Antoine de Saint Exupery

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900–1944) was a French writer and pilot. After his education and military service, he worked from 1926 as an airmail and commercial pilot, including in Africa and South America, and later as a test pilot and reconnaissance pilot. His experiences in aviation strongly influenced his literary work. His best-known books include Southern Mail, Night Flight, Wind, Sand and Stars, Flight to Arras, and The Little Prince (1943). Saint-Exupéry disappeared on 31 July 1944 during a reconnaissance flight over the Mediterranean. The wreckage of his aircraft was found decades later off the coast near Marseille.