Is “The Little Prince” a true story?

On December 31, Saint-Exupéry took off from Paris, preparing to break the record of 87 hours non-stop flight to Saigon. Due to a plane crash, he fell into the Libyan desert. This true experience later became the main scene of the story of “The Little Prince”.

“The Little Prince” is not a true story in the sense of being a factual account, but it is deeply inspired by real events in the life of its author, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. The central event—a plane crash in the desert—mirrors a real mishap that Saint-Exupéry experienced. In December 1935 (not December 31, but rather the night of December 29–30), Saint-Exupéry and his navigator André Prévot took off from Paris in a Caudron Simoun aircraft, attempting to break the speed record for a Paris-to-Saigon flight. After nearly 20 hours in the air, they crashed in the Sahara Desert—specifically, the Libyan Sahara, near the Wadi Natrun valley.

The two men survived the crash but were stranded in the desert with minimal supplies, facing severe dehydration and hallucinations before being rescued by a Bedouin nomad on the fourth day. This harrowing experience is recounted in Saint-Exupéry’s memoir *Wind, Sand and Stars* and forms the basis for the opening scene of *The Little Prince*, where the narrator, a pilot, is stranded in the desert after a crash.

While the story of the little prince’s travels among the planets and his encounters with various characters is fictional, the setting and the emotional core of the story are rooted in Saint-Exupéry’s own life and experiences. Therefore, while “The Little Prince” is not a true story in a literal sense, it is inspired by true events and reflects the author’s personal philosophy and observations about life, love, and human nature.