The Prince of the Skies by Antonio Iturbe

My interest was first piqued when I learnt that Iturbe’s book Prince of the Skies, released in 2021 by Pan Macmillan Publishers revolves around Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. The name rang a bell, but I certainly didn’t associate it with aviation. Turns out, de Saint-Exupéry, the award-winning French novelist and writer of the famous children’s book, The Little Prince, had also been a fearless, pioneering pilot in the mid-1920s, and helped charter new mail routes across the world. (I reviewed this book in the summer edition of Journal Magazine and would like to share it here on Book Chats with Salomé.)

It is beautifully translated into English by Lilit Zekulin Thwaites, and I was instantly swept up by the adventures of de Saint-Exupéry and his fellow pilots who were all driven by their passion for flying and risked their lives in the honourable pursuit of the delivery of post, something they considered sacred freight.

Iturbe has a wonderful way of capturing the period of the early 1920s, which is when his protagonist Saint-Ex (as he was called) sets out to train as a pilot towards the end of WWI and meets fellow pilots Jean Mermoz and Henri Guillaumet, both famous pioneering aviators. Together, they commit to charter mail routes in North Africa and South America.

The author clearly did thorough research of the risks, dangers and nuances of those early years in civil aviation and manages to paint every flight in vivid, terrifying colour. Indeed, like me, you may find yourself gnawing on your nails as you wait to find out who will survive the next flight.

The three men form a close bond through their shared love of flying. In the 22 years between 1922 and 1944, this threesome packed in a lifetime of adventures and experiences, and in his effortless way, Iturbe succeeds in giving charming, detailed accounts of each of their complicated lives, capturing their thoughts, motives, passions and loves.

Above all, it was the depth and loyalty of their friendship and their connectedness that made the deepest impression on me. I am sure it is with this special bond in mind that he wrote these philosophical lines late one night in 1939 in Toulouse: ‘It isn’t deeds that are important, or even people. Rather, what’s critical are the knots of relationships; the connections.’

Ultimately though, this spellbinding novel is about the short but extraordinary life of the author of The Little Prince, a little book of which more than 140 million copies have been sold worldwide and has been translated into some 250 languages. At the core of The Little Prince lies Saint-Ex’s life philosophy: ‘One sees clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes.’

During an air race in 1936, Saint-Ex crash lands in a vast desert stretching thousands of miles between Libya and Egypt. He and his mechanic Jean Prévot are left stranded for days with only half a flask of coffee, half a litre of wine and one orange. It has been argued that this is perhaps where the idea for The Little Prince was first spawned as Saint-Ex, suffering from heat exhaustion and thirst, sees mirages and even thinks he sees a child with golden hair wearing a prince’s cape strolling through a field of grass.

It is at a lunch in New York, that Saint-Ex’s American editor watches him doodling on the damask table cloth and suggests he write a children’s book. Aghast, Saint-Ex thinks to himself: ‘Here I am immersed in writing a book of the utmost intellectual depth, trying to turn on a light in the midst of the chaotic darkness of contemporary society which has become entangled in two world wars in less than 25 years. And my publisher is proposing that I write a children’s book!’

Yet as he continues to doodle, he senses a tingling rising up through his feet… and thinks that it is perhaps not such a crazy idea. And just like that, a literary legend is born.