March 14, 2011 • 24 mins
Since its publication in 1934, The Little Prince has become one of the world's most well-known children's books -- and the story of its author, Antoine de Saint-Éxupery, is almost as extraordinary. Tune in to learn more about the life -- and disappearance -- of this author.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Stuff you missed in History Class from how
Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
I'm Sair Dowdy and I'm delaying a chocolate boarding and
today we're going to be talking about a very famous
children's book and the author of that book, and Tonto
(00:22):
Sante Superry and his most famous work. Of course, The
Little Prince starts off with a pretty funny, memorable scene
involving a boa and thwarted artistic talent. But from there
it quickly cuts to the main action of the story.
There's a pilot narrator and he's crash landed in the
Sahara Desert. He's all by himself, and he has an
(00:44):
engine to fix, and he only has one week's worth
of water. And we're going to pick up with a
little quote from that scene. The first night, then I
went to sleep on the sand, a thousand miles from
any human habitation. It was more isolated than a shipwrecked
sailor on a raft in the middle of the ocean.
That's you can imagine my amazement at sunrise when I
(01:05):
was awakened by an odd little voice. It said, if
you please draw me as sheep? What draw me as sheep.
That's the little Prince. Of course. Actually It'stublinos it playing
the little print, playing the part of the little Prince.
And luckily for our story, Um, the book, in addition
to being part extraterrestrial, because the Little Prince is not
(01:28):
from planet Earth, he's from an asteroid. Um, the book
is also part autobiographical. And Santa Zuperi really did crash
land In fact, he crashed landed quite a few times,
most famously in the Libyan desert. Um. But we're gonna
talk a little bit about that adventure and a few
other things too. Yeah, his career is a male pilot
(01:49):
and his mysterious disappearance over the Mediterranean. Because for all
the simplicity and the gentleness of the Little Prince, its
author was actually a very reckless man. Yeah, and it
up with him eventually unfortunately. Um. But we'll start at
the beginning. He was of the minor nobility and born
kind of impoverished minor nobility. I mean, the perfect beginning
(02:11):
for a story like this. I'd say. His name was
Antoine Marie Rogier de Sante Zuberi, and he was born
June twenty nine, nineteen hundred, in lyon and um. As
a side note, this was a listener suggested topic. Somebody
named Mike brought it up to us, and he and
his email. He mentioned that he thought that Exuberi was
(02:33):
about the coolest name anybody could have, and Santa Zuberi
barely thought so himself. He called it unbolnom, which means
a lovely name, and he even tried to prevent other
female family members who shared the names, such as his
wife and his sister, from publishing under it, which they
did anyway. So sorry, So he at least has the
(02:54):
self esteem of nobility, if not the wallet's not the money.
He missed World War On service by literally one day
because he came with age one day after armistice, but
he still really yearned his whole life for a military career. Yeah,
but he failed his entrance exam. Heve not a very
good student. He failed his entrance exam to the Navy
school and instead entered a light cavalry regiment as a
(03:19):
civilian conscript. And it's interesting, but from there he ended
up flying. And it doesn't it doesn't seem like the
easiest path in any way. He really really wanted to fly.
He'd been flying in planes for about as long as
a person could fly in planes at this point. His
first ride was in nineteen twelve in a Bertode Robolowski
(03:43):
metal monoplane. I tried to find more information about that
plane and pronunciations as well, but um, I think it's
a pretty rare early plane. Indeed, but according to an
article in aviation history, the French weren't allowing civilian conscripts
without previous experience to train his pilots. So this is
(04:03):
where his position as minor and nobility comes in. Someone
had to pull some strings for him and actually managed
to get sane SUPERI flying lessons with an ex pilot
from the German Army who hadn't really even trained a
student before, so it was private, private flying lessons. Indeed,
this is all while he was in service too, so
that's you know, yeah, he he actually went over to
(04:26):
the civilian side of the airfield to take his private
pilot's lessons so he could get around this restriction. And
he does, you know, start to build up hours and
learn how to fly, and he became a military pilot.
He flew fighter planes, and he got transferred to Morocco
as an official flight trainee. And kept practicing. There he'd
fly solo over the desert to Casablanca, and I mean
(04:49):
that's sort of his first time on these long solo
flights where I mean that sort of defines who he is.
That if you, if you read many of his works
or look at his biography, much long stretches of solitude
flying over the desert. But by nine two he's earned
enough hours to get his pilot's license. And it seems
(05:09):
like up until this point it's been kind of unconventional,
but pretty auspicious too. You know, he certainly had luck
on his side. Seems like a good beginning for a
life spent in the air, but that doesn't last very long.
Within a year, he has his first big crash outside
Paris while flying a plane that he wasn't even rated
to fly. He was grounded temporarily after that, but then
(05:32):
something else happens. His fiance decides to make this a
more permanent arrangement and convinces him to quit flying, which
he does, although unfortunately the relationship doesn't last. It ends
pretty soon after that, but Sonic Superi ends up working
odd jobs. He works as a bookkeeper, a mechanic, a
traveling salesman for a truck manufacturer, does a bit of
(05:52):
writing too, but basically not flying for a time. He's
not flying, And just a note before we move on
from her. His fiance was actually Louise Laveck de Villema,
who was a future novelist still at this point, and
she wrote Madame Do, which is kind of awkward to
say out loud, that title imagine ellipses after Madame de Um,
(06:16):
but that was of course adapted into the film ear
Rings of Madame de also ellipsies say, which is a
really cool movie if if um, any of y'all are
looking for something new on your Netflix que, It's an interesting,
kind of disturbing movie, and I think it's cool. She
had a connection to Santa Zuberi. Yeah, but as we said,
(06:37):
that connection doesn't last. So by he is back up
in the air, this time as a commercial pilot, though
hoping to be one. Hoping to be one, but unfortunately
it was and no one really wants to fly at
this point. Yeah, it's kind of terrible. It's dangerous and cold. Yeah,
so air mill was a better business to be in.
(07:00):
So Santic Superi is hired by a former fighter pilot
to work for a company that's called Aero Pastel eventually
called eventually called Aero Pastel, even though he doesn't really
have that much experience. So he starts out as a
mechanic and starts working his way up the ladder. He
works his way up to piloting, and he starts pioneering
(07:21):
routes in Northwest Africa, South the South Atlantic, and South America.
In Africa he works as station chief, and then in
Patagonia he becomes operations director. So you know, so I mean,
working his way up. He's doing well for himself. And
it's interesting that even though some of those sound a
little more like desk jobs, and maybe they could have
been operations director. I don't know. He's still always in
(07:43):
the air. I mean he always takes time to fly
and and again. All those hours flying over the desert,
flying over the mountains, I mean things that really add
to his mystique and give him fodder for later books too.
I mean, all that time spent looking at things and thinking. Uh.
In fact, his first novel, which was published in nineteen
(08:05):
twenty nine and its English title as Southern Mail, was
about an airmail pilot, and his second book, published in
nineteen thirty called night Flight was about just sort of
the glamorous but risky life of pilots, and he did
embrace those risks still too. I mean you'd think that
(08:25):
with this new responsibility, new amount of responsibility he has,
he might tone it down a little. Um, not the
same santic Zuberi who was flying planes he wasn't rated
to fly in. He's still reckless. According to again that
article in aviation history, mechanics really liked him. They liked
hanging out with him, reading his stuff, talking with him,
(08:46):
playing cards with him, but they preferred not to fly
with him. When you know, lots were drawn or whatever.
Who was going to go with santic Zuberi. Yeah, that
really says it all. But rather than getting better, I
guess getting less reckless, it only gets worse when he
leaves Ara Pastile eventually because the company goes bankrupt. Yeah,
he goes to work. I think Air France spies a
(09:08):
little bit of Ara pas Stile and he works as
a test pilot for Air France and then as sort
of a pr guy for the airline because he has
had successful publications and he's a well known pilot by
this point. Um, he even does the work as a reporter.
But it's in nineteen five that he embarks on his
(09:29):
next really bold enterprise, and it's an enterprise that helps
inspire his next major book, which is the nineteen thirty
nine National Book Award winner Wins, Sand and Stars, and
even later inspires that that scene we opened with in
The Little Prince, Um, it's not a good um, not
(09:50):
a good scene though, not one you'd really want to
live out in real life. No, it's rather scary. Actually.
He gets ahold of another monoplane, This one is a
Cadrone Simon, which Simon means sandstorm, and he attempts to
set a record by flying from Paris to Saigon, and
the prize for this would be a hundred and fifty
(10:11):
thousand francs. Somehow, though, on this incredible journey, he ends up,
along with his navigator mechanic Andre Provo, crashed in Libya.
So Libya, I mean, come on, pretty yeah, pretty bad situation.
They don't have provisions or anything like that. Um, just
a little bit of wine, think yea or something like that.
(10:35):
Not much at all. Luckily, though, they're rescued by bad Wins. Yeah,
and only three years later he crashes yet another one
of these little planes in Guatemala. While he's trying to
fly the length of North and South America. He starts
somewhere in North America that is, is nowhere near the
length of the continent. But anyways, I mean, your record
(10:57):
is not going to hold if you if you crash
land anyway, so um, you know, those kind of experiences
just again fuel his his legend and his fame a
little bit. Even though that second crash, the one in Guatemala, badly,
badly injures him. I guess the first in Libya wasn't
quite as bad because they crashed into a sand dune. Um,
(11:18):
but he was a little more battered on the second one. Yeah,
neither of them sound pleasant, but the second one actually
ended his flight career, for his commercial flight career. He
does rejoy the French Air Force briefly before the Nazis
occupy the country, but luckily St. Suberi escapes. But where
does he settle? New York City, of all places, And
(11:41):
this is a secret that's kept for him by the
War Department. He wanted actually at that point to join
the US Air Force, but he's rejected because of his age.
He's getting up in years at this point forty years old,
not really a common age for a fighter pilot. Um,
but he has a comfy founding life in New York City.
I mean it. I'm amazed that that he doesn't end
(12:04):
his days there. But he and his wife Kensuelo lived
there from January nineteen forty one to April nineteen forty three,
and they worked on drumming up support for the war.
He was really trying to get the United States involved
and um milling about with the Lindberghs, you know, having
a pretty glamorous life. And it's even possible that the
Lindbergh's son, who was a little blonde boy named Land,
(12:28):
was the inspiration for the Little Prince character. And um,
the Santa Zuperis were living too forty Central Park South Penthouse,
so comfy digs. He liked the penthouse because he's way
up in the air, and he likes New York too.
He apparently really enjoyed going to the Empire State Building
(12:48):
and tossing little scraps of paper off the top or
out the windows or something and watching them float down. Um,
he's having a good time. Sounds like a great life.
But even to had away from Manhattan. Sometimes he and
his wife stayed as guests at the Bevan House in
Asharoke in Long Island, and that's where he wrote The
Little Prince. And he also painted and studied English. Um,
(13:11):
which I physically hung out. I think that's kind of
a surprise to a lot of people. It was a
surprise to me that The Little Prince was written in
the United States. And I even found an interesting article.
And then he heard times about Antoine Slant Exubery literary
tours because in a way he is a New York writer,
because his famous, most famous work was written here and
(13:34):
or not here in the United States. Um. I think
that's so cool to have somebody like that. You can
go to New York and and see little spots he visited.
Not someone you associate with New York at all. No,
not at all. But after he finished the book, he
ends up leaving. And I know, you can't believe the Sarah.
He leaves this wonderful dream of a life he has
(13:56):
in New York, hanging out in his penthouse, throwing pieces
of paper off the entire State Building, and he rejoins
the French Free Air Force. He really wants to get
involved in the war and help out with the war effort.
Patriotic and he loves flying exactly. So he joins up
with the French Air Force in North Africa and he
starts a free French air the Free French Air Force.
We have the v SHE regime going on in France exactly,
(14:19):
and he starts flying reconnaissance missions for the Allies. At
this time, he's forty four years old, he's overweight, and
he's just really beaten up from the crashes that he's endured. Yeah,
I mean, I think of all of the different crashes
and the toll that would take on a middle aged man.
I mean, he has trouble even getting into a plane
(14:41):
at this point, let alone spending hours all stiff and
buckled in in a in a cold cabin, and um,
it really took the full power of his fame and
influence to get him back in the cockpit. And I
mean he's had strings pulled for him for his entire career.
But I mean, I think this is the big one
here that gets this guy back in a plane. But
(15:04):
he he does, you know, and he does start flying again.
And on July thirty one, nineteen four, he takes off
from Corsica on this photo mapping mission. He's in a
lockeed P thirty eight lightning and he never comes back,
and that's kind of where our big mystery starts. He's
of course presumed dead, and for many years there were
(15:28):
a lot of theories about what exactly happened. I mean,
after after Amelia Earhart. This is probably one of the
big aviation mysteries of our time. Yeah, definitely, there were
several possibilities. Could have been suicide. He did go through
a lot of trouble to be in this dangerous situation,
and he was known to be depressed, so there's some
(15:49):
chances that maybe this was just an elaborate suicide attempt.
Some people think that it's also possible that he may
have mishandled the plane or perhaps miscalculated how much fuel
he had and just crashed. He could have also maybe
passed out some lack of oxygen unlikely scenarios unlikely since
(16:10):
oxygen was the one thing Sonic Supery was famously very
careful about. I think that's kind of funny to um
not in this situation, but that he was so careful
about oxygen and reckless about everything else. UM And then
of course there's the possibility that he was shot down.
So for years and years after his death, this is
sort of what we were left with, figuring out what
(16:33):
it could have been, and knowing that we probably would
never know. Then in new clues started trickling in, and
it started when fisherman off of Marseilles found a silver
bracelet with his name engraved on it in a scrap
of his flying suit, and divers started checking the area nearby,
(16:54):
you know, looking for for anything else, and they found
remains of a lackeyed P thirty eight lightning and there
was no body inside, nobody anywhere near. But the serial
number of the plane matched that of the plane Sonic
Xuberi was known to be flying. Yeah, but it was weird.
There was no evidence of bullet holes or bent propeller
(17:14):
or any other sign that it had been shot down.
So a little bit of a discovery, little big discovery,
but still mystery. We didn't exactly know what happened. So
in two thousand five there was another interesting discovery. Two
divers decided that they had noticed this wreckage nearby the
(17:35):
Scent Exuberi crash site a few years earlier, and they
decided okay, let's get check that out. And after going
through a bunch of red tape getting permits and everything,
they finally do and they and they dive and and
see what's down there, and interestingly, there is another plane
down there. Yet what they found down there was a
Damler Benz V twelve aircraft engine that, when reviewed by
(17:55):
experts in Munich, turned out to be part of a
measure Schmidt flight fighter lane flown by Prince Alexis von
Bentheim muhn Steinfurt. And this was a twenty two year
old German pilot shot down by Americans in ninety three
when he was on his first solo flight, Prince a
prince of all things, I mean, a young prince. So
(18:16):
one of the divers who helps lift out this engine,
named Leno von Gartzen, runs with this new clue and
starts hitting the archives, working with the staff of a
magazine for Luftwaffa vets and find truest to find pilots
who flew with the Prince. Yeah, and he makes one thousand,
two hundred calls to these Luftwaffa vets and to their
(18:37):
families because of course the surviving wins they're in their
eighties and many have have died since then. Um. And
finally he contacts the former pilot, Horst Rippert, and Rippert
tells him, quote, you can stop searching. I've shot down
Sante Exuberi. This is amazing. I mean, this is an
amazing revelation. But there's no proof of that it actually happened,
(19:01):
since the German flight logs didn't make it through the war,
usually a losing side. Of course, this late in the
war too, they're not keeping really great records, right. But
actually it's not that outrageous a tale, right, not really,
because I mean his story he said, I didn't see
the pilot. I never could have seen the pilot. But um,
(19:22):
he does have a story that that adds up pretty much. Um.
His fighter squadron had been alerted to a group of
reconnaissance planes in the area, and he found a Lackey
P thirty eight with with a French with French colors
on it and shot it down. He didn't see the pilot, um,
but he did note and remember these strange evasive loops
(19:45):
that the pilot made trying to get away from him.
And then a few days later he heard that Antoine
de Sant exuper he was missing, and he had this
horrible thinking suspicion that he might have killed him. Yeah,
and he is the really sad part about that. He
also admits that Sonic Superi had been his hero, a
(20:06):
writer that he read in school and the person who
inspired him to fly in the first place in his
early twenties. When this happened. He even said, according to
Sonic Supery's great nephew and family spokesperson, that if he
had known what he was doing, he never would have
done it. So, I mean, a very sad and an
interesting story. And maybe, you know, I guess again, we're
(20:27):
never going to know for sure, but it's certainly, um,
certainly a fascinating conclusion for now to this mystery and
at least an interesting possibility out there well. And to
know that at the very least, this man who shot
down a P thirty eight in ninet is haunted and
has been for his entire life by the idea that
(20:49):
he might have killed his his hero. It's tragic, it
is so Sonic Supery. We now know he died at
age forty four, just as a little prince once described
seeing forty four sunsets in one day, and the book
went on to become by far his most famous. Yeah,
probably most of you have read it, whether as kids
(21:12):
are in class or maybe to your own kids, or
at least looked at the pictures. I mean that, I
think that's always been my favorite part of The Little Prince,
the Bay of Bob's and the boas and the rose.
Of course. Um, today, this is kind of interesting. I
was just reading a New Yorker article about asteroid strikes
(21:34):
potential asteroid strikes on Earth, and there is a private
foundation that is dedicated to protecting the Earth from asteroid strikes,
and appropriately enough, it is named the B six twelve Foundation,
after the Little Prince's home asteroid where's he's cleaning out
as volcanoes every day? That's pretty cool. Just to end
(21:56):
it off here, there's a quote that we have from
Anne mar limp for on her friend Sonic SUPERI, and
she says, how is it possible that he kept his
mind on the gas consumption while pondering the mysteries of
the universe? How can he navigate by stars when they're
to him the frozen glitter of diamonds? And I think
I really like his appreciation of of solitude, And um,
(22:19):
I don't know, just flying over the desert alone and
having all that time to to think and ponder, not
having radar and all these instruments and things. Um. One
of his biographers, Stacy Chef, even mentioned that it's kind
of difficult for any biographer of his to to look
at his life completely because it's quite possible that the
(22:40):
most important hours and moments were spent thousands of feet
above earth and nobody can really touch that, you know. Yeah,
it makes you wonder what he would have written he
had lived. Yeah, I think so. So. Yeah, I guess
that about wraps it up for Antointo sant Exubery. I'm
kind interested in going out and looking at some of
(23:03):
his other books. Now. I've only read the Little Prints,
and I'd be interested to read some of his more
memoir type writings, especially The wind Sandon Stars. Same here, Yeah,
that was one. I think it was. National Geographic rated
him very high or rated that book very high, like
three very least top ten for best adventure books. So
(23:26):
that sounds right up my alley for for some fun
springtime reading. And um, if you have any sent x
SUPERI recommendation things you have read by him or any
other author. Biography recommendations. After all, this was a listeners suggestion.
Feel free to to send us an email at History
(23:46):
Podcast at how stuff works dot com. We're also on
Twitter at Miston History, and we're on Facebook. And if
you would like to learn a little bit more about
men's history and flight, we have an article called it
was Man's First Attempt to Fly and you can look
at up by visiting our homepage at www dot how
stuff works dot com. For more on this and thousands
(24:12):
of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com. To
learn more about the podcast, click on the podcast icon
in the upper right corner of our homepage. The how
stuff Works iPhone app has a ride. Download it today
on iTunes.
Welcome to Stuff you missed in History Class from how
Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
I'm Sair Dowdy and I'm delaying a chocolate boarding and
today we're going to be talking about a very famous
children's book and the author of that book, and Tonto
(00:22):
Sante Superry and his most famous work. Of course, The
Little Prince starts off with a pretty funny, memorable scene
involving a boa and thwarted artistic talent. But from there
it quickly cuts to the main action of the story.
There's a pilot narrator and he's crash landed in the
Sahara Desert. He's all by himself, and he has an
(00:44):
engine to fix, and he only has one week's worth
of water. And we're going to pick up with a
little quote from that scene. The first night, then I
went to sleep on the sand, a thousand miles from
any human habitation. It was more isolated than a shipwrecked
sailor on a raft in the middle of the ocean.
That's you can imagine my amazement at sunrise when I
(01:05):
was awakened by an odd little voice. It said, if
you please draw me as sheep? What draw me as sheep.
That's the little Prince. Of course. Actually It'stublinos it playing
the little print, playing the part of the little Prince.
And luckily for our story, Um, the book, in addition
to being part extraterrestrial, because the Little Prince is not
(01:28):
from planet Earth, he's from an asteroid. Um, the book
is also part autobiographical. And Santa Zuperi really did crash
land In fact, he crashed landed quite a few times,
most famously in the Libyan desert. Um. But we're gonna
talk a little bit about that adventure and a few
other things too. Yeah, his career is a male pilot
(01:49):
and his mysterious disappearance over the Mediterranean. Because for all
the simplicity and the gentleness of the Little Prince, its
author was actually a very reckless man. Yeah, and it
up with him eventually unfortunately. Um. But we'll start at
the beginning. He was of the minor nobility and born
kind of impoverished minor nobility. I mean, the perfect beginning
(02:11):
for a story like this. I'd say. His name was
Antoine Marie Rogier de Sante Zuberi, and he was born
June twenty nine, nineteen hundred, in lyon and um. As
a side note, this was a listener suggested topic. Somebody
named Mike brought it up to us, and he and
his email. He mentioned that he thought that Exuberi was
(02:33):
about the coolest name anybody could have, and Santa Zuberi
barely thought so himself. He called it unbolnom, which means
a lovely name, and he even tried to prevent other
female family members who shared the names, such as his
wife and his sister, from publishing under it, which they
did anyway. So sorry, So he at least has the
(02:54):
self esteem of nobility, if not the wallet's not the money.
He missed World War On service by literally one day
because he came with age one day after armistice, but
he still really yearned his whole life for a military career. Yeah,
but he failed his entrance exam. Heve not a very
good student. He failed his entrance exam to the Navy
school and instead entered a light cavalry regiment as a
(03:19):
civilian conscript. And it's interesting, but from there he ended
up flying. And it doesn't it doesn't seem like the
easiest path in any way. He really really wanted to fly.
He'd been flying in planes for about as long as
a person could fly in planes at this point. His
first ride was in nineteen twelve in a Bertode Robolowski
(03:43):
metal monoplane. I tried to find more information about that
plane and pronunciations as well, but um, I think it's
a pretty rare early plane. Indeed, but according to an
article in aviation history, the French weren't allowing civilian conscripts
without previous experience to train his pilots. So this is
(04:03):
where his position as minor and nobility comes in. Someone
had to pull some strings for him and actually managed
to get sane SUPERI flying lessons with an ex pilot
from the German Army who hadn't really even trained a
student before, so it was private, private flying lessons. Indeed,
this is all while he was in service too, so
that's you know, yeah, he he actually went over to
(04:26):
the civilian side of the airfield to take his private
pilot's lessons so he could get around this restriction. And
he does, you know, start to build up hours and
learn how to fly, and he became a military pilot.
He flew fighter planes, and he got transferred to Morocco
as an official flight trainee. And kept practicing. There he'd
fly solo over the desert to Casablanca, and I mean
(04:49):
that's sort of his first time on these long solo
flights where I mean that sort of defines who he is.
That if you, if you read many of his works
or look at his biography, much long stretches of solitude
flying over the desert. But by nine two he's earned
enough hours to get his pilot's license. And it seems
(05:09):
like up until this point it's been kind of unconventional,
but pretty auspicious too. You know, he certainly had luck
on his side. Seems like a good beginning for a
life spent in the air, but that doesn't last very long.
Within a year, he has his first big crash outside
Paris while flying a plane that he wasn't even rated
to fly. He was grounded temporarily after that, but then
(05:32):
something else happens. His fiance decides to make this a
more permanent arrangement and convinces him to quit flying, which
he does, although unfortunately the relationship doesn't last. It ends
pretty soon after that, but Sonic Superi ends up working
odd jobs. He works as a bookkeeper, a mechanic, a
traveling salesman for a truck manufacturer, does a bit of
(05:52):
writing too, but basically not flying for a time. He's
not flying, And just a note before we move on
from her. His fiance was actually Louise Laveck de Villema,
who was a future novelist still at this point, and
she wrote Madame Do, which is kind of awkward to
say out loud, that title imagine ellipses after Madame de Um,
(06:16):
but that was of course adapted into the film ear
Rings of Madame de also ellipsies say, which is a
really cool movie if if um, any of y'all are
looking for something new on your Netflix que, It's an interesting,
kind of disturbing movie, and I think it's cool. She
had a connection to Santa Zuberi. Yeah, but as we said,
(06:37):
that connection doesn't last. So by he is back up
in the air, this time as a commercial pilot, though
hoping to be one. Hoping to be one, but unfortunately
it was and no one really wants to fly at
this point. Yeah, it's kind of terrible. It's dangerous and cold. Yeah,
so air mill was a better business to be in.
(07:00):
So Santic Superi is hired by a former fighter pilot
to work for a company that's called Aero Pastel eventually
called eventually called Aero Pastel, even though he doesn't really
have that much experience. So he starts out as a
mechanic and starts working his way up the ladder. He
works his way up to piloting, and he starts pioneering
(07:21):
routes in Northwest Africa, South the South Atlantic, and South America.
In Africa he works as station chief, and then in
Patagonia he becomes operations director. So you know, so I mean,
working his way up. He's doing well for himself. And
it's interesting that even though some of those sound a
little more like desk jobs, and maybe they could have
been operations director. I don't know. He's still always in
(07:43):
the air. I mean he always takes time to fly
and and again. All those hours flying over the desert,
flying over the mountains, I mean things that really add
to his mystique and give him fodder for later books too.
I mean, all that time spent looking at things and thinking. Uh.
In fact, his first novel, which was published in nineteen
(08:05):
twenty nine and its English title as Southern Mail, was
about an airmail pilot, and his second book, published in
nineteen thirty called night Flight was about just sort of
the glamorous but risky life of pilots, and he did
embrace those risks still too. I mean you'd think that
(08:25):
with this new responsibility, new amount of responsibility he has,
he might tone it down a little. Um, not the
same santic Zuberi who was flying planes he wasn't rated
to fly in. He's still reckless. According to again that
article in aviation history, mechanics really liked him. They liked
hanging out with him, reading his stuff, talking with him,
(08:46):
playing cards with him, but they preferred not to fly
with him. When you know, lots were drawn or whatever.
Who was going to go with santic Zuberi. Yeah, that
really says it all. But rather than getting better, I
guess getting less reckless, it only gets worse when he
leaves Ara Pastile eventually because the company goes bankrupt. Yeah,
he goes to work. I think Air France spies a
(09:08):
little bit of Ara pas Stile and he works as
a test pilot for Air France and then as sort
of a pr guy for the airline because he has
had successful publications and he's a well known pilot by
this point. Um, he even does the work as a reporter.
But it's in nineteen five that he embarks on his
(09:29):
next really bold enterprise, and it's an enterprise that helps
inspire his next major book, which is the nineteen thirty
nine National Book Award winner Wins, Sand and Stars, and
even later inspires that that scene we opened with in
The Little Prince, Um, it's not a good um, not
(09:50):
a good scene though, not one you'd really want to
live out in real life. No, it's rather scary. Actually.
He gets ahold of another monoplane, This one is a
Cadrone Simon, which Simon means sandstorm, and he attempts to
set a record by flying from Paris to Saigon, and
the prize for this would be a hundred and fifty
(10:11):
thousand francs. Somehow, though, on this incredible journey, he ends up,
along with his navigator mechanic Andre Provo, crashed in Libya.
So Libya, I mean, come on, pretty yeah, pretty bad situation.
They don't have provisions or anything like that. Um, just
a little bit of wine, think yea or something like that.
(10:35):
Not much at all. Luckily, though, they're rescued by bad Wins. Yeah,
and only three years later he crashes yet another one
of these little planes in Guatemala. While he's trying to
fly the length of North and South America. He starts
somewhere in North America that is, is nowhere near the
length of the continent. But anyways, I mean, your record
(10:57):
is not going to hold if you if you crash
land anyway, so um, you know, those kind of experiences
just again fuel his his legend and his fame a
little bit. Even though that second crash, the one in Guatemala, badly,
badly injures him. I guess the first in Libya wasn't
quite as bad because they crashed into a sand dune. Um,
(11:18):
but he was a little more battered on the second one. Yeah,
neither of them sound pleasant, but the second one actually
ended his flight career, for his commercial flight career. He
does rejoy the French Air Force briefly before the Nazis
occupy the country, but luckily St. Suberi escapes. But where
does he settle? New York City, of all places, And
(11:41):
this is a secret that's kept for him by the
War Department. He wanted actually at that point to join
the US Air Force, but he's rejected because of his age.
He's getting up in years at this point forty years old,
not really a common age for a fighter pilot. Um,
but he has a comfy founding life in New York City.
I mean it. I'm amazed that that he doesn't end
(12:04):
his days there. But he and his wife Kensuelo lived
there from January nineteen forty one to April nineteen forty three,
and they worked on drumming up support for the war.
He was really trying to get the United States involved
and um milling about with the Lindberghs, you know, having
a pretty glamorous life. And it's even possible that the
Lindbergh's son, who was a little blonde boy named Land,
(12:28):
was the inspiration for the Little Prince character. And um,
the Santa Zuperis were living too forty Central Park South Penthouse,
so comfy digs. He liked the penthouse because he's way
up in the air, and he likes New York too.
He apparently really enjoyed going to the Empire State Building
(12:48):
and tossing little scraps of paper off the top or
out the windows or something and watching them float down. Um,
he's having a good time. Sounds like a great life.
But even to had away from Manhattan. Sometimes he and
his wife stayed as guests at the Bevan House in
Asharoke in Long Island, and that's where he wrote The
Little Prince. And he also painted and studied English. Um,
(13:11):
which I physically hung out. I think that's kind of
a surprise to a lot of people. It was a
surprise to me that The Little Prince was written in
the United States. And I even found an interesting article.
And then he heard times about Antoine Slant Exubery literary
tours because in a way he is a New York writer,
because his famous, most famous work was written here and
(13:34):
or not here in the United States. Um. I think
that's so cool to have somebody like that. You can
go to New York and and see little spots he visited.
Not someone you associate with New York at all. No,
not at all. But after he finished the book, he
ends up leaving. And I know, you can't believe the Sarah.
He leaves this wonderful dream of a life he has
(13:56):
in New York, hanging out in his penthouse, throwing pieces
of paper off the entire State Building, and he rejoins
the French Free Air Force. He really wants to get
involved in the war and help out with the war effort.
Patriotic and he loves flying exactly. So he joins up
with the French Air Force in North Africa and he
starts a free French air the Free French Air Force.
We have the v SHE regime going on in France exactly,
(14:19):
and he starts flying reconnaissance missions for the Allies. At
this time, he's forty four years old, he's overweight, and
he's just really beaten up from the crashes that he's endured. Yeah,
I mean, I think of all of the different crashes
and the toll that would take on a middle aged man.
I mean, he has trouble even getting into a plane
(14:41):
at this point, let alone spending hours all stiff and
buckled in in a in a cold cabin, and um,
it really took the full power of his fame and
influence to get him back in the cockpit. And I
mean he's had strings pulled for him for his entire career.
But I mean, I think this is the big one
here that gets this guy back in a plane. But
(15:04):
he he does, you know, and he does start flying again.
And on July thirty one, nineteen four, he takes off
from Corsica on this photo mapping mission. He's in a
lockeed P thirty eight lightning and he never comes back,
and that's kind of where our big mystery starts. He's
of course presumed dead, and for many years there were
(15:28):
a lot of theories about what exactly happened. I mean,
after after Amelia Earhart. This is probably one of the
big aviation mysteries of our time. Yeah, definitely, there were
several possibilities. Could have been suicide. He did go through
a lot of trouble to be in this dangerous situation,
and he was known to be depressed, so there's some
(15:49):
chances that maybe this was just an elaborate suicide attempt.
Some people think that it's also possible that he may
have mishandled the plane or perhaps miscalculated how much fuel
he had and just crashed. He could have also maybe
passed out some lack of oxygen unlikely scenarios unlikely since
(16:10):
oxygen was the one thing Sonic Supery was famously very
careful about. I think that's kind of funny to um
not in this situation, but that he was so careful
about oxygen and reckless about everything else. UM And then
of course there's the possibility that he was shot down.
So for years and years after his death, this is
sort of what we were left with, figuring out what
(16:33):
it could have been, and knowing that we probably would
never know. Then in new clues started trickling in, and
it started when fisherman off of Marseilles found a silver
bracelet with his name engraved on it in a scrap
of his flying suit, and divers started checking the area nearby,
(16:54):
you know, looking for for anything else, and they found
remains of a lackeyed P thirty eight lightning and there
was no body inside, nobody anywhere near. But the serial
number of the plane matched that of the plane Sonic
Xuberi was known to be flying. Yeah, but it was weird.
There was no evidence of bullet holes or bent propeller
(17:14):
or any other sign that it had been shot down.
So a little bit of a discovery, little big discovery,
but still mystery. We didn't exactly know what happened. So
in two thousand five there was another interesting discovery. Two
divers decided that they had noticed this wreckage nearby the
(17:35):
Scent Exuberi crash site a few years earlier, and they
decided okay, let's get check that out. And after going
through a bunch of red tape getting permits and everything,
they finally do and they and they dive and and
see what's down there, and interestingly, there is another plane
down there. Yet what they found down there was a
Damler Benz V twelve aircraft engine that, when reviewed by
(17:55):
experts in Munich, turned out to be part of a
measure Schmidt flight fighter lane flown by Prince Alexis von
Bentheim muhn Steinfurt. And this was a twenty two year
old German pilot shot down by Americans in ninety three
when he was on his first solo flight, Prince a
prince of all things, I mean, a young prince. So
(18:16):
one of the divers who helps lift out this engine,
named Leno von Gartzen, runs with this new clue and
starts hitting the archives, working with the staff of a
magazine for Luftwaffa vets and find truest to find pilots
who flew with the Prince. Yeah, and he makes one thousand,
two hundred calls to these Luftwaffa vets and to their
(18:37):
families because of course the surviving wins they're in their
eighties and many have have died since then. Um. And
finally he contacts the former pilot, Horst Rippert, and Rippert
tells him, quote, you can stop searching. I've shot down
Sante Exuberi. This is amazing. I mean, this is an
amazing revelation. But there's no proof of that it actually happened,
(19:01):
since the German flight logs didn't make it through the war,
usually a losing side. Of course, this late in the
war too, they're not keeping really great records, right. But
actually it's not that outrageous a tale, right, not really,
because I mean his story he said, I didn't see
the pilot. I never could have seen the pilot. But um,
(19:22):
he does have a story that that adds up pretty much. Um.
His fighter squadron had been alerted to a group of
reconnaissance planes in the area, and he found a Lackey
P thirty eight with with a French with French colors
on it and shot it down. He didn't see the pilot, um,
but he did note and remember these strange evasive loops
(19:45):
that the pilot made trying to get away from him.
And then a few days later he heard that Antoine
de Sant exuper he was missing, and he had this
horrible thinking suspicion that he might have killed him. Yeah,
and he is the really sad part about that. He
also admits that Sonic Superi had been his hero, a
(20:06):
writer that he read in school and the person who
inspired him to fly in the first place in his
early twenties. When this happened. He even said, according to
Sonic Supery's great nephew and family spokesperson, that if he
had known what he was doing, he never would have
done it. So, I mean, a very sad and an
interesting story. And maybe, you know, I guess again, we're
(20:27):
never going to know for sure, but it's certainly, um,
certainly a fascinating conclusion for now to this mystery and
at least an interesting possibility out there well. And to
know that at the very least, this man who shot
down a P thirty eight in ninet is haunted and
has been for his entire life by the idea that
(20:49):
he might have killed his his hero. It's tragic, it
is so Sonic Supery. We now know he died at
age forty four, just as a little prince once described
seeing forty four sunsets in one day, and the book
went on to become by far his most famous. Yeah,
probably most of you have read it, whether as kids
(21:12):
are in class or maybe to your own kids, or
at least looked at the pictures. I mean that, I
think that's always been my favorite part of The Little Prince,
the Bay of Bob's and the boas and the rose.
Of course. Um, today, this is kind of interesting. I
was just reading a New Yorker article about asteroid strikes
(21:34):
potential asteroid strikes on Earth, and there is a private
foundation that is dedicated to protecting the Earth from asteroid strikes,
and appropriately enough, it is named the B six twelve Foundation,
after the Little Prince's home asteroid where's he's cleaning out
as volcanoes every day? That's pretty cool. Just to end
(21:56):
it off here, there's a quote that we have from
Anne mar limp for on her friend Sonic SUPERI, and
she says, how is it possible that he kept his
mind on the gas consumption while pondering the mysteries of
the universe? How can he navigate by stars when they're
to him the frozen glitter of diamonds? And I think
I really like his appreciation of of solitude, And um,
(22:19):
I don't know, just flying over the desert alone and
having all that time to to think and ponder, not
having radar and all these instruments and things. Um. One
of his biographers, Stacy Chef, even mentioned that it's kind
of difficult for any biographer of his to to look
at his life completely because it's quite possible that the
(22:40):
most important hours and moments were spent thousands of feet
above earth and nobody can really touch that, you know. Yeah,
it makes you wonder what he would have written he
had lived. Yeah, I think so. So. Yeah, I guess
that about wraps it up for Antointo sant Exubery. I'm
kind interested in going out and looking at some of
(23:03):
his other books. Now. I've only read the Little Prints,
and I'd be interested to read some of his more
memoir type writings, especially The wind Sandon Stars. Same here, Yeah,
that was one. I think it was. National Geographic rated
him very high or rated that book very high, like
three very least top ten for best adventure books. So
(23:26):
that sounds right up my alley for for some fun
springtime reading. And um, if you have any sent x
SUPERI recommendation things you have read by him or any
other author. Biography recommendations. After all, this was a listeners suggestion.
Feel free to to send us an email at History
(23:46):
Podcast at how stuff works dot com. We're also on
Twitter at Miston History, and we're on Facebook. And if
you would like to learn a little bit more about
men's history and flight, we have an article called it
was Man's First Attempt to Fly and you can look
at up by visiting our homepage at www dot how
stuff works dot com. For more on this and thousands
(24:12):
of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com. To
learn more about the podcast, click on the podcast icon
in the upper right corner of our homepage. The how
stuff Works iPhone app has a ride. Download it today
on iTunes.
Stuff You Missed in History Class News
Hosts And Creators
Holly Frey
Tracy Wilson
Popular Podcasts
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy And Charlamagne Tha God!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Decisions, Decisions
Welcome to "Decisions, Decisions," the podcast where boundaries are pushed, and conversations get candid! Join your favorite hosts, Mandii B and WeezyWTF, as they dive deep into the world of non-traditional relationships and explore the often-taboo topics surrounding dating, sex, and love. Every Monday, Mandii and Weezy invite you to unlearn the outdated narratives dictated by traditional patriarchal norms. With a blend of humor, vulnerability, and authenticity, they share their personal journeys navigating their 30s, tackling the complexities of modern relationships, and engaging in thought-provoking discussions that challenge societal expectations. From groundbreaking interviews with diverse guests to relatable stories that resonate with your experiences, "Decisions, Decisions" is your go-to source for open dialogue about what it truly means to love and connect in today's world. Get ready to reshape your understanding of relationships and embrace the freedom of authentic connections—tune in and join the conversation!