Book. “Marie de Saint-Exupéry: L’Étoile du Petit Prince”
A biography of the mother of the author of “The Little Prince”, providing insight into her son Antoine’s life and humanist values.
The navigator’s mother had a particularly strong relationship with her son, who was her third child, but her very first boy—and who would effectively become the eldest male in the family after the death of his father, Jean, in 1904. Antoine was 4 years old at the time. His mother, who never remarried, frequently went to stay with her parents, brothers and other relatives. It was against this backdrop of constantly moving around that young Antoine grew up, surrounded by his younger brother and three sisters.
When the First World War broke out, she set up an infirmary in the Lyon region, in Ambérieu, a town where Antoine had come to admire airplanes a few years earlier. Antoine grew up and graduated from high school in 1917. After the war, Marie and her children moved into a property she inherited from her aunt. Marie painted—so well, in fact, that she was accepted into the Salon d’Automne, an association of French artists, in 1922. By this time, Antoine had begun his military service as a mechanic with the 2nd Aviation Regiment in Strasbourg and was soon promoted to corporal. The Little Prince was flying at last!
Between the wars, she continued to care for the poor and the sick. Meanwhile, Antoine was following his own legendary career in the Aéropostale aviation company and establishing himself as a major author. Then came the Second World War, the departure for America, “The Little Prince” and that day of July 31, 1944, when Antoine’s reconnaissance plane disappeared in the Mediterranean… Finding refuge first in prayer, then in helping those most in need, Marie would sign her letters “Marie de Saint-Exupéry, Antoine’s mother”. This book goes into further detail about the kind of woman she was and their relationship.
Book. “Marie de Saint-Exupéry: L’Étoile du Petit Prince” Author: Michèle Persane-Nastorg. Editions du Triomphe. ISBN: 2843784662
