Antoine de Saint‐Exupéry

Born June 29th, 1900, in Lyon - died July 31st, 1944, near Marseille (plane crash).
French writer and aviation pioneer. On July 31st, 1944, he flew his last mission to collect data on German troop movements during World War II. He never returned from his mission.
His first book was published in 1928. His most famous work "Le Petit Prince" (The Little Prince) was published in 1943, and is still one of the most popular children's books worldwide. While The Little Prince is Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s most famous work, his other major books are often considered by literary critics and readers to be more substantial, moving, and thought-provoking.
His earlier works, such as "Southern Mail," (Courrier Sud, 1929) "Wind, Sand and Stars," (Terre des Hommes - 1939) or "Night Flight" (Vol de Nuit,1931) are seen as testament to his life as a pilot and warrior, offering a poetic yet complex view of humanity that goes beyond the childlike simplicity of "The Little Prince."
Before and During WWII, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry served as a reconnaissance pilot for the French Air Force, famously surviving a 1935 crash in the Libyan desert that inspired his memoir Wind, Sand and Stars. When Germany occupied France in 1940, Saint-Exupéry refused to collaborate with the Vichy Regime or join Charles de Gaul’s Free French forces, viewing the internal French conflict as a destructive "war of fratricide" that violated his belief in national unity. Consequently, he fled to the United States in late 1940, spending over two years in exile where he wrote The Little Prince and lobbied for American entry into the war.
Returning to Combat, the 43-year-old author petitioned for and received special permission to rejoin the Free French Air Force in North Africa in 1943, despite being well over the age limit and in declining health. He flew dangerous, unarmed P-38 Lightning reconnaissance missions over occupied France, often struggling with the sophisticated aircraft and facing criticism from American commanders for his undisciplined style.
His Death occurred on July 31, 1944, when he disappeared during a photo-mapping mission over the Mediterranean Sea near Marseille. Theories regarding his fate include being shot down by a German fighter, crashing due to oxygen deprivation from his habit of using excessive oxygen, or suicide driven by depression and isolation. The mystery was largely resolved in 2000 when wreckage was recovered from the seabed, which underwater archaeologists confirmed belonged to his P-38, though they found no conclusive evidence of enemy combat damage, leaving the exact cause of the crash technically unresolved