Simone de Beauvoir

French philosopher, social theorist and activist (1908–1986)

OverviewAI-generated

Simone de Beauvoir was a French journalist, novelist, autobiographer, and essayist. Born Simonne Lucie Ernestine Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir on 9 January 1908 in Paris, she was educated at the University of Paris, Lycée Fénelon, the Sorbonne, and the Catholic University of Paris. She was a member of the feminist and existentialist movements and identified with atheism.

Her notable works include The Second Sex, The Mandarins, She Came to Stay, and Pyrrhus and Cineas. She received the Prix Goncourt, the Jerusalem Prize, and the Austrian State Prize for European Literature, and was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. She was unmarried partners with Jean-Paul Sartre, Claude Lanzmann, and Nelson Algren.

De Beauvoir died of pneumonia and pulmonary edema on 14 April 1986 at Hôpital Cochin in the 14th arrondissement of Paris. Her manner of death was natural causes, and she is buried at Montparnasse Cemetery.

Synthesized by Vinony from 31 facts across 4 sources: Wikidata, Open Library, TMDb, Vinony collections. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Person · Open Library

Born: 9 January 1908
Died: 14 April 1986
Works: 339

Top works

Besteen odola
Cuando predomina lo espiritual
Les belles images
Les inséparables
She Came to Stay

via Open Library + Wikidata

Film & TV

Paris, France

Simone Lucie Ernestine Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir was a French writer, intellectual, existentialist philosopher, political activist, feminist and social theorist. Though she did not consider herself a philosopher, she had a significant influence on both feminist existentialism and feminist theory

Known for

Le deuxième sexe : Sur les traces de Simone de Beauvoir — Self (Archive footage)2025
Looking for Simone — Self (archive footage)2024
La TV des 70's : Quand Giscard était président — Self (archive footage)2022
Miúcha, The Voice of Bossa Nova — Self2022
The Century of Icons — Self (archive footage)2022
Beauvoir, l'aventure d'être soi — Self : Philosopher (archive footage)2021
Delphine and Carole — Self (archive footage)2020
The Lévi-Strauss Century — Self (archive footage)2016
Hôtel La Louisiane — Self (archive footage)2015
Simone de Beauvoir: Two Interviews2012

via TMDB

Wikidata facts

Instance of: human
Given name: Simone
Gender: female
Citizenship: France
Place of birth: 6th arrondissement of Paris
Place of death: Hôpital Cochin
Child: Sylvie Le Bon-de Beauvoir
Sibling: Hélène de Beauvoir
Occupation: film actor
Educated at: Catholic University of Paris
Languages spoken: French
Native language: French
Religion: atheism
Field of work: existentialism
Movement: existentialism
Image: Simone de Beauvoir2.png
Residence: Rouen

Show 22 more facts

place of burial: Montparnasse Cemetery
date of birth: 1908-01-09
date of death: 1986-04-14
topic's main category: Category:Simone de Beauvoir
unmarried partner: Nelson Algren
cause of death: pulmonary edema
birth name: Simonne Lucie Ernestine Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir
influenced by: Alfred Adler
described by source: Pax Leksikon
manner of death: natural causes
Commons gallery: Simone de Beauvoir
nominated for: Nobel Prize in Literature
name in native language: Simone de Beauvoir
writing language: French
significant person: Jean-Paul Sartre
sexual orientation: bisexuality
pseudonym: Le Castor
name: Симона-Люси-Эрнестина-Мари Бертран де Бовуар
P8168: Goodrich
P12674: David Zeisberger
P12749: Carl Benjamin Klunzinger
Commons category: Simone de Beauvoir

Sources (15)

via Wikidata · CC0

~34 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Simone Lucie Ernestine Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir (9 January 1908 – 14 April 1986) was a French existentialist philosopher, writer, social theorist, and feminist activist. Though she did not consider herself a philosopher, nor was she considered one at the time of her death, she had a significant influence on both feminist existentialism and feminist theory.

Beauvoir wrote novels, essays, short stories, biographies, autobiographies, and monographs on philosophy, politics, and social issues. She was best known for her "trailblazing work in feminist philosophy", The Second Sex (1949), a detailed analysis of women's oppression and a foundational tract of contemporary feminism. She was also known for her novels, the most famous of which were She Came to Stay (1943) and The Mandarins (1954).

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Simone de Beauvoir” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.