Biography of Antoine de Saint Exupery brief summary. Brief biography of Saint-Exupery

Antoine de Saint-Exupery (full name - Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger de Saint-Exupéry) - a French writer who was a professional pilot, was born in Leon on June 29, 1900. His father, the count, died when Antoine was 4 years old, caring for the boy fell entirely on the shoulders of his mother. From 1908 to 1904, Antoine was educated at Manse, the Jesuit college of Sainte-Croix, then was a student at a Catholic boarding school located in Friborg, Switzerland, and completed his education as a free student at the Academy of Fine Arts, department of architecture.

Much in his further biography determined 1921, when Saint-Exupery was drafted into the army. Antoine ended up in the 2nd regiment stationed in Strasbourg fighter aircraft. At first he worked as a repair shop worker, then, after completing a pilot course, he successfully passed the civil pilot exam. Finding himself later in Morocco, he becomes a military pilot.

In October 1922, he was sent to the 34th Aviation Regiment near Paris, and already in January of the following year the first plane crash happened in his life, of which he would have to endure many. The commissioned Saint-Exupery settles in the capital, where he tries to earn money through literary work. However, this activity did not bring him much success, so he had to look for other sources of income, in particular, working as a salesman.

In 1925, Saint-Exupéry became a pilot for the Aeropostal company, which was engaged in delivering correspondence to North Africa. During 1927-1929 he worked as the head of the airport in these parts. The appearance in print of the first story entitled “The Pilot” dates back to the same period of his biography. Since 1929, he has worked as head of the Buenos Aires branch of the airline. For the contribution made to the development civil aviation, in 1930 he was awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor. In 1931, he returned to Europe, where he again worked on postal airlines. In 1931, Saint-Exupéry became the owner literary prize"Femina" for "Night Flight".

Since the mid-30s. Saint-Exupery is engaged in journalistic work. Thus, the result of his visit to the USSR in 1935 was 5 essays, one of which attempted to identify the essence of Stalin’s policies. As a war correspondent, he collaborated with the newspaper in August 1936, while in Spain, gripped by civil war. In 1939, Saint-Exupery was awarded the prestigious literary prize of the French Academy for the book “The Planet of Men,” and for the book “Wind, Sand and Stars” he was awarded the US National Book Award. In the same year he received a military award - the Military Cross of the French Republic.

From the very first days of World War II, Saint-Exupery became involved in the fight against the Nazis both as a publicist and as a military pilot. When the Germans occupied France, he first moved to a part of the country not occupied by them, and then emigrated to the United States. In 1943 he ended up in North Africa, where he served as a military pilot. It was there that the fairy tale that made the writer famous was written, recognized highest achievement his literary creativity, - « A little prince».

On July 31, 1944, his plane took off on a reconnaissance flight from the island of Sardinia and did not return to the airfield. The details of the death of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry were not known for quite some time. In 1998, near Marseille, a fisherman found a bracelet that belonged to a French writer-pilot. Later, in 2000, the wreckage of his plane was discovered. In 1948, a book of parables and aphorisms, “The Citadel,” was published, which remained unfinished.

Biography from Wikipedia

Childhood, adolescence, youth

The birthplace of Antoine de Saint-Exupery is house number 8 on the street that now bears his name

Antoine de Saint-Exupery was born in the French city of Lyon on Rue Peyrat (French rue Peyrat, now French rue Antoine de Saint Exupéry), 8, with the insurance inspector Count Jean-Marc Saint-Exupéry (1863-1904) and his wife Marie Boyer de Fontcolombes. The family came from an old family of Perigord nobles. Antoine (his pet nickname was "Tonio") was the third of five children, he had two older sisters, Marie-Madeleine "Biché" (born 1897) and Simone "Monot" (born 1898), and a younger brother Francois (born 1902) and younger sister Gabriela "Didi" (born 1904). Early childhood Exupéry spent his time in an apartment on Rue Peyrat in Lyon, but in 1904, when Antoine was 4 years old, his father died of an intracerebral hemorrhage, after which Antoine began to spend six months of the year in the castle of the commune of Saint-Petersburg, which belonged to his great-aunt Marie, Countess of Tricot. Maurice de Remans in the department of Ain, and the rest of the time - at the apartment of Countess Tricot on Place Bellecour in Lyon or in the castle of the commune of La Mole in the department of Var with Marie's parents. This continued until the summer of 1909, when the Saint-Exupéry family, together with Antoine, moved to Le Mans, to house number 21 on rue du Clos-Margot.

Exupery entered the School of the Christian Brothers of Saint Bartholomew (French: école chrétienne de la Montée Saint-Barthélemy) in Lyon (1908), then, together with his brother François, studied at the Jesuit College of Sainte-Croix in Le Mans - until 1914.

In 1912, at the aviation field in Amberieux-en-Buget, Saint-Exupéry took off for the first time in an airplane. The car was piloted by the famous pilot Gabriel Wroblewski.

In 1914-1915, the brothers studied at the Jesuit College Notre-Dame-de-Mongreux in Villefranche-sur-Saône, after which they continued their studies in Fribourg (Switzerland) at the Marist College Villa Saint-Jean - until 1917, when Antoine successfully passed the undergraduate exam. On July 10, 1917, Francois died of rheumatic carditis, his death shocked Antoine. In October 1917, Antoine, preparing to enter the École Naval, took a preparatory course at the École Bossuet, the Lycée Saint-Louis, then, in 1918, at the Lakanal Lyceum, but in June 1919 he failed oral entrance exam at "Ekol Naval". In October 1919, he enrolled as a volunteer in the National high school Fine Arts in the Department of Architecture.

The turning point in Antoine’s fate came in 1921, when he was drafted into the army. Having interrupted the deferment he received upon entering the university, Antoine enrolled in the 2nd Fighter Aviation Regiment in Strasbourg. At first he was assigned to a work team at repair shops, but soon he managed to pass the exam to become a civilian pilot. Exupery was transferred to Morocco, where he received a military pilot's license, and then was sent to Istres for improvement. In 1922, Antoine completed courses for reserve officers in Aurora and received the rank of junior lieutenant. In October he was assigned to the 34th Aviation Regiment at Bourges near Paris. In January 1923, his first plane crash occurred; Exupery received a traumatic brain injury. In March he was discharged. Exupery moved to Paris, where he took up literature.

Only in 1926 did Exupéry find his calling - he became a pilot for the Aeropostal company, delivering mail to north coast Africa. In the spring, he began working on the transport of mail on the line Toulouse - Casablanca, then Casablanca - Dakar. On October 19, 1926, he was appointed head of the Cap Jubi intermediate station (city of Villa Bens), on the very edge of the Sahara. Here he wrote his first work - the novel “Southern Postal”.

In March 1929, Saint-Exupéry returned to France, where he entered higher education. aviation courses navy in Brest. Soon, Gallimard's publishing house published the novel "South Postal", and Exupery went to South America as the technical director of Aeropost - Argentina, a branch of the Aeropostal company. In 1930, Saint-Exupéry was made a Knight 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 Henri Guillaumet, who suffered an accident while flying over the Andes. In the same year, Saint-Exupéry wrote the novel “Night Flight” and met his future wife- Consuelo from El Salvador.

Pilot and correspondent

In 1930, Saint-Exupéry returned to France and received a three-month vacation. In April, he married Consuelo Sunsin (April 16, 1901 - May 28, 1979), but the couple, as a rule, lived separately. On March 13, 1931, the Aeropostal company was declared bankrupt. Saint-Exupéry returned as a pilot to the France-Africa postal line and served the Casablanca-Port-Etienne-Dakar section. In October 1931, the novel “Night Flight” was published, for which the writer was awarded the Femina literary prize.

From February 1932, Exupery worked for the Latecoera airline; as a co-pilot he flew on a seaplane serving the Marseille-Algeria line. Didier Dora, a former Aeropostal pilot, soon got him a job as a test pilot, and Saint-Exupéry almost died while testing a new seaplane in the Bay of Saint-Raphael.

Since 1934, Exupery worked for Air France (formerly Aeropostal); As a representative of the company, he traveled to Africa, Indochina and other countries.

In April 1935, as a correspondent for the Paris-Soir newspaper, Saint-Exupéry 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.

Soon, Saint-Exupéry became the owner of his own aircraft, the C.630 Simun, and on December 29, 1935, he attempted to set a record on the Paris-Saigon flight, but crashed in the Libyan Desert, again narrowly avoiding death. On January 1, he and the mechanic Prevost, dying of thirst, were rescued by Bedouins.

In August 1936, as a correspondent for the newspaper Entransigen, Exupery went to Spain, where Civil War, and published a number of reports in the newspaper.

In January 1938, on board the Ile de France liner, Exupery went to New York, where he began work on a collection of autobiographical essays, Planet of Men. On February 15, he began the flight New York - Tierra del Fuego, but suffered serious accident in Guatemala, after which he spent a long time restoring his health, first in New York and then in France.

War

On September 4, 1939, the day after France declared war on Germany, Saint-Exupéry reported to the place of mobilization at the Toulouse-Montaudran military airfield and on November 3 was transferred to the 2/33 long-range reconnaissance air unit, which was based in Orconte (Champagne province). This was his response to his friends’ persuasion to abandon the risky career of a military pilot. Many tried to convince Saint-Exupéry 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-Exupéry achieved an appointment to combat unit. In one of his letters in November 1939, he wrote: “I am obliged to participate in this war. Everything I love is at risk. In Provence, when the forest burns, everyone who cares grabs buckets and shovels. I want to fight, love and my inner religion force me to do this. I can’t stand by and watch this calmly.”

Saint-Exupery made several combat missions on a Block-174 aircraft, performing aerial photographic 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 the unoccupied part of the country, and later went to the United States. He lived in New York, where in 1942 he created his most famous work, “The Little Prince,” published a year later in French and English languages with illustrations by the author (in France the fairy tale was published in 1946). In 1943, he joined the Air Force of “Fighting France” and with great difficulty achieved his enrollment in a combat unit. He had to master piloting the new high-speed P-38 Lightning aircraft. Exupery wrote to Jean Pelissier on July 9-10, 1944: “I have a funny craft for my age. The next one in age is six years younger than me. But, of course, I prefer my current life - breakfast at six in the morning, a dining room, a tent or a whitewashed room, flying at an altitude of ten thousand meters in a world forbidden to humans - to unbearable Algerian idleness... ... I chose work for maximum wear and tear and, because necessary I always push myself to the end, I won’t back down anymore. I just wish this vile war would end before I fade away like a candle in a stream of oxygen. I have something to do after it.”

On July 31, 1944, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry set off 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 they thought that he crashed in the Alps. And only in 1998, in the sea near Marseille, a fisherman discovered a bracelet.

There were several inscriptions on it: “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 publishing house where Saint-Exupery's books were published. In May 2000, diver Luc Vanrel said that at a depth of 70 meters he discovered the wreckage of an airplane that may have belonged to Saint-Exupéry. The remains of the plane were scattered over a strip one kilometer long and 400 meters wide. Almost immediately, the French government banned any searches in the area. Permission was received only in the fall of 2003. Experts recovered fragments of the plane. One of them turned out to be part of the pilot's cabin, preserved serial number aircraft: 2734-L. Using American military archives, scientists compared all the numbers of aircraft that disappeared during this period. Thus, it turned out that the onboard serial number 2734-L corresponds to the aircraft, which in the US Air Force was listed under the number 42-68223, that is, the P-38 Lightning aircraft, a modification of the F-5B-1-LO (long-range photo reconnaissance aircraft), which piloted by Exupery.

Luftwaffe logs contain no records of aircraft shot down in this area on July 31, 1944, and the wreckage itself does not show obvious signs of shelling. The remains of the pilot were not found. To the many versions about the crash, including versions about a technical malfunction and the suicide of the pilot (the writer suffered from depression), versions about Saint-Exupery's desertion were added.

According to press publications from March 2008, the German Luftwaffe veteran 86-year-old Horst Rippert, a pilot of the Jagdgruppe 200 squadron, then a journalist, stated that it was he who shot down Antoine de Saint-Exupery in his Messerschmitt Bf.109 fighter (apparently, he killed him or seriously wounded him, and Saint-Exupery lost control of the plane and was unable to jump out with a parachute). The plane entered the water at high speed and almost vertically. At the moment of collision with water there was an explosion. The plane was completely destroyed. Its fragments are scattered over a vast area under water. According to Rippert, he confessed to clear Saint-Exupéry's name from accusations of desertion or suicide, since even then he was a big fan of Saint-Exupéry's work and would never have shot him, but he did not know who was at the controls of the plane enemy:

I didn’t see the pilot, only later did I find out that it was Saint-Exupéry

The fact that Saint-Exupéry was the pilot of the downed plane became known to the Germans on the same days from radio interceptions of negotiations at French airfields, which were carried out by German troops. Meanwhile, the Luftwaffe pilots who served with Horst Rippert express doubt about the veracity of his words that he hid the fact of the destruction of a fairly large aircraft from his own command. Researchers note that such a victory does not appear in the Luftwaffe archives, American radars did not record the flights of unknown aircraft, and the aircraft itself does not have any traces of shelling. Therefore, many researchers believe that the main version is that Saint-Exupéry’s plane crashed due to a malfunction, and Horst Rippert is not telling the truth.

Now the wreckage of the plane is in the Air and Space Museum in Le Bourget.

Literary awards

• 1930 - Femina Prize - for the novel “Night Flight”;
• 1939 - Big bonus French Academy for the novel - for the novel “Planet of People”;
• 1939 - US National Book Award - for the novel “Wind, Sand and Stars” (“Planet of Men”).

Military awards

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

Bibliography

Post-war editions

• Lettres de jeunesse. Editions Gallimard, 1953. Préface de Renée de Saussine. Letters from Youth.
• Carnets. Editions Gallimard, 1953. Notebooks.
• Lettres à sa mère. Editions Gallimard, 1954. Prologue de Madame de Saint-Exupery. Letters to mother.
• Un sens à la vie. Editions 1956. Textes inédits recueillis et présentés par Claude Reynal. Give life meaning. 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: Baevskaya E. V.

Small jobs

• Who are you, soldier? Translations into Russian: Ginzburg Yu. A.
• Pilot (first story, published on April 1, 1926 in the Silver Ship magazine).
• The morality of necessity. Translations into Russian: Tsyvyan L. M.
• We need to give meaning 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 the elements. Translations into Russian: Grachev R.
• Message to the American. Translations into Russian: Tsyvyan L. M.
• A message to young Americans. Translations into Russian: Baevskaya E. V.
• Foreword to Anne Morrow-Lindbergh's The Wind Rises. Translations into Russian: Ginzburg Yu. A.
• Preface to the issue of 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, enemy voices echo from the trenches. Translations into Russian: Ginzburg Yu. A.
• Citadel Themes. Translations into Russian: Baevskaya E. V.
• France first. Translations into Russian: Baevskaya E. V.

Perpetuation of memory

• Monument in Lyon on Place Bellecour.
• Lyon Saint-Exupéry Airport.
• Asteroid 2578 Saint-Exupery, discovered by astronomer Tatyana Smirnova on November 2, 1975 at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory, the name was assigned on July 11, 1987.
• Mountain peak in Patagonia Aguja Saint Exupery.
• Museums of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry exist in Japan, in South Korea and in Morocco. In Ulyanovsk (Russia) there is a linguistic and cultural center named after the writer at the university. In France, the creation of a cultural center is planned for 2014.
• The name assigned in 2003 to the moon of the asteroid “45 Eugenia” (The Little Prince) and the name of the asteroid 46610 Bésixdouze, assigned in 2002, are dedicated to the work “The Little Prince”.
• In Moscow, a library is named after Antoine de Saint-Exupery (formerly the library of the Central Library No. 11 No. 5). The library cooperates with the Russian Foundation “The World of Saint-Exupéry”.
• In Krasnoyarsk, a boulevard built in 2015 in the “South Coast” residential complex is named after Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

To the cinema

• 1995 - “Wings of Courage” (USA, France) - a film about the feat of Henri Guillaume, to whom the novel “Planet of Humans” is dedicated. Saint-Exupery was played by Tom Hulse.
• 1996 - “Saint-Exupéry: The Last Mission” (France). Main role Bernard Giraudeau played in the film.
• 1996 - “Saint-Exupery” (Great Britain). The role of Saint-Exupery was played by German actor Bruno Ganz.
• 2011 - “Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Interrupted flight" (Belarus)
• 2015 - “Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. "A little prince""

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is familiar to the whole world, mainly thanks to his philosophical work “The Little Prince”. But what kind of person was Exupery? The biography of this writer-pilot is very little known to many, despite the fact that his fate is full of interesting twists and turns. There was dramatic love, great friendship, and adventures, many of which were reflected in his books.

The de Saint-Exupéry family

The biography of the future writer begins in the French city of Lyon, where he was born on June 29, 1900. He was the third child of Comte de Saint-Exupéry and his wife. In just 4 years of marriage, the couple managed to acquire two daughters, Marie-Madeleine and Simone, and a son. Soon after Antoine his brother Francois was born, and two years later his younger sister Gabrielle de Saint-Exupery was born.

The biography of the future writer soon became darker. Immediately after birth youngest daughter Jean de Saint-Exupéry, whom George Sand herself dubbed a real French chevalier, died, leaving his wife alone with five children and without a livelihood.

Antoine Exupery: short biography. Childhood

After the death of their father and husband, the family settles with Aunt Marie in Lyon on Place Bellecour, but often the children visit their grandmother’s castle, where Queen Margot herself once visited.

Despite the poverty, the family is very friendly, and all the children get along well with each other. Of course, Antoine is attached to his sisters, but his true friendship is with younger brother Francois. Loves it little son and his mother, she calls him the Sun King for his blond curls, upturned nose and easy character, which remained with Exupery throughout his life.

His biography is full of memories from his contemporaries and family that the boy grew up very cheerful and inquisitive, adored animals, and also loved to tinker with engines; perhaps this is where his love for aviation came from, which would develop much later.

Education

At the age of 8, Antoine entered a Christian school in Lyon, and then he and his brother continued their education at the Jesuit college in Montreux. The next stage is college in Switzerland, where the boy entered at the age of 14. Having received a bachelor's degree in three years, the young man plans to enter the Naval Lyceum in Paris, even attends training courses, however, does not stand up to the competition.

When Antoine turns 17, his brother François unexpectedly dies of articular rheumatism. The young man has a hard time experiencing the loss of someone close to him; he withdraws into himself.

After failing the exams for the military lyceum, Saint-Exupéry was forced to content himself with attending lectures on architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts.

Getting to know the sky. Pilot

Exupery, whose biography is inextricably linked with the sky, dreamed of it since childhood. The first flight happened in his life when he was only 12 years old. The famous pilot Gabriel Wroblewski, despite the prohibitions of Antoine's mother, took him with him to the aviation field in Amberier. This short flight impressed the boy so much that it left a mark on his entire life.

However, the next chance to get closer to heaven presented itself only at the age of 21, when he joined the army and became a soldier of Exupery. From this moment on, his biography is full of flights. He first enlisted in an aviation regiment in Strasbourg, where he was assigned as a non-flying soldier in a repair shop. However, the sky beckoned him, and de Saint-Exupéry decided to take the civil pilot exam. In parallel with his service, he learns to fly, and at the end of the year he is transferred to Casablanca, where he takes an exam and receives the rank of officer.

During this period, he writes in his diaries that he experiences an irresistible desire to fly. Soon after receiving the opportunity to be civil pilot he also receives the right to fly a military aircraft, and then, having received the rank of junior lieutenant in the reserves, is transferred to serve in an aviation regiment near Paris.

In 23, Exupery had his first accident, received severe injuries and temporarily gave up aviation. He works in a tile factory, selling trucks, until fate finally gives him the chance to realize his second passion and talent. young man- writing.

First attempts at writing

Antoine began writing quite early and was immediately successful - his first work, the fairy tale “The Odyssey of a Cylinder,” which he wrote in college in 1914, received first prize at a literary competition.

However, the door to serious literature will open for him much later. In 1925, Antoine, at the invitation of his cousin, comes to her salon, where he meets writers and publishers. They are literally fascinated by the young man and his works and offer to publish his stories. And already in April of the following year, his story “The Pilot” was published in the magazine “Silver Ship”.

Return to the sky

His first public success brings Exupery together with the wealthy businessman de Massima, who introduces him to the management of the Aeropostal airline. At first, Exupery works only as a mechanic, and then as a pilot of a mail plane. Moreover, he began to fly not just anywhere, but to Africa. He soon becomes the head of a small airport in the city of Cap Jubi in the heart of the Sahara Desert. To the surprised questions of his relatives about his fate and career as a writer, he always answered that in order to write, you first need to live. And his life here is amazing. In addition to his main work, Saint-Ex, as his friends decided to call him, uses all his diplomatic talents and either reconciles warring African tribes, pacifies the warlike Moors, rescues crashed pilots from their captivity, or even tames a wild fox.

This work and travel to new Amazing places did not change the character of Exupery. His big, kind heart was ready to give everything to people. He spent money and time helping his friends and family, helping solve their problems and believed that hatred can only be overcome by love. Thanks to this work, Antoine makes his closest friends - Jean Mermoz and Henri Guillaumet. Together they will make a significant contribution to the development of aviation not only in Europe, but also in Africa and even in South America.

New points on the map

After Africa, Exupery returns briefly to France, where he begins to collaborate with book publishers and also improves his piloting skills. And soon a new assignment - a branch of the Aeropostal airline in South America, in Buenos Aires. Regular night flights over Casablanca are the main work that Antoine Exupery does.

short biography The further period of his life was marked by the financial collapse of his native airline in 31, after which Exupery left it. Subsequently, he works on the postal lines connecting Dakar, Marseille and Algeria, tests new seaplanes and again gets into a serious accident. He miraculously survives, and divers have difficulty finding him. And his next accident happened soon in Saigon, in the Mekong Valley.

In 1933, Exupéry joined the Paris-Soir newspaper, where he became a correspondent. Among other countries, he visits the USSR, where he meets Bulgakov. Exupery's essays on the Soviet Union are a great success among readers. Soon he organizes a large air tour over the Mediterranean Sea to promote aviation.

Crash of plans

Being not only a pilot, but also an inventor, he borrowed money, bought a plane and participated in the development of a project for a high-speed flight from Paris to Saigon. He is in a hurry, because in order to receive money for the task, he must complete it by December 31st. On the night of December 30, Exupery, together with his mechanic, crashed in the Libyan desert, miraculously did not die and tried to survive for several more days without food and water. They are rescued by nomadic Bedouins.

The last serious accident occurs on a flight from New York to Tierra del Fuego. For several days after the accident, the pilot was in a coma, he had serious head injuries and other injuries, so he could no longer put on a parachute independently due to a shoulder injury. The short biography of de Saint-Exupéry is literally full of such accidents.

Literary success

While still working in the hot desert of Cap Jubi, Antoine writes his first major work at night, the book “Southern Postal”. In 29, returning to France, Exupery signed an agreement with the publishing house of Gaston Gallimard for the release of seven of his novels. The second work is “Night Flight” written in Argentina. In 1931, Exupery received the prestigious Femina Prize for this novel, and a year later, American filmmakers made a full-length film based on it.

The adventures and travels that befell Exupery were always reflected in his works. Thus, an accident in the Libyan desert and subsequent wanderings through it formed the basis of the novel “Land of Men.” The work was also influenced by the trip to the USSR made by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

The biography is short, but full of experiences, and is included in the novel “Military Pilot”. It is inspired by the Second World War. Taking direct part in it and doing everything in his power, Exupery expressed all his confusion, all mental anguish puts it in the book. In the USA it is a huge success, but in its native France it is banned by censorship. On the wave of popularity, an order for a children's fairy tale comes from America. In the course of his work, the writer creates his most famous work - “The Little Prince” with the author’s illustrations.

Personal life

Exupery, whose (short) biography would not have been revealed without personal relationships, truly loved only two women. Despite his fine spiritual organization and, undoubtedly, lyrical character, Antoine was not too lucky with girls. At the age of 18, he first met the one he fell in love with. Her name was Louise, and she was the sister of his comrade. Louise came from a noble family rich family and had a very quarrelsome and capricious character. Antoine, having fallen madly in love with her, proposed, but did not receive a definite answer. Some time later, when the young man was in the hospital with his first injury, he learned of the final break in the engagement. It was a big blow for him. And Louise only considered him a loser; even the literary success that Antoine de Exupery received did not change her opinion.

The biography of the tall, stately, handsome and charming French pilot, however, could not do without the attention of women, but he himself, having once experienced disappointment, was in no hurry to start affairs. At the same time, he was also worried that he was wasting his youth and life. In letters to his mother, he complained that he could not meet a woman who could calm his anxiety.

However, Antoine Exupery soon met such a woman. His biography at that time continues in Buenos Aires, where the writer meets Consuelo Carrilo. It is not known exactly how they met, but it must be assumed that they were introduced by a mutual friend, writer Benjamin Crepier. Consuelo was the widow of the writer Gomez Carrilo and had quite complex nature. Short, dark, not too beautiful woman was nevertheless the center of attention. She carried herself proudly and arrogantly, like a queen, she was well educated, well-read and intelligent. She brought confusion into Exupery's life, pestering him with violent scandals and hysterics, but it seemed that this was all he lacked.

The difficult love of a writer

The memoirs of Ksenia Kuprina, the daughter of the Russian writer A. Kuprin, are interesting. She met Consuelo in Paris and was fascinated by her intelligence and grace. One day, an Argentinean woman called Ksenia in the middle of the night and begged her to come. She told a 19-year-old girl a story about how she met an amazing man whom she fell incredibly in love with. But they are not destined to be together, since he was shot by the revolutionaries right before her eyes. Shocked Kuprina took Consuelo to her Vacation home and for several days she consoled her friend, literally pulled her out of the lake, in which she wanted to drown herself with obsessive persistence.

Imagine Kuprina’s indignation when it turned out that the shot lover was Exupery, alive and unharmed. Consuelo was so angry with him and wanted to break up that she made up the idea that he was dead and made those around her believe it.

They got married just a few months after they met, but pretty soon they living together stopped being joyful and happy. Consuelo literally went crazy, torturing her husband with her antics. She either started a fight and threw dishes in front of guests, or went to bars until the morning and told vile, lying stories about her husband. However, he endured everything with a smile and calmness. Perhaps only he knew what she really was like, and saw the other side of her intolerable character. Be that as it may, this love was as devoted and passionate as the first day they met.

World War II period

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, whose biography dates back to the war years, ended up in Nazi Germany at 37. He was unpleasantly surprised by what Nazism did to people. When England and France declare war on Germany, Exupery is assigned to serve on the ground for health reasons, but he connected all his connections and was assigned to an aviation reconnaissance group.

After living and working in the USA in 1944, Exupery returned to his homeland again, but was not allowed to engage in intelligence activities, as he was already in the reserves. And again we have to connect connections. Despite serious problems with health, he is allowed to make 5 more flights to obtain images of the area. On July 31, a plane piloted by Antoine Saint-Exupéry took off on a mission. The writer’s biography ends at this moment, since the plane did not return at the appointed time. Only 60 years later, in 2004, from the bottom Mediterranean Sea The remains of the kindest writer on the planet were raised and identified.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry combined in his life and work the flight of a professional pilot with the flight of fantasy of a writer, reflecting in his books an artistic narrative about the most ordinary romantics of the sky. A humanist and philosopher, he argued that “flying and writing are the same thing”.

Saint-Exupery was a talented and versatile person. The scion of an impoverished count's family, Antoine Exupery was born at the very beginning of the last century - June 29, 1900 in Lyon, France. From 8 to 14 years old he studied at a Jesuit college, and continued his education at a Catholic boarding school in Switzerland, where he received a diploma from the architecture department of the Academy of Fine Sciences.

At the age of 21, Saint-Exupéry was drafted into the army, sent to Strasbourg, to the location of a fighter aviation regiment. There his flying career began: at first Antoine worked as a mechanic in a repair shop, and later passed the exam to become a civilian pilot. Work as a pilot began in October 1922 in an air regiment near Paris. But a couple of months later, Exupery had his first plane crash, literally interrupting his flight for several years. During this period, Exupery's career as a writer began.

Since 1925, Saint-Exupéry's flying activities have continued. He flies a mail plane in North Africa, and after 2 years becomes the head of the airport. At this time, the first story “The Pilot” was published. In 1930 for active work associated with aeronautics, receives the highest award in France - the Order of the Legion of Honor. The following year, his story “Night Flight” was awarded the Femina Prize.

In the period 1935 - 39 the writer actively works in journalism, where he describes the events of the civil military confrontation in Spain, and after visiting Soviet Union- Stalin's policy of the USSR. In 1939, Exupery was awarded the Literature Prize from the Academy of France for the book “Planet of People”, received the US Book Award for the collection “Wind, Sand and Stars”, and was awarded the Military Cross of the French Republic.

Second World War– new and main stage in the life of Exupery. Emigrates from occupied France to the United States and goes to the front as a military pilot. In 1943 he served in North Africa, where he created the philosophical parable “The Little Prince” - the writer’s creative apogee. Having set off on a reconnaissance flight on the last day of July 1944, Exupery’s plane crashed and disappeared without a trace. The writer’s last, unfinished work was the collection “Citadel”. Experts compiled it from many passages created by Exupery.

The work of A. Exupery is biographical, all of his works are varying degrees associated with pilots, airplanes, and the sky. But main topic any narrative – philosophy, problems of man, personality, life and death. Exupery tried to comprehend, understand and convey to readers the vision of the problem of “man on the path of life.”

Many people call The Little Prince a fairy tale. Indeed, the basic human laws are presented in an allegorical form: “We are responsible for those we have tamed” (i.e., compassion, support, sympathy, help), people are “masters of themselves” (i.e., a person must understand, what should he do, what result will such an action bring). A person's thoughts find expression in his own actions.

And since there are no identical people, their thoughts and actions differ; Life values ​​are also different. The King from The Little Prince has the ability to rule the whole world, but this world is comparable to a small asteroid where the king lives. A “business man” is always counting the stars and making worthless deals, but for a drunkard, the meaning of life is drinking. This picture is well known to millions of readers. But Exupery wants to show the audience not the personal values ​​of everyone, but the main values ​​in the life of each of us. Which we very often do not notice.

The philosophy of life and action, as a result of its manifestation, is what Exupery describes in his works, trying to find for himself, among other things, the answer to the question “how to live correctly?” and “what to do?” that arise in each of the people. But not each of us knows where and how to look for the answer to such questions.

Thus, in “The Citadel” he says that the goal is not to teach how to build a ship, but “to awaken in people the desire for the sea.” Then, without a doubt, people will build the ships themselves. The work of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry both teaches and shows the “truth of life” and the place of man in it.

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

Count's family

The future writer was born into the family of Count Jean de Saint-Exupery, he was the third child. When the boy was 4 years old, his father died, and his mother raised the children. The children's first years were spent on the Saint-Maurice estate, 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 activities

In 1921, Saint-Exupéry was drafted into the army and was assigned to the second fighter aviation regiment. Initially, the guy worked in a repair shop, but in 1923 he completed pilot courses and passed the exam to become a civilian pilot. Shortly after this, he headed to Morocco, where he retrained as a military pilot.

At the end of 1922, Antoine flies to the 34th Aviation Regiment, which was located near Paris. A few months later he had to survive the first plane crash in his life. After this, the young man decides to stay and live in the capital of France, where he earns money through literary work. The works of the 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 began to fly again. He is hired 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 “The Pilot” was published. The young man returns to France for six months, where he signs an agreement with the publisher Gaston Guillimard. The prose writer undertakes to write seven novels, and his work “Southern Postal” is published in the same year.

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 working for postal airlines. At the same time, the writer received the Femina literary award for his 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 policies. Antoine also wrote a series of war reports from Spain. In 1934 he survived several accidents and was seriously injured. In the same year he applies for an invention new system airplane landings. In December 1935, a man crashes in the Libyan desert on the way from Paris to Saigon, but miraculously remains alive.

In 1939, the man became a laureate of two prestigious competitions. He received an award from the French Academy for his book "Planet of Humans" and a US National Book Award for his essay "Wind, Sand and Stars." For his participation in the reconnaissance operation over Arras in May 1940, the writer was awarded the Military Cross.

War time

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

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-Exupéry served in North Africa. It was during this period of his life that he wrote the story “Letter to a 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 truths of life with the help of skillful artistic means. He does not dwell on minor personal problems, showing the depth of consciousness of each person. His drunkard, businessman and king perfectly demonstrates the shortcomings of society, but the essence lies much deeper. A 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 traces of shelling were found on the aircraft, and this led to the emergence of many versions of the writer’s death. His latest book is recognized as a collection of parables and aphorisms “Citadel”. The writer never managed to finish it; the work was published in 1948.

Saint-Exupéry spent his entire life with one woman; he was married to Consuelo Suitsin. After the tragedy, she moved to New York, then went to France. There the woman was engaged in sculpture, she was also an artist. During for long years the widow devoted her work to perpetuating the memory of her husband.

(estimates: 3 , average: 4,00 out of 5)

Name: Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger de Saint-Exupéry
Birthday: June 29, 1900
Place of Birth: Lyon, France
Date of death: July 31, 1944
A place of death: Mediterranean Sea

Biography of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

The famous French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was born in Leon. His father died when the boy was 4 years old, so his mother took care of his education. First, the future writer studied in Mansa, at the Jesuit College of Sainte-Croix. After that, in Sweden in Friburg at a Catholic boarding school. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in the department of architecture.

Great influence on future fate Saint-Exupery rendered 1921. At this time he goes to the army. He ended up in a fighter aviation regiment in Strasbourg. At first he was just doing repairs. After special courses he becomes a civilian pilot. After this, he is sent to Morocco, where Saint-Exupéry becomes a military pilot.

In 1922, Antoine was sent to an aviation regiment near Paris, where he had his first plane crash. It is worth noting that he will have to endure a lot of such disasters in his life.

After this, Saint-Exupery stops in Paris and for the first time tries to earn money through his writing. However, this idea turns out to be a failure, so out of despair, Antoine works as a bookseller and also sells cars.

In 1925, Saint-Exupéry got a job as a pilot for the Aeropostal company, which was engaged in delivering correspondence to North Africa. From 1927 to 1929 he worked as the head of the airport.

At this very time, Saint-Exupéry wrote and published his first story entitled “The Pilot”. In 1931 he was awarded the Femina Prize for his story “Night Flight”.

From the mid-30s, Saint-Exupéry began working as a journalist. In 1935, he visited the USSR and wrote several sketches, in one of which he even tried to show the essence of Stalin's rule.

In 1939, Saint-Exupery received the French Academy Prize for his book “The Planet of Men”, and for the book “Wind, Sand and Stars” he was awarded the US National Book Award.

When the Second World War began, St. Exupery immediately went to serve. He was in the German-free region of France when the latter occupied it, and later left for the United States. In 1943, he again ends up in North Africa and serves as a military pilot there. It was here that his world-famous work “The Little Prince” was created.

In July 1944, Antoine de Saint-Exupery went on reconnaissance from the island of Corsica, and after that his plane disappeared. For a very long time no one knew anything about the death of the writer. Only in 1998, a fisherman near Marseille caught a bracelet that belonged to the pilot, and in 2000 his crashed plane was found.

The investigation showed that on the body aircraft There was no obvious damage, so the crash could have been due to equipment failure or the pilot's suicide. Later, it became known that the plane was shot down by a German military man, who admitted this only in 2008.

In 1948, the book “Citadel” was published, which contains parables and aphorisms of the pilot-writer, which remained unfinished.

Documentary

Your attention documentary, biography of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

Bibliography of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Main works:

• Southern Postal (1929)
• Mail - South (1931)
• Night Flight (1938)
• Land of Men (1942)
• Military pilot (1943)
• Letter to a Hostage (1943)
• (1948)
• Citadel

Post-war editions:

• Letters from Youth (1953)
• Notebooks (1953)
• Letters to Mother (1954)
• Give life meaning. Unpublished texts collected by Claude Raynal. (1956)
• War notes. 1939-1944 (1982)
• Memories of some books. Essay