Published by Papermac, 1994, softcover, illustrated, index, 277 pages, condition: very good.
Since his mysterious disappearance in an unarmed reconnaissance plane in July 1944, Antoine de Saint-Exupery has been the focus for romantic fascination. This biography brings back to life a 20th-century hero - a man of passion who combined the dangerous career of pioneering aviator with that of bestselling author of classic works such a "The Little Prince".
Antoine de St Exupery is remembered mainly for two things Le Petit Prince, which has been translated into most of the languages of the world and the manner of his death. He was flying a Lockheed Lightning reconnaissance plane somewhere over the northern Mediterranean but despite intensive searches neither his body nor any traces of the plane were ever found. He may have been shot down by German fighters, he may have been taken ill at a high altitude or he may have committed suicide. The last theory is firmly rejected by his family and friends, who point out that he never talked or wrote of suicide and was a lifelong Catholic for whom to take ones own life is a cardinal sin. Yet he was besieged by bouts of deep melancholy throughout his life and the last chapters of this book depict a man upset by the failure of his marriage, worried by financial concerns, bitter that the Free French forces wouldnt allow him to serve as a combat pilot, and depressed by the war, by the deep divisions in France and by the prospects for the future.
St Exupery wrote six books, five of them about flying. The sixth and last was Le Petit Prince. His favourite subject was the dangerous, solitary life of the pilots who flew the mail in Africa and South America for Aeropostale, later devoured by Air France. Certain passages in these books arrested my attention fifty years ago and were the reason I picked up this biography. In Tbilisi not long ago I became friends with a big Georgian farmer who always carried the book in his pocket. He swore by it, adored it, worshipped its every page. The sight of this burly man with tears in his eyes as he held the battered volume in his hand
