Vladimir Nabokov): Portrait of a Marriage, a 2000 Pulitzer Prize winner, tells the story of Vera Nabokov and her devotion to her husband and his literary career. Alvarez commended Schiff's 'subtle, sensitive, and extraordinarily fair-minded' account of Saint-Exupery's life. In the New York Times Book Review, Isabelle de Courtivron wrote that Schiff's book is 'welcome and timely.' She also praised Schiff's research into the minutiae of Saint-Exupery's life and her study of pioneering French aviation. Schiff's biography provides a detailed and enthusiastic look at Saint-Exupery's life as a flier and as a writer, with most of the emphasis on his experiences as a pilot. In 1944 he flew over German-occupied France, and disappeared in the course of this mission. In 1942 he was sent to Algiers to fight with the Free French Forces during World War II. He then went to South America, where he became the manager of operations for a mail route to remote Patagonia, and then worked for Air France. As a pilot, he had plenty of time to think, and he began developing the ideas that marked his work: the importance of bonding between friends, shared responsibility, and the importance of an inner spiritual life. He spent two years in the desert, in charge of rescuing other pilots who had become stranded. Saint-Exupery delivered mail for a French company, flying over the western Sahara to bring mail to Dakar. In the 1920s these interests flowered when he became a pilot and published his first short story. Saint-Exupery, known to his friends as 'Saint-Ex,' was born to a family of provincial nobility that had fallen on hard times, and as a young boy he showed both poetic sensitivity and skilled mechanical aptitude. SIDELIGHTS: Stacy Schiff's Saint-Exupery: A Biography is a detailed study of the life of French aviator and writer Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1900–1944), who is best known for his book The Little Prince. Vladimir Nabokov): Portrait of a Marriage, Random House (New York, NY), 1999.Ī Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America, Henry Holt (New York, NY), 2005.Ĭontributor to periodicals, including New Yorker, Times Literary Supplement, and New York Times Book Review. Saint-Exupery: A Biography, Random House (New York, NY), 1994. Vladimir Nabokov) Guggenheim Foundation fellow National Endowment for the Humanities fellow. Simon & Schuster, New York, NY, senior editor.ĪWARDS, HONORS: Pulitzer Prize finalist, 1995, for Saint Exupery: A Biography Pulitzer Prize, for biography, 2000, for Vera (Mrs.

PERSONAL: Education: Attended Williams College and Phillips Academy.ĪDDRESSES: Agent-c/o Author Mail, Henry Holt and Co., 175 5th Ave., New York, NY 10010.ĬAREER: Writer and editor.

Vera by stacy schiff