Deirdre Bair (1935–2020)

This is an excellent biography of a remarkable person. One might have questioned the need for a biography for one who was, in Bair’s words, so “publicly introspective,” given her four-volume memoir and her transparently autobiographical novels. Yet Bair demonstrates time and again how valuable it was to have personal access to Beauvoir in the last years of her life, as well as to her relatives and many of the “Sartristes.” I found this particularly so whenever she questioned Beauvoir about the frequently-uttered criticism that, apart from her refusal to bear children or do housework, her subservience to the needs of the man she’d bound herself to was that of a traditional “helpmate,” despite her scorn of the institution of marriage. It also speaks for Beauvoir that she permitted this examination, even if she sometimes refused to say more than evasive answers such as “one must have been there at the time.” In the end, I felt that while she did organize her life around the needs of Sartre, she was his intellectual equal, a valuable sparring partner in his work.

In addition to being an intellectual giant, Sartre was what one person in the book called a Peter Pan—a boy who didn’t want to grow up; less charitably, he could be called an egotistical monster (a reminder that great philosophy isn’t always produced by admirable people). Catering to him must not have been easy.

While Bair enables readers to form their own opinion of these two central figures, when it came to her depiction of the role of two persons whose closeness to Sartre toward the end of his life destabilized his relationship with Beauvoir and marginalized her, I found myself disliking them as much as Beauvoir did.

To recount Beauvoir’s life, given the volume of her and Satre’s written output, their frequent travels, and the comings and goings of associates, disciples, and lovers (including the great romantic love of her life, Nelson Algren) presented an organizational challenge. I think Bair mastered it for the most part, but not completely. At times, I didn’t feel that, as a reader, I needed to be told something for the second or third time.

These are quibbles. In the introduction, Bair reflects on why writing biography was one of her “preferred forms of critical inquiry . . . : How did X’s life and work illuminate our cultural and intellectual history; how did X influence the way we think about ourselves and interpret our society; and finally, what can we learn from X’s life and work that will be of use to us once we have read his/her biography?��� Measured by this self-imposed standard, I’d say Bair succeeded.… (more)

When journalist turned biographer Deirdre Bair decided to expand on her doctoral thesis to write a biography of Samuel Beckett she surprised herself by garnering his agreement. Beckett said he “would neither help nor hinder” her efforts to write “this business of my life,” as he referred to the biography. Although he agreed to be interviewed repeatedly Beckett wouldn’t allow her to take notes or record their conversations. The book won a National Book Award in 1981 and took seven years to research, write and publish. It also took a toll on her personal and professional life, eliciting jealousy and hostility from “Becketteers” and others who felt she wasn’t the right person for the job.

Bair also wrote a biography of Simone de Beauvoir, a ten year effort. She got to know Beauvoir’s friends, family and many other feminists in that decade. Her descriptions of the interview, writing and travel process for both books, as well as how it all affected the other areas of her life as a professor, wife and mother, are fascinating. Bair provides true insight to the life and methods of a biographer.

Bair writes of the difficulties of being taken seriously as a woman, journalist and biographer, both in academia and the literary world. She feels it was an “almost unbelievable privilege to know and write about these two giants of contemporary culture.” She describes the experience well in this book.… (more)

How does an author go about writing a biography of a well known subject, while refraining from judgement, creating controversy, maintaining a good working relationship with the subject and the people around them? In this "bio-memoir Deirdre Bair relates her experiences, struggles and reactions while first compiling the biography of Samuel Beckett and Simone de Beauvoir.
It was a revelation for me to see how much time, money, effort and negotiating goes into the research for a biography. This is a book about Bair herself, not about Beckett or de Beauvoir. I read it as a personal memoir , and as such it is engaging, honest and important.

I received this book in a giveaway, and I am glad to have read it.… (more)