Death of Simone de Beauvoir

Simone de Beauvoir died on 14 April 1986 in 14th arrondissement of Paris, aged 78. A French philosopher, writer and feminist thinker, Beauvoir was a leading figure of existentialism and for many years the partner of Jean-Paul Sartre. Her book The Second Sex, published in 1949, analysed the historical and social construction of womanhood and became a founding text of modern feminism. She also wrote novels, including The Mandarins, which won the Prix Goncourt in 1954, philosophical essays such as The Ethics of Ambiguity, and several volumes of memoirs. Politically engaged, she supported left-wing causes and later took an active part in the women's movement in France. Her ideas continue to be widely discussed.

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