Simone de Beauvoir, still a teen, began a diary while a philosophy student at the Sorbonne. Written in 1926-27—before Beauvoir met Jean-Paul Sartre—the diaries reveal previously unknown details about her life and times and offer critical insights into her early intellectual interests, philosophy, and literary works.

Presented for the first time in translation, this fully annotated first volume of the Diary includes essays from Barbara Klaw and Margaret A. Simons that address its philosophical, historical, and literary significance. It remains an invaluable resource for tracing the development of Beauvoir’s independent thinking and her influence on philosophy, feminism, and the world.

Simone de Beauvoir (1908–86) was a French existentialist philosopher. Her works include The Second Sex (1949). Barbara Klaw (co-transcription, author of notes and annotations, and translator of this volume) is a professor emerita of French at Northern Kentucky University. She is the author of Le Paris de Simone de Beauvoir.Sylvie Le Bon de Beauvoir, adopted daughter and literary executor of Simone de Beauvoir, is the editor of Lettres à Sartre and many other works by Beauvoir. Margaret A. Simons is a professor of philosophy at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, and author of Beauvoir and “The Second Sex.”Marybeth Timmermann is a contributing translator and editor of "The Useless Mouths" and Other Literary Writings, and other works by Beauvoir.

Contents
 Foreword to the Beauvoir Series
 Sylvie Le Bon de Beauvoir
 Acknowledgments
 Introduction
 Margaret Simons
 The Literary and Historical Context of Beauvoir's Early Writings:
 1926-27
 Barbara Klaw
 Beauvoir's Early Philosophy: 1926-27
 Margaret Simons
 Diary of a Philosophy Student
 August 6-December 2, 1926
 April 17-October 21, 1927
 Bibliography
 Index