Ease Reading-Find Your Next Favorite Book

Hot Search

Wartime Writings 1939-1944

antoine de saint-exupéry

... Show More
This volume includes the aviator's letters to friends, autobiographical fragments, and meditations. Translated by Norah Purcell; Introduction by Anne Morrow Lindbergh; Index.

264 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,1982

This edition

Format
264 pages, Paperback
Published
November 4, 2002 by Mariner Books Classics
ISBN
9780156027533
ASIN
0156027534
Language
English

More editions

About the author

Profile Image for antoine de saint-exupéry

antoine de saint-exupéry

... Show More
People best know French writer and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry for his fairy tale The Little Prince (1943).

He flew for the first time at the age of 12 years in 1912 at the Ambérieu airfield and then determined to a pilot. Even after moving to a school in Switzerland and spending summer vacations at the château of the family at Saint-Maurice-de-Rémens in east, he kept that ambition. He repeatedly uses the house at Saint-Maurice.

Later, in Paris, he failed the entrance exams for the naval academy and instead enrolled at the prestigious l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts. In 1921, Saint-Exupéry, stationed in Strasbourg, began serving in the military. He learned and forever settled his career path as a pilot. After leaving the service in 1923, Saint-Exupéry worked in several professions but in 1926 went back and signed as a pilot for Aéropostale, a private airline that from Toulouse flew mail to Dakar, Senegal. In 1927, Saint-Exupéry accepted the position of airfield chief for Cape Juby in southern Morocco and began his first book, a memoir, called Southern Mail and published in 1929.

He then moved briefly to Buenos Aires to oversee the establishment of an Argentinean mail service, returned to Paris in 1931, and then published Night Flight, which won instant success and the prestigious Prix Femina. Always daring Saint-Exupéry tried from Paris in 1935 to break the speed record for flying to Saigon. Unfortunately, his plane crashed in the Libyan Desert, and he and his copilot trudged through the sand for three days to find help. In 1938, a second plane crash at that time, as he tried to fly between city of New York and Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, seriously injured him. The crash resulted in a long convalescence in New York.

He published Wind, Sand and Stars, next novel, in 1939. This great success won the grand prize for novel of the academy and the national book award in the United States. Saint-Exupéry flew reconnaissance missions at the beginning of the Second World War but went to New York to ask the United States for help when the Germans occupied his country. He drew on his wartime experiences to publish Flight to Arras and Letter to a Hostage in 1942.

Later in 1943, Saint-Exupéry rejoined his air squadron in northern Africa. From earlier plane crashes, Saint-Exupéry still suffered physically, and people forbade him to fly, but he insisted on a mission. From Borgo, Corsica, on 31 July 1944, he set to overfly occupied region. He never returned.

Readers also enjoyed

Community Reviews

Rating(4.3 / 5.0, 15 votes)
5 stars
6(40%)
4 stars
7(47%)
3 stars
2(13%)
2 stars
0(0%)
1 stars
0(0%)
15 reviews All reviews
Profile Image for Kimberly .
AreYan
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
... Show More
Having only read THE LITTLE PRINCE, I decided to read some of Antoine de Saint-Exupery's other books when I found a few of them at a used book store. This book tells through his own letters and speeches and some writings, Saint-Exupery's life during the Second World War as he tried to find work fighting for the French and Americans as a pilot. We get a strong sense of his emotions and life during this time until his disappearance in 1944. I am not sure it was the best book for me to start with as it is less of his writings, and more of a memoir. I think I will explore his other writings now.
0 0 Reply
Profile Image for Kimberly .
Niebarkol
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
... Show More
Memorie e riflessioni complesse, necessiterebbe di una maggiore consapevolezza dell'autore e del suo ambiente oltre che di se stessi
0 0 Reply
Profile Image for Kimberly .
Dr_Stoned
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
... Show More
A great foray into the life of a great pilot, author, and man. A must-read for all WWII buffs and Saint-Ex fans.
0 0 Reply
Profile Image for Kimberly .
WeabooJones666
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
... Show More
Un ouvrage à lire pour tous les super-fans d’Antoine de Saint-Exupery...c’est à dire moi.

On y retrouve des écrits divers...des méditations politiques, sur la guerre, sa souffrance de voir la France divisée.

Très intéressant livre qui nous permet d’approfondir le personnage qu’était Mr. de Saint-Exupery.
0 0 Reply
Profile Image for Kimberly .
Joomillion
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
... Show More
A collection of his various writings and letters as well as an account of how his final flight ended when he was pursued by German planes and was either shot down or simply forced to crash into the Mediterranean. I thought I had read or at least dipped into all of his published writings, but until recently was unaware of this collection.

These writings fill out what was going on (but un-aknowledged) in his book "Flight to Arras." During that time he was hiding (in order to be able to continue flying as France was being invaded) a serious infection resulting in periods of high fever which turned out to be the result of injuries he had received in one of his early crashes. The book covers the period when he was still flying as Germany took over and then the period when he was frustrated by being in the U.S., but wrote "The Little Prince" as well as "Flight to Arras." Then his struggles to return to flying reconnaissance for his French squadron attached to the U.S. Army Air Forces in spite of his advanced age(for a pilot of fighter planes) and his struggles with health. In this book you learn how Saint-Exupery was vilified for his distrust of and not being willing to support General de Gaulle, all the while continuing to fight to regain French independence. Some of the included pieces add to his body of philosophical writings and expression of ethical grounding.

If you appreciate St. Exupery's writing, this is essential reading.
0 0 Reply
Profile Image for Kimberly .
breycw
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
... Show More
This collection includes Tonio's "Letter to a Hostage" which alone is worth any price you might pay for this book. In its 17 pages the very essence of Antoine's soul are condensed. Beautiful, true, and tear-jerking, it's one of the greatest things I've ever read - basically on par with The Little Prince or Wind, Sand and Stars, which are two of the best books yet written. And this letter is just a fraction of what's in the 215 pages of this completely essential collection. Mostly consisting of letters, we read of an Antoine that he never let himself show in public, only bearing his soul and torment to his closest friends. At many times it is a bleak read, but always infinitely honest, pure, and inspiring. Antoine solidifies his reputation as one of the best examples of that elusive near-myth: an actual, great human being.
0 0 Reply
Profile Image for Kimberly .
JayKayxd
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
... Show More
Out of my usual genre and I'm so glad my first foray into war literature was through the mind behind The Little Prince and other notable books that came before. This book is full of despair, but also love and tenderness for family and friends he wasn't afraid to bare his heart to, and rich, desperate philosophy of nationality, individuality, and morality in times of war and of peace. I found this a slow-paced read but I gained so much by sitting at St-Ex's side as he wrote his introspective letters. I grieved him as I closed the book.
0 0 Reply
Profile Image for Kimberly .
DeadlyChuck314
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
... Show More
I first read this when I was seventeen and the library copy is marked up in my penciled underlinings. It was the first time I'd met a kindred spirit in a writer, and St. Ex's thoughts and feelings are still so alive and essential all these years later.
0 0 Reply
Leave a Review
You must be logged in to rate and post a review. Register an account to get started.