Letters to Sartre

Author's name: Simone de Beauvoir

Two of France's most prominent philosophers exchange letters in a graceful, emotional style for more than 30 years, blending feelings with philosophy and together chronicling the social, intellectual, and political life of a pivotal period in the country's history. Simone de Beauvoir, a pioneer of the feminist movement in France, and Jean-Paul Sartre, a pioneer of existentialist philosophy, paved the way for the emergence of the student movement of May 1968, sparking an intellectual and social revolution that began in France and swept across Europe. How do Western philosophers love each other? How did they view France in the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s? What were Simone's impressions of her travels around the world, most notably America, as she recounted them to her lover? Which intellectuals and thinkers did she meet during her travels?