Antoine de Saint-Exupery was born in Lyon, France in 1900. As well as being a writer, journalist and poet, he was also an aviator. His writings include travel adventure stories about his experiences of flying mail planes across European countries and Africa, and of his courageous flights across the Andes. Desert and mountain ranges are common features in his writing. Coming only just a couple of decades after the Wright brothers got off the ground, his tales are even more remarkable. They come from a forgotten era, when most of the world’s mail couldn’t just be sent down the virtual line.
In July 1944, Saint-Exupery took off on an unarmed air force flight from Corsica and vanished without trace.
Wind, Sand and Stars (1939)
“All that night the radio messages sent from the ports in the Sahara concerning our position had been inaccurate, and my radio operator, Néri, and I had been drawn out off our course, Suddenly, seeing the gleam of water at the bottom of a crevasse of fog, I tacked sharply in the direction of the coast; but it was by then impossible for us to say how long we had been flying towards the high seas. Nor were we certain of making the coast, for our fuel was probably low. And even so, once we had reached it we would still have to make port — after the moon had set. We had no means of angular orientation, were already deafened, and were bit by bit growing blind. The moon like a pallid ember began to go out in the banks of fog. Overhead the sky was filling with clouds, and we flew thenceforth between cloud and fog in a world voided of all substance and all light. The ports that signalled us had given up trying to tell us where we were. ‘No bearings, no bearings,’ was all their message, for our voice reached them from everywhere and nowhere. With sinking hearts Néri and I leaned out, he on his side and I on mine, to see if anything, anything at all, was distinguishable in this void.”
Featured image: Steward Masweneng, Pixels.com
Published by Alma Classics
