Writer, photographer, filmmaker and airline pilot at Air France, François Suchel set about writing an illustrated biography of Saint-Exupéry. Not easy a priori so many books have followed one another on the aviator who died in 1944. And yet …
“The Adventure of Wings with a Feather…” The title of this book alone would be enough to sum up the life and work of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry! A world-famous figure, the native of Lyon crossed the first half of the 20th century like a shooting star – a bit like those of the “Little Prince”.
Aviator of course, writer, reporter, poet, man of science (he held nearly ten patents for technical inventions), but also humanist, nonconformist … His life, passionate, adventurous, tumultuous, was guided by an implication at all times. The history of Saint-Exupéry, we all know it more or less, hence the difficulty of writing again and again about the aviator who disappeared in 1944 off the coast of Marseille and whose plane was only found at the beginning. from the 2000s.
Yet this is the challenge that François Suchel takes up brilliantly! By focusing on some of the most overlooked aspects of the author’s personality, he delivers a very careful biography.
To achieve such a result, the airline pilot (who has some similarities with the central character of this biography, who was also an airline pilot in the heyday of Aéropostale) draws from the most recent sources on Saint-Ex, notably his private correspondence with his wife, the Salvadorian Consuelo, or by relying on a plethora of rare drawings and photographs.
All complemented by writing that knows how to keep it simple, without losing precision and finesse. What better style to pay homage to the man who was nicknamed “Spades the Moon” when he first started in the air?
Delivered. “Antoine de Saint-Exupéry – The Adventure of Wings with a Feather” Author, François Suchel. Paulsen Publishing. ISBN: 2375021258