Biography:
*French novelist, autobiographical writer and Existentialist philosopher born in 1908; died in 1986; involved theoretically and politically in Marxism, and later in feminism
*signed, along with 342 other women, a pro-choice public manifesto, acknowledging that she had had an illegal abortion; the act was organized by the political group "Choisir" headed by the activist lawyer Gisèle Halimi; Simone de Beauvoir served as a co-president for the group; also involved in the early feminist efforts of the "Mouvement de Libération des Femmes"
*served as the president of the "Ligue du droit des femmes," founded in 1974 by a group of radical feminists discontent with both the "politique et psychanalyse" (the intellectual feminist group that became the center of the MLF and the feminist press des femmes) and the "Féministes révolutionnaires" (a radical feminist group founded in 1970; Monique Wittig was associated with this group for a while)
*the "Ligue" began a newspaper called Nouvelles féministes which ran from 1974 until 1977 and
formed the group "SOS Femmes-alternatives" devoted to the protection of battered women
*edited the journal Questions féministes, a journal initiated in 1977 largely in agon with other French feminists, particularly feminists who espoused "sexual difference" (Annie Leclerc, Cixous, Irigaray, and Xavière Gauthier among others)
Books:
The Second Sex, trans. by M.H. Parshley. NY: Knopf, 1953; NY: Vintage Books, 1989.
The Ethics of Ambiguity, trans. by Bernard Frechtman. NY: Philosophical Library, 1948.
The Mandarins, A Novel, trans. by Leonard M. Friedman. Cleveland: World Publishing, 1956.
She Came to Stay, trans. by Yvonne Moyse and Roger Senhouse. London: Flamingo, 1943.
The Long March, trans. by Austry Wainhouse. Cleveland: World Publishing, 1958.
Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter, trans. by James Kirkup. Cleveland: World Publishing, 1959.
The Prime of Life, translated by Peter Greens. Cleveland: World Publishing Co., 1962.
Force of Circumstance, translated by Richard Howard. NY: Putnam, 1965.
A Very Easy Death, translated by Patrick O達rian. NY: Warner Books, 1973.
Belle Images, translated by Patrick O達rian. NY: Putnam, 1968.
The Woman Destroyed, translated by Patrick O達rian. NY: Putnam, 1969; London: Collins, 1971.
The Coming of Age, translated by Patrick O達rian. NY: Putnam, 1972.
All Said and Done, translated by Patrick O達rian, introduction by Toril Moi. NY: Paragon, 1993.
The Blood of Others, translated by Roger Senghouse and Yvonne Moyse. NY: Bantam, 1974.
When Things of the Spiritual Come First: Five Early Tales, translated by Patrick O達rian. NY: Pantheon Books, 1982.
Who Shall Die?, translated by C. Francis and F. Gontier. Florissant, MO.: River Press, 1983.
Adieux: A Farewell to Sartre, translated by Patrick O達rian. NY: Pantheon, 1984.
Quiet Moments in a War: the Letters of Jean-Paul Sartre to Simone de Beauvoir, 1940-1963, translated by Lee Fahnestock and Norman MacAfee. NY: Scribner痴, 1993.