Simone de Beauvoir

Simone de Beauvoir (1908 - 1986), French author, philosopher, feminist.

Born Simone Lucie-Ernestine-Marie-Bertrand de Beauvoir on January 9, 1908 in Paris, France, she studied at the Sorbonne where she met he lifelong companion Jean-Paul Sartre. In 1981 she wrote A Farewell to Sartre (La Cérémonie des adieux), a painful account of Sartre's last years.

She has come to be seen as the mother of post-1968 feminism. Philosophical writings linked to Sartrian existentialism. Best known for her work The Second Sex (Le Deuxième Sexe, 1949) which contained detailed analysis of women's oppression.

Other major works: She Came to Stay (L'Invitée, 1943); Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter (Memoires d'une jeune fille rangée, 1958).

Simone de Beauvoir died on April 14, 1986 and was interred in Cimetiere de Montparnasse, Paris, France.