8.4 /10 1 Votes
4.2/5 Barnes & Noble | 4.2/5 Goodreads Originally published 6 February 1939 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Awards Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française, National Book Award for Nonfiction Works by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Night Flight, Flight to Arras, The Little Prince, Letter to a Hostage, The Wisdom of the Sands | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Antoine de saint exup ry biography english
Wind, Sand and Stars (French title: Terre des hommes) is a memoir by the French aristocrat aviator-writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, and a winner of several literary awards. It deals with themes such as friendship, death, heroism, and solidarity among colleagues, and illustrates the author's opinions of what makes life worth living.
Contents
- Antoine de saint exup ry biography english
- Content
- Publication history
- Tributes
- Awards and recognitions
- References
It was first published in France in February 1939, and was then translated by Lewis Galantière and published in English by Reynal and Hitchcock in the United States later the same year.
Content
In his autobiographical work Saint-Exupéry, an early pioneering aviator, evokes a series of events in his life, principally his work for the airmail carrier Aéropostale. He does so by recounting several episodes from his years flying treacherous mail routes across the African Sahara and the South American Andes. The book's themes deal with friendship, death, heroism, camaraderie and solidarity among colleagues, humanity and the search for meaning in life. The book illustrates the author's view of the world and his opinions of what makes life worth living.
The central incident he wrote of detailed his 1935 plane crash in the Sahara Desert between Benghazi and Cairo, which he barely survived along with his mechanic-navigator, André Prévot. Saint-Exupéry and his navigator were left almost completely without water and food, and as the chances of finding an oasis or help from the air gradually decreased, the two men nearly died of thirst before they were saved by a Bedouin on a camel.
Publication history
The book was first published in France in February 1939, and was then translated by Lewis Galantière and published in English by Reynal and Hitchcock in the United States later the same year. The French and English versions of this book differed significantly; Saint-Exupéry removed sections from the original French version he considered inappropriate for its targeted U.S. audience, and added new material specifically written for them, and Lewis Galantière translated the revised book into English. Although it did not appear in the earliest editions of its English translation, "An Appreciation" was added to later printings, contributed by Anne Morrow Lindbergh and earlier published in The Saturday Review of Literature on 14 October 1939.
Saint-Exupéry struggled to find a title for his book; the original working title was: "Etoiles par grand vent" (literally: 'Stars in windy conditions'). He even promised 100 francs to André de Fonscolombe, his cousin, if André could come up with 'the perfect title'. His cousin returned the day after with a list of 30 suggestions, and Saint-Exupéry chose one of them: "Terre des Humains" (literally: 'Land of humans'), which later became 'Terre des hommes' ('Land of men'). Lewis Galantière came up with the English title, which was approved by Saint-Exupéry.
Saint-Exupéry dedicated the book to his friend Henri Guillaumet of Aéropostale.
Tributes
The charity Terre des hommes took its name from this book in 1959. The charitable international federation of humanitarian societies concentrates on children's rights, and is based in Lausanne, Switzerland.
The book's title was subsequently used to create the central theme ("Terre des Hommes–Man and His World") of the most successful world's fair of the 20th century, Expo 67, in Montreal, Canada. In 1963, a group of prominent Canadians met for three days at the Seigneury Club in Montebello, Quebec. In an introduction to the Expo 67 Corporation's book, also entitled "Terre des Hommes/Man and His World", Gabrielle Roy wrote: