Jean-Paul Sartre
1905–1980 · French (Paris) · Existentialism
Known for: Father of existentialism—Being and Nothingness, Nausea, No Exit. Refused the Nobel Prize (1964)
Sartre was small, wall-eyed, and physically unprepossessing—yet the most famous intellectual of the 20th century. He wrote philosophy, novels, plays, and political commentary with superhuman productivity, partly fueled by amphetamines. He refused the Nobel Prize, saying 'a writer should not be turned into an institution.'
His open relationship with Simone de Beauvoir was the most famous intellectual partnership in history. He was a Marxist who supported revolutionary movements, sometimes uncritically. He went blind in later life but continued working through dictation.
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