Death of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry died on 31 July 1944 in île de Riou, aged 44. A French writer and aviator, Saint-Exupéry flew airmail routes across Africa and South America for the company that became Aéropostale, drawing on these experiences in books like Night Flight and Wind, Sand and Stars. His best-known work, The Little Prince, published in 1943, is a poetic tale about a boy who travels from planet to planet and has become one of the most translated books in the world. During the Second World War he flew reconnaissance missions for the Free French. In July 1944 he disappeared on a flight from Corsica over the Mediterranean, and wreckage of his aircraft was identified off Marseille decades later.

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