When the exupery was born. Antoine de saint-exupery short biography. "One has only to grow up, and the merciful God leaves you to your fate."

Biography

Childhood, adolescence, youth

Antoine de Saint-Exupery was born in the French city of Lyon, descended from an old provincial noble family, and was the third of five children of the Viscount Jean de Saint-Exupery and his wife Marie de Foncolombe. At the age of four, he lost his father. Little Antoine was raised by his mother.

Here he writes his first work - "Southern Postal".

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 suffered an accident in the Libyan desert, again narrowly avoiding death. On the first of January, he and the mechanic Prevost, dying of thirst, were rescued by the Bedouins.

Saint-Exupery made several sorties on the Block-174 aircraft, performing aerial reconnaissance missions, and was nominated for the Military Cross (fr. Croix de guerre). 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, among other things, he wrote his most famous book, The Little Prince (1942, publ. 1943). 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 Lightning P-38 aircraft.

Saint-Exupery in the Lightning's cockpit

“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. "(from a letter to Jean Pelissier, July 9-10, 1944).

According to press releases in March 2008, German Luftwaffe veteran Horst Rippert, 88, pilot of Jagdgroup 200 squadron, claimed that he was the one who shot down Antoine de Saint-Exupery's plane on his Messerschmitt Me-109 fighter. According to his statements, he did not know who was at the helm of the enemy plane:

That Saint-Exupery was the pilot of the downed plane, the Germans learned in those days from the radio interception of the negotiations of French airfields, which were carried out by German troops. The absence of relevant entries in the Luftwaffe journals is due to the fact that, besides Horst Rippert, there were no other witnesses of the air battle, and this plane was not officially credited to him as downed.

Bibliography

Major works

• Courrier Sud. Editions Gallimard, 1929. English: Southern Mail. Southern post office. (Option: "Mail - to the South"). Novel. Translations into Russian: Baranovich M. (1960), Isaeva T. (1963), Kuzmin D. (2000)
• Vol de nuit. Roman. Gallimard, 1931. Préface d'André Gide. English: Night Flight. Night flight. Novel. Awards: December 1931, Femina Prize. Translations into Russian: Waxmacher M. (1962)
• Terre des hommes. Roman. Editions Gallimard, Paris, 1938. English: Wind, Sand, and Stars. The planet of people. (Option: The Land of People.) Novel. Awards: 1939 Grand Prize of the French Academy (05/25/1939). 1940 Nation Book award USA. Translations into Russian: Welle G. "The Land of People" (1957), Nora Gal "The Planet of People" (1963)
• Pilote de guerre. Récit. Editions Gallimard, 1942. English: Flight to Arras. Reynal & Hitchcock, New York, 1942. Military pilot. The story. Translations into Russian: A. Teterevnikova (1963)
• Lettre à un otage. Essai. Editions Gallimard, 1943. English: Letter to a Hostage. A letter to the hostage. Essay. Translations into Russian: Baranovich M. (1960), Grachev R. (1963), Nora Gal (1972)
• Little Prince (fr. Le petit prince, eng. The little prince) (1943). Translated by Nora Gal (1958)
• Citadelle. Editions Gallimard, 1948. English: The Wisdom of the Sands. Citadel. Translations into Russian: Kozhevnikova M. (1996)

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: E.V. Baevskaya
• 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: E.V. Baevskaya
• The Tale of Tsar Saltan.

Editions in Russian

• Saint-Exupery Antoine de. Southern post office. Night flight. The planet of people. Military pilot. A letter to the hostage. Little Prince. Pilot and Elements / Intro. Art. M. Gallaya. Artist. G. Klodt. - M .: Art. lit., 1983 .-- 447 p. Circulation 300,000 copies.

Literary awards

• - Femina Prize - for the novel Night Flight;
• - Grand Prix du Roman of the French Academy - "Planet of people";
• 1939 - US National Book Award - "Wind, Sand and Stars" ("Planet of the People").

Military awards

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

Names after

• Lefty.
• Throughout his career as a pilot, Saint-Exupery suffered 15 accidents.
• During a business trip to the USSR, he flew aboard the ANT-20 "Maxim Gorky".
• Saint-Exupery was fluent in the art of card trick.
• He became the author of several inventions in the field of aviation, for which he received patents.
• Sergei Lukyanenko's "Sky Seekers" dilogy features the character Antoine Lyonsky, who combines the profession of a pilot with literary experiences.
• In Vladislav Krapivin's story "A Pilot for Special Assignments", there is a connection between this work and the fairy tale-parable "The Little Prince" and its author.
• Accident on the plane Codron S. 630 Simon (registration number 7042, onboard - F-ANRY) during the flight

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 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", "The Planet of People", "The Citadel", the 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 contemplation, 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. The renowned pilot is at the helm - 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. He enters the Naval Academy, but fails the exams. Attends the Academy of Arts (architectural department), but fed up with an aimless bohemian life, he 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 27-year-old Antoine Saint-Exupery successfully passed exams, the rank 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, a dynamic style, a narrative capacity, and the musical rhythm of the author's style.

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, "so little creature made 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 again try his hand at the field of political correspondent, going to Spain, which was 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 cannot 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 United States, so that 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 definitively substantiated. Half a century later, a local fisherman Jean-Claude Bianco found a bracelet on the Marseilles coast. It was engraved with the names of Saint-Exupery and his Rose - Consuelo Sunsin.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery was 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.

In 1912, Saint-Exupery took to the air for the first time in an airplane at the Amberier airfield. The car was driven by the famous pilot Vedrine.

Exupery graduated from the Jesuit school in Le Mans, studied at a Catholic boarding school in Switzerland, was preparing to enter the naval school, but did not pass the competition. In 1919 he entered the Paris School of Fine Arts at the Faculty of Architecture.

Pilot and writer

The turning point in his life was 1921 - then he was drafted into the army, interrupting the grace period he received when he entered a higher educational institution and enrolled in the 2nd fighter aviation regiment in Strasbourg. First, he is assigned to the work team at the 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 to Istria for improvement. In 1922, Antoine completed courses for reserve officers in Avora and became a junior lieutenant. In October, he is assigned to the 34th Aviation Regiment at Bourget 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 turned to writing. However, at first he was not successful in this field and was forced to take on any job: he sold cars, was a salesman in a bookstore.

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 begins 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 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 subsidiary of Aeropostal. In 1930, Saint-Exupéry was awarded the Legion of Honor Knight Order for his contribution to the development of civil aviation. In June, he personally took part in the search for his friend, the pilot, Guillaume, who had an accident while flying over the Andes. In the same year, Saint-Exupery writes "Night Flight" and meets his future wife Consuelo.

Pilot and Correspondent

In 1931 Saint-Exupery returned to France and received three months' leave. In April, he married Consuelo Songqing, but the couple generally lived separately. On March 13, 1931, Aeropostal was declared bankrupt. Saint-Exupéry returned to work as a pilot on the France-South America mail line, serving the Casablanca-Port-Etienne-Dakar section. In October 1931, "Night Flight" was published and the writer was awarded the "Femina" literary prize, he again took a vacation and moved to Paris.

In February 1932, Exupery rejoins the Latecoer airline and flies as a co-pilot on 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. The seaplane capsized, and he barely managed to get out of the cockpit of the sinking car.

In 1934, Exupery joined Air France (formerly Aeropostal) as a company representative on trips 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 the essence of Stalinism.

Soon Saint-Exupery becomes the owner of his own aircraft С.630 "Simun", and on December 29, 1935, he attempts to set a record for the flight Paris - Saigon, but suffers an accident in the Libyan desert, again narrowly avoiding death. On the first of January, he and the mechanic Prevost, dying of thirst, were rescued by the Bedouins.

In August 1936, in accordance with an agreement with the newspaper Entrancian, he travels to Spain, where there is a civil war, and publishes a number of reports in the newspaper.

In January 1938, Exupery leaves for New York aboard the Ile de France. Here he begins to work on the book "The Planet of People". On February 15, the flight New York - Tierra del Fuego begins, but suffers a serious accident in Guatemala, after which it restores 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 is at the place of mobilization at the Toulouse-Montodran military airfield, and on November 3 he is transferred to the 2/33 long-range reconnaissance air unit, which is based in Orconte (Champagne province). This was his response to the persuasion of friends to abandon the risky career of a military pilot. Many tried to convince Exupery that he would 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 one of his letters, in November 1939, he writes: “I am obliged to participate in this war. Everything I love is at stake. In Provence, when the forest is on fire, everyone who is not a bastard grabs buckets and shovels. I want to fight, I am forced to do this by love and my inner religion. I cannot stand aside. "

Saint-Exupery made several sorties on the 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, among other things, he wrote his most famous book, The Little Prince (1942, publ. 1943). In 1943, he returned to the French Air Force and, with great difficulty, secured his enlistment in the combat unit. He had to master piloting the new high-speed Lightning P-38 aircraft.

“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, flying at an altitude of ten thousand meters in a world forbidden for a man - 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. " (from a letter to Jean Pelissier, July 9-10, 1944)

On July 31, 1944, Saint-Exupery 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 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-Exupery, 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. The 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 Lockheed P-38 Lightning aircraft, modification of the F-4 (long-range photo reconnaissance aircraft), which was flown 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. This gave rise to many versions of the crash, including versions of technical malfunction and pilot suicide.

According to press releases in March 2008, German Luftwaffe veteran, 88-year-old Horst Rippert claimed to be the one who shot down Antoine Saint-Exupery's plane. According to his statements, he did not know who was at the helm of the enemy plane: I did not see the pilot, only later I learned that it was Saint-Exupery

These data were obtained on the same days from the radio interception of the negotiations of the French airfields, which were carried out by the German troops.

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-Exupery.

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 François 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, Antoine studied at the Academy of Arts at the architectural department for several years, 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, the first story by Antoine de Saint-Exupery "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-Exupery 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 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 Paris-suar 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 a prize from the French Academy and the National Prize of the Year in the United States.

When World War II broke out, Captain Saint-Exupery was conscripted into the army, but he 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, on a Block-174 aircraft, he made a reconnaissance flight over Arras, for which he was awarded the Military Merit Cross.

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 at the end of 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 USA, 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-Exupery left America for Algeria, where he underwent medical 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 French resistance figures, Saint-Exupéry was allowed to carry out five reconnaissance flights with aerial photography of enemy communications and troops in the area of ​​his 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 the 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, no records were found in the logs of the German Air Force about the plane shot down that day in the area where Saint-Exupery 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- writer, thinker, poet, pilot.

Antoine Marie Roger de Saint-Exupery was born on June 29, 1900 in Lyon and was the third child of Count Jean de Saint-Exupery and Marie de Fonscolombe. Antoine's mother comes from an old Provencal family. An even more ancient family of Saint-Exupery - this name was borne by one of the knights of the Holy Grail. In 1904, after the death of her husband, Madame de Saint-Exupéry with five children: Marie-Madeleine is seven years old, Simone is six, Antoine is four, François is two, and Gabrielle, who is not yet a year old, first moves from Lyon to her mother in the castle of La Moll near Cogolein in the Massif More, and then to the castle of Saint-Maurice de Remance, owned by her aunt Madame de Tricot. Here little Antoine spent his childhood, an unusually happy time in his life. Little Antoine, impulsive, impulsive, passionately attached to his mother. It was from her that Tonio inherited the gift of imagination, poetic and artistic abilities, an ear for music - he played the violin well. Very early in Antoine, a taste for invention awoke. He once constructed a "bicycle" by attaching a screen made of willow rods and an old sheet to the bicycle. The attempt to take off, of course, failed, but this event already portends great adventures with airplanes.

In 1909, Antoine and his brother François entered the Jesuit College of Saint-Croix in Le Mans. College did not leave a noticeable imprint on Tonio's life. He did not even have new friends, he only communicates with his brother. Comrades quickly give Antoine the nickname "Sleepwalker" for his brooding appearance and habit of looking at the sky. However, teasing Antoine is dangerous: he becomes furious, and the offenders get what they deserve.

The archive of the college preserved Antoine's first serious work in prose - school work on a rather amusing topic: the adventures of a top hat. The theme itself was a fairy tale, and Antoine, who felt all the more free, the more fantastic the proposed plot was, wrote an elegant fairy tale. The cylinder in it told about itself: how it was made in the factory and how it traveled afterwards, having visited the honorable gentleman, the coachman, the rags-dealer and even the terrible king of Niger - Bam-Boom.

When Antoine was twelve, he had the first time to fly an airplane. So Antoine received "air baptism". The pilot who gave him a ride was called Jules Vedrine. Before the First World War, he was perhaps the most famous aviator in the world. But "air baptism" did not make a strong impression on Antoine, such as sometimes determines the future fate of a person. Tonio wrote poems about this event, and forgot it for the sake of new fun.

The First World War began. Madame de Saint-Exupery, being a certified nurse, is sent to the military hospital, and the boys are sent to the Montgre College in Villefranche-upon-Saône for full board, and then it only becomes clear how the children are not adapted to life in a closed educational institution: the boys are used to to home, servants, to contentment, and they are frightened by the modest way of life. And then their mother sends them to neutral Switzerland, to Friborg, where she arranges them in the Marist college "Villa-Saint-Jean". Here, the children feel good: there is no strict discipline, although of course there are rules and regulations, the pupils have tennis courts, a fencing hall, a swimming pool at their disposal, they can ski on snow-capped mountains ... Some students, including Antoine, have separate rooms.

The year 1917 will remain in Antoine's memory as a darkened sad event: his fifteen-year-old brother Francois dies of heart rheumatism. Antoine was stunned by his brother's death. The writer Saint-Exupery will describe his death in The Military Pilot. The death of the child will also be reflected in the Citadel.

Having received a liberal arts education at the college and a thorough training in the exact and natural sciences, Antoine travels to Paris, where he listens to a mathematics course, first at the Bossuet school, then at the Lyceum of Saint-Louis, preparing to enter the Higher Naval School.

In Paris, he lives in a familiar environment: friends from aristocratic families, social contacts, dinners, music - this is the circle of activities and impressions of the eighteen-year-old Exupery. But his main passion is writing. From the age of six, Antoine has been composing poetry and fairy tales. In Paris, he read to friends a whole drama in verse. In it, noble robbers acted, terrifying all kinds of carriers of evil.

This love for writing, brought by Antoine from childhood, now becomes a burden in his soul, unbalances. The only way to get rid of it is to write. Of course, Antoine does not think about professional writing, he realizes that it is inaccessible to him from any point of view: nothing has been experienced yet, no way has been found to apply his strength in life.

In 1919, Antoine passed exams at the Higher Naval School. Written in mathematics was recognized as the best work of the entire competition. The theme of the essay - “Tell us about the impressions of the Alsatian who returned to his native village, which became French again” - infuriates Antoine, and instead of writing pseudo-patriotic rubbish to get a good score, Saint-Exupery writes just a few lines. He gets the lowest score, but is still admitted to the oral exams, which he also fails in.

Antoine is confused, he doubts the correctness of the chosen path. Deciding to combine a love of art and a passion for technology, Antoine enters the architectural department of the Academy of Arts. And now fifteen months at the Academy of Arts in Paris. Another fifteen months in which Antoine seeks and does not find himself. During this period he reads Dostoevsky, Nietzsche, Plato. He revolts against the life that he and his friends lead in Paris. So, fighting with his surroundings, but in fact fighting with himself, with his habits, with external circumstances pushing him along a smooth path, Antoine wins his first internal victory: in 1921, interrupting the delay he received when he entered higher educational institution, he drops out of studies at the Faculty of Architecture and volunteers in the 2nd Regiment of Fighter Aviation in Strasbourg. This is not to say that he is attracted to aviation. While this is a leap into the unknown.

Antoine begins to take private piloting lessons. Saint-Exupery quickly mastered aerobatics. After completing the training course for a civilian pilot, Exupery asks to be sent to Morocco, where he intends to obtain the rights of a military pilot: the civil school did not give these rights. In February 1922, Antoine received a diploma of a military pilot and the rank of corporal. And in the fall of the same year, with the rank of junior lieutenant, he was assigned to the 34th Aviation Regiment in Bourget near Paris.

During this period, Antoine experiences his first strong feeling of love. She was a girl from a wealthy aristocratic family. They are engaged. But the young man's plans were not destined to come true: during one of the training flights, the Saint-Exupery plane, barely taking off from the ground, loses speed and falls to the ground. Antoine is seriously injured. The bride's parents, having learned about this, put him before a choice: family happiness or a dangerous profession. Antoine refuses to accept the offered choice. No family, no plane. Love brought only wounds, the profession too. He refuses a military career, but also refuses the girl. And again, like a few years ago, he does not know what to do, who to be?

In March 1923 he entered the office of the Boiron tile factory in Paris, in 1924 - in the Sorer firm as a worker at the Sorer truck factory, then as a traveling salesman from the same factory in Montlucon. But there is another occupation that he does at night in his room: he writes.

In April 1926, the magazine "Le Navier d" Argens "published the first story of Saint-Exupery -" The Pilot ", or rather, it is an excerpt from a story (later lost), which Antoine himself called" The Flight of Jacques Bernice. "Why flight? the title - the moral meaning of the story: a young pilot runs from the empty and useless life of the salons to a simple and wonderful business that brings him new life, a new and strong connection with the earth.

On October 11, 1926, Anutan introduces himself to the director of the airline in Toulouse, Didier Dora. Most of all he wants to fly, but here, at the Montodran airfield, wearing a blue mechanic's blouse, Antoine works in the hangar, dismantles motors, cleans cylinders and candles, works as a lubricator. Saint-Exupery resignedly carries out his service. It was during this period that the first shoots of a real friendship with Guillaume and Mermoz, based on a community of work and complete trust, were born. A few weeks later, Dora entrusts Antoine with a mail flight to Casablanca. Antoine carries mail on the line Toulouse - Casablanca (Morocco), then Casablanca - Dakar (Senegal).

In 1927, Saint-Exupéry was appointed commander of the airfield at Cap Jubi.

At that time, the coast of Africa was unsafe due to nomadic tribes, who traded in robbery and violence. The death of pilots was not uncommon. The new head of the airfield was instructed to establish friendly relations with the nomads. In October, Saint-Exupery arrived in Cap Jubi (Western Sahara). Neglecting all caution, in spite of the surrounding hostility, he achieved coordination of actions from the rescue pilots who were obliged to rescue the crews of the aircraft that had crashed, and most importantly, he established good-neighborly relations with the nomads. And at night Saint-Exupery writes "Southern Postal".

Returning to France in March 1929, with bated breath, he takes his first book to Gaston Gallimard's publishing house. After reading the manuscript, the publishing house signs a contract with the author for seven books.

After the publication of “Southern Post Office, the young writer is very excited about the reviews, and they are very flattering. Literary connoisseurs are condescending to the weaknesses of the novel and, on the contrary, discover in it the true merits: a new circle of problems, a new, individual view of the world, a peculiar vision, their own incomparable voice. The knowledge that your merits have not gone unnoticed, that they have been appreciated, is very inspiring to the writer.

In September 1929, on the orders of Dora Saint-Exupery, goes to the disposal of the company "Aeroposta-Argentina" and sets sail for Buenos Aires. As technical director, he is responsible for flying over the vast South American continent. Saint-Ex flies himself a lot, masters new difficult routes, tests new cars. He understands very well what the pilot feels and experiences, being alone in the vast expanse of the sky and knowing that under him is the abyss of the ocean. Despite all the dangers, the pilots fearlessly fly out to combat the elements. The writer Saint-Exupery will tell about this in his next book "Night Flight". The book, which will be published in 1931, will receive the Femina Prize in France and will bring literary fame and glory to Saint-Exupéry.

But it won't be soon, and now Antoine is lonely. The desire to marry became more and more acute, more and more insistently. And not by the callousness of his heart, not by the inability to love, but by the high demands in love - both to himself and to the woman he will love - that explain his love failures. In November 1930, Benjamin Cremier, a renowned critic and a member of the editorial board of Nouvelle Revue Française, introduced him to Consuelo Sunqing, a small, graceful woman with huge expressive eyes. In the spring of 1931, upon returning to France, they get married.

The young man, who feared marriage with a woman who would create for him a bourgeois way of life and a calm, balanced life, got more than he was looking for. The eccentric, absurd, impulsive Consuelo created for Antoine the atmosphere of inner anxiety and anxiety that he needed so much to create.

In 1931, after being fired from the Lines, Saint-Exupery decided to devote himself entirely to literary work, but very soon found out for himself that "if he does not fly, then he does not write."

From February 1932, he again worked for the airline, but this time on a seaplane serving the Marseille-Algeria line as co-pilot. In May 1933, all French airlines merged into one - Air France. Dora's ill-wishers at Air France refuse to accept Saint-Exupery into the service. Dora arranges for Saint-Ex as a test pilot at the Latecoer design office. Immersed in his worries, in a depressed state, Saint-Ex embarks on this dangerous job, which requires special concentration from the pilot. One case is typical. One day Saint-Exupery had to test a new model of a three-engined aircraft. He rises into the air. During the flight, the engine went out of business, and smoke came out of it. After making a U-turn, Saint-Ex went to land. Those who watched him from the ground with horror noticed that something had separated from the plane - either part of the wing, or a sheet of skin that had torn off the fuselage. Meanwhile, the plane continued its descent quite normally. On the ground, it turned out that the detached object was the cockpit door, which Saint-Ex forgot to close during takeoff.

In November, while testing a seaplane, Saint-Exupéry almost dies in the bay of Saint-Raphael. Saint-Ex owes his salvation to a miracle. This miracle - "bathing in Saint-Raphael" - he described in "The Land of Men." The consequence of this accident was a temporary forced rest. Saint-Exupery is completing the script for the film Anne-Marie, which began in Buenos Aires, and is writing the libretto for the script for the film Igor. But Saint-Exupery's attempts to write specifically for cinema did not lead to any practical results: producers and directors deal with the writer's creation at their own discretion, tweak his works as they please, to please the tastes of the general public. Saint-Exupery does not like this, and he refuses further attempts in this area.

Saint-Exupery returns to work at the Latecoer. He has some leisure, and at this time he writes the foreword to the book by Maurice Bourdet, "The Greatness and Bondage of Aviation."

Seeking money, he tries himself in the field of journalism. In April 1935, the Paris-Soir newspaper sent him for a month as a correspondent in Moscow. In May, the giant Soviet propaganda plane Maxim Gorky crashes - Saint-Exupery responds to this tragic event with a sympathetic note in Izvestia. This is followed by a series of essays about the USSR in "Paris-Soir" - everyday sketches in soft humorous tones. But lectures and journalism do not satisfy Saint-Ex; he needs to fly.

He decides to break the record set by the French pilot André Japy, who connected Paris with Saigon in 47 hours. After two weeks of preparation, on December 29, 1935, Saint-Aix with Prevost took off from Bourget and after 4 hours and 15 minutes the plane crashed in the Libyan desert. With great difficulty, without a drop of water, they reach the caravan route, where the caravan picks them up. Antoine returns to Paris. During this period Saint-Exupery made the first notes for the Citadel.

In August 1936, the Entrancian newspaper dispatched him to Spain, where civil war was raging. Along with the leading people of his time, Saint-Ex is on the side of the Spanish republicans, defending their freedom in the fight against fascism. In Spanish correspondences and essays, there is a sincere concern for the fate of Europe, over which the dark shadow of fascism has already hung. As a result of a second visit to Spain in 1937, the essay "Madrid" appears.

In January 1938 Saint-Exupery in New York. The next day, the port crane unloaded a huge box on the pier, which contained his "Simun". On this plane, Saint-Ex wanted to try to establish a direct connection between New York and Tierra del Fuego. On February 15, escorted by Prevost Saint-Ex, it leaves New York and after a short landing in Brownsville, heads for Veracruz, and from there flies to Guatemala. But immediately after taking off from an airfield in Guatemala, the plane loses speed, collapses and crashes into the ground.

Saint-Ex is saved by a miracle: he is all wounded, the lower jaw is broken, several breaks in the skull, the left collarbone is broken. In addition, he has a concussion and is at risk of blood poisoning. He has been in a coma for several days. But a strong organism overcomes the disease. As a memory of what happened, he was left with ankylosis of the left shoulder. This made it impossible for him to jump out with a parachute if necessary. It is possible that this circumstance played an important role in his premature death.

Saint Ax is brought to New York. The Guatemalan catastrophe, which almost ended tragically, thanks to a happy ending, returned Saint-Ex's courage, faith in his star. He begins to tidy up his rough sketches, notes, articles, essays, published at different times. Jean Prevost introduces him to Curtis Hitchcock, director of the Raynal Hitchcock publishing house. An agreement is concluded between the publisher and Saint-Exupery, according to which the writer undertakes to submit a new book as soon as possible. The name of the future work has already been invented, or rather, the name under which it will appear in America: "Wind, Sand and Stars."

On May 25, 1939, the French Academy awarded Antoine de Saint-Exupéry the Great Novel Prize for his book The Land of Men, which had been published three months earlier, in February. The honorary award once again drew public attention to the writer-pilot.

The Second World War began. After numerous accidents, Saint-Exupery's health is in such a state that doctors do not allow him to join the military aviation as a pilot. He again has to show extraordinary perseverance in order to defend his right to fly, his right to fight the Nazis, the enemies of France and all mankind. As part of the 2/33 air group, he conducts reconnaissance and aerial photography of the enemy's position. However, due to the infamous truce concluded in November 1940, the demobilization of French troops is carried out, and Saint-Exupéry emigrates from France.

Now, for Saint-Exupery, only the word is the weapon. In 1942, The Military Pilot was published. It is curious that this book was immediately banned by both the Nazis and de Gaulle's supporters. Moreover, the first - for the propaganda of disobedience and resistance, and the second - for allegedly "defeatist sentiments."

In February 1943, "Letter to the Hostage" was published, written in the form of a monologue, an appeal to the writer’s friend, the communist Leon Werth, where the writer seeks to express his attitude to the war, to fascism. Saint-Exupery also dedicates his poetic fairy tale "The Little Prince" to Leon Werth.

In the spring of 1943, the pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupéry with an American military transport convoy sailed to North Africa, to Algeria. He is 42, his health is undermined, but he cannot stand aside when others are at war. Here he is again among his fellow squadron 2/33. He flies again, but after an accident he is fired. But Saint-Ex can not stay idle: if the pilot of Saint-Exupery cannot fly, the writer Saint-Exupery takes the pen and continues to work on his last book "Citadel", which remained unfinished. This is a book of meditations, reflections, a book-parable. However, in the spring of 1944, the pilot Saint-Exupery, thanks to his friends, again received permission for combat reconnaissance missions.

On July 31, 1944, at 0830 hours, the plane takes off from the airfield in Corsica. Heading for Southern France. In fuel tanks for 6 hours. His return was expected until 14:30, but after 15:00 it was clear that Saint-Exupery could not return.

In September 1998, in the Mediterranean Sea, near about. Riou in the waters of Marseille, on the deck of the "Horizon", owned by J.-C. Bianco, a chain bracelet with a metal plate was raised. After cleaning, the words “Antoine de Saint-Exupery (Consuelo) - c / o Reynal and Hitchcock Inc. - 386 4th Ave N.Y. City - USA ".

In October 2003, a team of researchers was able to lift the discovered parts of the aircraft to the surface. The details bore the serial number - 2734. Checking the number against the factory technical documentation confirmed the version that it was a Saint-Exupery plane. The body was never found.

The beautiful legend about the writer-pilot who disappeared in the sky of France, the man whom the Arabs called the Captain of the Birds, continues to live: he disappeared, dissolved in the Mediterranean blue, went to meet the stars - just like his Little Prince ...

In the last period of his life, Saint-Exupery in his work broke away from the harsh reality of life and turned to the language of allegories. This is how the symbolic fairy tale-parable "The Little Prince" appeared. The "prototype" of this tale can be considered a folkloric fairy tale with a wandering storyline: a handsome prince, because of unhappy love, leaves his father's house and wanders along endless roads. The little prince, an alien from the asteroid “planet of childhood”, in search of friends, in the hope of finding true love and knowing the world, sets off on his journey to alien worlds-planets.

Visiting six planets in succession, the Little Prince on each of them encounters human vices in their naked, reduced to the absurd, grotesque form: power, vanity, drunkenness, pseudo-scholarship ... to the planet Earth.

The first creature encountered here is a mythological snake. The snake has a special role in the fairy tale: it symbolizes the miraculous power and the woeful knowledge of human destiny. The snake shows the prince the way to people, and at the end of the story, she, giving her poison, helps him to return to his home planet. But if the snake here is some kind of metaphysical element, then the character of the Fox has nothing to do with ancient mythology. He is a figure from folk tales, the personification of life's wisdom. He introduces the Little Prince to the human heart, to what it is guided by, teaches him the rituals of love and friendship, which people have forgotten about, and therefore lost friends and lost the ability to love.

The third, along with the snake and the Fox, is a symbolic figure - a rose, which the Little Prince grows on his planet and which gives him so much care and concern. A beautiful and capricious rose symbolizes, of course, a woman. Many critics believe that the rose is not so much an abstract personification of femininity as a very specific person, the wife of the writer, Consuelo de Saint-Exupery. And, perhaps, this is not at odds with the truth. The troubles of the Little Prince with a rose to a certain extent reflect the difficulties that the writer himself had to experience in this regard. Only a deeper understanding of the psychology of love, to which the Little Prince comes with the help of the wise Fox, makes it possible to resolve the existing conflict and awakens in him the desire to return to the abandoned planet.

The Little Prince is a typical fairy tale with morality, or rather, with many moral teachings, told in simple language. It was written not so much for children as for adults who have not yet completely lost their childish impressionability, a childishly open view of the world and the ability to fantasize.

Another work that is often compared to The Little Prince, The Citadel is a philosophical utopia about a wise ruler who “protects” his people from the hectic and restless world of freedom and leads them to God. The central place in the narrative is the belief in a better future. But this utopia is based not on external regulation, but on internal - a change in human consciousness, recognizing the need for a wise king and spiritual mentor. The Utopia of Saint-Exupery is a belief in a human creator and servant of the Supreme.