I would wager that most readers of these pages have enjoyed his delightful little tale, The Little Prince , about , copies of which are sold per year in the US compared to about , in France. I remember devouring his aviation memoirs when I was in college. Southern Mail , Night Flight , Wind, Sand, and Stars , Flight to Arras , and The Little Prince , all captivated my imagination with larger-than-life tales of early aviation, desert and mountain crashes, and reflections on friendship and humanity.
Many came from The Little Prince :. And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye. It means to establish ties. To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you, on your part, have no need of me. To you I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes.
But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the worldβ¦. Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them. To love is not to look at one another, it is to look, together, in the same direction from Wind, Sand, and Stars. After I had devoured all of his books except for a posthumous novel , I somehow moved on.
I vowed to publish them as a posthumously co-authored academic paper β but I was then a first-year assistant professor, so I wisely focused on writing the economics papers required for tenure and promotion, and put the project in a drawer.
Knopf, New York, I dedicate these reflections to my late mother. He was tempted by a career as an illustrator or architect, but found his calling as a pilot when he was drafted into military service in the new field of aviation, in He subsequently enjoyed a career as a mail pilot and test pilot, while writing and drawing on the side. His first short story was published in , and there followed his series of autobiographical and philosophical novels about life in the air, and his reflections on friendship, humanity, and life, from 30, feet.
