Final answer:
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was lost in the Sahara Desert after a crash-landing during a long-distance air race, an experience that influenced his subsequent writings.
Step-by-step explanation:
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the renowned French writer and aviator, was famously lost in the Sahara Desert. This occurrence took place in 1935 when Saint-Exupéry and his navigator André Prévot crash-landed their plane during the Paris-Saigon air race. The harrowing experience of survival in one of the most unforgiving environments on Earth inspired his later literary work, particularly the memoir 'Wind, Sand and Stars'.