French aviator and writer, real life hero who looked at adventure and danger with poet's eyes - sometimes from the viewpoint of a child. Saint-Exupéry's most famous work is THE LITTLE PRINCE (1943), which he also illustrated. It has become one of the classics of children's literature of the 20th century. During World War II Saint-Exupéry served as a pilot. He was alledgedly shot down on a mission over France in 1944. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was born in Lyons into an old family of provincial nobility. The turning point in Saint-Exupéry's life came in 1921 when he started his military service and was sent to Strasbourg for training as a pilot. Saint-Exupéry's first tale, L'AVIATEUR was published in 1926 in the literary magazine Le Navire d'argent. His true calling Saint-Exupéry then found in flying the mail for the commercial airline company Aéropostale. He flew the mail over North Africa for three years, escaping death several times. In 1928 he became the director of the remote Cap Juby airfield in Rio de Oro, Sahara. During these years Saint-Exupéry wrote his first novel, SOUTHERN MAIL (1929). In 1929 Saint-Exupéry moved to South America, where he was appointed director of the Aeroposta Argentina Company. Saint-Exupéry flew post through the Andes. This experience gave the basis for his second novel, NIGHT FLIGHT, which became an international bestseller, won the Prix Femina, and was adapted for screen in 1933, starring Clark Gable and Lionel Barrymore. WIND, SAND AND STARS, which appeared in 1939, won the French Academy's 1939 Grand Prix du Roman and the National Book Award in the United States. After the fall of France in World War II Saint-Exupéry joined the army, and made several daring flights. FLIGHT TO ARRAS (1942) depicts his hopeless flight over the enemy lines, when France was already beaten. In 1943 Saint-Exupéry published his best-known work, THE LITTLE PRINCE (1943), a children's fable for adults, which has been translated into over 150 languages. It has been claimend that THE LITTLE PRINCE is the best-selling book after the Bible and Karl Marx's Das Kapital.
