Jean-Paul Sartre dominated the cultural and literary life of post-war France, gathered a large following for his philosophy of existentialism and over-shadowed the work of his equally brilliant partner Simone de Beauvoir.

David Drake, Principal Lecturer in French at Middlesex University, London, is President of the United Kingdom Society for Sartrean Studies (UKSSS) and a member of the Editorial Board of SartreStudies International and of Modern and Contemporary France. He has written two books on French intellectuals and politics, and his articles on French intellectuals, especially Sartre, have appeared in the USA and France, and in the UK in publications that include Sartre Studies International, the Journal of European Studies, the Times Education Supplement, and Modern and Contemporary France.