Intertwined Dialogue in the Wind, Sand and Stars
“All grown-ups were once children - although few of them remember it.”
In celebration of the 80th anniversary of the publication of The Little Prince (Le petit prince in French) in France, the exhibition brings the visitors to a thematic journey, through the life of the author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. From photographs, letters, manuscripts and personal items, it aims at approaching his life from multiple perspectives and offering a comprehensive portrait of the author's extraordinary journey and the personal experiences that inspired The Little Prince.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was born in 1900 at Place Bellecour, Lyon. At the age of 12, he completed his first flight at Ambérieu Airport, piloted by Gabriel Wróblewski with the aircraft type Berthot-Wróblewski. In 1921, he began military service in Strasbourg as ground crew for the 2nd Air Pursuit Regiment, while working towards a civilian pilot’s licence. He also explored airmail routes and flew pioneering aviation missions across Europe, Africa, and South America.
“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
As the aviation journey began, his first serious crash of 1923 occurred in an aircraft for which he was not licensed, resulting in a skull fracture. In the Paris-Saigon long-distance race of 1935, he and his mechanic André Prévot crashed in the Libyan desert. On the verge of death, they were rescued three days later by a Bedouin camel caravan. In 1944, he disappeared on the return leg of a reconnaissance mission over the Grenoble-Annecy region, and died at the age of 44.
A symbolic tribute to Saint-Exupéry was held at the Panthéon in 1965. Looking back to his life, his romance was not a fairy-tale one. Though he was engaged to Louise de Vilmorin in 1922, the engagement broke off in one year. In 1931, he married Consuelo Suncin de Sandoval in Nice, despite numerous extramarital affairs afterwards. It is believed that the rose on the little prince's asteroid expressed deep remorse in real life for him failing to cherish and understand his wife.
“It is much more difficult to judge oneself than to judge others. If you succeed in judging yourself rightly, then you are indeed a man of true wisdom.”
Settled on Long Island, he began writing his famous work, “The Little Prince” in 1942. This masterpiece was first published by Reynal & Hitchcock a year later in the US; while the French version was published posthumously in 1946 following the liberation of France. Little did known that his first work “The Aviator” was published in the journal Le Navire d'Argent in 1926. Plus, Antoine participated in the storyline of “Anne-Marie” too, which was a movie released in 1936.
“Men of France, let us be reconciled in order to serve!” During WWII, despite opposing Nazism, his refusal to support General Charles de Gaulle led to accusations of being a Vichy collaborator, pushing him into severe depression. Yet even at his lowest, he held firm to one belief: only in the desert's vast emptiness can a person truly sense their own existence. The Little Prince was not a surrender to despair-but a gentle companion for the wandering soul, illuminating the light of life.
Every reading, from childhood onward, gives the Little Prince a new life within us.
Title: The Little Prince and the Pilot (小王子與飛行員)
Date: 26 June 2026 to 18 October 2026
Location: University Museum and Art Gallery, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Organiser: University Museum and Art Gallery, Alliance Française de Hong Kong
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