https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CKK5J77Y/
What inspired you to create a tribute to "The Little
Prince" in the form of "The Lost Pilot"?
I first got a copy
of The Little Prince when I was about five or six years old and it quickly
became that book you force your mom to read to you over and over again. As I
got older, I reread it several times and the wonder, the imagination, the
devotion to friendship, and the basic morality of being good continued to
resonate with me. Here was a man - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry - facing a world
war, with his country invaded and falling apart, living in a strange land (New
York City), willing to fly and fight for his country, and The Little Prince was
what he was inspired to write.
I've read pretty
much every book by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and several biographies and
articles and features about him. I've been to the apartment building where he
wrote The Little Prince, visited his homes in France, explored parts of the
Sahara Desert where he crash landed and was stationed, and even chartered a
boat to where they found his plane in the Mediterranean Sea.
One night, when I was on top of an enormous sand dune deep
in the Sahara Desert, I felt further away than anyone in the world. The only
people near me didn't speak the same language as me. It took me a long time to
get to the top of the dune and the stars stretched out like explosions of color
and light. I was all alone and the loneliness was awe-inspiring. I knew I was
not far from where Antoine de Saint-Exupéry had crash landed so there was a
chance, at some point, he had stood right where I was.
I looked up at the tapestry of infinity and I started
talking as if Antoine was there. I imagined him flying away to find The Little
Prince. I was inspired and I wanted to inspire others just like he had done for
me.
I kept the idea for years and years - always thinking of it
sometimes and adding ideas. Then, I read that it was the anniversary of the
publication of The Little Prince and it seemed like the perfect time to pay
homage to one of the greatest stories ever told. I want more people to read The
Little Prince and be inspired.
How did you go about blending biography with fiction in
"The Lost Pilot"?
The Lost Pilot is
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. He never says it and neither does the narrator (or
who The Lost Pilot calls 'the artist'), but it is supposed to be him. As he
tells his story about journeying into the stars to find his friend, he reveals
things about himself that are actual truths of Antoine's life.
It's not of course a
full biography - for a great version of that, read The Pilot and the Little
Prince by Peter Sis - but, there is a lot of biographical information in the
book. His dog Hannibal was really his dog and he talked about how much it broke
his heart to leave him when he returned to flying.
The blending of
biography and fiction in The Lost Pilot happened really naturally. I had always
imagined that Antoine had flown off to find his long lost friend, The Little
Prince. I had ideas about when he'd actually done it - when he disappeared
during his last mission in World War II. For decades, no one knew what happened
to him so it fit the story. But, I also knew that his plane had been found so I
wanted to acknowledge the truth but also the possibility of something magical
happening, and that's pretty much The Lost Pilot.
The theme of
imagination seems to play a central role in "The Lost Pilot". Why do
you think imagination is such an important concept for children and adults
alike?
Our imaginations are
just like any other skill or talent - the more you use it, the better you are
at it. Too much of life has no imagination and thus, no inspiration. We all
need to be inspired. We all need to be creative.
One of the central
themes of The Little Prince is about imagining. You have to believe that The
Little Prince really could have traveled from his planet to earth holding
balloons and following a flock of birds.
Books are
imagination factories. We read and we imagine what we're reading. We see the
people, feel the conflicts and love, know locations and understand
points-of-view. The beauty of imagination is it is inspiring too. We read
something beautiful, like The Little Prince, and we're inspired to share our
own imaginations.
In The Lost Pilot, I
wanted imagination to be why any and all of it happens. I wanted to create my
own imagination factory and for people to be inspired after they read it. I
wanted them to think about their own imaginations and their own inspiration,
and feel how much it matters to really be inspired.
The story begins with the traveler being washed ashore.
How does this setup help set the tone for the entire narrative?
Pretty much
everything in The Lost Pilot is a play on parts of The Little Prince. Antoine
de Saint-Exupéry crash landed in the Sahara Desert (several times) and while he
waited to be rescued, he invented The Little Prince.
I came up with the
idea of The Lost Pilot while in the Sahara Desert looking up at the stars and
imagining him flying off into them to find his dear friend. I actually had a
conversation with him and the look of the stars in the book is as close as I
could get to the way they looked that night in the desert.
I was a travel
writer for years and I had an idea of writing a piece about a literary
pilgrimage to find 'the lost pilot' - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. One of the
places, of course, was off the coast of Marseilles, France where they'd found
his plane. I was able to find an article about the people who found the plane
that had the coordinates, so I chartered a boat and we sailed out to the spot.
I jumped in the water and swam above it. I put my head underwater and tried to
see far far down, but of course I couldn't see anything.
It was an amazing
feeling though and when I came back up, I had the idea of mirroring how the
narrator meets The Little Price, and how the artist meets The Lost Pilot.
While developing the character of the lost pilot, were
there any personal experiences or real-life inspirations that influenced his
creation?
I've been obsessed
with The Little Prince since I first got the book for my birthday as a child. I
was fascinated by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry too and I read everything I could
about him, and his award-winning adventure books - Night Flight; Wind, Sand and
Stars; and others. He's one of the reasons I became a travel writer and I found
myself an eerie amount of time in places related to him and his writings, from
New York City to the Sahara Desert.
As I mentioned, when
I was in some of these places and I knew I was close to places he'd been, I
always thought about what it was like for him and how these places had impacted
him and his work.
In The Lost Pilot, the narrator talks about how he was a
very good artist from a very young age, but he'd stopped painting because he'd
lost his inspiration. That is exactly what happened to me.
When I decided to write The Lost Pilot, I had to figure out
how it was going to be illustrated. I actually asked several artists if they'd
be interested and I got close with one, but it didn't work out. I was rereading
another biography about Antoine and it talked about how self-conscious he was
about his illustrations. To me, they were part of the magic of The Little
Prince. I couldn't imagine him being unsure of including them. So, again, he
inspired me to relearn how to paint.
Illustrations play a big part in bringing "The Lost
Pilot" to life. Can you talk about the collaboration process with the
illustrator and how the two of you decided on the book's visual style?
The collaboration process for illustrating The Lost Pilot
was a difficult one because I am also the illustrator and the writer side of me
doesn't think much of the artist side of me. The two of them don't get along so
well.
That night in the Sahara Desert - all alone and further away
from anyone I think I've ever been - the night sky was not just black and not
just dotted with stars. It was purple and blue and violet and the stars felt
like they were so close, you could catch them in a butterfly net. They were
yellow and white and orange. I saw two or three shooting stars that night and
they ripped through the air like a scream. It was magical and awe-inspiring,
and that's when I just started talking to Antoine as if he was there and asking
him if he was one of those shooting stars.
The aesthetic of the book is very much inspired by those
night stars.
What do you hope readers, both young and old, will take
away from "The Lost Pilot"?
Your imagination is
precious. It inspires you and it inspires other people. A book written 80 years
ago, still, to this day, inspires people because of the exquisite imagination
of its author. Books are unique because of this and I think that's because they
are where imagination dwells and inspiration is found.
Remember too,
friendship never ends. We all have friends come and go, but what we experienced
together matters the most. I've spent years and years with people and lost
contact or had falling outs. These things happen, but it doesn't diminish what
our friendship was and how much it mattered. Remember that - remember how
important friendship is and how, like a flower, you need to nourish it and
protect it.
Throughout the story, the lost pilot and the traveler
share a unique bond. Why did you choose to focus on their relationship as a
central element of the story?
I wanted to create as strong of a relationship between The
Lost Pilot and the artist (narrator) as The Little Prince had with Antoine
because that's my relationship to him and his creation. The Little Prince
really inspired me growing up and taught me important lessons about how to
treat friends, how to treat animals, and how to think about what matters the
most to us as people. Imagination is the most valuable thing in the world in
The Little Prince because it created him and it helped an ageing pilot endure a
very difficult time. The magic of the book is it continues to do that for
people all this time later.
I wanted to try to recapture that and add to it. The Little
Prince is in The Lost Pilot here and there, but it's the relationship between
the pilot and the artist that inspires the latter to paint again.
How did writing "The Lost Pilot" deepen or
change your personal connection to "The Little Prince"?
I reread it again of
course and I read a couple of biographies of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry to
prepare. I knew a lot about him because I'd been such an enormous fan for so
many years, but then, when it came down to writing and illustrating, I had the
chance to think about the characters and what happens in different ways - it
was more about why he'd written this or that rather than just taking it in and
being inspired by it.
Every time I read
something by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, I find myself inspired by it. The Little
Prince lets us use our imaginations in very dramatic and significant ways
because the story is so fantastical but at the same time, topical and relevant.
The tone is serious with a sly sense of humor. I think my entire personality is
very The Little Prince and I felt it even more as I wrote The Lost Pilot.
Are there any easter eggs or subtle nods to "The
Little Prince" that readers might miss on their first read? Can you hint
at one or two?
There are a lot of allusions and references to The Little
Prince and Antoine de Saint-Exupéry in The Lost Pilot. When he takes off in his
plane to go find The Little Prince, he follows a flock of birds, just like The
Little Prince.
What The Lost Pilot and the artist have on the island for
food and drink is an inventory of what Antoine de Saint-Exupéry had when he
crash landed in the Sahara Desert.
The Lost Pilot's journey to find The Little Prince is similar
to how he visits different people with different roles and reflects on how
confusing and strange what we value is.
When The Lost Pilot asks the artist to draw him a picture of
an airplane, it's a similar setup as The Little Prince when he asks for a
drawing a sheep, and of course, The Lost Pilot has two old drawings that he
shows the artist that are copies of illustrations from The Little Prince.
They spend the same amount of time on the island as the
original narrator spends with The Little Prince in the desert, and in both
books, the titular character disappears.
There are a lot more fun references and allusions, but those
are probably the most noticeable and fun.