Poet and Pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Photographs by John Phillips
Phillips, John
First English Edition
John Phillips (1914 - 1996), Journalist and photographer for Life, discovered Saint-Exupery's work in 1939 while reporting South America, where Saint-Exupery had worked as an airmail pilot for Societe Aeropostale. Phillips met the author of The Little Prince in Algiers in 1943 and succeeded in having him restored to operational flying after he had been grounded by the American authorities. He spent three weeks with Saint-Exupery and the other members of his reconnaissance squadron on the Allied Air Base, Alghero, Sardinia, in May 1944. On July 31, Saint-Exupery was posted missing.
On May 10, 1944, Antoine de Saint-Exupery and John Phillips arrived at Alghero, Sardinia, on board a B-26. The American General Eaker, in command of the Mediterranean Allied Air Force, had finally been persuaded to allow Saint-Exupery, although officially too old to fly, to rejoin the squadron commanded by Captain Gavoille. The persuading had been done by John Phillips, who still sometimes regrets it to this day. But Saint-Exupery was pining away in North Africa. He found it intolerable to be grounded: he wanted to fly, and his mood changed as soon as he could once more do so. He was enormously grateful to the man who had made it possible for him to take the controls of an unarmed reconnaissance plane once more. He was truly the friend of John Phillips, photographer and Life Journalist, who had the great virtues of speaking French and knowing how to enjoy life. And as Saint-Exupery used to say: "l really don't care if l do get killed in the war."
Charles-Henri Favrod
"When l saw him, he was little more than a silhouette against the window in the early winter dusk. In profile the nose of this twentieth-century Rico della Mirandola stood out with the mocking and insolent air that earned him the nickname of Pique la Lune.
Full face, however, Saint-Ex displayed little sign of the many crashes which had broken practically every bone in bis body. His worst crash was in Guatemala where, as he liked to put it, he "learned about gravity and remained eight days in a coma." One scar from this accident raised an eyebrow into a permanent look of inquiry, while another gave bis mouth a wry smile.
"l'm the last one," he said pensively, "and l can assure you it's a very strange feeling." He did not complete his thought but looked out toward the Mediterranean.
John Phillips
Hardcover with dust jacket, large format
88 Seiten / pages
many rare, high quality photographs
very good condition
Zürich - Berlin - New York - 1994 - Scalo Verlag
Art.Nr. 25485
