In January 1947, French novelist, feminist, existential philosopher Simone de Beauvoir boarded an airplane in Paris bound for New York ready to take the greatest adventure of her life: a road trip across America, visiting 56 cities in 19 states over 116 days.
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Carrying a letter of introduction from her soulmate Jean-Paul Sartre, de Beauvoir, then 39, toured the nation giving talks at women’s colleges while detailing her experiences and observations in the masterful travel diary, America Day by Day, first published in France in 1948.
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Written two years before de Beauvoir published her landmark work, The Second Sex, America Day by Day reveals a woman coming into her true self. “Usually, traveling is an attempt to annex a new object to my universe; this in itself is an undertaking: but today it’s different,” she writes.
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