Simone De Beauvoir - Diary of a Philosophy Student: Volume 1, 1926-27

DIARY OF A
PHILOSOPHY STUDENT

THE BEAUVOIR SERIES

Edited by Margaret A. Simons and
Sylvie Le Bon de Beauvoir

Editorial Board

Kristana Arp

Debra Bergoffen

Anne Deing Cordero

Elizabeth Fallaize

Eleanore Holveck

A list of books in
the series appears at
the end of this book.

DIARY OF A PHILOSOPHY STUDENT:
VOLUME 1, 192627

Edited by Barbara Klaw,
Sylvie Le Bon de Beauvoir,
and Margaret A. Simons,

with Marybeth Timmermann

Foreword by Sylvie Le Bon de Beauvoir
Translations, Notes, and Annotations by Barbara Klaw
Transcribed by Barbara Klaw and Sylvie Le Bon de Beauvoir

English-language translation of Les cahiers de jeunesse, 19261927,
by Simone de Beauvoir
This edition 2006 by the Board of Trustees
of the University of Illinois
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
C 5 4 3 2 1
This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Beauvoir, Simone de, 19081986.

[Carnets de jeunesse. English]

Diary of a philosophy student / Simone de Beauvoir ; edited by Barbara Klaw, Sylvie Le Bon de Beauvoir, and Margaret A. Simons, with Marybeth Timmermann; foreword by Sylvie Le Bon de Beauvoir; translations, notes, and annotations by Barbara Klaw; transcribed by Barbara Klaw and Sylvie Le Bon de Beauvoir.

p. cm. (The Beauvoir series)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN-13: 978-0-252-03142-7 (cloth : alk. paper)

ISBN-10: 0-252-03142-3 (cloth : alk. paper)

1. Beauvoir, Simone de, 19081986.

I. Klaw, Barbara.

II. Le Bon de Beauvoir, Sylvie.

III. Simons, Margaret A.

IV. Title.

B2430.B344A313 2006

194dc22[B] 2006021222

The editors gratefully acknowledge the support of a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, an independent federal agency; a translation grant from the French Ministry of Culture; and a Matching Funds grant from the Illinois Board of Higher Education.

Sylvie Le Bon de Beauvoir

Margaret A. Simons

Barbara Klaw

Margaret A. Simons

Sylvie Le Bon de Beauvoir

TRANSLATED BY MARYBETH TIMMERMANN

It is my pleasure to honor the monumental work of research and publication that the Beauvoir Series represents, which was undertaken and brought to fruition by Margaret A. Simons and her team. These volumes of Simone de Beauvoirs writings, concerning literature as well as philosophy and feminism, stretch from 1926 to 1979, that is to say, throughout almost her entire life. Some of them have been published before and are known, but they remain dispersed throughout time and space, in diverse editions, newspapers, or reviews. Other pieces were read by Beauvoir during conferences or radio programs and then lost from view. Some had been left completely unpublished. What gives all of them force and meaning is precisely having them gathered together, closely, as a whole. Nothing of the sort has yet been realized, except, on a much smaller scale, Les crits de Simone de Beauvoir (The Writings of Simone de Beauvoir), published in France in 1979. Here, the aim is an exhaustive corpus, as much as that is possible.

Because they cover more than fifty years, these volumes faithfully reflect the thoughts of their author, the early manifestation and permanence of certain of her preoccupations as a writer and philosopher, as a woman and feminist. What will be immediately striking, I think, is their extraordinary coherence. Obviously, from this point of view, Les cahiers de jeunesse (The Student Diaries), previously unpublished, constitute the star document. The very young eighteen-, nineteen-, or twenty-year-old Simone de Beauvoir who writes them is clearly already the future great Simone de Beauvoir, author of Linvite (She Came to Stay), Pour une morale de lambigut (The Ethics of Ambiguity), Le deuxime sexe (The Second Sex), Les Mandarins (The Mandarins), and Mmoires (Memoirs). Her vocation as a writer is energetically affirmed in these diaries, but one also discovers in them the roots of her later reflections. It is particularly touching to see the birth, often with hesitations, doubt, and anguish, of the fundamental choices of thought and existence that would have such an impact on so many future readers, women and men. Beauvoir expresses torments, doubt, and anguish, but also exultation and confidence in her strength and in the future. The foresight of certain passages is impressive. Take the one from June 25, 1929, for example: Strange certitude that these riches will be welcomed, that some words will be said and heard, that this life will be a fountainhead from which many others will draw. Certitude of a vocation.

These precious Cahiers will cut short the unproductive and recurrent debate about the influence that Sartre supposedly had on Simone de Beauvoir, since they incontestably reveal to us Simone de Beauvoir before Sartre. Thus, the relationship of Beauvoir and Sartre will take on its true sense, and one will understand to what point Beauvoir was even more herself when she agreed with some of Sartres themes, because all those lonely years of apprenticeship and training were leading her to a definite path and not just any path. Therefore, it is not a matter of influence but an encounter in the strong sense of the term. Beauvoir and Sartre recognized themselves in one another because each already existed independently and intensely. One can all the better discern the originality of Simone de Beauvoir in her ethical preoccupations, her own conception of concrete freedom, and her dramatic consciousness of the essential role of the Other, for example, because they are prefigured in the feverish meditations that occupied her youth. Les cahiers constitute a priceless testimony.

I will conclude by thanking Margaret A. Simons and her associates again for their magnificent series, which will constitute an irreplaceable contribution to the study and the true understanding of the thoughts and works of Simone de Beauvoir.

Barbara Klaw writes: I applaud the numerous individuals who helped in the production of this annotated translation. First, I thank Sylvie Le Bon de Beauvoir for her kind encouragement in my continued work on Beauvoirs 192630 diary. I am grateful to the staff in the Manuscript Room of the Bibliothque Nationale in Paris and especially to Mauricette Berne for facilitating my study of the manuscripts.

I am grateful to colleagues and students who have commented on my translations and scholarly presentations related to my introduction that precedes the 1926 diary, including those at the Simone de Beauvoir Society, the American Translation Association, the Kentucky Philological Association, and Northern Kentucky University. To Alan Hutchison, Tony Russell, Margaret Simons, Marybeth Timmermann, and the anonymous reviewers for the University of Illinois Press, I am indebted for comments on earlier versions of my translation, annotation, and introduction. I sincerely appreciate the invaluable suggestions and questions of Carol Betts at the University of Illinois Press. For their help in finding references for the works or places that Beauvoir cited, I acknowledge Nathalie Bague, Wilson Baldridge, Nina Hellerstein, Nancy Jentsch, Madeleine Leveau-Fernandez, Tamara F. OCallaghan, Michele Peers, Richard Shryock, Louise Witherell, and Tom Zaniello. The Interlibrary Loan Department of Northern Kentucky University deserves praise for its success in making requested translations available for use. I am beholden to Gisle Loriot-Raymer for her aid with translations, to Katherine C. Kurk for her editorial expertise, to Roxanne Kent-Drury for her computer skill, to Danny Miller for his moral support, to Vanessa Johnson for her administrative assistance, and to Alan Hutchison for his help with translations and his moral support.