot down that day in the area where Saint-Exupery disappeared, the fragments of his plane found did not have obvious signs of shelling.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was married to the widow of the Argentine journalist Consuelo Suntzin (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

The life and work of Exupery, the biography of this person and his personal life - this is what interests many readers of our time. There were many interesting moments in his life that are worth telling about. Facts from the life of Saint Exupery - 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 full name of the boy 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 mother took care of his further upbringing. First, she saw to it that he graduated from a Jesuit school, and then sent him to study in a private Swiss boarding school. In 1917, Antoine became a student at the Faculty of Architecture at the School of 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, so far only a civilian one. A little later, he retrained as a military pilot and improved his skills in Istra. After completing officer courses in Avora, Antoine received the rank of second lieutenant. He made many flights, being an officer of the 34th regiment, but in 1923 his plane crashed, and Exupery received a severe head injury. After returning from the army, he moved to the capital of France and became interested in writing. At first, not very well. 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 engage in trade. First he got a job in a car company and sold cars, and then he changed cars for books, worked in a bookstore. But for a long time to engage in this type of activity, he could not. In 1926, he was lucky enough to find a job with Aeropostal. Flying an airplane, Antoine delivered mail to the African continent. Then he continued to work on a mail plane, but changed directions - from Toulouse to Dakar. Having received a promotion, Antoine became the head of the station in the city of Villa Bans. 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 part of a team that was looking for a missing person, Antoine's friend, Guillaume. An important point is that Exupery was awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor for a significant contribution to the work of aviation. The whole life of De Saint Exupery, the biography of this man and even his death are all connected in one way or another with aviation, so this award was very important for the writer.

The nature of the writer

Everyone who knew this man said that he was a unique personality. Antoine always had a smile on his face, and he loved all people in an amazing way. The small nose gave him a perky look. The generous nature of the writer was distinguished by the fact that he wholeheartedly 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 the way out of the situation. Only love can overcome hate. 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 from below, he could sit on the wrong lane while flying the plane, or forget to slam the apartment door. However, this in no way detracts from its merits.

Romance in the life of a writer

For the first time, the writer's heart trembled when he met his first love, Louise Vilmorne, who was from a very wealthy family. He sought her favor in every possible way, but she did not reciprocate and ignored his ardent courtship. When Antoine was in the hospital 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 affect Louise's attitude towards Saint Exupery. Antoine's biography was no longer connected with this woman in any way. But other ladies really liked him. Many considered 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 suffering 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 found. Consuela Carilo turned out to be such a woman. There are many options for exactly how the future newlyweds met, but the best version is the one in which they were introduced by a mutual friend, Benjamin Cramier. Consuella was a widow, her previous husband, also a writer, had died, and she fled out of sadness into the arms of Antoine. They married in France in the spring of 1931. The wedding was very magnificent and gathered many guests. As for Consuela, the 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 every detail, considered his wife the most beautiful, and she gave him strength both in writing and in aviation.

Correspondent

In parallel with his personal life, the writer's professional life in the field of aviation also developed. After the Aeroposhtal company went bankrupt, Antoine worked as an aircraft tester for his friend Didier. The work was very dangerous, and once Antoine almost died while testing another plane. A new type of activity was work as a correspondent. Having signed an agreement with the Paris Soir newspaper, Exupery traveled to different countries and wrote essays. One of the significant trips was a trip to the USSR. Feeling the whole atmosphere of the Stalinist regime, he tried to express his impressions in his essay, which was published by the newspaper. Later, from the newspaper "Entrance" Antoine went to the region of Spain, where at that time there was a civil war. Many essays from those places were 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 actions. 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. He and the mechanics of the plane were saved by the Bedouins when they were almost dying of thirst.

great writer

Almost all of Exupery's books appeared thanks to his work in aviation and the experience of a pilot. His novels are saturated with the perception of the world through the eyes of an aircraft pilot. Antoine received literary awards that commended him as a writer:

  • Femin 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 a purely personal relationship. He liked to philosophize in his works, and this made readers think about the main idea that Exupery wanted to invest. A 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 Antoine the writer. So who is in charge, the pilot or the writer, is a question similar to what came first: the egg or the chicken.

literary heritage

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

  • "Southern Post".
  • "Night flight".
  • "Land of people".
  • "Wind, sand and stars".
  • "Military pilot".
  • "A little prince".

Writer's death

A lot has been said and is being said about the death of the writer. After all, like Antoine himself, his death was not simple and unambiguous. When the Second World War began, he did not stay at home for a single day, and the day after the declaration of war, he was already in the military unit. Friends discouraged him, but he was relentless. Joined the reconnaissance squad. 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. Only in 1998, near Marseille, a bracelet was found in the sea, on which the name "Consuella" 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 bright that even death should have become a kind of mystery and adequately end the life of a great man. Lyon Airport is named after Antoine de Saint Exupery, and this is also done for a reason.

1. Biography of Antoine de Saint-Exupery

2. The main works of Antoine de Saint-Exupery

3. "The Little Prince" - characterization and analysis of the work.

4. "Planet of people" - characterization and analysis of the work

1. Biography of Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Antoine de Saint-Exupery was born in the French city of Lyon, descended from an old family of Perigord nobles, and was the third of five children of Viscount Jean de Saint-Exupery and his wife Marie de Foncolombe. At the age of four, he lost his father. The upbringing of little Antoine was carried out by his mother.

In 1912, at the airfield in Amberier, Saint-Exupéry took to the air 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 Francois studied at the Jesuit College of Sainte-Croix in Mance - until 1914, after which they continued their studies in Friborg (Switzerland) at the College of Marists, prepared to enter the "Ecole Naval" (passed the preparatory course of the Naval Lyceum Saint-Louis in Paris), but did not pass the competition. In 1919, he enrolled as a volunteer at the Academy of Fine Arts in the department of architecture.

The turning point in his fate was 1921 - then he was drafted into the army in France. Interrupting the deferral he received when he entered 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 for a civilian pilot. He was transferred to Morocco, where he received the rights of a military pilot, and then sent for improvement to Istres. In 1922, Antoine completed courses for reserve officers in Avora and became a second lieutenant. In October he was assigned to the 34th Aviation Regiment at Bourges near Paris. In January 1923, the first plane crash happened to him, he received a head injury. In March, he is commissioned. Exupery moved to Paris, where he devoted himself to writing. However, in this field, at first he was not successful and was forced to take on any job: he traded cars, was a salesman in a bookstore.

Only in 1926, Exupery found his calling - he became a pilot of the Aeropostal company, which delivered mail to the northern coast of Africa. In the spring, he begins to work on the transportation of mail on the line Toulouse - Casablanca, then Casablanca - Dakar. On October 19, 1926, he was appointed head of the Cap Juby intermediate station (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 higher aviation courses of the navy 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-Exupery was promoted to the Knights 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 had an accident while flying over the Andes. In the same year, Saint-Exupery wrote "Night Flight" and met his future wife, Consuelo from El Salvador.

In 1930, Saint-Exupery 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, Aeropostal was declared bankrupt. Saint-Exupery returned to work as a pilot on the France-South America postal line and served the Casablanca-Port-Etienne-Dakar segment. In October 1931, Night Flight was published, and the writer was awarded the Femina literary prize. He takes another vacation and moves to Paris.

In February 1932, Exupery again begins working for the Latecoera airline and flies as a co-pilot on a seaplane serving the Marseille-Algiers line. Didier Dora, a former Aeropostal pilot, soon got him a job as a test pilot, and Saint-Exupery almost died while testing a new seaplane in Saint-Raphael Bay. The seaplane overturned, and he barely managed to get out of the cabin of the sinking car.

In 1934, Exupery went to work for the Air France (formerly Aeropostal) airline, as a representative of the company, 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. On May 3, 1935, he met with M. A. Bulgakov, which was recorded in the diary of E. S. Bulgakov. Soon, Saint-Exupery becomes the owner of his own Simun aircraft and on December 29, 1935, he makes an attempt to set a record when flying Paris - Saigon, but crashes in the Libyan desert, again narrowly avoiding death. On the first of January, he and the mechanic Prevost, who were dying of thirst, were rescued by the Bedouins.

In August 1936, according to an agreement with the Entransizhan newspaper, he travels to Spain, where a civil war is going on, and publishes a number of reports in the newspaper.

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

On September 4, 1939, the day after France declared war on Germany, Saint-Exupéry is at the place of mobilization at the Toulouse-Montaudran military airfield and on November 3 is transferred to the 2/33 long-range reconnaissance air unit, which is based in Orconte (Champagne). This was his response to the persuasion of friends to abandon the risky career of a military pilot. Many tried to convince Saint-Exupery 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 an assignment to the combat unit.

Saint-Exupery made several sorties on the Block-174 aircraft, performing aerial reconnaissance tasks, and was presented with 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 left for 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-Exupéry left the Borgo airfield on the island of Corsica on a reconnaissance flight and did not return.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was born on June 29, 1900, in Lyon, France. When Antoine was 4 years old, his father died of an intracerebral hemorrhage.

He received his primary education at the school of the Christian brothers of St. Bartholomew. From 1908 to 1914 studied at the Jesuit College of Sainte-Croix.

It took to the air for the first time in 1912. The outstanding pilot G. Wroblewski controlled the machine. In 1919, the future writer signed up as a volunteer at the National Higher School of Fine Arts, in the architectural department.

In the sky

After successfully passing the exam, he received the rights of a military pilot. In 1922 he received the rank of junior lieutenant. A year later, he was in the first plane crash in his life, which resulted in a head injury.

After the commission, he moved to Paris and devoted himself to literary creativity. But he did not stop yearning for the sky. In 1926, Exupery received a position as a pilot in the Aeropostal company.

In the same year, having received the post of head of an intermediate station on the edge of the Sahara, he created the novel Southern Postal.

correspondent pilot

In 1931, Exupery wrote and published the novel Night Flight, which received the prestigious Femina Literary Prize.

In the spring of 1935, as a correspondent for the newspaper Lary Suar, Exupery visited the Soviet Union. The writer described his impressions in detail in five short stories. In fact, he was the first Western writer who tried to comprehend the essence of Stalinism in writing.

In 1938, he released the novel Planet of the People, which many critics labeled as "an ode to humanism." In 1939, this novel received a prestigious award - the Grand Prize of the French Academy. In the same year, the novel received the US National Award.

The Second World War

During World War II, Exupery flew the Blok-174 aircraft. He made several sorties. He completed many tasks in aerial photography, for which he was eventually presented with the Military Cross award.

When France was defeated by Nazi Germany, Exupery moved to the United States. There he wrote a fairy tale novel for children and adults, The Little Prince. The book was published in 1943.

In the same year, Exupery returned to the front and successfully mastered the piloting of the Lightning P-38, the latest high-speed aircraft.

July 31, 1944 Exupery went on a reconnaissance flight. He has not returned back. The circumstances of his death are still unclear. The wreckage of the plane believed to have crashed the writer is now in the Air and Space Museum at Le Bourget.

Other biography options

  • There were many interesting facts in the life of Antoine de Saint-Exupery. During his entire career as a pilot, he suffered fifteen plane crashes. During a business trip to the Soviet Union, he flew aboard the ANT-20 Maxim Gorky aircraft.
  • The writer liked to show card tricks and was fluent in many tricks.
  • Exupery contributed not only to literature. He is the author of several inventions in the aviation field. The writer has patents for these inventions.
  • At the heart of the writer's brightest novel, "Planet of Humans", is a real fact from his life. Some time before its creation, Exupery got into another plane crash while flying Paris-Saigon.
  • Exupery is the prototype of the hero S. Lukyanenko. This character, a pilot and writer, appears in the novel Sky Seekers. The hero's name is Antoine of Lyons.
  • The airport in Lyon is named after the writer. Also, the asteroid 2578, which was discovered by T. Smirnova in 1975, is named after him. And in 2003, the moon of the asteroid was named after the Little Prince.
  • Also, the glorious name of an outstanding writer was given to a mountain peak in Patagonia.
  • see all

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is a French writer, professional aviator, philosopher and humanist. His real name is Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger de Saint-Exupery. The writer was born on June 29, 1900 in Leon. He repeatedly said that "flying and writing are one and the same". In his work, the prose writer skillfully combined reality and fantasy; all his works can be called motivating and inspiring.

Count family

The future writer was born in the family of Count Jean de Saint-Exupery, he was the third child. When the boy was 4 years old, his father died, the mother was engaged in raising children. The first years of the kids were spent in the estate of Saint-Maurice, which belonged to their grandmother.

From 1908 to 1914, Antoine and his brother François studied at the Jesuit College of Le Mans in Montreux, then they went to a Swiss Catholic boarding school. In 1917, the young man received additional education at the Paris School of Fine Arts in the department of architecture.

Flight activity

In 1921, Saint-Exupery was called up from the army, he ended up in the second regiment of fighter aviation. Initially, the guy worked in a repair shop, but in 1923 he completed a pilot course and passed the exam to become a civilian pilot. Shortly after that, he went to Morocco, where he retrained as a military pilot.

At the end of 1922, Antoine flew to the 34th Aviation Regiment, which was located near Paris. A few months later, he had to endure the first plane crash in his life. After that, the young man decides to stay in the capital of France, where he earns by literary work. The works of an unknown author were not popular with readers, so he had to work as a salesman in a bookstore and even sell cars.

In 1926, Saint-Exupéry begins to fly again. He is accepted as a pilot for the Aerostal company, the writer specialized in delivering correspondence to North Africa. A year later, he managed to become the head of the airport, at the same time, his debut story "Pilot" was published. For six months, the young man returns to France, where he signs an agreement with the publisher Gaston Guillimar. The prose writer undertakes to write seven novels, in the same year his essay “Southern Postal” is published.

Since September 1929, the young man has been working as the head of the Buenos Aires branch of the Aeropostal Argentina company. In 1930 he was awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor. A year later, Antoine decides to return to Europe, where he again gets a job at postal airlines. At the same time, the writer receives the literary award "Femina" for the work "Night Flight".

Since the mid-30s, the prose writer has been engaged in journalism. He visits Moscow, after this visit 5 essays were written. In one of them, Saint-Exupery tried to describe the essence of Stalin's policy. Antoine also wrote a series of military reports from Spain. In 1934 he survived several accidents and was seriously injured. In the same year, he applied for the invention of a new aircraft landing system. In December 1935, a man crashes in the Libyan desert on his way from Paris to Saigon, but miraculously survives.

In 1939, a man becomes the winner of two prestigious competitions. He receives an award from the Académie française for The Planet of Men and a US National Book Award for his essay Wind, Sand and Stars. For participation in the intelligence operation over Arras in May 1940, the writer was awarded the "Military Cross".

War time

Antoine fought against the fascist invaders from the first day of the war. He preferred to do this not only with the help of physical force, but also with the help of words, being both a publicist and a military pilot. When France was occupied by Germany, the writer went to the free part of the country, then he moved to the United States.

In February 1943, the book "Military Pilot" was published in the USA; in the spring of the same year, the prose writer received an order for a children's fairy tale. In 1943 Saint-Exupery served in North Africa. It was during this period of his life that he wrote the story "Letter to the Hostage" and the fairy tale "The Little Prince", which children and adults still read with pleasure.

Despite the fact that the publishing house ordered a children's fairy tale from the writer, the book "The Little Prince" can be called a full-fledged philosophical work. Antoine was able to convey simple and important life truths with the help of skillful artistic means. He does not get hung up on petty personal problems, showing the depth of consciousness of each person. His drunkard, businessman and king perfectly demonstrate the shortcomings of society, but the essence is hidden much deeper. And the famous phrase “We are responsible for those we have tamed” will make even a skeptic think.

last years of life

During his life, Saint-Exupery managed to be a test pilot, military man and correspondent. The great writer died on July 31, 1944, his plane was shot down by opponents. For a long time, the details of Antoine's death were not known, but in 1998 a fisherman found his bracelet.

Two years later, fragments of the plane on which the prose writer flew were discovered. It is noteworthy that no obvious signs of shelling were found on the aircraft, and this led to the emergence of many versions of the death of the writer. The collection of parables and aphorisms "Citadel" is recognized as his last book. The writer never managed to finish it, the work was published in 1948.

Saint-Exupery spent his whole life with one woman, he was married to Consuelo Suicin. After the tragedy, she moved to New York, then went to France. There, the woman was engaged in sculpture, she was also an artist. For many years, the widow devoted her work to perpetuating the memory of her husband.