14 Interesting Facts About Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Do you want to learn some interesting facts about Antoine de Saint-Exupéry?

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was born in Lyon, France, on 29 June 1900, and passed away in Marseille on July 31, 1944.

He was a French aviator and author whose works are a singular testament to a pilot and a warrior who viewed danger and adventure through the eyes of a poet. Modern classics include his fable Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince).

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Saint-Exupéry was a creative youngster who experimented in the water, put wings on his bike, and wrote poems about his house and family.

Read on to learn more interesting trivia about Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the fantastic writer of one of the world’s most beloved children’s book – The Little Prince.

14 Interesting Facts About Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

1. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was a French nobleman

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry on June 29, 1900 to Jean and Marie de Saint-Exupéry.

Antoine was the third child in a family of five siblings and a Lyon-born descendant of an impoverished French aristocracy.

2. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry lived in a castle as a child

Saint-Exupéry had to handle things independently when he was a little child.

When he was four years old, his father died. His widowed mother moved the family to their castle in Le Mans since she could not support the family.

His younger and only sibling also passed away at the age of seventeen.

3. He was a not-so-bright student

Le Mans was where Antoine de Saint-Exupéry began his education at the primary level. Being raised in a Catholic family, he attended Jesuit elementary schools for his primary and secondary education. He also attended a Catholic high school in Switzerland.

Saint-Exupéry failed to earn his diploma from the boarding school in 1917 as a result of his consistently subpar academic performance.

He submitted his application to the French Navy Cadet School on two separate occasions. Both times, he was unsuccessful in completing the entry text.

He then decided to pursue a degree in architecture and enrolled in a local college. Again, because of his low academic performance, he did not finish his education.

4. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry became an Air Force pilot

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry opted to enlist in the French army as a soldier in 1921 after working odd jobs. He became a mechanic when he enlisted. After that, he was moved to the Air Force.

He served in North Africa for a brief period in the Air Force. Saint-Exupéry was called back to Paris after his duty was completed, returning to the aviation sector in 1926 when his engagement was broken off. He was hired as a pilot by French postal carrier Aeropostale, transporting mail from France to West Africa.

Saint-Exupéry’s flying career was put on hold for the duration of World War II due to the fact that he spent most of the conflict in the United States condemning the Vichy French and campaigning for the liberation of France.

5. Saint-Exupéry became a mediator for hostile desert tribes and their kidnap victims

Saint-Exupéry was given the opportunity to administer the Cape Juby airstrip in Morocco because of his understanding of the area. Frequently, hostile desert tribes kidnapped European nationals; Saint-Exupéry was brought in to mediate their release.

6. Saint-Exupéry had something to do with the founding of an Argentina airline

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was sent to South America in 1929. He was a driving force behind the founding of Aeroposta Argentina, the country’s equivalent of the French Aeropostale.

7. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was a reckless pilot

Saint-Exupéry had a propensity for flying erratically, which resulted in a number of accidents, including this one in Libya when he collided with a sand dune.

The crash took place during a 1935 attempt to break the record of the fastest air race from Paris to Saigon. Saint-Exupéry and his mechanic-navigator Andre Prevot crashed in the Libyan Desert.

8. He survived a plane crash

Despite miraculously surviving the crash in the Libyan Desert, Saint-Exupéry and Prevot quickly became dehydrated due to the extreme desert heat.

Because of their outdated maps, they had no idea where they were. They were lost in the sand dunes, and their supplies were running low. They stopped sweating on days two and three because they were dehydrated.

On day four, a Bedouin riding a camel came across them and treated them with a traditional rehydration method, saving their lives.

9. He got married and divorced within a short period

Saint-Exupéry married a brilliant and fiery widow from El Salvador named Consuelo Carrillo in 1931.

Consuelo wrote in a memoir that Saint-Exupéry popped the question to her on the very first night that the two of them had met in Buenos Aires. She uprooted her life and relocated to France to be closer to him.

After it was discovered that both of them had been engaging in extramarital affairs, they were compelled to reside in separate accommodations.

10. He fought during World War II as a pilot

Saint-Exupéry started flying “near suicide” surveillance missions when World War II broke out and continued doing so until France fell in 1940.

In an effort to convince it to join the fight against the Nazis, Antoine de Saint-Exupert went to the United States.

Between early 1941 and early 1943, Saint-Exupéry resided in New York. At this time, he began to write a lot and established himself as a prolific author.

He re-entered the war in 1943, fighting with American troops while piloting a French reconnaissance bomber plane.

11. Saint-Exupéry wrote the Little Prince during World War II

The author and illustrator of A Downed Pilot Meet an Unusual Boy in the Sahara Desert, now more popularly known as The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, spent the beginning of the Second World War in New York City.

In the story he wrote during the Second World War, the Little Prince travels from his little home planet to Earth, learning lessons on love, friendship, beauty, and responsibility. Along the way, he encounters a lot of disagreeable adults on nearby asteroids.

This colorful, depressing fairy tale mocks the behavior of adults and honors children’s innocence and purity. Young children will enjoy the whimsical prose and endearing watercolor drawings in the original edition. Still, they might not understand the book’s philosophical theme.

The book is especially well-liked by adults who enjoy the aphorisms of The Little Prince and the narrator’s spiritual enlightenment.

12. His second book was a bestseller as soon as released

Saint-Exupéry published Night Flight, his follow-up to The Little Prince, in 1931. The story is about the perilous journeys of intrepid pilots.

Antoine utilized his aircraft as a tool to travel the globe and learn about human solidarity via the cooperative efforts of men to complete their responsibilities.

13. Night Flight catapulted Saint-Exupéry to fame

After being published, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Night Flight immediately went on to become a worldwide bestseller and was awarded the French literary prize, Prix Femina.

When Clark Gable adapted Night Flight into a film, Saint-Exupéry became a worldwide sensation.

14. Saint-Exupéry was a missing person case

On July 31, 1944, the famous author of The Little Prince and Night Flight went missing and was thought to have perished while flying a Corsican reconnaissance plane over the Mediterranean.

Although his plane’s remains were found in 2000 off the coast of Marseille, the crash’s actual reason is still a mystery. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry vanished without a trace.