Simone de Beauvoir¿(1908–86) was a French existentialist philosopher who employed a literary-philosophical method in her works, including¿Ethics of Ambiguity¿(1947) and¿The Second Sex¿(1949).¿Margaret A. Simons¿is Distinguished Research Professor Emerita at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and the author of¿Beauvoir and The Second Sex: Feminism, Race, and the Origins of Existentialism.¿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.¿Marybeth Timmermann¿is a contributing translator and editor of Beauvoir's¿Philosophical Writings.¿A volume in The Beauvoir Series, edited by Margaret A. Simons and Sylvie Le Bon de Beauvoir