Saint Antoine Daniel

Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger, vicomte de Saint-Exupéry (29 June 1900 – c. 31 July 1944), known simply as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, was a French writer, poet, journalist, and aviator. Born in Lyon to an aristocratic family, he trained as a commercial pilot in the early 1920s, working airmail routes across Europe, Africa, and South America. Between 1926 and 1939, four of his literary works were published: the short story The Aviator, novels Southern Mail and Night Flight, and the memoir Wind, Sand and Stars. Saint-Exupéry joined the French Air Force for World War II and flew reconnaissance missions until France's armistice with Germany in 1940. After being demobilised by the Air Force, he lived in exile in the United States between 1941 and 1943 and helped persuade it to enter the war.

During this time, his works Flight to Arras and The Little Prince were published. In 1943, despite being past the maximum age for a war pilot and in declining health, Saint-Exupéry joined the Free French Air Force. On 31 July 1944, during a reconnaissance mission over Corsica, his plane disappeared: it is presumed to have crashed. Debris from the wreckage was discovered near Marseille in 2000, but the cause of the crash remains unknown.