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 . Marybeth Timmermann is a contributing translator and editor of Beauvoir's Philosophical Writings and "The Useless Mouths" and Other Literary Writings . Sylvie Le Bon de Beauvoir, adopted daughter and literary executor of Simone de Beauvoir, is the editor of Lettres ¿artre and many other works by Beauvoir.