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Wartime Writings 1939-1944
Featuring the meditations, letters, and autobiographical fragments of a man torn between his horror of war, his sense of duty, and his feelings for his country, this collection reveals the physical and spiritual journey
237 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1982
About the author
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
1,736 books9,138 followersPeople 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
March 24, 2013
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.
March 26, 2013
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.
December 16, 2024
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.
March 20, 2014
Nothing here was written with the intent of producing a book. We have bits of letters, the occasional essay, recollections of others. So it's a bit of a mishmash and much of it is fragments. And as long as you can live with that, it's fine.
Saint-Exupery was a French pilot and he seems to have loved being a pilot when he was young and the whole field of aviation was a novelty. But the Saint-Exupery we meet in this book is a bitter Frenchman in exile. The fall of France has disturbed him, he cannot accept the (to him self-proclaimed) French government in exile. He wishes to help his country throw off the chains of Nazi occupation, he wishes the United States would know that its destiny is to help France do this.
And through it all, he's still a writer. And he has a thin skin. Constantly he attempts to "not explain himself" while simultaneously denying that he cares what others think of him.
Reading this book can teach you a great deal about the confusion of the Second World War. Although Saint-Exupery does eventually join the fight against the Nazis following a short exile in the U.S., we learn very little of what it's like to be a pilot in this wartime drama.
He's older than the other pilots and this causes some problems. He's in physical pain sometimes and mental anguish most of the time. And yet he did write some of more famous works during this time.
Saint-Exupery is no fan of modern, urban society. We are apparently all doomed, we modern pleasure seekers who will not learn to simply sit and think. He does not love America and all it stands for. The man is a fine conservative.
Saint-Exupery was a French pilot and he seems to have loved being a pilot when he was young and the whole field of aviation was a novelty. But the Saint-Exupery we meet in this book is a bitter Frenchman in exile. The fall of France has disturbed him, he cannot accept the (to him self-proclaimed) French government in exile. He wishes to help his country throw off the chains of Nazi occupation, he wishes the United States would know that its destiny is to help France do this.
And through it all, he's still a writer. And he has a thin skin. Constantly he attempts to "not explain himself" while simultaneously denying that he cares what others think of him.
Reading this book can teach you a great deal about the confusion of the Second World War. Although Saint-Exupery does eventually join the fight against the Nazis following a short exile in the U.S., we learn very little of what it's like to be a pilot in this wartime drama.
He's older than the other pilots and this causes some problems. He's in physical pain sometimes and mental anguish most of the time. And yet he did write some of more famous works during this time.
Saint-Exupery is no fan of modern, urban society. We are apparently all doomed, we modern pleasure seekers who will not learn to simply sit and think. He does not love America and all it stands for. The man is a fine conservative.
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November 3, 2015Although I have poured over Saint-Ex's The Little Prince many times, this is my first foray into his other works. WOW. I look forward to reading every sentence of his I can find. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry writes with an intelligence (of both mind & heart) that is on fire, a white light-white heat variety, and he blazes new trails in the reader's mind & heart.
"If you were just soldiers, I would speak to you as soldiers. I would say: 'Put aside all other problems, there is only one that counts: fighting.' But you are young and your responsibility is greater even than that of soldiers. Yours is a dual responsibility: You are ready to fight for liberty, but you must also explain it and build it." (From 1941)
"The traveler who crosses a mountain in the direction of a star runs the risk of forgetting which is his guiding star if he concentrates too exclusively on the climbing problems." (From 1943)
"War must be waged . . . but, as the fundamental problem is never tackled, this war will only end with the momentary exhaustion of one of the adversaries." (From 1940)
"If you were just soldiers, I would speak to you as soldiers. I would say: 'Put aside all other problems, there is only one that counts: fighting.' But you are young and your responsibility is greater even than that of soldiers. Yours is a dual responsibility: You are ready to fight for liberty, but you must also explain it and build it." (From 1941)
"The traveler who crosses a mountain in the direction of a star runs the risk of forgetting which is his guiding star if he concentrates too exclusively on the climbing problems." (From 1943)
"War must be waged . . . but, as the fundamental problem is never tackled, this war will only end with the momentary exhaustion of one of the adversaries." (From 1940)
August 19, 2011
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.
September 15, 2008
A great foray into the life of a great pilot, author, and man. A must-read for all WWII buffs and Saint-Ex fans.
September 26, 2012
An interesting look at a prolific and unfortunately short lived career
August 16, 2015
First-class, first-person history of a dramatic time. The only possible regret is that Saint-Exupéry didn't survive to contribute to the literary and political path of post-war France.
August 12, 2018
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.
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.
December 29, 2023
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.
April 10, 2025
Frighteningly relevant in today’s day and age.
St Exupery’s wartime writings touch on the big questions in regards to Human Beings’s search for purpose, community and the greater good.
Reading this, I kept thinking about how much worse off we are today and how so many of the things he rails against: modernisation, capitalism, industrialisation, dehumanisation, the loss of spirituality, humanity’s loss of a sense of home and community….
The list goes on. Every page has something insightful or thought provoking to say, every page feels fresh and relevant.
Truly inspiring writing.
St Exupery’s wartime writings touch on the big questions in regards to Human Beings’s search for purpose, community and the greater good.
Reading this, I kept thinking about how much worse off we are today and how so many of the things he rails against: modernisation, capitalism, industrialisation, dehumanisation, the loss of spirituality, humanity’s loss of a sense of home and community….
The list goes on. Every page has something insightful or thought provoking to say, every page feels fresh and relevant.
Truly inspiring writing.
April 26, 2026
"Yvonne, dear Yvonne, people in this day and age are on the wrong track. The telephone civilization is intolerable. True presence is replaced by a travesty of presence. One switches from one to the other in a second, as one switches the radio, by pressing a button, from Bach to a vulgar ditty. One is enfolding in nothing, one is nowhere. I hate this dissolvable humanity. Where I am, I am for all eternity. Sitting on my bench I am entitled to five minutes of eternity."
April 26, 2020
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.
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.
August 26, 2021
Memorie e riflessioni complesse, necessiterebbe di una maggiore consapevolezza dell'autore e del suo ambiente oltre che di se stessi
September 24, 2013
Even his correspondence is ingenious.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews