Born in 1908, Simone de Beauvoir was a brilliant scholar and novelist, leading member of the existentialist movement and a committed socialist and feminist. Raised in a stiflingly respectable envitonment, as a young woman she totally rejected her parents' values and embarked on her literary career. With Jean-Paul Sartre she formed a unique relationship, which she described as 'The one undoubted success in my life'. Later in life she was committed to achieving radical social and political change, but it was writing that gave meaning to her life; above everything, she valued her own intellectual audience.