De Beauvoir, Simone (1908–1986)

Simone de Beauvoir was a French existential philosopher, novelist, feminist, and internationally recognized public intellectual. Her ideas on human freedom, ethics, politics, society, and gender relations influenced European and American women's movements of the 1970s and prefigured contemporary disciplines of cultural studies, discourse studies, and women's studies. De Beauvoir wrote incessantly, narrating her life through personal correspondence with family, friends, and lovers, especially with Jean-Paul Sartre, her lifelong partner. Their relationship, self-defined as essential rather than contingent, helped, but did not determine, de Beauvoir's notoriety. She self-consciously and unapologetically wrote into existence the conditions for fame and posterity, compiling more than 40 years of fiction, philosophy, commentary, travel logs, and memoir. Intellectually and politically active to the very end, de Beauvoir renounced the existence of God, never married, loved and slept with numerous men and women, flaunted her high intelligence, and lived a life that often reflected her existentialism: Human beings are communal, responsible for their own actions, and free to conform or challenge social limits.

Born in Paris, de Beauvoir was raised by her mother, a devout bourgeoisie Catholic, and her father, a politically conservative atheist. Her parents' encouragement in her childhood to read and write waned later on as they judged her life actions. De Beauvoir had two early companions, her younger sister, Helene, nicknamed Poupette, and her friend, Elizabeth Mabille, nicknamed Zaza. Poupette often acted as de Beauvoir's first student, and Zaza's early death in 1929 influenced de Beauvoir's existentialism. Her formal education began at an all-girls private Catholic school. She earned a baccalaureate in mathematics and philosophy, and later studied mathematics at the Institut Catholique and literature and languages at the Institut Sainte-Marie. Her studies continued at Sorbonne, where she prepared for her agrégation in philosophy. During this time de Beauvoir met a group of students from the elite school, École Normale Supérieure. Jean-Paul Sartre was one of those students. At age 21, de Beauvoir was the youngest student ever to pass her agrégation. Her exam scores ranked second only to Sartre, and it was his second attempt. She went on to teach at different secondary schools until a scandal broke out in 1943—she had taken up romantic relations with one of her female students. After an investigation, the school dismissed her and, by choice, she never taught again. De Beauvoir's first novel, She Came to Stay, was published also in 1943, beginning her lifelong authorial career. She went on to write numerous novels, often using autobiographical material, especially romantic liaisons, as a source for fiction.

During the early 1940s Nazi occupation of France, de Beauvoir took up politics. She, Sartre, and others founded the left-wing politically independent journal, Les Temps Modernes in 1945. Her novel, The Blood of Others, published the same year, investigates personal and social responsibilities, and All Men Are Mortal (1946) explores the search for immortality as a denial of the present. Her most famous novel, The Mandarins (1954), explores the political responsibilities of the intellectual and won the prestigious French literary award, the Prix Goncourt. In 1947, de Beauvoir was invited onto the American college lecture circuit. America Day by Day from 1948 chronicles her reflections on America. She would write another travel book, The Long March in 1957, about communist China. De Beauvoir's appreciation for America did not blind her to American imperialism, and while she often and perhaps naively defended Russian-style communism, she never joined a communist affiliation. De Beauvoir denounced the U.S. bombing of North Vietnam, supported the May 1968 student rebellions, presided over the League of Woman's Rights, and symbolized Second Wave Feminism.

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