xvi INTRODUCTION TO THE VINTAGE EDITION INTRODUCTION TO THE VINTAGE EDITION xvii nations'and despite Parshley's trying to read as widely as possible in Only one thing is certain:there has been no other woman in contem- Sartre and his precursors,Hegel and Heiddeger,many philosophers porary literature who has been so completely associated with the believe he has either misconstrued or misused much philosophical ter- major events,causes and actions of her society....Considered minology. separately,most if not all of her remarks make splendid sense;seen Because Parshley received no suggestions from Beauvoir about cut- together they create a crazy quilt kaleidoscope of image and reality, ting the massive manuscript,he had to make decisions on his own. opinion and fact.Feminist ideology cannot ignore Simone de Beau- One of the most extensive cuts was in the "History"section,where voir;her importance should be unquestioned and is undeniable.The he deleted fully half the chapter and the names and histories of sev- real question will be how to asscss her contribution,and what use to enty-eight women.Since there is no note to indicate these deletions, make of it in the future.19 much of Beauvoir's subsequent analysis of nineteenth-century Euro- pean and American suffrage movements is seriously impaired,as is her I believe we would do well to start with The Second Sex. treatment of the development of socialist feminism in France.She was upset to learn that any cuts had been made at all,but was furious -DEIRDRE BAIR about the "History"section,because,as she noted to her agent,"the detailed studies...make my writing vivid and convincing."Shortly after,she "agreed in principle to the idea of cuts,"but only if they were submitted to her for approval first.Unfortunately,she lost inter- est in the project and her comments and suggestions were few and haphazard.All she really wanted from publication in the United NOTES g States was "lots of dollars,"so she made no further protest about changes in her text.When Mrs.Knopf sent her a copy of the finished i.Sunone de Beauvor,Force of Curcumnstance (New York and London Pengun Books, 1978) book,Beauvoir replied insincerely via her agent that she found the 2 Nelson Algren,Who Lost an American>(New York Macmillan,1963),p 97 book "superb"and the translation "excellent."She added that she 3 Madeleine Chapsal,"Une mtervew de Simone de Beauvoir,"Les Ecrvdins en per- hoped Mrs.Knopf (with whom she had never cooperated,and whom sonne(Pans Jullard,1960),Pp 17-37,reprnted in Claude Francis and Fernande Conter, she had simply never liked)would return to Paris so she could tell her Les Ecrits de Simone de Beauvour(Pans Les Editons Gallmard,1979),p 385.My transla tion personally "how much I appreciate Mr.Parshley's work and the ap- 4 Beauvoir,Force of Curcumstance,p 196 pearance of my book."17 5 Intervnew with Colette Audry,March 5.1986,Pans.All subsequent comments by Audry are from this interview One day a new,uncut translation of The Second Sex will no doubt 6 These remarks are taken from a series of interviews I conducted with Simone de be done.The book has become a classic and should therefore be availa- Beauvoir from 1981 to 1986 in Paris and New York for the book Simone de Beauvoir.A ble to readers exactly as its author wrote it,no matter how repetitious, Biography (New York Summt Books,1990)Hereafter,any unattrbuted remarks by Smmone de Beauvoir are taken from these interviews and conversations. unwieldy,or awkward the text.In the meantime,however,until we 7 Chtistine Faure,"The Twihght of the Goddesses,or The Intellectual Crists of French have a"definitive"text before us,this one will serve to alert readers to Femmnism,"translated by Ltllan S Robinson Signs 7,1(Autumn 1981)82 This article was the remarkable variety and richness of Simone de Beauvoir's thesis and onginally published as "Le Crepuscule des deesses,ou La Crise intellectuelle cn Francc en its continuing importance.It remains,as one of the first reviewers mileu feminste,"Les Temps Modernes 414 (January 1981)1285-91 8 Throughout the compostion of the book,when people asked Beauvor what she was noted,"more than a work of scholarship;it is a work of art,with the writing,she usually said "ust something about the other sex"She had no ttle until she was salt of recklessness that makes art sting."18 almost ready to publsh Then,durga nght of frendly drnking and conversation,her fend In another instance,I tried to assess Simone de Beauvoir's contribu- and Sartre's,Jacques-Laurent Bost,made a scatological joke calling homosexuals "the third tion to our time,and I concluded: sex,and that must mean women come in second"She decided to call her book The Second Sex