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Few literary works in the world can afford to say they have been translated into 250 languages, including several indigenous languages. The Little Prince is one of the few that has succeeded. Today we’ll talk about the biography of its author, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, who put in it an allegory of his philosophy of life and part of his adventures.
The Little Prince was not the only work by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, but it was the most successful. Many do not know whether to classify it as a work for children or for adults. That’s its charm: it can be read from many points of view.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was a wonderful and sensitive writer, but also a great adventurer. Aviation and travel lover, seductive and intellectually brilliant. He loved adventure and was in mortal danger in some situations for the pure love of challenge.
Biography of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: a happy boy
Antoine was the son of Count Jean de Saint-Exupéry, an insurance specialist. His mother was Marie de Fronscolombe, a loving woman of great artistic sensitivity. The writer and aviator was born on June 29, 1900, on the island of Riou (France).
His family was, of course, very well off. Antoine had four brothers: three girls and a boy. He was the third child. His only brother died of rheumatic fever when he was just 15 years old. The scene and effect of that death were captured in The Little Prince.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s father died when he was 9 years old. Since then, her family has moved into an aunt’s castle. Little Antoine, despite everything, had a happy childhood. The family was very loving and he adored his mother.
Architect, Aviator and Writer
Antoine wanted to go to university but failed the exam. He then decided to enroll in a fine arts school to study architecture. In 1921 he served in the army and there fell in love with aviation.
Between 1922 and 1926 Antoine de Saint-Exupéry held various positions, as representative of a truck company and inspector of a brick factory. Finally, in 1926, he began working as a commercial pilot at Aeropostale and published his first story: The Aviator.
In 1928 he was appointed Aeropostale representative for Argentina and moved to that country. There, he met Salvadoran writer and artist Consuelo Carrillo. They were introduced by a mutual friend and it was one of those love affairs at first sight. The company then went bankrupt in South America. So Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, together with Consuelo, went to France and were married in 1931.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the man
Following the biography of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, we see that in 1919 he published his first novel, Correio do Sul. In the same year of his marriage, he published Voo Noturno , his first great literary success. André Gide himself wrote the prologue. With this work, she won the Femina Prize.
His relationship with Consuelo began to get turbulent. The marriage lasted 15 years, between successive separations and reconciliations. Both he and she rated the relationship as intense and unstable.
What most affected the marriage were Antoine’s successive infidelities. However, it is clear that Consuelo was the great love of his life. The character of the rose, in The Little Prince , is dedicated to her.
an adventurer, a dreamer
In 1935, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and his friend André Prevot tried to break the aviation record, flying in record time from Paris to Saigon. However, the plane failed and they had to make an emergency landing in the Libyan desert. There, they were at the mercy of chance. On the fourth day, they were rescued by a Bedouin.
This experience in the desert is narrated allegorically in The Little Prince. Later, in 1938, he also wanted to set a flying record, this time between New York and Tierra del Fuego. He had an accident in Guatemala and was on the verge of death. This inspired the work Land of Men .
During World War II, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry decided to enlist to fight the Nazis. When the Germans invaded France, he emigrated to the United States. There he wrote Piloto de Guerra and The Little Prince in 1943. He later joined the French resistance.
The clandestine resistance charged him with a covert operation along the French coast. He left to fulfill it on July 31, 1944. However, his plane was shot down by German troops and disappeared. His body was found in August of the same year, but it was not until 2000 that the plane he was in command was found.
