Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was a French writer and aviator, born in Lyon on 29 June 1900. He trained as a pilot and flew mail routes across Europe, Africa and South America in the early years of commercial aviation. These experiences, with their solitude, danger and sense of duty, became the material for his books. His novels and memoirs of flight, including Night Flight and Wind, Sand and Stars, brought him wide fame in the 1930s. During the Second World War he flew reconnaissance missions and spent time in exile in North America, where he wrote The Little Prince, his best-loved work. It has since been translated into hundreds of languages. He disappeared on a flight over the Mediterranean on 31 July 1944. His writing matters for its clear, humane voice and for its belief that people find meaning through responsibility, friendship and shared effort.