MYSTERY INTACT:

France and its Little Prince: Discovery of wreckage from Saint-Exupery's 1944 plane crash raises more questions about writer's life. (Peter Ford, 4/09/04, CS Monitor)

The mystery of the death of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, who celebrated the mysteries of life so charmingly in "The Little Prince," remains intact.

Or nearly. French researchers are due to announce Friday that 60 years after the philosopher-pilot crashed into the Mediterranean Sea, they have found, and identified beyond a doubt, the remains of Saint-Exupéry's Lockheed P-38.

But why he crashed, and how, whether he was shot down, lost control of his plane, or, as some historians have suggested, committed suicide, will, perhaps fittingly, never be known. As the Fox tells the Little Prince: "One can see clearly only with the heart. The essential is invisible to the eye."

Given the nature of his writing, one would like to think he wouldn't have killed himself with a war still to be won.

Posted by Orrin Judd at April 9, 2004 7:17 AM