Simone de Beauvoir

Simone de Beauvoir was a French existentialist philosopher, novelist and feminist activist who wrote essays, fiction and memoir. She is best known for The Second Sex (1949), a foundational text of contemporary feminism, and for novels including She Came to Stay (1943) and The Mandarins (1954). She received the Prix Goncourt in 1954, and her memoirs, beginning with Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter, are considered her most enduring contribution to literature. Her shorter books include The Woman Destroyed and What Is Existentialism?