by Stacy Schiff
48. “warriors of propaganda”: Pendar, 235.
49. “revengeful, unforgiving”: ibid., 323.
50. “De Gaulle has the character”: Cited in Liebling, 96.
51. “Hello, my dear member” and “Of course you know”: EG, 455.
52. an audience with de Gaulle: See Roy, Mémoires barbares, 225. De Gaulle would admit as much later; see Marcel Achard’s memories in Icare III, 65. Also Madame de B, January 18, 1994.
53. “Saint-Ex is not a Gaullist!”: Sonneville, 270.
54. He watched, indignantly: EG, 477. Also Chassin, Icare VI, 147.
55. Tell me what you think: Dalloz, Vérités sur le drame du Vercors (Paris: Éditions Lanore, 1979), 13.
56. “Admit it”: Pélissier, 101.
57. “Memoirs of a tortured soul”: Beucler, in René Tavernier, Saint-Exupéry en procès, 148.
58. André Gide, who was not: Anne Heurgon-Desjardins, in a preface to Entretiens sur André Gide (Paris: Mouton and Co., 1967), 7.
59. The U.S. State Department: September 27, 1943, OSS report, See RG226, Entry 190, Box 380, Folder 514 and Entry 108A, Box 133, BD-241–940, as well as 77–785, London X2, Pts. 72, Folder 18, Doc. 28, NA.
60. “You must convince”: Interview with Madame de B, January 30, 1992.
61. balder, heavier: Interview with Madame de B, January 18, 1994.
62. “If you put my book” to a sizable dose of Benzedrine: Chevrier, 264–65. Supplementary details from Madame de B, January 18, 1994.
63. “You are a little like Christ”: Madame de B, January 8, 1992.
64. Comte’s hospitality: Madame de B, January 18, 1994.
65. “A lot of people”: From a letter to Comte, reproduced in Icare VI, 61.
66. In a particularly black mood: EG, 461.
67. “He seemed generally preoccupied”: Sedgwick Mead, “My Dinner with Saint-Exupéry,” Harvard Medical Alumni Bulletin, Autumn 1993, 68–69. Dr. Mead kindly supplied additional details regarding the visit, October 22, 1993.
68. “Have you forgotten something?” From an interview of May 19, 1987, with Pierre Reynaud-Fourton, SHAA. Emmanuel Breguet, who conducted the interview, kindly shared this tape with me. Delange tells a similar tale that I have not been able to substantiate: During the summer of 1943, SE landed soon after takeoff in a field several kilometers from the airstrip. He had not been wearing a watch and—suddenly convinced that he had been flying for several hours—thought he must be running low on fuel.
69. a kind of samba: Reynaud-Fourton, Icare VII, 66.
70. one awkward occasion: Interview with Jean Macaigne, January 4, 1991.
71. SE wrote Silvia: The letter has been published in Icare V, 111. Nearly everyone with whom I spoke from SE’s Algiers days—including those who met the man on only one occasion—had been treated to recitals of the foux-Debussy.
72. regular chess dates: I am grateful to Madame de B for having shared portions of SE’s Algiers date books.
73. “Does this interest you?” and “I have a Jeep”: Sonneville, 267.
74. “SE needed a propeller”: Max-Pol Fouchet, Un jour je m’en souviens (Paris: Mercure de France, 1968), 110.
75. “Everything is ugly”: EG, 431.
76. “I failed to make out”: EG, 435.
77. the news that he had just broken: SE to Madame de B, EG, 443.
78. The mishap: See Pélissier, pages 137–49, for the best account of the crisis on the rue Denfert-Rochereau and for portions of SE’s voluminous correspondence on the subject, some of which is reprinted in EG.
79. “I am well aware”: EG, 442.
80. The attacks of cholecystitis: SE reported as much to Consuelo. A portion of the letter in which he did so is included in the Arts Anciens auction catalogue for the November 20, 1986, sale in Geneva, item no. 13A.
81. he spoke of it: To Madame de B, EG, 442.
82. her son wrote: LSM, 220.
83. he had cabled: Arts Anciens auction catalogue, November 22, 1986, Geneva sale, item no. 16A.
84. Becker wrote to inform: Becker to SE, October 20, 1943.
85. “Take care of yourself”: SE’s winter letter to Consuelo is conserved at the ML, MA-4607.
86. slept in his underwear: To Madame de B, EG, 458–59. He wrote Consuelo as well of the cold, which he claimed prevented him from writing legibly.
87. judged the idea “inopportune”: Included in a December 18, 1943, letter from Bouscat to the War Office, written on SE’s behalf, Air Force file, SHAA.
88. “It would not appear opportune”: January 8, 1944, letter from Colonel Billotte to the War Office, Air Force file, SHAA. SE wrote of his immense disappointment to Madame de B, EG, 475–76.
89. almost too abashed: EG, 476.
90. “a trash heap”: SE’s descriptions of Algiers pepper his letters and, evidently, peppered his conversations as well. All of these terms can be found in EG.
91. a note dispatched every fifteen minutes: See Pélissier, 152–55.
92. brief, imagined bout: ibid., 149–50.
93. “This morning” and “Clearly she didn’t”: G. D. Morawski, EG, 481.
94. “Colonel,” he began to “I want to write”: Phillips, interviews of November 28, 1990, and December 4, 1990.
95. “The SE?” and “We’ve tried”: Phillips, November 28, 1990.
96. “Look, SE, I’ve done”: Phillips, December 4, 1990.
97. “hugely selling”: Tex McCrary, to whom I am indebted for much background as well as for the details of this meeting, interview of November 27, 1990. “I was charmed” and “It’s a hell of a deal,” ibid.
98. “cut a German throat”: Quoted in James Parton, Air Force Spoken Here (Bethesda: Adler & Adler, 1986), 419.
99. in Pomigliano: I have relied here on the 2/33’s logbook as well as on Jean Leleu’s piece in Confluences, 172–73.
100. “watching Vesuvius”: Phillips, Odd World essay.
101. “I’m going to checkmate”: Phillips, interview of November 28, 1990.
102. They fell instantly: The accounts of the lunch are from Pierre Guillain de Bénouville, Confluences, 144–49, and Henri Frenay, La nuit finira (Paris: Laffont, 1973), 425–26.
103. “Ah, France”: Guillain de Bénouville, Confluences, 448–49.
104. “follement heureux”: The invaluable letter is reproduced in Icare VI, 76.
105. “You win”: McCrary, November 27, 1990.
106. “the arrival of SE”: Karl L. Polifka’s recollections of SE are cited in full in Crane, 309–12.
107. “inoculated all the officers”: The 2/33’s logbook, May 17, 1944.
108. more slowly and with infinitely more: Dino A. Brugioni, “Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Reconnaissance Pilot Par Excellence,” American Intelligence Journal, Winter-Spring 1992, 77. Dino Brugioni’s letters of June 5, 1993, December 10, 1993, and January 1994, much informed these pages as well.
109. now reported that he felt: Robert Aron, EG, 493.
110. “I have enough to worry about” and “I’m not going to”: Leleu, Confluences, 179.
111. “in the middle of nowhere”: Interview with Alain Jourdan, January 28, 1991. Fernand Marty provided invaluable background for the Corsican days, interview of February 25, 1991. For more on the 23rd Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron, see their unit histories, microfilms B0746, B0747, and A0909, Department of the Air Force, Historical Research Agency, Maxwell Air Force Base.
112. “You go to the desert”: The 2/33’s logbook, July 11, 1944. Similarly, Pélissier, 137.
113. “In the name of God, Phillips”: Odd World essay, notes, p. 12. The best description in print of the “game of six letters” can be found in Beucler’s Figaro Littéraire essay, July 30, 1949.
114. “I seem happy”: From a letter to Madame de B, EG, 456.
115. “this civil war”: From a letter to Chambe, EG, 513.
116. “SE was done for”: Interview with Raymond Duriez, January 16, 1992.
117. “Prepare
mayonnaise”: Gide, “Saint-Exupéry,” Le Figaro, February 1, 1945, 1.
118. “in order to tell men”: From a letter to Chambe, EG, 391.
119. “Well, did he write” to “five spelling mistakes”: Interviews with John Phillips and Odd World essay.
120. signed off simply: Interview with André Henry, January 23, 1991.
121. “Merde!”: Phillips, interview of December 4, 1990. As Phillips remembers it, SE was attempting to call in with a Friday landing code on a Wednesday.
122. in a weak moment later: Pélissier quotes from his Gavoille letter, 31.
123. “Major SE, stepping into a tangle”: The 2/33’s logbook, July 10, 1944.
124. rumpled balls of paper: Duriez, interview of January 16, 1992.
125. “He reads on the field”: The 2/33’s logbook, July 6, 1944. Also interview with Alain Jourdan, January 28, 1991.
126. “We always admired him”: Duriez, interview of January 16, 1992.
127. “the dean of all war pilots”: To Galantière, EG, 499.
128. by some quirk of fate: Jean Leleu, Confluences, 178.
129. To Dalloz he summed up: EG, 515–16.
130. “a rather fanciful account”: General Gavoille was kind enough to share his lecture notes, on which I have drawn often for this chapter. His accounts of SE are legion; they are consistent if sometimes overly indulgent.
131. he said nothing at the time: Interview with René Gavoille, January 9, 1992.
132. Croix de Guerre avec Palme: For the November 1944 citation, see the Archives Nationales exhibition catalogue, 131.
133. the “superpatriots”: SE coined the word in a 1943 letter to Silvia Reinhardt, see Icare V, 110. He wrote of his anger to Madame de B just before his death, EG, 516.
134. “I love France”: EG, 455.
135. “Why,” asked Henry: Interview with André Henry, January 23, 1991.
136. “For the rest of you”: Leleu, Confluences, 177.
137. “I wanted SE there”: Polifka, Crane, 311.
138. “I’ll follow through now”: Chassin, Visage de l’universel (Liège: Éditions Dynamo, 1957), 15.
139. exactly five missions: Such was the rumor around the base, although Duriez (who had heard SE was to fly eight missions) remembered that while the idea floated about it never figured on any officiai document; André Henry wrote it off as the stuff of legend; and Gavoille always categorically denied that any limit had been imposed. Phillips remains equally convinced of the limitation and of Gavoille’s knowledge of it. On July 14 President Roosevelt: File no. 1633, Guerre 1939–1945, QO.
140. “Surely you don’t mean”: FA, 285 (translation mine).
141. The two men left each other: From Gavoille’s lecture text. Also, letter to author of April 10, 1992.
142. likely he would not return: Marie-Madeleine Mast, Icare VI, 142.
143. “Henry, say hello”: Interview with André Henry, January 23, 1991.
144. “by threatening to reveal”: The 2/33’s logbook, July 21, 1944.
145. Henry would inadvertently: Interview with André Henry, January 23, 1991.
146. “Keep it,” he advised: Raoul Bertrand, “Les derniers jours de Saint-Exupéry,” Le Monde, January 18, 1985.
147. A flyer was most vulnerable: Interview with Alain Jourdan, January 28, 1991.
148. several American officers: Among them was Harry Oakley, at the time a major with the 23rd Photo Reconnaissance Squadron. Letter to author, April 22, 1991.
149. “breathtaking indifference”: EG, 516
150. To Consuelo a week or so: Ader Picard Tajan catalogue, Drouot sale, July 6, 1984, item no. 8.
151. a group of young women: Interview with Yvette Moiron, May 10, 1993.
152. joining Duriez in the mess to “In the name of God”: Duriez, January 16, 1992, and letter of February 3, 1992.
153. The radar at Cape Corse. Some hold that the radar picked up SE on a portion of the return; Gavoille and Robison, in the control room that day, have disagreed. John Masterson, the intelligence officer at hand, recalled that the radar had worked particularly well on the thirty-first but that it followed SE into France on the outbound trip only. The official U.S. Air Force report indeed states that the radar control did not pick up SE crossing the French border on his return.
154. “When your gods die”: CITAD, 292.
EPILOGUE: SAINT ANTOINE D’EXUPÉRY
1. Toward 1:00 o’clock: Interview with Robison, December 28, 1990, and Icare VI, 112ff.
2. “I was twenty-three”: Letter from Whitman Bassow, March 13, 1991.
3. “the traditions of aviation”: Gavoille, lecture notes.
4. When the 1/22: Georges Courtin, “Dernières images de Saint-Exupéry,” Le Figaro Littéraire, July 31, 1948, 1.
5. was half-listening: Werth, Déposition, 703–704.
6. Jean Israël heard: Israël, interview of January 22, 1991.
7. total shock: Daurat’s essay in Saint-Exupéry (Hachette), 82.
8. “the man who spoke ‘my language’ ”: Lindbergh, War Within and Without, 449.
9. between heaven and hell: ibid., 448.
10. “but for SE,” the officer wrote: Pélissier quotes from Gavoille’s note in “Non, le mystère de la mort de Saint-Exupéry n’est pas encore éclairci,” Les Nouvelles Littéraires, July 26, 1951.
11. emitting a pained “Ah!”: EG, 530.
12. “I can’t somehow”: Hitchcock’s letter is dated August 24, 1944, HBJ archives.
13. “And if I disappear”: Fleury, Icare V, 37.
14. “He wanted to make”: Lindbergh, War Within and Without, 447.
15. “It’s for the best”: Pierre Massin de Miraval Icare VI, 81.
16. was long in believing: Interview with Ysatis de Saint-Simon, September 26, 1991.
17. “Let’s be honest”: Anne Heurgon-Desjardins, EG, 500.
18. Bill Donovan reported: See his 1951 letter in Crane, 276. No official record of this visit exists, nor does any mention of Donovan appear in SE’s date book at this time. “avant que j’aie fondu”: EG, 510.
19. “As for honor”: de Rougemont, “Prototype T. E. L.,” La Table Ronde, January 1952, 36. De Rougemont was himself quoting a biographer of T. E. Lawrence.
20. aviation had grown stronger: Phillips, Odd World essay.
21. called the roll: “What Has Happened to French Writers and Publishers?,” Publishers Weekly, October 7, 1944, 1484.
22. “had been made almost psychopathically”: From “The French Situation,” an OSS report of February 5, 1944. RG 226, M1642, microfilm 50, NA.
23. a number of eyewitnesses: The historian Daniel Décot has painstakingly catalogued their testimonies; see Icare VI, 162.
24. The sky over Corsica: I owe this observation to photo reconnaissance and interpretation expert Dino A. Brugioni, letter of July 9, 1993.
25. an unofficial report from a Luftwaffe flyer: Agence France Presse announced that the mystery of SE’s death was solved, May 20, 1981. For the response see Ulrich Scholz, “Wir haben Saint-Exupéry nicht abgeschossen!,” Bild am Sonntag, June 21, 1981.
26. a custom-designed one: Gisèle d’Assailly, Gazette des arts et lettres, December 21, 1946.
27. He knew SE would not be to “You feel simply”: Jacques Paget, “Saint-Exupéry cet inconnu,” Le Méridional, October 28, 1962, 1.
28. an inventory: Can be found, along with a number of the documents from the lawsuits, in the Air Force file, SHAA.
29. “Gaston, I have done”: Eugene Reynal was concurring with a description Madame de B had put forward about how the Gallimard imbroglio had come about, letter of November 27, 1946, HBJ archives. For a summary of the case see “Reynal & Hitchcock Makes Statement as to Gallimard Suit,” Publishers Weekly, April 13, 1946, 2094.
30. “She is a rather tragical”: Aldington’s letter of October 26, 1946, to H.D. is included in Norman T. Gates, éd., Richard Aldington: An Autobiography in Letters (University Park: Pennsylvania State Univer
sity Press, 1992), 216–18. The original is at Yale University.
31. for some time her official escort: Interview with Helen Wolff, December 19, 1990. Similarly Max Becker, interview of November 8, 1991.
32. “the consumed look”: Anaïs Nin, The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Gunther Stuhlmann, ed. (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1971), 103.
33. choice, unsuspecting strangers: See Bruckberger, 171–77.
34. Louise de Vilmorin … is said: The remark was reported to the author by a member of SE’s family, January 12, 1991.
35. formally registered their objection: A judgment was handed down in Paris on May 11, 1984, regarding the sale of papers that was to take place the following day at Drouot. The d’Agay family made it known that they in no way condoned the sale; at the same time they were allowed to ensure that several documents were not publicly displayed. One item was withheld from the sale, by order of the court.
36. “an unorganized, repetitive bulk”: Galantière did so publicly, in his review of the book, New York Herald Tribune Books, October 15, 1950, 4.
37. “If SE knew”: Interview with Becker, September 14, 1990.
38. the anti-German publisher: See Assouline, 312–13.
39. “le plus beau texte”: Fouchet, “Le Plus Court Chemin,” Les Lettres Françaises, January 13, 1945.
40. The reaction of Adrienne Monnier: See McDougall, 155–56.
41. “a thoroughly Gallic”: Margaret O’Brien Steinfels, Commonweal, November 23, 1973, 211.
42. “I have found”: Stuart Gilbert to Eugene Reynal, September 9, 1948, HBJ archives. only the most energetic admirer: Even the otherwise admiring Luc Estang could not keep his eyes from glazing over: “L’attention se dilue,” he reported, “l’ennui submerge l’admiration.” Cited in Edmond Petit, “Le Cas Saint-Exupéry,” Forces Aériennes Françaises, February 1963, nos. 244, 236.
43. “tiresomely archaic language”: V. S. Pritchett, New Statesman and Nation, May 3, 1952, 52–53.
44. “muddled and failed”: Émile Henriot, Le Monde, May 26, 1948.
45. altogether lacking in oil: ibid.
46. the most indulgent reviewers: André Rousseaux, Le Figaro Littéraire, April 24, 1956.
47. “SE’s image”: Giroud, Si je mens …, 41.
48. but he was no saint: EG, 440.
