Ladies Museum: An Anthology of New Downtown Women Poets.
Deirdre Bair – Simone de Beauvoir
correspondence and interviews
Simone de Beauvoir 2
letters 2
interviews 2
Family and Friends 2
Jeanne de Beauvoir to Bair 2
Magdalene de Bisschop to Bair 3
Helene de Beauvoir to Bair (her sister) 3
Sylvie le Bon to Bair 3
Colette Audry 4
Claude Courchay 4
John Gerassi 4
Stepha Gerassi 4
Francis Jeanson 4
Claude Lanzmann 4
Ivan Noffet 5
Henriette Nizan 5
Jean Pouillon 5
Geraldine Pardo 5
Simone de la Chaume la Coste 5
Images 6
Simone de Beauvoir to Bair:
letters:
About 22 autograph letters signed; 1980-86;
Simone de Beauvoir gives Bair leads and support for writing her biography as well as cordial notes on keeping in touch.
One folder containing copies of Bair’s letters to Simone de Beauvoir, 1983 – 1986, unsigned, discussing different issues of writing her biography, asking Simone de Beauvoir for support and expressing general cordialities.
interviews with Simone de Beauvoir:
One folder, containing notes on two meetings and two telephone conversations Bair held
with Simone de Beauvoir in February and March 1986.
Family and Friends:
interviews with others:
Fifteen tapes, 40.5 hours, 1982-86; transcripts and English translations thereof; one file containing transcripts of conversations between Simone de Beauvoir and Dorothy Kaufmann.
Seven folders containing in total notes on approximately nineteen conversations Bair held with various persons, 1982 – 1987, regarding Simone de Beauvoir and aspects of writing the autobiography.
Jeanne de Beauvoir to Bair:
One interview transcript and translation thereof, n.d.; 25 pp. of the French version; 22 pp. of the English translation
Jeanne talks of de Beauvoir as a young girl, the beginnings of her relationship with Sartre, her relationship to members of her family and their views on her.
Magdalene de Bisschop to Bair:
letters: About 9 autograph letters, some with typed translations, 1-4 pp. each, 1986-88.
de Bisschop reminisces about de Beauvoir as a child and teenager, recounts a summer visit by Sartre (possibly one in which de Beauvoir and Sartre became lovers) and other encounters with the family.
interviews: One interview transcript and translation thereof, n.d.; 25 pp. of the
French version, 22 pp. of the English translation.
de Bisschop recollects de Beauvoir's youth, gives insight into her character and her immediate family.
Helene de Beauvoir to Bair (her sister):
letters: About 62 autograph letters signed from Helene to Bair, 1-2 pp. each, 1983-93, all but a couple in French.
Helene reminiscences about Simone, her relationship with Sartre, and the family, mostly keeping in touch and discussing wherabouts and whatabouts; plus Bair’s letters to Helene.
interviews: Three interview transcripts, 14-30 pp. each, 1982-86.
Helene reminisces about her and Simone’s childhood, discusses impressions of her character and personality, and discusses the later bond between Simone and her cousin Sylvie le Bon.
Sylvie le Bon to Bair (her cousin):
letters: About 4 typed letters signed from Sylvie to Bair, 1986-90.
Mostly cordial back- and-fourths regarding publication materials for Bair’s de Beauvoir biography, eventually ending in Sylvie denying access to some of de Beauvoir’s letters (see Helene de Beauvoir correspondence of 1986). With Bair’s copious letters to le Bon.
interviews: Transcripts and translations of (seemingly) three separate interviews, one on May 6, 1983, the other on October 8 and 20, 1986, some undated.
Discussing how le Bon and de Beauvoir first met, how they became close, their last years together and de Beauvoir’s relationship with feminists.
Colette Audry:
interviews: Transcripts and translations of one interview, March 5, 1986.
Discussing how she first met de Beauvoir through a communist friend of Sartre’s, spending time with de Beauvoir and Sartre and some aspects of their open relationship.
Claude Courchay:
interviews: Transcripts and translations of one interview, April 1983, approximately 60 pp.
each
Discussing how Courchay first met de Beauvoir, her role in his writing career, their place in the political atmosphere of their time and various other thoughts on de Beauvoir’s character.
John Gerassi:
interviews: Transcripts of one interview, December 1981, approximately 20 pp.
Discussing de Beauvoir’s relationship with Sylvie le Bon, her relationship with Sartre and others.
Stepha Gerassi:
interviews: Transcripts of one interview, April 1982, approximately 5 pp.
Discussing Gerassi’s relationship with a young de Beauvoir, a personal anecdote about her family’s impoverishment, and her relationship with Sartre.
Francis Jeanson:
interviews: Transcripts of one interview, undated, approximately 26 pp.
Discussing Jeanson’s literary involvement beginning at Temps Modernes with de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre before and after Sartre’s death.
Claude Lanzmann:
interviews: Transcripts of one interview, January 1983, 15 pp.
Discussing Lanzmann’s involvement with de Beauvoir, their relationship with Sartre and various thoughts on Sartre’s influence on de Beauvoir’s work.
Ivan Noffet:
interviews: Transcripts of one interview, April 1986, approximately 26 pp.
Containing various speculations on de Beauvoir’s sex life.
Henriette Nizan:
interviews: Transcripts of one interview, May 1983, approximately 20 pp.
Recalling an instance when Nizan and her husband made a film with de Beauvoir and Sartre and various other aspects of their romantic relationship.
Jean Pouillon:
interviews: Transcripts of one interview, January 1982, approximately 20 pp., in French
with English translation.
Discussing his relationship with de Beauvoir and Sartre.
Geraldine Pardo:
interviews: Transcripts of one interview, January 1982, approximately 20 pp.
Discussing spending time with de Beauvoir in Rouen, Sartre, and others of her circle.
Simone de la Chaume la Coste:
interviews: Transcripts of one interview, March 1986, approximately 20 pp.
Discussing grade-school memories of de Beauvoir.
Images:
One box containing approximately 100 photographs (mostly reproductions?), 5x7 inches, black & white, showing Simone de Beauvoir in her youth, with her family, with Sartre in her later years as well as different members of her family and various other famous political figures of the communist movement.
One box containing more recent color images of Simone de Beauvoir, 4x6 inches, some black and white shots of her place of burial, as well as negatives of images reproduced in 5x7 images (see above).
Catherine Deudon: two black and white portraits of Simone de Beauvoir in her later years, 8x10 inches, one is mounted, one glossy color image, 7x9 inches, mounted, commemorating Simone de Beauvoir’s death.
Dominique Doan: one glossy color portrait, 6.5x9.5 inches, mounted, of Simone de Beauvoir in her later years, one black and white image, 9.5x12 inches, mounted, depicting an elderly Simone de Beauvoir giving what appears to be an interview.
One folder containing approximately twenty images, black and white, 6x8 inches and larger, of Simone de Beauvoir in her later years, with Sartre and at various other functions.
One box containing approximately forty reproductions of Simone de Beauvoir’s family photos.
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