French writer and aviator, author of The Little Prince, one of the most translated and best-selling books in history.
He was a pioneer of the French Aéropostale mail service in Toulouse, the South Atlantic and South America.
He published The Little Prince in 1943 in the United States while exiled from Nazi-occupied France.
He disappeared on 31 July 1944 during a reconnaissance flight over the Mediterranean; the wreckage of his Lockheed P-38 was found near Marseille in 2000.
Novels such as Night Flight and Wind, Sand and Stars drew on his experience as a pilot.
The Little Prince has been translated into more than 500 languages and dialects, making it the most translated non-religious book.
