Antoine de Saint-Exupery

The famed French aviator, poet, author, and journalist Antoine de Saint-Exupéry famously described his journeys and thrilling experiences as a pilot in his literary works. He worked as a commercial pilot for the first aero-postal services while concurrently serving in the French Air Force. He fled to America after the German Armistice in 1940, where he authored his most well-known book, Le Petit Prince or The Little Prince, which was first made available there in both English and French. His literary career peaked with the 1943 publication of The Little Prince, a classic that was written while he was in New York arguing for American intervention in the War against the Nazi regime. Although he received numerous literary awards for his works Night Flight (1931) and his memoir Wind, Sand, and Stars (1939), his literary endeavors culminated with the publication of these two works.

Later, in 1943, he would return to France and fight alongside the Allies with a squadron stationed in the Mediterranean. While mapping out German locations in the Rhone valley in his P38 unarmed plane on a reconnaissance mission on July 31, 1944, he vanished. His disappearance would not be solved until 2004 when pieces of his plane were found off the coast of Marseille. The Little Prince is a book that honors Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

Birth - Death: 1900 - 1944