Editing The Little Prince (section)

=== Post-publication ===

[[Stacy Schiff]], one of [[Antoine de Saint-Exupéry|Saint-Exupéry]]'s principal biographers, wrote of him and his most famous work, "rarely have an author and a character been so intimately bound together as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and his Little Prince", and remarking of their dual fates, "the two remain tangled together, twin innocents who fell from the sky".<ref name="NYTimes-2000.06.25" /> Another noted that the novella's mystique was "enhanced by the parallel between author and subject: imperious innocents whose lives consist of equal parts flight and failed love, who fall to earth, are little impressed with what they find here and ultimately disappear without a trace."<ref name="NYTimes-2004.04.11" />

Only weeks after his novella was first published in April 1943, despite his wife's pleadings and before Saint-Exupéry had received any of its royalties (he never would), the author-aviator joined the [[Free French Forces]]. He would remain immensely proud of ''The Little Prince'', and almost always kept a personal copy with him which he often read to others during the war.<ref name="NYTimes-2000.06.25" />

{{Further|Antoine de Saint-Exupéry#Disappearance {{!}} Antoine de Saint-Exupéry – Disappearance}}

As part of a 32-ship military convoy he voyaged to [[North Africa]] where he rejoined his old squadron to fight with the [[Allies of World War II|Allies]], resuming his work as a reconnaissance pilot despite the best efforts of his friends, colleagues and fellow airmen who could not prevent him from flying.{{refn|

Following one of his crashes in a sophisticated single-pilot spy aircraft that resulted in him being grounded, Saint-Exupéry spared no effort in his campaign to return to active combat flying duty. He utilized all his contacts and powers of persuasion to overcome his age and physical handicap barriers, which would have completely barred an ordinary patriot from serving as a war pilot. Instrumental in his reinstatement was an agreement he proposed to [[John Phillips (photographer)|John Phillips]], a fluently bilingual ''[[Life Magazine]]'' correspondent in February 1944, where Saint-Exupéry committed to "write, and I'll donate what I do to you, for your publication, if you get me reinstated into my squadron."{{sfnp|Schiff|2006|p=421}} Phillips later met with a high-level U.S. Army Air Forces press officer in Italy, Colonel John Reagan McCrary, who conveyed the ''Life Magazine'' request to General Eaker. Eaker's approval for Saint-Exupéry's return to flying status would be made "not through favoritism, but through exception." The brutalized French, it was noted, would cut a German's throat "probably with more relish than anybody."

|group="Note"}} He had previously escaped death by the barest of margins a number of times, but was then [[Antoine de Saint-Exupéry#Disappearance|lost in action]] during a July 1944 spy mission from the moonscapes of [[Corsica]] to [[Continental Europe|the continent]] in preparation for the [[Operation Dragoon|Allied invasion of occupied France]], only three weeks before the [[Liberation of Paris]].<ref name="NYTimes-1993.05.30" />{{refn|

Various sources state that his final flight was either his seventh, eight, ninth, or even his tenth covert reconnaissance mission. He volunteered for almost every such proposed mission submitted to his squadron, and protested fiercely after being grounded following his second sortie which ended with a demolished P-38. His connections in high places, plus a publishing agreement with ''[[Life Magazine]]'', were instrumental in having the grounding order against him lifted.<ref name="Eyheramonno" /> For some time Saint-Exupéry's friends, colleagues, and compatriots were actively working to keep the aging, accident-prone author grounded, out of harm's way.

|group="Note"}}