SAINT-EXUPÉRY Antoine de [Lyon, 1900 - disappeared in missio - Lot 116

Lot n° 116
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800 - 1000 EUR
SAINT-EXUPÉRY Antoine de [Lyon, 1900 - disappeared in missio - Lot 116
SAINT-EXUPÉRY Antoine de [Lyon, 1900 - disappeared in mission, 1944], French writer, inventor and aviator. Second version of typed letter with additions and corrections in pencil to Mr. Lehideux, director of the Renault factories in Billancourt. Paris November 16, 1937; 4 pages in-4. About his plane crash in Egypt in 1935, during a Paris-Saigon raid aboard a Caudron-Renault Simoun. He recalls the facts: "In 1935 (December), holding on Caudron-Simoun a fast Paris-Saigon link, and having insured myself with the Mutuelle des Assurances Aériennes, I suffered an accident about two hundred kilometers from the Nile Valley, and about eighty kilometers from the Salt and Soda factory, run by the Swiss engineer Raccaud who took Prévot and me in when, after four days of walking in different directions, we finally met a Bedouin caravan that routed us close to him. As soon as he arrived in Cairo, he informed the Mutual Insurance Company of the accident, which sent an agent to examine the wreckage of the aircraft, which it was agreed to abandon on the spot. "But I wanted to save, as far as possible, what was left of my unfortunate aircraft, in order to act as correctly as possible towards my insurers. It is thanks to the kindness of Mr. Raccaud that we were able to plan a repatriation, by his care, the cost of which would nevertheless leave the insurers a large margin of profit. [...] My role was limited to the material organization of a repair that, thanks to Engineer Raccaud, was a successful tour de force. [...] But Mr. Raccaud was never reimbursed. [...] The insurance contract provided for a ceiling of six thousand francs for the eventual breakdown service, and Mr. Raccaud's bill of expenses was in addition to this fixed price"... Saint-Exupéry deplores an extremely embarrassing situation, being henceforth "responsible for sums that I do not owe, and that I cannot pay, for lack of money". He adds a few lines by hand to express his embarrassment towards a man "who has shown me the greatest friendship and who has given me the most precious help in Egypt. The letter continues: "It is rather bitter that I have gone to so much trouble to be in the end wronged so seriously, both materially and morally. And this is why I take the liberty of pointing out to you that your help - if it was precious to me and if I am infinitely grateful to you - nevertheless plunges me today into the greatest difficulties".
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