Consuelo, comtesse de Saint-Exupéry (née Suncín de Sandoval; 10 April 1901 – 28 May 1979), was a Salvadoran and French writer and artist, and was married to the French aristocrat, writer and pioneering aviator

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger, vicomte de Saint-Exupéry (29 June 1900 – 31 July 1944), known simply as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (, , ), was a French writer, poet, journalist and aviator. Born in Lyon to an French nobility, aristocratic ...

Early life

Born Consuelo Suncín de Sandoval as the daughter of a rich coffee grower and army reservist, she grew up in a family of wealthy landowners in a small town in the Salvadoran department of

Sonsonate Sonsonate () is a city and district of El Salvador, of which it is also its municipal seat. It has an estimated population of 71,980 inhabitants for the year 2020. Sonsonate is the second most important city in western El Salvador. The town was ...

. Due to her asthma, her father sent her abroad to the United States, where she studied in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

; later she studied in

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

, and France.

Personal life

Her first marriage was to a Mexican army captain, Ricardo Cárdenas, whom she met in the United States. Though this marriage ended in divorce, she lied and said it ended with his death during the

Mexican Revolution The Mexican Revolution () was an extended sequence of armed regional conflicts in Mexico from 20 November 1910 to 1 December 1920. It has been called "the defining event of modern Mexican history". It saw the destruction of the Federal Army, its ...

, since divorced women were then stigmatized by society, and being a widow was preferable to being a divorced woman.Webster, Paul
Flying Into A Literary Storm: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Author Of The Little Prince, Was Born 100 Years Ago. The Celebrations, However, Have Been Marred By His Widow's Bitter Account Of Their Marriage
London: ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', June 24, 2000. While in France, she met and later married

Enrique Gómez Carrillo Enrique Gómez Carrillo (February 27, 1873 in Guatemala City – November 29, 1927 in Paris) was a Guatemalan literary critic, writer, journalist and diplomat, and the second husband of the Salvadoran-French writer and artist Consuelo Suncin de ...

, a

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

n writer, diplomat and journalist. Following his death in 1927, she took up residence in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

. In 1931 in

, she met and married the French aristocrat, writer and pioneering aviator Count

, making her a countess. At the time Consuelo was a once-divorced, once-widowed

Salvadoran Salvadorans (), also known as Salvadorians, are citizens of El Salvador, a country in Central America. Most Salvadorans live in El Salvador, although there is also a significant Salvadoran diaspora, particularly in the United States, with smalle ...

writer and artist who possessed a bohemian spirit and was known as a mischief-maker. Saint-Exupéry, thoroughly enchanted by the diminutive woman, would leave and then return to her many times; she was both his muse and over the long term the source of much of his angst. It was a stormy union, with Saint-Exupéry travelling frequently and indulging in numerous

extramarital affair An affair is a relationship typically between two people, one or both of whom are either married or in a long-term monogamous or emotionally-exclusive relationship with someone else. The affair can be solely sexual, solely physical or solely em ...

s, most notably with the Frenchwoman Hélène de Vogüé (1908–2003), known as 'Nelly' and referred to as "Madame de B." in Saint-Exupéry biographies."Biography: Nelly de Vogüé (1908 – 2003)."
''AntoinedeSaintExupery.com''. Retrieved: May 23, 2012.

Career

Consuelo also had numerous extramarital affairs.Schiff, Stacy

''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', 25 June 2000. Following the disappearance of her husband in July 1944, with her loss of Saint-Exupéry still fresh, she purportedly wrote a memoir of their life together, ''The Tale of the Rose'', which was sealed away in a trunk in her home. Two decades after her death in 1979, the manuscript came to light when José Martinez-Fructuoso, her heir and long-time employee, and his wife, Martine, discovered it in an attic trunk. Alain Vircondelet, author of a biography of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, edited it, improving her French and dividing it into chapters. Its publication in France in 2000, one century after Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's birth on 29 June 1900, became a national sensation. As of 2011 it had been translated into sixteen languages.

Death

Consuelo died on 28 May 1979 and is buried in

Père Lachaise Cemetery Père Lachaise Cemetery (, , formerly , ) is the largest cemetery in Paris, France, at . With more than 3.5 million visitors annually, it is the most visited necropolis in the world. Buried at Père Lachaise are many famous figures in the ...

in Paris, alongside her second husband

Portrayal in ''The Little Prince''

Despite their tumultuous relationship, Antoine kept Consuelo close to his heart. Consuelo, who suffers from asthma, is the likely inspiration for the major character in ''

The Little Prince ''The Little Prince'' (, ) is a novella written and illustrated by French writer and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It was first published in English and French in the United States by Reynal & Hitchcock in April 1943 and was published po ...

'', the prince's petulant, vain, but fragile 'flower', identified as ''The Rose'',Reif, Rita. "''A Charming Prince Turns 50, His Luster Intact''",

, 19 September 1993.

El Diario de Hoy ''Diario de Hoy'' is a morning newspaper in El Salvador. It is published in San Salvador and circulates throughout the country. It also has an open online edition. The director of ''El Diario de Hoy'' is Enrique Altamirano Madriz, its executive ...

, "
Consuelo Suncín, La Salvadoreña que inspiró el Principito
'", 8 April 2018.Webster, Paul (1993
''Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: The Life And Death Of The Little Prince''
London: Pan Macmillan, 1993, pp. 248–251, . whom he protects under glass and with a windscreen on his tiny planet which is named Asteroid B-612. Saint-Exupéry's infidelity and doubts about his marriage are symbolised by the field of roses the Prince encounters during his visit to Earth. In the

novella A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most novelettes and short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) ...

, The Fox tells The Prince that his Rose is unique and special, because she is the one whom he loves. The Prince's home asteroid also possesses three tiny

volcanoes A volcano is commonly defined as a vent or fissure in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often fo ...

, likely inspired by the three volcanoes in the Cordillera de Apaneca volcanic range complex, which are directly visible from Consuelo's home town of Armenia,

El Salvador El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is S ...

. Consuelo's home country is also known as the "Land of Volcanoes". The two active volcanoes were inspired by the

Santa Ana Volcano The Santa Ana Volcano or Ilamatepec () is a large stratovolcano located in the Santa Ana department of El Salvador. At above sea level, it is the highest volcano in the country. It is located immediately west of Coatepeque Caldera. The vol ...

and the famous conical-shaped

Izalco Izalco () is a town and a municipality in the Sonsonate department of El Salvador. Volcan Izalco is an icon of the country of El Salvador, a very young volcano on the flank of Santa Ana volcano. From when it was born in 1770 until 1966, it wa ...

, which was likely spewing ash and lava when Antoine visited El Salvador.''Global Volcanism Program'', 2013
Izalco
(343030) i
Volcanoes of the World
v. 4.8.0. Venzke, E (ed.). Smithsonian Institution. Accessed 3 June 2019. The dormant volcano is Cerro Verde.Parque Natural Cerro Verde
Ministerio de Turismo de El Salvador, accessed 3 June 2019.

Honours

Antoine's 1939 memoir, ''

Wind, Sand and Stars ''Wind, Sand and Stars'' (French title: ''Terre des hommes'', literally "Land of Men") is a memoir by the French aristocrat aviator-writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, and a winner of several literary awards. It was first published in France in F ...

'' (''Terre des hommes''), was employed to create the central theme—''Terre des hommes/Man and his world''—of the 1967 International World's Fair in Montreal, Canada,

Expo 67 The 1967 International and Universal Exposition, commonly known as Expo 67, was a general exhibition from April 28 to October 29, 1967. It was a category one world's fair held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is considered to be one of the most s ...

. The Countess de Saint Exupéry, Consuelo, was a guest of honour at the official opening ceremonies of the world's fair. Krôller, Eva-Marie
Expo '67: Canada's Camelot?
''Canadian Literature'', Spring–Summer 1997, Iss. 152–153, pp. 36–51.

Popular culture

Actress

Janet Waldo Janet Waldo (born Jeanette Marie Waldo; February 4, 1919 – June 12, 2016) was an American radio and voice actress. In animation, she voiced Judy Jetson in various Hanna-Barbera media, Nancy in ''Shazzan'', Penelope Pitstop, Princess from '' ...

was the voice for The Rose in the animated TV series "The Adventures of the Little Prince". Singer

Máiréad Carlin Mairead, also spelt Maighread, is a feminine given name, the Scottish Gaelic equivalent of Margaret. The Irish language, Irish form is spelt Mairéad, Máiréad, Maighréad, or Máighréad. Maisie (given name), Maisie is the pet form of Mairead. ...

played The Rose in ''

'' musical. Consuelo's relationship with Antoine was portrayed by

Miranda Richardson Miranda Jane Richardson (born 3 March 1958) is an English actress who has worked in film, television and theatre. After graduating from the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Richardson began her career in 1979 and made her West End theatre, West ...

and

Bruno Ganz Bruno Ganz (; 22 March 1941 – 16 February 2019) was a Swiss actor whose career in German stage, television and film productions spanned nearly 60 years. He was known for his collaborations with the directors Werner Herzog, Éric Rohmer, Franc ...

in the 1996 biopic '' Saint-Ex''. The film combines elements of biography, documentary, and dramatic re-creation. Consuelo is also a major character in the forthcoming historical novel ''Studio Saint-Ex'' by Ania Szado. The book examines Consuelo and Antoine's time in New York City during World War II while Antoine is writing ''

''.

References

; Footnotes ; Citations ; Bibliography * Commire, Anne
''Something about the Author''
in Volume 20 of Something about the Author: Facts and Pictures about Contemporary Authors and Illustrators of Books for Young People,

Gale Research Company Gale is a global provider of research and digital learning resources. The company is based in Farmington Hills, Michigan, United States, west of Detroit. It has been a division of Cengage since 2007. The company, formerly known as Gale Research a ...

, 1980, , * * Saint-Exupéry, Consuelo de; Allen, Esther (translator
''The Tale of the Rose: The Love Story Behind The Little Prince''
New York:

Random House Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the foll ...

, 2000, . * *

External links

A biography of Consuelo de Saint Exupéry

A website dedicated to Mme Consuelo de Saint.Exupéry
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Exupery, Consuelo 1901 births 1979 deaths Deaths from asthma Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery French countesses People from Sonsonate Department Consuelo Salvadoran artists Salvadoran people of Indigenous peoples descent Salvadoran women writers 20th-century French memoirists 20th-century French women writers