Saint-Exupry, the Myth of the Pilot

Author(s): Joseph T. McKeon

Reviewed work(s):
Source: PMLA, Vol. 89, No. 5 (Oct., 1974), pp. 1084-1089
Published by: Modern Language Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/461379 .
Accessed: 01/03/2012 16:26
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Modern Language Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to PMLA.

http://www.jstor.org

JOSEPH T. McKEON

Saint-Exupery,The Myth of the Pilot

THROUGH

THE IMAGERY of his four

works, Courrier Sud, Vol de nuit, Terre des

hommes, and Pilote de guerre, the first two
of which are fiction, the others essentially autobiography, Antoine de Saint-Exupery fashioned
such an exaggerated picture of the person and the
adventure of his heroes that it earned for him, for
a short period of time at least, the resentment if
not the animosity of many of his flying colleagues.1
It was not, of course, a myth fabricated out of
whole cloth, for half a century ago the men who
pioneered the new frontier that was aviation were
for the most part daring and courageous. But the
myth arrived on scene in full bloom and offended
the sensibilities of men who undoubtedly preferred understatement to overstatement, particularly literary overstatement, when it applied to an
occupation as deadly and as serious as their own.
The mystique of that profession was, however,
such that Saint-Exupery little by little debunked
the myth he had himself created. Curiously
enough, he did so not at the expense of his heroes,
not because he found those heroes to be of lesser
stature, but rather because the myth no longer
conformed to or reflected the realities and the insights that the metier had revealed to the author.
The parallel one sees in the development of the
image of the pilot is perhaps an unwitting witness
to the development of the relationship that occurred between the aviator and the writer in the
person of Saint-Exupery himself. Seen through
the eyes of a fledgling aviator and neophytic
novelist, the pilot was a knight in shining armor,
a demigod. Seen through the eyes of the veteran
pilot, at once poet and moralist, the aviator appears in a more modest light, reflecting, no doubt,
on one hand the inevitable effect and attrition of
harsh experience and the disenchantment a pilot
might feel after thousands of flying hours, and on
the other the enriching effect that eventually reflected the moral and philosophical growth of the
man and the author.
The legend of the pilot is at its apogee in the very

first novel, CourrierSud; he is a hero akin to the

conquering Caesar and the author ascribes to him
the attributes of a magician, an archangel, a
sorcerer, or a god. With a single exception the
image is scarcely modified in the second novel,
Vol de nuit, remaining on the lofty plane of a
prodigious messenger, a young god. But here for
the first time Saint-Exuperyalludes to the image of
the peasant, albeit that of a sublime and noble one.
The deification of the pilot is somewhat attenuated
in this second novel but in the final analysis his
image remains essentially legendary in character.
The countenance of man gradually effaces this
exaggerated imagery in the series of narrativesthat
compose the third book, Terre des hommes. At
first the imagery retains a certain haughtiness,
notable in the first two chapters, "La Ligne" and
"Les Camarades," which were for the most part
composed of Saint-Exupery's recollections of his
early years in aviation, his remembrances of a
heroic era in the history of flight. The imagery
then becomes less and less pretentious without,
however, sacrificing anything of the pilot's essential nobility. For it is thus that Saint-Exuperysees
the pilot in the image of the harvester when he
speaks of Mermoz, in that of the carpenter when
he recalls Guillaumet, or in the figure of the gardener whose death represents a true loss to
humanity, the loss of a profound and palpable
truth. In any event, a certain majestic element subsists in these images and the author underlines it
in the impressions he conveys of the pilot through
his imagery of physicists and biologists. Finally, in
Pilote de guerre, the reader is struck by the change
that takes place in the underlying tone of the
imagery. Though still viewed as a privileged
"voyageur," the flier is now reduced to meaner
dimensions: he is seen as "des morceaux de construction," or "une menagere qui fait ses courses."
At this point, the myth of the pilot fades and disappears, for from then on Saint-Exuperydrops the
thread of the story of a wartime mission to encompass a far broader horizon, one embracing the

1084

Joseph T. McKeon
meaning of life to one man, his destiny, and
through him the meaning of life itself and the
destiny of mankind.
Such is, in broad outline, the metamorphosis of
the myth of the pilot as revealed in the four novels
under discussion. But so broad an outline would
be of relatively small interest without examining
that metamorphosis in more detail.
Undoubtedly, a pilot at the time of SaintExupery was a young man who assumed, in the
eyes of the uninitiated, an impressive posture peculiar to those who practiced a profession to
which few seemed called, and fewer chosen, but all
of whom seemed wreathed in an aura of glory. It
is not surprising that the pen of the young writer
would express in heroic and legendary terms the
qualities of so select a group to which he now belonged. These qualities permeate the early imagery
of Saint-Exupery.It is he who, in the person of the
narrator, accompanies Bernis, the young hero of
Courrier Sud, on a visit to their old school.
Initiates of a new cult, it was now Bernis and the
narrator's turn "d'expliquer Lucrece ou 1'Ecclesiaste et de conseiller," to leap out as it were from
the pages of history to dazzle their old professors:
"les heros qu'ils celebraient depuis toujours, ils les
touchaient enfin du doigt et les ayant enfin connus,
pouvaient mourir. Ils parlerent de Jules Cesar."2
Heroic historicity then gives way to a sorcerous
mood. Back in Paris on several days' leave, Bernis
cannot help but contrast his life with the monotonous life of his friends where each day seems like
every other day: "Tous etaient prisonniers d'euxmemes, limites par ce frein obscur et non comme
lui, ce fugitif, cet enfant pauvre, ce magicien"
(pp. 37-38). Evasion is one element of a double
leitmotif that orchestrates the story of Courrier
Sud and sounds the counterpoint of a compulsive
nameless search on the part of its hapless hero. It
would seem to presage an unfulfilled spiritual
search that was to mark Saint-Exupery'sown life.
For the moment, the magical power that lies
within the grasp of the aviator derives from a profession that permits him to escape the ordinaryand
vulgar, to search for life's treasure. It is thus that
Bernis, in a letter to the narrator, characterizes
himself, "tu me connais, cette hate de repartir, de
chercher plus loin ce que je pressentais et ne
comprenais pas, car j'etais ce sorcier dont le
coudrier tremble et qu'il promene sur le monde
jusqu'au tresor" (p. 43).

1085

In the same vein but on a more exalted plane,

Saint-Exupery wreathes the pilot with a celestial
aura: angel, archangel, heavenly emissary, such
are some of the images that project the figure of
the pilot in all of the novels with the exception of
Pilote de guerre. The return of Bernis to Paris is
the occasion of a contrast between an immediate
and a distant past: that of the flier he had become
and that of the collegian he had been. The contrast is emphasized by the impressions Bernis experienced on returning to France after a long
absence in Africa, fearful that everythingmight be
changed, saddened to find that nothing had
changed: "apres deux ans d'Afrique et de paysages
mouvants et toujours changeants comme la face
de la mer, mais qui, un a un derobes, laissaient nu
le vieux paysage, le seul, l'eternel, celui dont il
etait sorti, il prend pied sur un vrai sol, archange
triste" (pp. 39-40).
The ethereal quality, the freedom from earthly
ties that seemed to set apart those for whom the
skies were fields of labor, is implicit in the passage
in which Bernis, forced to land at a desert outpost
on the Sahara, is greeted by the old sergeant stationed there: "Le sergent contemple unjeune dieu,
venu de nulle part, pour s'envoler.... Venu lui
rappeler une chanson, Tunis, lui-meme. De quel
paradis au-dela des sables, descendent sans bruit
ces beaux messagers?" (pp. 171-72).
The theme of the extraordinaryhero of Courrier
Sud is seen once again in the very first pages of
Vol de nuit, as the reader meets Fabien, the pilot,
letting down over San Julian. Saint-Exupery sees
in the aviator a conqueror returningfresh from his
conquests, looking over his empire and discovering
the simple happiness of men. Each flight is a solitary combat, each landing a victory and the author
underlines this idea in the image of the pilot: "II
etait semblable a un conquerant au soir de ses
conquetes, qui se penche sur les terres de l'empire,
et decouvre l'humble bonheur des hommes."3The
images of angelic messengers reappear in the
thought of Riviere, the operations chief, watching
one of his pilots, Pellerin, at the end of a flight:
"II y a dans toute foule . . . des hommes que l'on
ne distingue pas, et qui sont des prodigieux messagers" (p. 24). However, a more modest note begins to balance the exaggeration so evident in the
previous novel, as Riviere, reflecting on the sacred
character of their mission, approves Pellerin's disdain for the congratulations of certain admirers

1086

Saint-Exupery, The Myth of the Pilot

and his preference "de parler simplement metier,

de parler de son vol comme un forgeron de son
enclume" (p. 24).
If Saint-Exupery permits a certain understatement particularly appropriate to the character of
Riviere to be expressed, he reemphasizes the
grandeur of the aviator and his profession as seen
through the eyes of a wife keeping a lonely vigil
before her husband's nightly departure. Contemplating the sleeping city of Buenos Aires from
their apartment window, she meditates on the
unique and solitary nature of his vocation: "Cette
ville endormie ne le protegeait pas: ses lumieres
lui sembleraient vaines, lorsqu'il se leverait, jeune
dieu, de leur poussiere" (pp. 71-72). This theme is
subsequently transfiguredinto one of sacrifice,and
the pilot assumes an almost charismatic nature:
"Elle regardait ces bras solides qui . . . porteraient

le sort du courrier d'Europe, responsables de

quelque chose de grand, comme du sort d'une ville.
Et elle fut troublee. Cet homme au milieu de ces
millions d'hommes, etait prepare seul pour cet
etrange sacrifice" (pp. 71-72).
As if to give a sharper contrast to the grandeur
of the imagery of Vol de nuit, Saint-Exupery employs for the first time the image of the peasant, an
image that will assume a different orientation in
the subsequent novel Terredes hommes,but which
for the moment is still surroundedby an aureole of
glory in Saint-Exupery's description of the three
pilots from Patagonia, Chile, and Paraguay as
they descend from the darkened skies upon
Buenos Aires: "Trois pilotes . . . meditaient leur

vol, et vers la ville immense, descendraient lentement de leur ciel d'orage ou de paix, comme
d'etranges paysans descendent de leurs montagnes" (p. 11). One must note in any case that
the image "d'etranges paysans" is far removed
from its usual connotation. They are strange
peasants in the sense of being otherworldly, and
they seem to quit the heights they normally inhabit
with a certain reluctance if not condescension, to
live but a while amongst men. Thus, in place of
introducing in Vol de nuit a new tone thanks to a
new image, one more subdued and more moderate
such as might be expected in the image of the
peasant, Saint-Exupery sustains the myth of the
pilot on its original idealistic plane.
If in Terre des hommesthe element of the fabulous does not entirely disappear it is remarkably
attenuated and is indicative of the subtle but defi-

nite metamorphosis that begins to take place in

the myth of the pilot. Here, too, we see him in the
figure of the peasant, lost in the middle of the
desert, desperately seeking some sign of man.
Saint-Exuperyreflects on his destiny and finds he
has no regret for having chosen a profession whose
risks may now cost him his life: "Mais je suis
heureux dans mon metier. Je me sens paysan des
escales. Dans le train de banlieue, je me sens mon
agonie bien autrement qu'ici.

. . .

Je ne regrette

rien. J'ai joue, j'ai perdu. C'est dans l'ordre de

mon metier, mais tout de meme je l'ai respire, le
vent de la mer!"4
Charles Lindbergh expressed, perhaps less poetically, the same idea: "In flying, I tasted the wine
of the gods. ...

I decided that if I could fly for ten

years before I was killed in a crash, it would be a

worthwhile trade for an ordinary lifetime."5
But whether the pilot was but a simple "paysan
d'escales" or part of a mythical projection in
which "etranges paysans descendent de leurs
montagnes," the image dissolves into that of the
savant: "Semblable au paysan qui fait sa tournee
dans son domaine et qui prevoit a mille signes, la
marche du printemps, la menace du gel, l'annonce
de la pluie, le pilote de metier, lui aussi dechiffre
des signes de neige, des signes de brume, des signes
de nuit bien heureuse" (Terre des hommes, p. 35).
A final remark should be made on the mythological theme so dominant in the first two novels
before considering this new light in which the pilot
is projected. As was noted, Terre des hommes is
comprised of experiences taken from different
periods in the author's life, and, as might be surmised, the mythological imagery is inevitably related to the earlier periods. It is then that he would
have us see the pilot emerging, transfigured,from
the multitude, thanks to a kind of miraculous
metamorphosis: "Le pilote de ligne, mele aux
fonctionnaires, ne le distinguait d'abord guere
d'eux . . . mais les reverberes defilaient, mais be

terrain se rapprochait, mais ce vieil omnibus branlant n'etait plus qu'une chrysalide grise dont
l'homme sortirait transfigure"(p. 19).
Recollections of earlier days inevitably evince
the nostalgia of the author, reveal the spirit of
high adventure that marked that part of his life,
and are almost all clothed in the imagery of the
fantastic: "La magie du metier m'ouvre un mode
ou j'affronterai .

. les dragons noirs et les cretes

couronnees d'une chevelure d'eclairs bleus, oui la

JosephT. McKeon
nuit venue, delivre, je lirai mon chemin dans les
astres" (pp. 23-24).
Like Bernis of CourrierSud, Saint-Exupery experiences the occasional forced landing either in
the desert or at the intermediate landing fields
where the pilots are received "comme des envoyes
du ciel," or "des beaux messagers." Like the old
sergeant of the first novel, the sergeant that SaintExupery himself meets regards pilots as "des dieux
perpetuellement en marche." These constitute the
last allusion made in this vein in the ever-changing
myth of the pilot. A new element in both tone and
imagery is introduced.
The tone remains intense if more somber and
muted, the imagery, if less grandiose, no less
singular. In placing the pilot in a new context implied by the image of the savant, it is clear that
Saint-Exupery is perfectly aware of certain possibilities inherent in the nature of flight. It is interesting to note that these possibilities have been
realized in a manner that is as practicable as it is
spectacular.6Saint-Exupery'sforesight is revealed
in his discussion on "l'avion et la planete" in
which he indicates to what extent the airplane has
enlarged our knowledge of the earth. For the first
time man, freed to move in another dimension in
space, can see the true face of the earth: "Nous
voila changes en physiciens, en biologistes, examinant ces civilisations qui ornent des fonds de
vallees, et, parfois par miracles, s'epanouissent
comme des parcs la ou le climat les favorise"
(Terre des hommes, p. 69).
It is not only our physical and spatial vantage
point that has been changed; our moral and historical appreciation of man undergoes a significant
modification: "Nous voila donc jugeant l'homme
a l'echelle cosmique, l'observant a travers nos
hublots, comme a travers des instruments d'etude,
nous voila relisant notre histoire" (p. 69). But behind the detached image of the biologist studying
his slide under the microscope hovers the pilot
ever aware of the terrible possibilities of the role
he plays. The character of flight apparently so detached in its perspective of the earth can change
brutally and abruptly. It is then that the tranquillity of the imagery is shattered. What was moments
before but a simple play of microbes can become
by the sheer force of fate an environment into
which the pilot is suddenly plunged and from
which there is no escape. It is to that kind of
eventuality that we owe one of the most charming

1087

stories of Terre des hommes, the meeting of SaintExupery with the young girls who tame snakes.7
However, the real merit of the pilot and the
grandeur of his profession are clothed in humbler
imagery, the forms of which are simpler in line,
more modest in proportion. The most poignant of
these refers to the death of Mermoz, lost over the
middle of the South Atlantic: "I1nous a bien fallu
comprendre que nos camarades ne rentreraient
plus, qu'ils reposaient dans cet Atlantique-Sud
dont ils avaient si souvent laboure le ciel. Mermoz,
decidement, s'etait retranchederriereson ouvrage,
pareil au moissonneur qui, ayant bien lie sa gerbe,
se couche dans son champ" (pp. 39-40).
The same thought is expressed in the person of
his friend Guillaumet whose greatest quality is
revealed in the image "du charpentierqui s'installe
d'egal en face de sa piece de bois . . . et, loin de la
traiter a la legere rassemblea son propos toutes ses
vertus" (p. 46). Thus in the final analysis the true
merit of the pilot is revealed not in the extraordinary qualities that the risks and exigencies of his
work would seem to demand but rather in the
most fundamental quality any work demands of
all men, to be first and last a man: "etre un
homme, c'est precisement etre responsable." It is
in the same vein that Saint-Exupery employs the
image of the tree when he alludes to his friendship
with Guillaumet, "il fait partie des etres larges qui
acceptent de couvrir de larges horizons de leur
feuillage" (p. 59).
The humble image of the laborer reinforces the
impression the author gives us of an emotion
stripped now of its former pretentiousness. And in
order to underline and emphasize this rapprochement of the innate dignity of man and that of his
work, whatever form that work may take, SaintExupery speaks of the death of a gardeneras of an
irreplaceable loss: "C'est sentir, en posant sa
pierre, que l'on contribue a batir le monde" (p. 59).
And it is by the same care and devotion that the
gardener brings in spading the earth, in trimming
the trees, that the pilot realizes the greatest fulfillment in his vocation. At this point, the thoughts of
Saint-Exupery are such that the myth of the pilot
begins to fade before the image of man, for in the
last novel, Pilote de guerre,the pilot, in spite of the
plot, is present only as an intermediary to plead
the cause of mankind.
Thus, it is not surprising that4 the imagery
through which the myth of the pilot can be traced

1088

Saint-Exupery, The Myth of the Pilot

undergoes a radical change. The world in which he

now moves is transformed as is also the role he is
now called upon to play. It is a cataclysmic world
that threatens to destroy every value, efface every
purpose by which a "paysan des escales" could
justify his raison d'etre. He is no longer an archangel, a god, a magician, neither is he a physician
nor a biologist who can afford a detached and
professional air, no longer is he a carpenter or
gardener, and even less a harvester. He might be a
Pasteur, bent over his microscope, examining a
world in microcosm, moved by the pathetic drama
he knows is being played out below (CourrierSud,
p. 176). He may be counted among those privileged
few who meet a death worthy of their humanity,
far removed from the sordid squalor in which it is
enveloping men on earth:

irez au coin de la premiererue a droite, et m'acheterez des allumettes....'

Ma conscience est en

paix. J'ai les allumettes dans ma poche. Ou, plus

exactement, elles se trouvent dans la poche de mon
camarade Dutertre" (p. 182). And so ends the
myth of the pilot.
What can one perceive at this point beyond this
myth? In the first place, it must be noted that in
the first two novels the image of the pilot is projected on a level inaccessible to ordinary man.
This may in large measure be accounted for by the
probability that Saint-Exupery felt fewer inhibitions in a purely fictitious narrative setting. In the
two subsequent works, the author himself is one of
the chief characters and here his well-known and
almost excessive modesty would operate to reduce
the grandiloquent imagery of the aviator to a
purely human level.9 Essentially mythological in
Cette descenteressemblea une ruine. II nous faudra CourrierSud, the imagery of the pilot is modified
patauger dans leur boue. ... Nous sommes semblables
only to show him in the guise of the superman of
a de richesvoyageursqui, ayant vecu longtempsdans
Vol de nuit. Descending to less rarefied levels in
des pays a corail et a palmes, reviennent, une fois
the narratives of Terre des hommes, the imagery
ruines partager,dans la mediocritenatale, les plats
graisseuxd'une famille avare, l'aigreurdes querelles comes to earth on the disenchanted terrain of
Pilote de guerre. Insofar as the hero is found in
intestines, les huissiers, la mauvaise conscience des
soucis d'argent,les faux espoirs, les demenagements settings peculiar to flying, the imagery retains a
character relatively obscure; Bernis, in effect,
honteux,les arrogancesd'hotelier,la misereet la mort
seems as ephemeral as the nameless treasure he
puante a l'hopital. Elle est propre ici au moins la
mort! Une mort de glace et de feu. Mais, la-bas,cette
searches; Fabien disappears into the night like a
digestionpar la glaise!8
phantom; it is only when the pilot moves in the
society of men that his features begin to become
The pilot is once again, but oh, how tenuously,
recognizable. Hero, conqueror, sorcerer, archthe conqueror descending from on high passing
angel, the pilot of Courrier Sud is a proud and
safely through treacherous skies now filled with
courageous being, prizing his liberty above all else,
sinister, blackened puffs of clouds rising ominously
yet suffering nevertheless from the solitude peand menacingly about him: "I1 est inconcevable
culiar to his profession. Angel, god, or extraordique nous soyons encore entiers. Et cependant je
nary messenger, he belongs in Vol de nuit to a
me decouvre invulnerable. Je me sens comme
class of men apart, a class not unlike the "gevainqueur! Je suis, dans chaque seconde, vainnereux," those of whom Descartes remarked,
"Ceux qui sont genereux sont naturellementportes
queur!" (p. 181).
But the combat pilot is, above all, for Sainta faire de grandes choses et toutefois a ne rien
Exupery, a being sacrificed to the building of an
entreprendre dont ils ne se sentent capables."
edifice the meaning and purpose of which he can"Genereux" the pilot voluntarily accepts the chalnot, for the moment, understand; he is the unprelenges and the risks of his profession. In Terre des
tentious messenger who goes about fulfilling the
hommes,the role of the pilot imperceptiblyrecedes
most thankless tasks. His plane set once more on a
before that of the physician and the biologist who
heading for home base, the pilot imagines himself
newly discover an earth upon which is traced the
to be "une menagere qui, ayant acheve ses courses,
witness of civilizations long gone. Nostalgically
prend le chemin de la maison." The author derecalling past adventures, Saint-Exuperynonetheless finds renewed recompense in the work well
velops the image further: "Malgre le ventre du
done of the carpenter or the harvester. Put to the
nuage je reviens quand meme du marche. Elle
avait bien raison, la voix du Commandant: 'Vous
severest of tests in Pilote de guerre and having ac-

Joseph T. McKeon
cepted the thankless role of a "menagere" the
image of the pilot emerges, the dross of all exaggeration burned completely away, a man thankful
to be able once more to rejoin his own in "l'homme
commune mesure des peuples et des races," in a

1089

fraternity safe from all depreciation in which the

myth of the pilot finds its true fulfillment.
Universityof Louisville
Louisville, Kentucky

Notes
1 Leon Werth, La Vie de Saint-Exupe'ry (Paris: Editions

de Seuil, 1948), p. 59:

Ce qui est intolerable,c'est que les camaradesde la ligne,
du moins le croit-il, le rejettent de leur communaute. II
ecrit a Guillaumet:"Guillaumetil paraitque tu arriveset
j'en ai le coeurun peu battant. Si tu savais quelle terrible
vie j'ai menee depuiston departet quel immensedegout de
la vie j'ai peu a peu apprisa ressentir.Parcequej'avaisecrit
ce malheureuxlivre [Vol de nuit] j'ai ete condamne a la
misere et a l'inimitie de mes camarades.Mermoz te dira
quelle reputationceux qui ne m'ont plus vu et que j'aimais
tant m'ont peu a peu faite. On te dira combien je suis
pretentieux."
2 Courrier Sud (Paris: Gallimard,1964), p. 26.
3 Vol de nuit (Paris: Gallimard,1956), p. 4.
4 Terre des hommes(Paris: Gallimard,1966), p. 199.
5 Walter S. Ross, The Last Hero (New York: Harper,
1968), p. 52. "At that time [c. 1922] the life span of an
aviatorwas about nine hundredflyinghours."
6 New York Times, 7 Dec. 1968, p. 61: "Color photographs taken from an aircraftcruisingat heights of 4,500
and 9,000 feet above Canadian bean fields are showing
scientists certain blight-infectionpatterns that cannot be
seen by people walking through the fields.

. .

. The experi-

mental pictures . . . showed that aerial photography could

be used to survey disease infections . . . and should provide

a clear pictureof nationwidelosses of crops to diseases."

7 P. 6: "C'etait pres de Concordia,en Argentine,mais
c'eut pu etre partoutailleurs:le mystereest ainsi repandu.
. . . J'avaisatterridans un champ,et je ne savaispoint que
j'allaisvivreun conte de fees."
8 Pilote

de guerre (Paris: Gallimard, 1954), p. 108.

9 Other factorsto which allusionhas alreadybeen made

and which could very well also account for the nature of
Saint-Exupery'smetaphoricalpresentationof pilots from
Courrier Sud to Pilote de guerre are: (1) a chronological

factor-Courrier Sud,publishedin 1928,was the workof an

idealisticand enthusiasticyoung man on the thresholdnot
only of a literarycareerbut also of a professionstill in its
infancy, and practiced by only a select coterie of men.
Pilote de guerre,whichappearedin 1942,was the work of a
man disabusedand fatiguedby the physicaland emotional
stressesof time, a relativelylong careerin aviation,and the
effectsof severalaircraftaccidents,more than one of which
nearly cost him his life; and (2) a historical factor-the
final works of Saint-Exuperywere written under the pall
of the ominous events precedingWorld War Ji and the
disasterthat overwhelmedhis countryat the very outset of
that cataclysm.