Wartime Diary

Simone de Beauvoir (1908–86) was a French existentialist philosopher who employed a literary-philosophical method in her essays, including Ethics of Ambiguity (1946) and The Second Sex (1949), as well as in her novels, multivolume autobiography, and other works. Sylvie Le Bon de Beauvoir, adopted daughter and literary executor of Simone de Beauvoir, is the editor of Lettres À Sartre and many other works by Beauvoir. Margaret A. Simons is a professor and chair of philosophy at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, and the author of Beauvoir and The Second Sex: Feminism, Race and the Origins of Existentialism. Anne Deing Cordero is professor emerita of French at George Mason University.

“What gives these notebooks additional zest and texture are allusions to an unexpectedly wide range of writers the diarist read during these searing days. . . . English readers are now afforded a very different portrait of the feminist philosopher approaching middle age in this well-annotated volume.”--Publishers Weekly"Wartime Diary ensures that many more voyeurs will continue to stare admiringly. Feminist icon she will remain; ghastly exhibitionist she indubitably was."--San Francisco Chronicle“Wartime Diary is a snapshot of a woman at a defining moment in world history, as well as the defining moment in her own career and philosophical development.”--The Gay and Lesbian Review “The revelations in Beauvoir’s Wartime Diary are stunning, stimulating, and exciting. This diary shows the importance of Beauvoir’s influence on Sartre and the originality of her own thought. It gives the English-speaking audience a first glimpse into the world in which Beauvoir wrote some of her most important novels and philosophical books.”--Kelly Oliver, editor of The French Feminism Reader “There is nothing to compete with Beauvoir’s Wartime Diary; the translation is clear, jargon-free, and engaging. Not only is the diary a very significant contribution to Beauvoir scholarship, but it is also an amazing eyewitness testimonial of what daily life in and near Paris was like for civilians under the German occupation. Once I started reading it, I literally couldn’t put it down.”--Claudia Card, author of The Cambridge Companion to Simone de Beauvoir