Saint-exupery: A Biography

by Stacy Schiff

  62. Early in March Émile Raccaud: Reproduced in part in Drouot catalogue from sale of June 16 and 17, 1990, item no. 24.

  63. “Furthermore, I already miss” and “Here the world”: ibid., item no. 25.

  64. “Money burned a hole”: Taped Radio France interview with Consuelo, conducted by Jacques Chancel, n.d.

  65. “a spousal holiday”: Goisot letter of August 21, 1993.

  66. All of this appears: I have based this account of the renovation of the place Vauban apartment on bills reproduced in the Drouot catalogue, June 1990 sale, items no. 38–53.

  67. remembered him as: Françoise Giroud, Si je mens …, op. cit., and Giroud, Leçons particulières (Paris: Librairie Arthème Fayard, 1990). Also letter to author of April 1992. “Let her go” and “She will be”: Si je mens …, 38. Similarly, Icare VII, 47.

  68. “crucified by his wife”: Giroud, 69. In the original the line reads: “… il vivait perché comme un oiseau sur la branche, toujours fauché, crucifié par sa femme qu’il aimait et qui le trompait.“

  69. “I like to be proud”: From the Arts Anciens auction catalogue, sale held in Geneva on November 22 and 23, 1986, item no. 13A.

  70. “Behave so that”: From the Ader Picard Tajan catalogue, sale held in Paris, July 6, 1984, item no. 3.

  71. “Oh, these sleepless nights”: ibid., no. 15.

  72. “I beg you one day”: ANAT.

  73. She complained to one: Consuelo to Suzanne Werth, n.d. “Je souffre toujours de ce mauvais rythme qui existe entre Tonio et moi. Bientôt sera la fin car je n’ai plus de courage. Je n’ai pas envie de continuer,” wrote Consuelo on Lutétia stationery.

  74. “Whisper to yourself”: Cited in Bothorel, 96.

  75. “Do you have” to “I’m not divorcing you”: Interview with Robert Tenger, January 19, 1991.

  76. tore him apart: A portion of an anguished, five-page letter to Natalie Paley appeared in the catalogue for the Laurin-Guilloux-Buffetaud-Tailleur sale, December 4, 1991, Drouot, item no. 30, letter 7.

  77. applied for permission: NA, 2081–1422, 4 (July 1936).

  78. The exception was his account: L’Intransigeant, August 19, 1936, 1. The balance of the front-page pieces appeared on August 12, 13, 14, and 16, 1936.

  79. Billon remembered: Icare III, 30–32.

  80. “Do you think” to “Monsieur Boileau”: Jeanson, 70 ans, 222.

  81. “You’ll see” to “That took no time!”: Billon, Icare III, 31–32.

  82. “Tonio—don’t you” to “friend of my friends”: Jeanson’s is the only account we have of the London visit. He appears to have related the nightclub story for the first time in L’Evénement-Journal (Quebec), May 30, 1939. For the full report of the trip see 70 ans d’adolescence, 229–35. Alexander Korda’s ill-fated Conquest of the Air exhausted a long series of directors and was released six years after its conception.

  83. The film’s official pilot: Quoted in the recollections of Charles Bultel, Icare III, 44.

  84. “Mermoz transmitted”: Chevrier, 142–43. Also interview with Madame de B of January 7, 1991.

  85. “It would be ridiculous”: WSS, 23.

  86. in his first piece: L’Intransigeant, December 13, 1936, 1.

  87. “You are a friend”: “A Jean Mermoz,” Marianne, December 16, 1936, 1.

  88. “When we lose a friend”: Paris-Soir, May 19, 1935, 1.

  89. “Old friends aren’t made”: WSS, 25 (translation mine).

  90. “Mermoz has disappeared”: SE can be heard reading a piece entitled “Adieu à Mermoz” on a Festival recording (FLD 23) from the series “Leur oeuvre et leur voix.” He is clearly moved; his voice cracks partway through the short address.

  91. “over blindingly white sand”: Drouot auction catalogue, June 16 and 17, 1990, item no. 67.

  92. SE had applied for one: ibid., item no. 58.

  93. “a man of the air”: Noëlle Guillaumet, Icare, Spring 1966.

  94. “I felt confident”: Reproduced in Chevrier, 151.

  95. he boasted to Guillaumet and “I have just relived”: Reproduced in Icare III, 84. At the top SE scrawled in pencil that he thought he had mailed the letter a month earlier but was sending it on anyway, as “Mieux vaut tard que jamais …”

  96. “I have an account”: Chevrier, 149.

  97. Surrealist journal: “Un Mirage” appeared in the Winter 1935 issue of Minotaure, 19.

  98. solicited assignments: Jacques Paget, Le Méridional, October 28, 1962.

  99. loyalists have had to defend: See “À propos de Saint-Exupéry,” Le Monde, December 11, 1987, 16.

  XIII CIVIL EVENING TWILIGHT

  1. France, in 1937, was: The most colorful accounts I know of France in the 1930s are Olivier Bernier, Fireworks at Dusk: Paris in the Thirties (New York: Little, Brown & Company, 1993); Janet Flanner’s (Genět’s) columns, both in The New Yorker through those years and as collected in Paris Was Yesterday (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1988); and Werth, The Twilight of France. I have drawn on them all.

  2. “geysers of liquid electric color”: The phrase is Flanner’s, “Letter from Paris,” The New Yorker, August 28, 1937, 36.

  3. a feat he claimed: The “diploma” issued to SE for his jump of August 24, 1937, was sold in Paris at Drouot, June 16 and 17, 1990, catalogue item no. 15. SE told Pélissier that he would not have jumped if he had not been pushed, Pélissier, 28–29.

  4. He suffered from vertigo: Or so he told Jacques Baratier, Les Nouvelles Littéraires, March 18, 1939. Wrote Prévost of him in Les caractères after a description of SE jubilantly piloting: “Et il aurait le vertige à pied sur un toit.“

  5. “the three dictatorships”: Cited in Alexander Werth, 87.

  6. René Delange noticed: Delange, 73.

  7. General Davet’s impression: Davet, Icare III, 91.

  8. “I’m not interested”: Cited in Chevrier, 152.

  9. he did meet Jeanson: Jeanson, 70 ans, 227–29. The account of the “Internationale”-singing chauffeur is here as well.

  10. “One does not light”: Paris-Soir, October 3, 1938. The translation is from A Sense of Life, 141. The first Spain pieces appeared on the front page of Paris-Soir on June 27 and 28, 1937. A third appeared on July 3, 1937, 4.

  11. “It was a time”: OTAGE, 399 (translation mine).

  12. “How does a man receive” to “Sergeant, what is it”: Paris-Soir, July 3, 1937. Translation from A Sense of Life, 119. See also WSS, 190–91.

  13. “Pilots meet if they are fighting”: Paris-Soir, October 4, 1938. Translation is from A Sense of Life, 156.

  14. “Looks as if” to “Time to sleep!”: Paris-Soir, October 3, 1938. “Antonio, what are” to “Their words were”: The same account as revised for WSS, 184.

  15. “It was like the break,” “and, the ice broken,” and “We men put on”: OTAGE, 401. Jeanson said he sputtered: Jeanson, 70 ans, 227.

  16. “Franco’s soldier is noble”: CARNETS, 201.

  17. as he had not been before: See Davet, Icare III, 94.

  18. “Terrific,” responded the reporter: Fleury, Icare II, 82.

  19. Mille handed him his pages: The story is the stuff of legend but was confirmed by Mille, interview of January 6, 1992.

  20. In midmonth to “After a thousand tergiversations”: Chevrier, 157–58, supplemented by details provided by Madame de B, interview of January 22, 1991.

  21. “If it contains anything”: Flanner, “Letter from Munich,” The New Yorker, September 11, 1937, 38.

  22. still not managed to turn out: I owe this observation to Zeldin, France 1848–1945, II, 640. Zeldin is also the author of the word “doodlebug-sized.”

  23. “Careful, I think we are”: Werth, “Tel Quel,” 154.

  24. Ségogne remembered that: Ségogne, Icare III, 69. The idea amounts to an obsession in CARNETS.

  25. filed patents: For a full description of SE’s various patents and addendum thereto, see Gérard Trocmé, Icare III, 116–21.

  26
. only science when writing: Chevrier, 163.

  27. his captain’s cap was ready: Néri, Icare II, 53.

  28. initially been suggested to him: Conty, interview of January 18, 1992.

  29. SE’s own correspondence this winter: Many of these documents figure in the auction catalogue from the Drouot sale, June 16 and 17, 1990, 11–14.

  30. The French consular staff: Amérique 1918–40, dossiers généraux, no. 136, QO. See also 811.7961/236, NA.

  31. In December the air ministry: QO, Amérique 1918–40, no. 136, QO. SE and Prévot’s visas were issued during the week ending January 8, memo from Robert D. Murphy to the U.S. Secretary of State, 811.111, 11347, NA. I have insisted somewhat on the disparate impressions of SE’s departure date and itinerary as they seem to me to give a sense of the casualness with which the trip—gratuitous in the first place—was ultimately undertaken.

  32. only in foul moods: Gaston Lavoisier, Quartier Latin, March 23, 1945, 3.

  33. On the île de France: Pierre Massin de Miraval, Icare, 96, Spring 1981 (hereafter Icare VI), 80.

  34. “what he had to do”: Bernard Lamotte, Icare, 84, Spring 1978 (hereafter Icare V), 83.

  35. a vain conceit: From the notes of Lewis Galantière, BL. In his Atlantic piece (April 1947, 137) Galantière quotes SE as having said, “It’s a silly thing to do, perhaps, but I want to do it.”

  36. “This trip is risky” and “Fortunately I’m lucky”: Raoul de Roussy de Sales writing as Jacques Fransalès, Paris-Soir, February 18, 1938, 1. The headline of the piece—published after the accident—read: “ ‘Ce voyage est un casse-gueule mais je suis verni,’ disait Saint-Exupéry.”

  37. Hitchcock had asked a representative: Letter from Walter Batsell to Hitchcock, December 27, 1933. Solange Herter unearthed the letter and kindly passed it on.

  38. Gallimard remembered that, “Who do you take,” and “Yes”: Unpublished Gallimard interview.

  39. They were beautiful, however: For the history of the publishing relationship between SE and Reynal & Hitchcock I am especially grateful to Harcourt Brace for opening their files (hereafter referred to as the HBJ archives).

  40. “With the American navigation”: Alexandra Pecker, “Antoine de Saint-Exupéry,” France-Amérique, May 17, 1938.

  41. “Now, which way?” and rest of incident: Richard de Roussy de Sales, in a February 18, 1991, letter to author.

  42. “I prefer to be over”: Paris-Soir, February 18, 1938.

  43. Atlanta and in Houston: On the fifteenth the Associated Press reported that “a sizeable delegation”—it included a representative of the French Line who had evidently been a classmate of SE’s—waited in vain for him for several hours at the New Orleans airport.

  44. Later he boasted that: Pecker, France-Amérique, May 17, 1938.

  45. Hitchcock attested: From Curtice Hitchcock’s press information for FA, June 1939, HBJ archives.

  46. He was ecstatic: Interview with Madame de B, January 21, 1992.

  47. “IMPOSSIBLE TO TAKE ON”: Jacques Fransalès (Raoul de Roussy de Sales), Paris-Soir, February 18, 1932, 1.

  48. pinned down by the engine: In weeding through the many diplomatic and journalistic reports of the accident I have favored that of the head of the American legation to Guatemala, who arrived on the scene within fifteen minutes of the crash and had no particular stake in Franco-Guatemalan or Guatemalan-Franco relations. NA, 814.7965/15 and 16, NA.

  49. “When they pulled me”: Quoted in Patrick Kessel, La vie de Saint-Exupéry (Paris: Gallimard, 1954), 65.

  50. He later ascribed: I am grateful to Bikou de Lanux Strong for having offered up pages from her father’s unpublished memoirs. Chapter 7—entitled “La route de Guatemala”—includes a report on the hospital conversation with SE, during which the pilot stated that in a more solid aircraft he would have been roasted alive. the first reports: Lavondes’s round-the-clock telegrams can be found in Amérique 1918–40, no. 136, QO. It was he who noted that the men were eager to reassure their families they were alive and that for his part SE had asked the Quai d’Orsay to alert Madame de B.

  51. a certain resentment: Navy Intelligence Attaché’s Report, April 12, 1938, 814.7965/16, NA.

  52. Listed by Dr. Echeverría Ávila: A portion of Avila’s report appeared in the catalogue for the Drouot June 1990 sale, no. 23.

  53. “through a thick syrupy” to “tucked away in a dim”: Harper’s Bazaar, op. cit., 123.

  54. Within days he had: In his account of the trip to SE’s bedside Pierre de Lanux provided all of the details, down to the hives and the forbidden aspirin. Yvonne Michel remembered that Lanux “s’est précipité pour aller voir” SE, letter of April 23, 1992.

  55. Lanux lamented later: Lanux, Confluences, 115.

  56. In the car leaving: Pélissier, 136.

  57. “Come settle here” and “My dear father-in-law”: M. Laure, “Consuelo, la femmeoiseau,” Détective, December 18, 1959, 6–7. The visit—recalled only by Madeleine Goisot, who was told of it by Consuelo—appears to tally with the exit and entrance visas in SE’s passport. The New York Times reported that Consuelo had arrived in Guatemala to join her husband, March 6, 1938, 29.

  58. which he found roomy: DC-3: Alexandra Pecker article, May 17, 1938. and arranged for him to borrow: Interviews with Madame de B, January 7, 1991, and December 9, 1992.

  59. “as it is impossible”: Drouot auction catalogue, June 1990 sale, item no. 89.

  60. enjoyed a long and festive: Interview with Elizabeth (Reynal) Darbee, July 12, 1993.

  61. anything resembling work: Flanner is most eloquent on the visit in Paris Was Yesterday, 183–86. See also Bernier, 279–81.

  62. “A husband for Mireille”: Mireille d’Agay’s memories of the summer visit are from Icare III, 21–23.

  63. convinced he was clairvoyant: Maria van Rysselberghe, Cahiers André Gide VI, (Paris: Gallimard, 1975), 19. The entries are dated August 19 and October 9, 1938.

  64. he was overwhelmed: Interview with Madame de B, January 30, 1992.

  65. a clear vision of the book: Anyone doubting the long reach of Galantière’s editorial arm has only to consult his papers, BL, or to compare the American and French editions of the text, all of which have greatly informed this discussion of the two volumes. SE writes repeatedly in his correspondence with Becker of the changes and additions requested by Hitchcock and, especially, by Galantière. He harped on the idea that he wanted the book to amount to more than simply a collection of memories and can be heard saying as much on the Festival recording, “Leur Oeuvre et Leur Voix,” on which he prefaces his reading from the French-language preface. See also Curtice Hitchcock’s chronology of the publishing relationship between Reynal & Hitchcock and SE (prepared for the Gallimard lawsuit), HBJ archives.

  66. In Jean Prévost’s copy: Auclair and Prévost, 181.

  67. A percentage of the monies: SE’s financial woes are revealed in his letter to the FISC of July 12, 1938, Drouot catalogue, June 1990 sale, item no. 98.

  68. Chez Jarraud: Mille, Icare III, 59, and interview of January 6, 1992.

  69. “I think that this last” and “I published it in three”: SE to Becker, October 1938. I am indebted to Royce Becker for her assistance with her father’s papers.

  70. “The idiots, they don’t know”: The report is Pierre Lazareff’s, cited in Bernier, 292.

  71. “When we thought peace”: Paris-Soir, October 2, 1938.

  72. “The difference between an American”: Raoul de Roussy de Sales, “Love in America,” The Pocket Atlantic, 1946, 8.

  73. “because translating you”: Galantière to SE, June 1939, quoted in 1984 Archives Nationales exhibition catalogue, 102.

  74. After a second collaboration: I am grateful to Howard Scherry for having shared his correspondence with Galantière from the 1970s, in which Galantière reflected openly on his editorial relationship with SE.

  75. at the suggestion of Hitchcock: SE to Becker, October 1938.

  76. Later
he explained: See Jacques de Dampierre’s memories of SE in Lisbon in 1940, EG, 140. SE spoke freely with several acquaintances of the trouble he had had depicting the cyclone; in order to impress the enormity of it on the reader he had needed to minimize his terms. Imagine a man in a rowboat, he argued; would he be any more frightened before a hundred-meter-high wave than before a thirty-meter-high wave? Would the reader reading of his plight not have more trouble imagining, sensing, the former? See also Jean Macaigne, Icare VI, 44.

  77. “crowning achievement”: To Galantière, BL. Similarly to Max Becker, early fall, 1938.

  78. He wanted desperately: A running theme in the Galantière papers, BL.

  79. Gide is said to have pressed: Pélissier, 68. As Gide brought Conrad to the attention of Europe’s literary circles in the first place it is highly likely that he spoke of him to SE. There is no proof, however, that he actually mentioned the 1906 Mirror of the Sea to SE, or that SE ever read the book.

  80. He imagined a few days at sea: SE to Becker, October 1938. Becker actively discouraged his client from making the trip if he was planning on doing so only in order to finish the book, letter of October 1, 1938 and interviews.

  81. promising that he could sell: Becker to SE, letter of June 6, 1939.

  82. for his wandering wife: Claude Werth made available a string of SE’s telegrams, the gist of which is “Inquiet, Consuelo introuvable” (“Uneasy—Consuelo nowhere to be found”). Werth recalled Consuelo’s relationship with his mother, interview of January 24, 1991.

  83. a small studio: Interview with Madame de B, January 13, 1992.

  84. early in February 1939: See SE’s passport, ANAT. There was no fall 1938 trip to America, as has been reported.

  85. the very name Terre des hommes: Conversation with Elizabeth Darbee, July 12, 1993.

  86. “The earth teaches us”: Terre des hommes, Pléiade, 139 (translation mine).

  87. This culminated: Interview with André de Fonscolombe, January 25, 1991.