"INAUGURATED THE EXISTENTIALIST ERA IN FRANCE AND ABROAD": FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH OF SARTRE'S REVOLUTIONARY WORK ON EXISTENTIALISM, "A TURNING POINT IN SARTRE'S INTELLECTUAL LIFE"

SARTRE, Jean Paul. Existentialism. New York: Philosophical Library, (1947). Octavo, original yellow paper boards, original dust jacket.

First edition in English of Sartre's epoch-making Paris lecture on existentialism—"the first sustained exposition of Sartre's philosophy to appear in English," including an "exact transcription of the discussion" that followed Sartre's lecture, in original dust jacket.

"Sartre must be seen as a major figure of his time… his body of writing has been of considerable importance in the post-war world, and he himself, both through his positive contribution to intellectual life and through his questioning of accepted values, has exerted an undoubted influence on more than one generation" (Reid, 577). On October 24, 1945 Sartre delivered a talk on his theory of existentialism in Brussels. Four days later, speaking at the Club Maintenant in Paris, he titled it, L'Existentialisme est un humanisme (Existentialism is a Humanism). His biographer Annie Cohen-Solal called it "the event of the year," and in a front-page article in Combat, edited by Camus, the headlines read: "Too many attend Sartre lecture. Heat, fainting spells, police" (Publisher's Weekly). That lecture, extraordinary its impact, confirmed "Sartre's position as France's leading existentialist philosopher" (Blackburn, 339), and proved to be "a turning point in Sartre's intellectual life. A new cycle of philosophical inquiry was about to begin" (Elkaim-Sartre, Preface to 1996 edition, xiv).

With this work Sartre "inaugurated the existentialist era in France and abroad" (Michelman, A to Z of Existentialism, 331), describing his philosophy as "a kind of 'optimism,' and a 'doctrine of action,' and man as someone who… 'exists only to the extent that he realizes himself, therefore he is nothing more than the sum of his actions… responsible for what he is… condemned to be free'… After criticizing the theories of Marx, Heidegger, Kierkegaard, Descartes and Kant, and after citing Gide, Racine, Proust, Stendhal, Cocteau and Picasso, Sartre… returns to those ideas that marked out his world vision and nourished his entire work: 'responsibility,' 'project,' 'freedom,' 'action,' 'individual,' 'solitude'" (Cohen-Solal, Introduction to 1996 edition, 10). The work's continued influence affirms that "Sartre's philosophy of freedom was no mere passing fancy. We… see it take shape in his early psychological writings, encounter it in full in the profound and massive Being and Nothingness, and see it applied in novels, plays, essays and biographies" (Publisher's Weekly). As he observes herein: 'Man makes himself… in choosing his ethics, he makes himself, and the force of circumstances is such that he cannot abstain from choosing one. We define man only in relationship to involvement." With the translation of Bernard Frechtman, "one of Sartre's chief translators" (Cotkin, Existential America, 98). He identifies this edition as "the first sustained exposition of Sartre's philosophy to appear in English." In Frechtman's Introduction, he also notes that the "Discussion" that follows Sartre's text herein is "an exact transcription of the discussion which followed the lecture." Preceded by the 1946 French edition. Later published in 1948 in an English edition titled Existentialism and Humanism, translated by Philip Mairet. Issued the same year in light blue paper boards, and in red cloth, no priority established. Mahaffey, 272. Oxford Guide to Literature in Translation, 296-300.

Book fine: light edge-wear, mild soiling to extremely good dust jacket.