Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

French author and aviator — author of The Little Prince and Night Flight — who disappeared on a reconnaissance mission in 1944 — the first major literary figure to be both an aviator and a philosophical novelist.

Creates the aviator-philosopher as a literary figure — Saint-Exupéry's combination of genuine aviation expertise (he flew commercial routes in South America and was a WWII reconnaissance pilot) with philosophical meditation on human connections (The Little Prince) is unique in literature.