ABSTRACT
Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980) was arguably the most well-known and influential living philosopher, while alive, in human history. And Sartre, of course, died well before the internet. Sartre’s prodigious output combined with his treatment of an astonishingly wide range of topics and genera established his stature in multiple ways, infrequently combined in a single person. Sartre wrote six to ten hours almost every day for nearly 50 years and produced an estimated 20 published pages per day of his productive life. Sartre’s literary works include short stories, five novels (one of which was unfinished and published posthumously) twelve plays, and four screenplays—only two screenplays were produced, though six plays were converted into films. Sartre’s philosophical texts include two systematic treatises, one of which was unfinished, and numerous monographs and essays on a wide range of topics: imagination, emotions, consciousness, ontology, metaphysics, ethics and politics… He wrote one of the most celebrated autobiographies in French literary history and three biographies—two of which, by their scope and their ambition, transformed the genre. Additionally, Sartre penned ten volumes of essays that include a wide array of literary and art criticism and social and political commentary. To this one can add diaries, notebooks, letters, interviews, and multiple prefaces to important works authored by other significant figures.
