Process
The last letter
On the morning or the night before he took off on his final flight to his death on July 31st in 1944, Saint-Exupéry wrote two letters, one addressed to his mother, the other to his friend, Pierre Dalloz. This quotation is the last line of the Dalloz letter, in which Saint-Exupéry spoke of being too old to be a fighter pilot and his spiritual isolation.
Gardens
For Saint-Exupéry gardens were evidently a great symbol for integrity in life. This is the reason why this illustration depicts no water, even though he may have made that final crash into the Mediterranean.
Lockheed P-38
The aeroplane silhouette in this illustration was drawn to match that of a Lockheed P-38, which was the model Saint-Exupéry flew and therefore crashed in his last flight.
If I’m shot down, I won’t regret anything. The future anthill appalls me
and I hate the robot virtues. I prefer to be a gardener.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry / Letter to Pierre Dalloz (1944)