The Pilot and the Little Prince: The Life of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry by Peter Sís (review)

Sís’ mystically touched style enhances this biography of famous French aviator and author Saint-Exupéry, who is most famous in America for his authorship of The Little Prince. For all the titular reference to that book, however, this is more focused on Saint-Exupéry the adventurous and pioneering aviator, and a dramatic story it is. Saint-Exupéry dreamed from early youth of becoming a pilot, eventually becoming part of the innovative plan to deliver the mail by air in the 1920s. He flew deliveries over Europe and northwest Africa, lived for a time in the Western Sahara, and then developed routes to South America. When World War II came, Saint-Exupéry ended up exiled to New York, where he penned The Little Prince; eventually he joined a French squadron in North Africa, flying reconnaissance, and was lost without a trace on a flight in 1944. This is a highly effective distillation of a fascinating life, and its focus on the opening up of the skies will be a revelation to kids whose knowledge extends only to the Wright Brothers and Charles Lindbergh. As usual with Sís, design and art are part of the story rather than partnering it, and the round captioned vignettes that dapple or underscore the spreads provide ample opportunity for reader engagement. Dramatic vistas balance empty space of desert or sky against details that often have their own haunting graphic impact in the delicately stippled components; Sís’ maps take the aesthetic of early maps, with browned touches and curious particulars, and brush them with symbolism to treat cities and landscapes as animate as well as animated. This would add considerable dimension to explorations of early flight, but it would also pair excellently with an introduction—or reintroduction—to The Little Prince. A brief bibliography is included on the copyright page.