For those who love "The Little Prince" - Antoine de Saint-Exupery, as I do

[Paradise]

"The New York Times

Op-Ed Contributor

Saint-Exupéry Lands at Last
By STACY SCHIFF

Published: April 11, 2004

For nearly 60 years the legend of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the aviator and author of "The Little Prince," has largely eclipsed the life. More substantial and more valuable items have gone missing — Atlantis, the Holy Grail, 18 1/2 minutes of a White House tape — but few have generated the romance enduringly attached to the writer who, borrowing a trick from his best-known creation, neatly vanished into thin air.

At 8:45 a.m. on July 31, 1944, Saint-Exupéry took off from Corsica for a reconnaissance mission over occupied France. He was due back at 12:30 p.m., but did not return. At 1 o'clock his commanding officer began biting his nails; at 3:30 Saint-Exupéry was officially reported missing. In April 1945, a funeral Mass was finally held for him.

He never exactly died, however. On reading of his disappearance, Anne Morrow Lindbergh put her finger on the special ache it caused. There is a terrible difference, wrote a woman supremely qualified to know, between "lost and dead." There is also a not-so-secret recipe for what becomes a legend most.

Increasingly we live in a world in which objects cannot disappear from view, and on Tuesday wreckage of an aircraft hauled up from the Mediterranean was positively identified as Saint-Exupéry's. It had been clear for some time that the Lockheed P-38 was probably a few miles off the coast of Marseille, where in 1988 a local fisherman plucked the pilot's silver identity bracelet from his net. The discovery resolves one mystery about Saint-Exupéry's end: he was — by no means a given — where he was supposed to be. His instructions that day would have taken him over Lyon, and it was evidently on the return to Corsica that his P-38 dove vertically, at high speed, into the ocean."

(Snip) Just a bit more, and, respectfully, worth reading. Requires registration.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/11/opinion/11SCHI.html?th

[Paradise]

1. Well, so far, I'm the only one??? n/t

[The Lone Liberal]

2. That which is truly essential

is visible only to the heart.

[Paradise]

3. Thank you,

for knowing, and sharing. You brought tears to my eyes. Am I emotional, or what. :pals:

[The Lone Liberal]

4. You are welcome and don't be sad...sadness

only comes after you have tamed and made a friend. Then even something like the golden color of the wheat reminds you of them.

[Paradise]

5. If only DU had a 'favorites' list',

you'd be my #1. :loveya:

[greatauntoftriplets]

6. I own two copies of "Le Petit Prince".

One in English, and one in French.

[Paradise]

7. Would love to be able to read French,

for his books, in particular. As magificent as they are, especially Le Petit Prince, as is usual with foreign-language books, some of the flavor is always lost in translation. :hi:

[Feanorcurufinwe]

8. Why not start learning?

It's never too late to expand your mind.

[Paradise]

11. here i go...

Pourquoi pas? Bonne idée. ;-)

[mobuto]

9. Le Petit Prince

is written in especially simple French, so its a good first book.

[Paradise]

12. that's encouraging,

and i'm excited about doing it. remercie :)

[Snoggera]

10. I love the part regarding the Rose

When he finds out it's not unique.

A GREAT little story.

[Paradise]

13. Oui, sa Rose..

Pardon my French :)