Carole Seymour-Jones - A Dangerous Liaison: A Revelatory New Biography of Simon de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre

Table of Contents

Another Sky: Voices of Conscience from Around the World
(with Lucy Popescu)
Painted Shadow: A Life of Vivienne Eliot
Journey of Faith: History of the World Y.W.C.A., 1945-94
Beatrice Webb: Woman of Conflict
Refugees: Past and Present

For Geoffrey

I owe a particular debt of gratitude to the following: Sylvie Le Bon de Beauvoir, for her generous permission and insightful scholarship; Oleg Gordievsky, Bianca Bienenfeld Lamblin, Laurence Nguyen, Olivier Todd, Michele Vian, Macha Zonina, for their invaluable memories and permission; my inspirational fellow biographer, Neil McKenna, for making this book possible; Ania Corless, for unstinting support ; my partner Geoffrey Parkinson, to whom this book is dedicated, and my children, Emma, Edward and Lucy, for their patience and good humour; Kim Witherspoon, my indefatigable agent in New York; and Hannah Black, best of editors, for believing in this book from the beginning.

I am indebted to the following individuals for help, advice and encouragement of many kinds: Lisa Appignanesi, Marchesa Amalia Ginori Bornini, Gerard and Xialong Coutin, Anne-Marie Coutin, Frank Dabell and Jay Weissberg, Peter Day, Dominique Desanti, Margaret Drabble, Carl Djerassi, Ophelia Field, Sarah Glazer, Robert Gallimard, Rina Gill, Pat Grayburn, Madeleine Gobeil-Nol, Shusha Guppy, Jonathan Heawood, Sarah Hirschmann, Michael Holroyd, Bruce Hunter, Robert Jones, Deirdre Lay, Virginie Lay, Chip Martin, Jean Mattern, Ann Maughan, the late Diane Middlebrook, Mary Sebag Montefiore, Simon Sebag Montefiore, Trevor Mostyn, Dr. Jonathan Pimm, Michaela Prunus, Camille Plutarque, Diana Reich, Anne Salter, Jean-Claude Sauer, Elaine Showalter, Frances Stonor Saunders, Julia Stonor, Tricia and Julian Storey, Gillian Tindall, Moira and Michael Williams; Dr. Lyuba Vinagradova for translation from the Russian; for editorial assistance, David Smith and, at Random House, Katie Duce and Annie Lee.

To my regret, Arlette Elkam-Sartre and Gisle Halimi declined my request for an interview.

I am grateful to English PEN for giving me a sabbatical from my post as Chair of the Writers in Prison Committee, and to Ania Corless for serving as Acting Chair.

I would like to thank the following librarians, archivists and institutions for their help: Mauricette Berne, Bibliothque Nationale de France, Paris; Liliane Phan, Archives Gallimard; Nicole Fernndez-Ferrer, Centre audovisuel Simone de Beauvoir; the British Library; the London Library; Ohio State University Libraries; The Society of Authors.

The author and publishers are grateful to the following for permission to reprint extracts from the works of Simone de Beauvoir: HarperCollins Publishers for She Came to Stay, first published in France as LInvite, Librairie Gallimard 1943, translated by Yvonne Moyse and Roger Senhouse (Fontana, 1984); The Mandarins, first published in France as Les Mandarins, Librairie Gallimard 1954, translated by Leonard M.Friedman (Fontana, 1957); When Things of the Spirit Come First, first published in France as Quand prime le spirituel, Editions Gallimard 1979, translated by Patrick OBrian (Fontana, 1982); Random House Group and the Estate of Simone de Beauvoir for The Second Sex, first published as Le Deuxime Sexe, Librairie Gallimard 1949, translated by H.M. Parshley (Jonathan Cape, 1953), and Letters to Sartre, first published in France as Lettres Sartre, Editions Gallimard 1990, translated by Quintin Hoare (Vintage, 1991); Penguin Books for Memoirs of A Dutiful Daughter, first published in France as Mmoires dune jeune fille range, Editions Gallimard 1958, translated by James Kirkup (Penguin 1963), translation first published Andr Deutsch and Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1959, translation copyright The World Publishing Company, 1959; The Prime of Life, first published as La force de lge, Editions Gallimard, 1960, translated by Peter Green, this translation first published in the USA 1962, translation copyright The World Publishing Company, 1962, (Penguin 1965), Force of Circumstance, first published in France as La force des choses, Editions Gallimard 1963, translated by Richard Howard, English translation G.P. Putnams Sons, New York, All Said and Done, first published in France as Tout compte fait, Editions Gallimard 1972, translated by Patrick OBrian, (Andr Deutsch and Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1974); Une mort trs douce, (Editions Gallimard 1964) ; The Blood of Others, first published as Le Sang des Autres, translated by Yvonne Moyse and Roger Senhouse, (Penguin 1964); Woman Destroyed, first published as La Femme Rompue, Editions Gallimard, 1968, translated by Patrick OBrian, (G.P Putnams Sons, New York, 1974); Adieux: A Farewell to Sartre, first published in France as La Crmonie des Adieux, Editions Gallimard, 1981, translated by Patrick OBrian, Patrick OBrian, (Andr Deutsch and Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1984); Correspondance croise: Simone de Beauvoir et Jacques-Laurent Bost Editions Gallimard, 2004; Journal de Guerre, Editions Gallimard, 1990; and Beloved Chicago Man: Letters to Nelson Algren 1947-1964, first published in French translation, Editions Gallimard, 1997, (Phoenix 1999).

We are also grateful to the following for permission to reprint extracts from works by Jean-Paul Sartre: Penguin Books for Nausea, first published as La Nause, Editions Gallimard 1938, translated by Robert Baldick, this translation Penguin Books 1965; Words, first published in France as Les Mots, Editions Gallimard, 1964, translated by Irene Clephane, translation copyright Hamish Hamilton, 1964, (Penguin 1967); The Age of Reason, first published as Lge de Raison, Editions Gallimard 1945, translated by Eric Sutton, (Penguin 1961); and Iron in the Soul, first published as La Mort dans lme, translated by Gerard Hopkins, (Penguin 1963); Verso for War Diaries: Notebooks from a Phoney War 1939-1940, first published as Les carnets de la drle de guerre, Editions Gallimard 1983, translated by Quintin Hoare, translation copyright Verso Editions 1984; Hamish Hamilton for Witness to My Life: The Letters of Jean-Paul Sartre to Simone de Beauvoir 1926-1939, first published in France as Lettres au Castor et quelques autres, Editions Gallimard 1983, translation copyright Lee Fahnstock and Norman MacAfee, 1992; Quiet Moments in a War: The Letters of Jean-Paul Sartre to Simone de Beauvoir, 1940-1963, translated by Lee Fahnstock and Norman MacAfree (New York: Scribens Sons, 1993); and to Editions Gallimard for Les Ecrits de Sartre, Editions Gallimard 1970, and Tmoins de Sartre, Editions Gallimard 2005; to New Directions Publishing Corporation for The Wall and Other Stories, first published as Le Mur, Editions Gallimard, 1939) , translated by Lloyd Alexander, Lloyd Alexander; to Routledge for Being and Nothingness, first published as Ltre et Le Nant, (Gallimard 1943), translated by Hazel E. Barnes, English translation 1958 Philosophical Library (Routledge 1989); also to Northeastern University Press, Boston, for quotations from Bianca Lamblin, A Disgraceful Affair, translated by Julie Plovnick, translation copyright Julie Plovnick 1996, and to HarperCollins for quotations from Liliane Siegel, In the Shadow of Sartre, translated by Barabara Wright (Collins 1990).

AN INTRIGUING NOTE surfaced among Jean-Paul Sartres personal papers after his death. Je peux me tromper, he had scrawled on a scrap of paper,