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.

| 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 |"Both volumes are strong and important contributions to feminist philosophy, not only in their themes but in significantly addressing these themes with reference to gendered human existence. I recommend them to anyone who is interested in understanding the making of a feminist philosopher, especially to early researchers working on Beauvoir, to undergraduates trying to understand philosophy, as well as to scholars seeking to understand Beauvoir and her philosophical themes." —Hypatia
"This diary increases our admiration for Beauvoir's heroic determination to make something of herself. A precious document."—Bookforum

​"This is a groundbreaking and extremely important work for feminists, philosophers, and scholars of autobiography, and a welcome academic corrective to the edited, abridged, and simplified commercial representations of this important and complex twentieth-century French feminist, philosopher, and writer."—Kentucky Philological Review

|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.