Night Flight
New York & London, The Century Co., 1932.
1 vol. (130 x 190 mm) of 198 p. and 1 f. Cardboard and publisher’s dust jacket.
We apologize for the imperfect translation generated by Deepl for the purposes of the show.
English translation by Stuart Gilbert, preface by André Gide.
Presentation copy, inscribed: “For Mr. Peter Neale, who has been so kind, and to whom I owe my departure for South America in the best possible conditions. With all my friendship, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry”.
Original photograph mounted opposite the inscription with the following legend: “Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, at Roosevelt Field, NY”.
With the insurance payout intended to compensate him for the loss of his plane that had crashed in the Libyan desert, in 1936 Antoine de Saint-Exupéry bought a Caudron Simoun model C635, registered F-ANKX. On January 5, 1938, he boarded the liner Île-de-France in Le Havre, bound for America with his faithful mechanic André Prévot. The traveler took some strange luggage with him: his plane in spare parts! Ten days later, it was reassembled and parked at Roosevelt Field – the oldest airport built in New York.
It was from this legendary runway that in June 1927 a young unknown pilot, Charles Lindbergh, set off alone in a small monoplane equipped with a 225 hp engine, the “Spirit of Saint-Louis”, for the first crossing of the Atlantic.
Less than a month after their arrival, on February 15, 1938, Saint-Exupéry and Prévot left New York with the intention of reaching Punta Arenas, in the south of Argentina. They stopped in Atlanta, Huston, Mexico City and Veracruz, before landing, after 5,500 km, in Guatemala City on February 16 to refuel. But they are unaware, or perhaps forget, that the Guatemalan gallon of 4.5 liters is different from the American gallon – which is only 3.8 liters – and therefore overfill the tanks. Too heavy, the plane fails to take off and crashes at the end of the runway. While Prévot escaped with a broken leg, Saint-Exupéry remained in a coma for eight days; suffering from eight fractures, he narrowly avoided having his hand amputated. He was hospitalized for more than a month in Guatemala before continuing his recovery in New York. This was Saint-Exupéry’s most serious accident.
This photograph is probably the last one taken before their departure and only two other photographs – press photographs – are known to exist: one in Roosevelt Field, where Saint-Exupéry and André Prévot pose in their cockpit, and the other in front of the plane.
Our photograph is unpublished, and was probably taken for the person to whom the book is dedicated: it shows Saint-Exupéry, deep in thought, walking in front of his plane on the tarmac, probably a few days before departure.
We have not been able to identify the Peter Neale of the dedication: it is likely, given the terms of the message, that he was a mechanic on site, or an assistant who may have participated in the efficient preparation of the flight. Night Flight was a huge success and Saint-Exupéry was a great celebrity for the public, and even more so for someone in the aviation world. The fact that the pilot-writer dedicated his major work to him was undoubtedly a great honor for him, let there be no doubt about it!
After his accident, he was repatriated to New York in the spring, and took advantage of this period of forced rest to write a new book, on the advice of his friends and publishers – he who had written nothing since Night Flight. It will be Terre des hommes, an autobiographical account supported by reflections on heroism, friendship, death and the relationship to existence. “I have no regrets. I played, I lost. It’s in the nature of my job. But, all the same, I breathed in the sea air. Those who have tasted it once do not forget this nourishment. Isn’t that right, my friends? And it’s not about living dangerously. That phrase is pretentious. I don’t like bullfighters. It’s not danger that I love. I know what I love. It’s life.”
