SEX, LOVE, AND LETTERS

A previously undiscovered cache of uncataloged letters prompts an examination of Simone de Beauvoir’s relationship with her readers.

“Nothing prepared me for the drama I found the first time I opened a folder of readers’ letters to [her],” writes Coffin about her discovery. In the letters, which are held at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, in Paris, Coffin read about the experiences of men and women who “wanted to meet Beauvoir, to share their memories or to share in hers.” The letters are fascinating, but this scrupulously researched book does more than recount their content. Coffin asserts that “the ‘Simone de Beauvoir’ that we know would not exist without her readers’ formative role.” According to Coffin, the dynamic relationship between authors and readers does not flow in one direction. Beauvoir’s ideas may have deeply affected her readers, but her readers had a significant impact on her, as well. Beauvoir, the author reminds us, once wrote that “a book is a collective object: readers contribute as much as the author to its creation.” Indeed, writes Coffin, “these letters make us take that point seriously. They do not simply provide the context in which to better understand Beauvoir’s ideas.” Coffin provides even further context for the books and world events to which Beauvoir’s readers were responding, including The Second Sex, Beauvoir’s relationship with Sartre, France’s war with Algeria, and the legacy of World War II. The book is dense with ideas, but the clarity of Coffin’s prose makes her a genial guide. The highlight, though, is the letters themselves, which are eloquent, poignant, and often unassuming. “Everything you say in your memoirs I have felt; I would have liked to have been able to say it, but I explain myself very poorly,” one wrote. They did quite a bit better than that.

This beautifully written, frequently moving book is a crucial addition to the scholarship on Simone de Beauvoir.