His literary works posthumously boosted his stature to national hero status in France, including The Little Prince which has been translated into 300 languages. Prior to the war, Saint-Exupéry had achieved fame in France as an aviator. Although the wreckage of his plane was discovered off the coast of Marseille in 2000, the ultimate cause of the crash remains unknown. He disappeared and is believed to have died while on a reconnaissance mission from Corsica over the Mediterranean on 31 July 1944. Saint-Exupéry spent 28 months in America, during which he wrote three of his most important works, then joined the Free French Air Force in North Africa, even though he was far past the maximum age for such pilots and in declining health. After being demobilised by the French Air Force, he travelled to the United States to help persuade its government to enter the war against Nazi Germany. He joined the French Air Force at the start of the war, flying reconnaissance missions until France's armistice with Germany in 1940. Saint-Exupéry was a successful commercial pilot before World War II, working airmail routes in Europe, Africa, and South America. He is best remembered for his novella The Little Prince ( Le Petit Prince) and for his lyrical aviation writings, including Wind, Sand and Stars and Night Flight.

He became a laureate of several of France's highest literary awards and also won the United States National Book Award. Croix de Guerre avec palme (1944, posthumous)Īntoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger, comte de Saint-Exupéry, simply known as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry ( UK: / ˌ s æ̃ t ɪ ɡ ˈ z uː p ɛr i/, US: /- ɡ z uː p eɪ ˈ r iː/, French: 29 June 1900 – 31 July 1944), was a French writer, poet, journalist and pioneering aviator.

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