Saint-exupery: A Biography

by Stacy Schiff

  36. Later SE was to write: Introduction to Terre des hommes, Pléiade, 139. The four-paragraph introduction does not figure in the English-language edition of the text.

  37. Rosamond Lehmann and “tribe”: LSM, 208.

  38. “a friend of time” and the description of the Fuchses: Marianne, December 14, 1932, and repolished for WSS, 70–71.

  39. “I would be so incapable”: LSM, 211.

  40. “You vaguely hold”: Decour, 5.

  41. “an engagement with an elsewhere”: Breyten Breytenbach, “The Long March from Hearth to Heart,” Harper’s, May 1991, 12.

  42. One gets ambushed by it and “And it gets no better”: LSM, 212. The unabridged version of this revealing letter is at ANAT, as are SE’s enraged missives to his mother. “Listen to this”: Paul Dony, “Saint-Exupéry: Jeux littéraires et souvenirs,” Vie et langage. November, 1958, 563. All of the descriptions of SE’s South American word games are taken from this fine article.

  43. “Je recommence la littérature”: Dony, 565.

  44. “I began out of a love”: Joseph Kessel, “Saint-Ex,” Paris-Soir, May 27, 1939, 6.

  45. “The Argentines are crazy”: Fleury, La Ligne, 259.

  46. “demonstrated a remarkable”: The citation is reproduced in the Archives Nationales exhibition catalogue, 46.

  47. SE flew the Laté 28: Danel reported on the incident in L’Aéropostale, 57; Dony remembered its fallout with a chuckle, 568. For Bouilloux-Lafont’s version of the events I am grateful to Guillemette de Bure, who dove into her archives to produce her grandfather’s handwritten notes from the Río Gallegos trip.

  48. AIRCRAFT ACCIDENT: Jean Brijon, “Avec ceux de la ligne historique France-Amérique du Sud,” Philatélie, February 1972, 47.

  49. The French ambassadorial staff: The background on Lindbergh’s promotion to Commander of the Légion d’Honneur can be gleaned from Amérique 1918–1940, file no. 124 (aviation), QO. The suggestion that Lindbergh be elevated so as to reinforce “les bonnes relations” was put forth on October 13, 1930, and okayed a week later.

  50. The plane was immediately: Fleury, La Ligne, 239–49; also Daurat, Dans le vent des hélices, 134–35. Daurat includes Guillaumet’s official report of June 26, 135–38, which appeared in expanded form in Le Figaro Littéraire, June 11, 1949, 1–4. “I leave to my readers”: ibid. SE’s account: WSS, 28–38, by way of L’Intransigeant (“L’aventure pathétique de Guillaumet”), April 3, 1937, 1–3.

  51. “My last thought”: The complete text of Guillaumet’s message is preserved in photos of the overturned airplane, Icare II, 48.

  52. “My wife, if she”: WSS, 33 (translation mine).

  53. “What saves a man”: WSS, 35.

  54. “Guillaumet is saved!” Lefèbvre, Icare II, 48 (though in no other of his accounts).

  55. “without a doubt”: Lefèbvre in Mossé, 221.

  56. “was splotched and swollen”: WSS, 32.

  57. “They’re from joy”: Fleury, La Ligne, 247.

  58. “I swear that what”: WSS, 36. Lefèbvre in Mossé, 221.

  59. “Yo soy l’aviador”: Guillaumet, Le Figaro Littéraire, June 11, 1949, 4.

  60. “I’m Mrs. Markham”: Mary S. Lovell, Straight on Till Morning: The Biography of Beryl Markham (London: Hutchinson, 1987), 175.

  61. “Which way is Ireland?”: Charles Lindbergh, We, 222.

  62. “It’s obscenely late”: Noëlle Guillaumet, Icare II, 35.

  63. “I shall never”: André Gide, The Journals of André Gide, III (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1949), 158. The entry is dated March 31, 1931.

  64. There is no reason to think: It has been suggested that Crémieux and Consuelo were intimate at this time although no evidence supports this claim. For more on Crémieux, see A. Eustis, Trois Critiques de la NRF (Paris: Nouvelles Éditions Debresse, 1961). A native of Guatemala City: For more on Gómez Carrillo see Charles A. Solé, éd., Latin American Writers (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1989), vol. II, 465–69; Julio Cesar Anzueto, Enrique Gómez Carrillo (Guatemala City: Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala, 1968); Amilcar Echeverría, La Obra de Enrique Gómez Carrillo y su Protección en la Literatura Hispanoamerica (Guatemala City: Guatemalan Cultural Services, 1974); and Gómez Carrillo’s own Treinta Años de Mi Vida, vol. II (Buenos Aires: La Casa Vaccaro, 1919), in which Maeterlinck’s homage can be found.

  65. On hearing this story: Robert Tenger in an interview with the author, January 19, 1991.

  66. “I know why” to “You’re not ugly”: Consuelo’s variations are as legion as her reports of the courtship, but these details—from Icare II, 25—generally remain constant. See also Rumbold and Stewart, who were able to interview Consuelo, 112–13.

  67. “Your husband, if you consent”: Interview with Madeleine Goisot, January 2, 1992.

  68. Sometimes the line read “Votre fiancé, si vous …”, as in Icare II, 26.

  69. ceremoniously worded reprimand: The note is reproduced in Chevrier, 81.

  70. From July to September: For a sense of Renée de Saussine’s whereabouts I am indebted to Henri-Jean de Saussine and to Howard Scherry, who passed on press clippings from her concerts abroad.

  71. He tended to sidle up: The description is from Lewis Galantière, “Antoine de Saint-Exupéry,” The Atlantic, April 1947, 133–46. Galantière’s ranks among the premier descriptions of SE.

  72. “The Count de Saint-Exupéry”: cited in Deschodt, 202.

  73. “frail, young, gentle persons”: Galantière, The Atlantic, April 1947, 138.

  74. “who scorned both”: Werth, “Tel Quel,” in René Delange, La Vie de Saint-Exupéry (Paris: Seuil, 1948), 159.

  75. “little eternity”: Cited in Bothorel, 47. The passage, which SE would have written in 1929, reads: “Je suis toujours un peu un étranger sans patrie. C’est sans doute pourquoi je parais timide. J’aimerais qu’une femme me dise: ‘tu vas entrer dans cette petite éternité qui est enfermée dans mon village ou dans mon parc. C’est ça une patrie. Et vivre là où les choses ont un sens durable.’ Mais je me sens fugitif et je n’ai su aimer qu’une femme.…“

  76. Her son had seemed: SE blew hot and cold about the visit, ANAT.

  77. SE had the time: Dony, 568–69. The account of the trip to Asunción is also Dony’s, 569.

  78. The abandoned French hangars: Eve Curie, Journey Among Warriors (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday Doran & Company, 1943), 9–10.

  X BRIGHTNESS FALLS

  1. Evidently she thought it: I owe this portrait of Consuelo to her niece, Ysatis de Saint-Simon, interview of December 2, 1990.

  2. At the same time he: Yvonne de Lestrange, Icare I, 95.

  3. “Greatly enjoyed seeing”: Gide, The Journals of André Gide, III, 158–59.

  4. “When will you finally marry?: Consuelo in Icare II, 29.

  5. “done in by political”: Mermoz cited in Danel, L’Aéropostale, 178.

  6. “belle aventure” and “l’ère de l’administration”: Gaston Vedel, Le pilote oublié (Paris: Gallimard, 1976), 166.

  7. never forgot the reception: Fleury, “Saint-Exupéry, l’aviateur du désert,” Candide, January 9, 1936.

  8. SE painted a particularly vivid picture of Port-Etienne in an early draft of WSS, BN, microfilm no. 2343.

  9. Once, having been advised: Jacques Mortane, L’Air, Smithsonian Institution file on Saint-Exupéry, n.d.

  10. The preserved Néri-SE correspondence: Icare II, Winter 1974, 71, 57–59. “I told you to write” to “In my opinion”: ibid.

  11. “slipped beyond the confines”: WSS, 15.

  12. SE dreams of the breakfast: He dreams in these words in his Paris-Soir account, November 9, 1938, and in slightly less elaborate form in WSS, 16.

  13. “would not, incorruptible”: WSS, 16. “The old flirt”: Marianne, October 26, 1932, 2.

  14. “All’s well”: WSS, 17 (translation mine).

  15. “I find,” he sighed: Mortane, L’Air, n.d. See also SE’s wistful report from the 1934
airshow, “Le 14ème salon de l’aviation,” Marianne, November 21, 1934.

  16. “You’re going to set” to “Acknowledge, what’s going on?”: The incident was related anonymously in Présence des Retraités d’Air France, April 1973.

  17. he could be more nervous: Noëlle Guillaumet, Icare II, 38.

  18. Evidently SE spent and “ministrou”: Néri, Icare II, 52–53.

  19. “Come live with me”: Ader Picard Tajan auction catalogue, July 6, 1984, Drouot sale, item no. 1.

  20. down to the last detail: Fleury, Icare II, 73.

  21. their next bottle of Cinzano: Léon Antoine, Icare I, 48.

  22. “I have come down”: Henri Comte recalled the incident in Icare, 96, Spring 1991 (hereafter Icare III), 59.

  23. “I have never forgotten”: Henri Jeanson, 70 ans d’adolescence (Paris: Stock, 1971), 225. Most of the pages concerning SE have been reprinted in Icare III, 74–83.

  24. “will relegate all novels”: André Thérive, Le Matin, December 11, 1931.

  25. “It is not a novel”: Les Nouvelles Littéraires, October 24, 1931, 3.

  26. “the man of the century”: Yvonne Sarcey, Les Annales politiques et littéraires, December 15, 1931, 520. Madame Sarcey shared with her readers the logic behind the Fémina jury’s deliberations.

  27. “the service of the mails” and “Those are the orders”: NF, 25.

  28. “If only you punish”: NF, 24.

  29. “Am I just or unjust?”: NF, 41.

  30. “a Jack London superman”: Henry Miller, Letters to Anaïs Nin (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1965), 28. Miller’s enthusiasm for SE did not wane; thirteen years later he wrote Nin to say he thought FA a magnificent achievement.

  31. In Hollywood: I am grateful to Ned Comstock at the Cinema and Television Library at the University of Southern California for having supplied numerous documents from the MGM Collection, including the enthusiastic August 11, 1932, reader’s report on the property.

  32. “Not one of the peasants”: NF, 65.

  33. “By virtue of what emotion”: Delaunay, L’Araignée du soir, 90.

  34. “The mail,” SE had concluded: Rumbold and Stewart, 33.

  35. from his fictional counterpart: Daurat went so far as to title a chapter of Dans le vent des hélices “Je ne suis pas Rivière.”

  36. in search of a blessing: Interview with Madame de B, January 17, 1992.

  37. “On what does our salvation”: Cahiers II, 32–34.

  38. “as a divine hand”: NF, 46.

  39. mechanic at San Antonio Oeste: Decendit recalled the incident in Icare I, 211–12.

  40. “talismans to open doors”: NF, 30.

  41. “All his long life”: NF, 31.

  42. airing of his grievance: Georges Pélissier, Les cinq visages de Saint-Exupéry (Paris: Flammarion, 1951), 129.

  43. “another theory of life”: NF, 64.

  44. “And before I was through”: Cate, 237.

  45. “Usually considered” and “the action takes place”: Harper’s Bazaar, April 1941, 123.

  46. One critic counted: André-A. Devaux, “Un devoir plus grand que celui d’aimer,” Cahiers I, 86.

  47. “an enduring modern classic”: Commonweal, November 30, 1932, 17.

  48. “modern courage”: André Maurois, Saturday Review, August 13, 1932.

  49. “For the first time”: Louis Kronenberger, The New York Times Book Review, August 14, 1932, 7.

  50. in the running for the Prix Goncourt: Les Annales politiques et littéraires, December 1, 1931.

  51. Mermoz sent: James Milhaud kindly provided a copy of this cable.

  52. The 1931 Fémina laureate: The description is from André Dubourdieu, Forces Aériennes Françaises, 34, July 1949, 444.

  53. “If a friend approached”: Chevrier, 98.

  54. While one newpaper: L’Ami du Peuple, December 5, 1931.

  55. another noted that: Maurice Bourdet, “Notre Aviation,” Le Petit Parisien, December 10, 1931.

  56. he told Yvonne de Le strange: Le strange, Icare I, 95.

  57. “I’ll never be able to find” to “Must one then be”: Les Annales politiques et littéraires, 97, December 15, 1931, 534. SE may have protested a little too fiercely. He wrote up the Néri episode four times in all, more and less ornately. In 1932 he spoke of being lost in interplanetary space, “parmi cent étoiles en trompe-l’oeil, à la recherche de la seule planète véritable.” (“Among 100 stars painted in trompe-l’oeil, in search of the only real planet.”) If the image was indeed born over the Río de Oro in 1931 SE evidently considered it too literary for future accounts, in which it does not appear. In most other respects the story—wholly mature in WSS—became more image-heavy as it aged.

  58. “an afternoon stroll”: Marianne, October 26, 1932, 2.

  59. “fat green mosquito”: Mireille d’Agay, Icare 75, Winter 1975 (hereafter Icare III), 20–21.

  60. “You should see your name”: Didier Daurat quoted in Petit, La vie quotidienne dans l’aviation, 194.

  61. “For having written”: Reproduced in Yvette Guy, Saint-Exupéry (Monaco: Éditions Les Flots Bleus, 1958), 99.

  62. “You don’t know”: Icare II, 41.

  63. In an interview on the twenty-seventh and “Infamies!”: Papers of Raoul Dautry, 307 AP 92, ANAT.

  64. SE said he spoke: From a letter of February 20, 1933, from SE to Daurat, reproduced in full in Dans le vent des hélices, 175–77.

  65. “he has obvious failings”: Mermoz, Mes vols, 108.

  66. “The most insignificant”: SE to Dautry, October 31, 1932, reproduced in part in the 1984 Archives Nationales exhibition catalogue, 60–61. The original resides at ANAT, 307 AP 92.

  67. “like lost chicks”: ANAT. In the same letter SE protested that the Château de La Mole by no means qualified as a family seat, as was clearly the opinion of his mother’s brother, SE’s Uncle Emmanuel.

  68. According to a letter: Reproduced in Chevrier, 99.

  69. He was short even with, and “Maman, the more I’ve”: ANAT. The letter is one of the few in which SE entirely loses his patience with his mother.

  70. the rental and ultimately the sale: My thanks to Mireille Massot for having scoured the archives of the city of Nice and thereby put to rest the misapprehension that the Cimiez home was sold in 1932.

  71. “Although there is”: The Marianne piece of October 26, 1932, was reprinted in The Living Age, January 1933, in a translation I have only slightly reworked here.

  72. “This seemed to me,” “in a brutal and painful,” “But it seems to me,” and “the petty grudges”: SE to Dautry, October 31, 1932, ANAT, 307 AP 92.

  73. “infinitely regrettable”: Dautry’s masterfully worded letter is at ANAT (307 AP 92) but is reproduced in part in the 1984 Archives Nationales catalogue, 61.

  74. “a dangerous book”: Clifton Fadiman in The Nation, September 7, 1932, 135.

  75. “as terrible an exhibition”: Pare Lorentz, Lorentz on Film (New York: Hopkinson & Blake, 1975), 127.

  76. a hopelessly drunk John Barrymore: For more on the production see Margot Peters, The House of Barrymore (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1990).

  77. By the time Aéropostale: Danel and B. E. G. Davies, “Marcel Bouilloux-Lafont: Where Is the Glory?,” Air Pictorial, September 1981, provide the most evenhanded assessments of the demise of Aéropostale and the subsequent birth of Air France. Resurrected, Daurat got his issue of Icare (no. 140, 1er trimestre, 1992). A biography of Marcel Bouilloux-Lafont remains, not surprisingly, to be written.

  78. “people’s ineradicable love”: Luigi Barzini, The Europeans (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1983), 132.

  79. “notre vieille propension”: Cited in Barzini, 137.

  80. “the France of the Right”: Fleury, La Ligne, 255.

  81. “Our country does not”: Mermoz quoted in Fleury, La Ligne, 269. See also Mes vols, 312.

  82. “A ship’s captain”: Mermoz, Mes vols, 181.

  83. “It is terribly
difficult”: SE to Dautry, October 31, 1932, ANAT, or partially reproduced in exhibition catalogue, 60–61.

  XI BEYOND THE CALL OF DUTY

  1. “Saint-Ex had not an ounce”: Jeanson, 70 ans d’adolescence, 220.

  2. As one colleague observed: Dubourdieu, Forces Aériennes Françaises, July 1949, 445.

  3. totaled 33,000 francs: Marie-Vincente Latécoère provided the firm’s January 1934 summary of SE’s income for the previous year.

  4. Louis Marty, the chief: Icare II, 67.

  5. “floating above the concerns”: Jean Gonord, Icare II, 69.

  6. “I know no one” to He wrote that he was most: Cited in Chevrier, 102.

  7. On December 21: Gilbert Vergès, one of SE’s passengers that day, provided the most reliable account of the mishap, Icare II, 70–73.

  8. “In truth, death”: Mortane, L’Air.

  9. “Air and water”: WSS, 43–44.

  10. comb through his hair: Or so he told an audience at the Lisbon École Française in December 1940, according to an account published in Crane, op. cit., 281.

  11. How much easier: Unpublished Gallimard interview, op. cit.

  12. he wrote a long and urgent: SE’s letter to Foa, dated February 2, 1934, is reproduced in its entirety in Daurat, Dans le vent des helices, 241–44.

  13. “After all I’ve done” to “la Ligne should be”: Dans le vent des hélices, 242–43.

  14. “As you slowly descend”: From SE’s preface to Maurice Bourdet’s Grandeur et servitude de l’aviation (Paris: Corrěa, 1933), reproduced in SLV, 243–44. (SLV appeared in slightly different form and in uneven translation in English as A Sense of Life [New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1965].)

  15. “collection of parameters”: From SE’s preface to an anthology on test-piloting compiled by Jean-Marie Conty, reproduced in SLV, 259.

  16. In 1934 he applied: Both passports are conserved at ANAT. I was unable to locate SE’s last passport.

  17. “bloody Tuesday”: Alexander Werth’s The Twilight of France (New York: Howard Fertig, 1966) and Janet Flanner’s New Yorker columns of the time were of particular help here.

  18. “I have no taste”: SE to Foa, February 2, 1934, in Dans le vent des hélices, 242.