Wind, Sand and Stars

S.l.n.d. [1939].
1 page in 1 f. (210 x 270 mm) in black ink and graphite + 1 page 1/2 dact. in 2 f. (210 x 270 mm) on tissue paper.

Autograph manuscript of the introduction to chapter VIII, “Les hommes” (The Men) – title added on proofs, the only one previously bearing the number “VIII” (Pléiade, I, p. 1057).
It is accompanied by its carbon copy, with new autograph corrections in black ink.

We apologize for the imperfect translation generated by Deepl for the purposes of the show.

Precious manuscript, with several variants and changes of heart compared to the printed text. The manuscript refers in particular to Mermoz and Guillaumet (Saint-Exupéry also reversed their place between the manuscript and the typescript, to finally delete this passage in the edited version). The place given to the two pioneers of the Aéropostale, such dear friends of the author, had until then been preponderant in Terre des hommes.

This manuscript is thus much longer than the edited version; it includes several sentences and paragraphs that will not be kept in the published version, which have remained unpublished and are not known from the variants present in the reference edition (Pléiade, I, Terre des hommes, Notes et variantes, p. 1056 et seq.).

This chapter VIII is the last of the book. Entitled “Men”, it is indeed to the individual, whoever he may be, that he pays tribute: “It seems at such times that we discover ourselves and become our own friend. Nothing can prevail against a feeling of fullness that satisfies in us I know not what essential need that we did not know we had.” The present manuscript ends section I of the chapter, just before the major passage of the Madrid front. Saint-Exupéry tends towards the universal: this is the reason for the disappearance of Guillaumet and Mermoz in this paragraph, in favor of a more collective vision of the human condition and the choices that each person has to make in perilous situations.

The manuscript ends with this note: “End of Part [VII]”, which means that Saint-Exupéry did not originally include it in Chapter VIII, “Men”, which he wanted to address directly through the story of the Carabancel front. Finally, this long preamble served as his introduction.

Here is this unpublished passage in its entirety:

“Throughout this book I have spoken of those who had obeyed, it seems, a higher calling, who had chosen the desert or the front line, as others would have chosen the monastery, and you may admire them for having made so many sacrifices. There are not two races of men. It is not Mermoz who is admirable, it is not Guillaumet when he risks his life for a few sacks of mail, but indeed the religion of the sacks of mail since it creates Guillaumets.

“You believe in the vocations that set men apart. Some lock themselves in their shops, others imperiously make their way in a necessary direction. And history, read in retrospect, would have us believe so. In the childhood of this one, we find the seeds of the movements that explain his destiny. That which is to be born finds its way. But I think differently. This one was not predestined. The signs that marked him were found in almost all of us. Vocation certainly helps honor to be liberated, but it is also necessary to liberate vocations.

“You have all known those shopkeepers locked up in their selfishness, but who, during some night of shipwreck or some fire, have revealed themselves to be greater than themselves. They know it indeed! They are not mistaken about the quality of their fulfillment: that fire will remain the night of their lives. But we cannot, in order to help them find themselves, encourage fires, and, lacking opportunity and deliverance, they hardly believe in the man within them.

I have spoken too much about airy nights or desert nights. These are rare occasions. Men are the same everywhere, and I would like to correct my story. I am not going off topic if I tell about a night in Spain that taught me something. During that night I rubbed shoulders with men whom nothing had predestined: yet they expressed the same needs. It was on the Madrid front, which I was visiting as a reporter. That evening, I was having dinner at the table of a young captain at the back of an underground shelter.”

The attached typescript includes some corrections of form. The final version, published at the beginning of chapter VIII, will be this one:

“Throughout this book I have quoted some of those who seem to have obeyed a supreme calling, who have chosen the desert or the line, as others would have chosen the monastery; but I have betrayed my purpose if I have seemed to urge you to admire the men first. What is admirable first and foremost is the ground from which they emerged.

Vocations undoubtedly play a role. Some shut themselves away in their shops. Others make their way, imperiously, in a necessary direction: we find in embryo in the story of their childhood the impulses that will explain their destiny. But history, read after the fact, is an illusion. We would find these impulses in almost everyone. We have all known shopkeepers who, during some night of shipwreck or fire, have revealed themselves to be greater than themselves. They are under no mistake about the quality of their fulfillment: that fire will remain the night of their lives. But, for lack of new opportunities, for lack of favorable ground, for lack of a demanding religion, they went back to sleep without having believed in their own greatness. Vocations certainly help man to free himself: but it is equally necessary to free vocations.

Nights in the air, nights in the desert… these are rare occasions, which are not available to all men. And yet, when circumstances bring them to life, they all show the same needs. I am not straying from my subject if I tell the story of a night in Spain which taught me this. I have spoken too much about a few and I would like to speak about all.

I was visiting the Madrid front as a reporter. That evening, I was having dinner at the back of an underground shelter, sitting at the table of a young captain.”

This previously unpublished version is a major find, as it allows us to better introduce the profound questioning that occupied Saint-Exupéry as he finished his book: why do men act as they do, with bravery and sometimes with fear, and why do they transcend themselves? Saint-Exupéry wonders about the “vocation” of men, their determined part and the more hazardous part of the circumstances that allow action. As an early conclusion, Saint-Exupéry announces: “I have spoken too much about aerial nights or desert nights. These are rare occasions. Men are the same everywhere, and I would like to correct my account. I am not going off topic if I tell of a night in Spain that taught me something”, he concludes here. This preamble introduces “the essential theme of the chapter, and even of the whole book: men become men when they obey a sovereign vocation, which can develop in favorable terrain: it is the ‘land of men’ that brings them to life, because all men in reality have the same needs” (Œuvres, I, Pléiade, notes to chapter VIII, p. 1059).