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The Forum: The Little Prince: Lessons from an aviator’s life

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circa 1935: French airman and writer Antoine de Saint-Exupery  (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

10/02/2018 GMT

The Little Prince: Lessons from an aviator’s life

BBC World Service - The Forum, The Little Prince: Lessons from an aviator’s life

Who was Antoine de Saint-Exupery, and how did he come to write The Little Prince?

The life and works of Antoine de Saint-Exupery, with Bridget Kendall, Olivier d'Agay, Stacy Schiff, and Bernard Chabbert

‘It is only with the heart that one can see clearly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.’  Words of advice from a wily desert fox to a little boy who fell to Earth from an asteroid. That quote, by the French author and pilot Antoine Saint-Exupery, is one of the most memorable passages from The Little Prince, a slim volume that is one of the most frequently translated books of all time and has achieved this in just 75 years since its first publication. 

But who was Saint-Exupery? How did he come to write The Little Prince? And what else do we know about this adventurer and romantic who risked his life as a pilot many times and captivated the world with his writing?

Bridget Kendall is joined by Olivier d'Agay, great-nephew of the writer and Director of the Antoine de Saint-Exupery Estate and Youth Foundation, Stacy Schiff, Pulitzer-prize winning author of an acclaimed biography of Saint-Exupery, and Bernard Chabbert, pilot and historian of French aviation.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

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