Parisian Phoenix Publishing

Early aviation and romance

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry wrote the wonderful illustrated story, The Little Prince, but is also one of the 20th Century’s most daring aviators. He disappeared in flight during World War II. He wrote and he flew, and the two arts fed each other. Before his renowned novella, he wrote novels about flying, Southern Mail and Night Flight, and a memoir, Wind, Sand and Stars, and Flight to Arras at the same time as The Little Prince.

Saint-Exupéry experienced a passion for flying akin to Dawn O’Harra’s thoughts on perspective and “wow” factor. (See yesterday’s post.) On the night he met the young window, Consuelo, whom he would eventually marry he insisted on taking her for a flight. And this was in 1930! I recently discovered the memoir she wrote about their turbulent marriage, The Tale of the Rose, and it proved a captivating expression of the era, a French hero, and what an interesting woman Consuelo was.

And in the strange sort of overlap we love at Parisian Phoenix, she lived in the same building of Peggy Guggenheim, the subject of our recent poetry release, Group Portrait. The Guggenheim and Saint-Exupéry households certainly overlapped:

“Another charming incident took place at Greta Garbo’s house which we had rented. Our neighbors were Mrs. Guggenheim, the mine owner, and her daughter, Peggy, who was full of admiration for Tonio. She would lend me a hand with little things around the house. Our dog, Hannibal, a bulldog, was ill natured, but he very much liked Peggy… Our refrigerator couldn’t hold all the bottles of champagne, and Peggy had the idea of burying them in the garden, under the snow…”

At that time, Peggy had taken in Max Ernst, whom she had snatched from the clutches of the Nazis. Then Max Ernst married Peggy… he would come take refuge at our house… He came, after having confided to Peggy,’…[St Ex]’s getting ready to go off to the war, and he’s a little worried about leaving her alone in New York.’”

— Tale of the Rose, pages 300-301

YOU CAN ORDER Group Portrait on Amazon here, Barnes & Noble here or Bookshop.org.

Dawn O’Harra’s debut novel, ANY LANDING YOU WALK AWAY FROM…, is due out August 28.