Remembering Antoine Saint Exupery, the author of the novella Little Prince on his birth anniversary — Firstpost

Antoine Saint Exupery, born on 29th June 1900 in Lyon, France is a well-known man, for several reasons. Of course, most of us today, including myself will know him as the author of the novella, Little Prince, a modern classic in its own right. However, Saint Exupery was many things, and being an aviator and a pilot was one of those things. It was in fact, an integral part of his existence, and inspired most of his literary works, although they weren’t strictly autobiographical. Born in an impoverished aristocratic family, Saint-Exupery led an extraordinary life, much like the ones he describes in his stories.

Little Prince, as mentioned before, his most notable literary work, was a poetic and philosophical take on what it means to look beyond the surface, and give attention to the real matters of consequence. The novella about a pilot stranded in the desert meets a young prince who had fallen on Earth from an asteroid, is partially based on the crash that he survived in the Libyan desert, a few years before. In aviation he found heroism, and a literary theme, that one would find in most of his works.

It’s vital to understand that the Little Prince is more than simply a book and is in fact, a magical phenomenon, given that it’s been translated into over 300 languages and has a massive audience across age groups, and countries. Therefore, it’s ironic that the book saw the light of the day in France, Saint-Exupery’s homeland, only after the liberation of the country in 1945 because it was banned by the Vichy Regime. By then, Saint-Exupery had passed away, unfortunately, however, he was celebrated as a national hero in France, posthumously given his triumph as a pilot as well as an author. His other works, like The Aviator, Flight To War, and Land Of Men, all borrow from the same method of using his aviation experiences as a metaphor and medium to build an allegory and see the world through an adventurous lens. His philosophical memoir Wind, Sand and Stars, chronicles his flying expeditions, and simultaneously also comments poetically on the world around him.

Antoine De Saint-Exupery was an interesting man, and an even more interesting literary figure, for, very rarely does it happen that even though a story is rooted in the writer’s reality, it takes the form of an extremely fable-narrative. Saint-Exupery used his planes and aviation experiences to explore the world himself, and then using that wisdom of understanding human philosophy and solidarity, he would weave out stories that were too real to be fantastical, and too imaginative to be true.

He had mastered the art of straddling the worlds of fiction and reality, together. Through fanciful and whimsical characters and scenarios, Saint-Exupery commented on the most significant of human experiences and psychology. His simplicity was bewitching and bewildering in equal parts, as he taught you some of the biggest life lessons, in the most unadorned ways.

The pilot and author would’ve turned 122 today, but in his short life of 44 years, Antoine Saint-Exupery left behind a legacy that we keep going back to even after almost 80 years of his passing. His lyrical and gentle language melts the most stoic of us, and his grave lessons teach the most vital of things. In his watercolour paintings of little things, the author paints a magnificent larger picture that tells you how sometimes in life, it is the most trivial-seeming things, that are actually important.

Born in an impoverished aristocratic family, Saint-Exupery led an extraordinary life, much like the ones he describes in his stories. In 1944, he went on a mission over France, from Corsica, but never returned, making everyone assume that he had crashed and lost his life. Six decades later, the wreckage was found near the crash site and was identified as belonging to the plane that Saint-Exupery flew. On his birth anniversary, it’s essential to remember the man, the life, and the legacy.

Takshi Mehta is a freelance journalist and writer. She firmly believes that we are what we stand up for, and thus you’ll always find her wielding a pen.

Originally published at https://www.firstpost.com on June 29, 2022.