Sartre spent his time in the French Army working on a novel

Jean-Paul Sartre worked on 'Being and Nothingness' while a prisoner of war

The Nazis invaded France in May 1940. Sartre, as a member of the French Army, was taken prisoner that June. While he was in captivity, he studied Martin Heidegger and worked on "Being and Nothingness," one of his most famous philosophical works.

Sartre staged his first play in a POW camp

While imprisoned by the Nazis, the French writer was given permission to write and produce a Christmas show for 15,000 of his fellow POWs. He took the opportunity to produce "Bariona, or the Son of Thunder," a Nativity play that subtly criticized his captors without arousing their suspicions.

Sartre admired American novelist William Faulkner

In addition to writing philosophy and fiction, Jean-Paul Sartre was also a literary critic. His 1939 essay on Faulkner's "The Sound and the Fury" focused on the way the American novelist commented on time, favorably comparing him to Marcel Proust. Ultimately, Sartre argues Faulkner's "despair" about a "closed future" is a result of the "social conditions of our present life." Ever the existentialist, though, Sartre suggests this reality is something that should inspire rather than depress.

The FBI kept tabs on Camus and Sartre

Jean-Paul Sartre worked as an American correspondent for Combat, the newspaper edited by Albert Camus. While he was in the States, J. Edgar Hoover's FBI kept tabs on him, concerned that Combat was publishing unfavorable portrayals of the US.

Sartre and de Beauvoir had an open romantic relationship

The two figureheads of existentialist thought were romantic partners, though they had a publicly open relationship and never lived together. As de Beauvoir says in the interview below, "third persons knew our relationship dwarfed any we could have with them."

Sartre eventually denounced communism

The French philosopher was a long-time ardent supporter of communism and the USSR. He finally spoke out against the movement with the 1956 Soviet invasion of Hungary, saying that the move was "made possible by 12 years of terror and imbecility."

Jean-Paul Sartre rejected his Nobel Prize for literature

Sartre won the award in 1964, but refused it, explaining, "The writer must therefore refuse to let himself be transformed into an institution, even if this occurs under the most honorable circumstances, as in the present case."

A mescaline-induced hallucination stayed with Jean-Paul Sartre throughout his life

In 1935, Sartre was injected with mescaline, a psychedelic drug that was then used to treat alcoholism and depression, by his friend at the Hôpital Sainte-Anne in Paris. It was not a good trip: Sartre saw nightmarish crabs for days and suffered a mental breakdown. For the rest of his life, crustaceans like the ones he saw during the hallucination appeared in his works.

Sartre was an elaborate prankster as a student

After Charles Lindbergh completed his first solo transatlantic voyage in 1927, the French philosopher—then a student at Paris' École normale supérieure—called various newspapers to tell them the American pilot would be granted an honorary degree. Over 500 people showed up to find a Lindbergh lookalike Sartre had hired. "The public fell for it, and an old man even kissed his hand," Sartre later wrote.

Sartre and de Beauvoir's literary journal was named after a Charlie Chaplin movie

The couple founded the magazine Les Temps Modernes in 1945 and it quickly became essential reading for French intellectuals. Its name came from "Modern Times," Charlie Chaplin's 1936 movie that satirized the industrial revolution's dehumanizing effects.

Sartre wrote an 8-hour screenplay for a Freud biopic

Sartre was hired to write the screenplay for what would eventually become John Huston's 1962 film "Freud: The Secret Passion," about the life of the psychoanalyst. Sartre, however, had trouble sticking to the parameters of Hollywood. An early draft was estimated to be five hours long. Rather than shortening it, as Huston suggested, Sartre extended it to eight hours and was eventually removed from the production.

Simone de Beauvoir's lone play has mostly been overlooked

Although primarily known as a philosopher, Beauvoir wrote the play "The Useless Mouths," which debuted in Paris in November 1945. The work is about a government allowing "useless" citizens—women, children, the elderly—to starve during a food shortage. While it's not widely staged, some Beauvoir scholars believe it's a significant text that explores many of the existential themes she explores in her other work.

Novelist Richard Wright joined the existentialists in Paris

The author of “Black Boy” and “Native Son” left the United States in 1946 to escape his home country’s racial inequality. In Paris, he explored existentialist ideas and spent time with Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre. “The Outsider,” a novel he wrote while living in France, embraced many of the philosophy’s central themes.

Simone de Beauvoir was a serious hiker

The existentialist icon began hiking as a young school teacher in Marseilles. Eventually, she would plan out long trips that covered up to 18 miles and took her around 12 hours to complete. She would later write that the hikes saved her “from boredom, regret, and several sorts of depression.”

Camus was a soccer goalie as a teenager

The writer played for Algiers Racing University but had to quit after contracting tuberculosis. He remained a fan, though, once suggesting that the game taught him important lessons about morality. In the 1957 interview below, he briefly reflects on his time as a goalie and speaks about his recent Nobel Prize.

Read Albert Camus' 'Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays'

Camus' most famous work of nonfiction is this collection of philosophical essays. Perhaps the most resonant entry is the title essay, which reimagines the Greek myth of a man condemned to roll a boulder for all eternity. Rather than presenting the story as a cautionary tale about defying the gods, as the original myth intended, Camus considered Sisyphus an "absurd hero" for his actions and imagined him smiling as he endlessly toiled at his repetitive punishment.

Voltaire's writing sent him into exile

In 1717, the writer's satirical poem "La Henriade" landed him in prison for a year. By 1726, the French government's distaste for his work caused him to leave the country for England, though he returned a few years later. That would be short-lived: In 1734, his "Lettres Philosophiques" sent him packing again, moving to Champagne, then Berlin, then Switzerland, before finally returning to Paris in 1778.

Performance artist Thierry Mandon turns solitary domestic scenes into spectacless

Suspended in the air and attached to severed buildings, artist Mandon appears engrossed in his book while lying in bed or sitting at a table. Mandon satirizes our everyday habits while attracting and amusing passersby.

Existentialist writer Jean-Paul Sartre coined the famous phrase 'Hell is—other people' in his play 'No Exit'

How a sick George Orwell finished '1984'

The writer worked on the novel while living in a remote cottage in Scotland. While he was there, he was in a boating accident that sent him overboard, eventually leading to a fatal bout of tuberculosis. Orwell finished the novel (and massive revisions) while trying to recover. He died in 1950, at 46.

A book series aimed at World War II soldiers helped popularize works like 'The Great Gatsby' and 'Of Mice and Men.'

Detailing the horrific conditions of life in the trenches

What was it like to live and fight in a trench during World War I? If you were on the German side you might have bunkers, electricity, and other basic comforts. If you were on the British and French side the conditions have been described as muddy and "horrific". Find out how unpleasant trench warfare was and how it affected WWI soldiers.

A day in the life of a Roman soldier

In 15 CE, Roman legionary Servius Felix was eight years into a 25-year career as a warrior for the Empire. Born to a poor farmer who hoped to retire and receive several acres of land, Servius served amid fights with Germanic tribes from the north. He hopes to marry a woman back home and mourns the loss of his fallen friends.

Famed poet TS Eliot rejected the manuscript for George Orwell's political fable 'Animal Farm,' writing that its criticism of authoritarianism was not 'the right point of view.'

Ernest Hemingway’s worst boss

Before international fame and the Nobel Prize in Literature, Ernest Hemingway toiled under the harsh rule of the assistant managing editor at the Toronto Daily Star. Learn about the American writer’s difficult early career as a features writer with a job so demanding he had to miss the birth of his first son. However, thanks to that harsh boss, Hemingway asserted boundaries, left journalism, and began his legendary career writing fiction.

Portugese diplomat who saved thousands of Jews during WWII

As the German army marched across France, Aristides de Sousa Mendes faced a choice: obey his government or follow his conscience—and risk everything

Marie Curie developed and trained women to operate mobile X-ray units in World War I

The “petites Curies” allowed medical professionals to identify the severity of wounds without transporting soldiers to medical facilities, expediting treatment and saving lives. The efforts of Curie and other women led to expansions in their rights after the war.

In 2025, four executives from large tech companies were given positions in the US Army Reserves—including Palantir Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar, which reinforced Palantir's ties with the US military and its role as a leading defense partner.

The concept of phantom limbs, the perception that amputated limbs are still present, dates back to a French military surgeon in the 16th century.

American dance legend Martha Graham, sometimes called 'the Picasso of dance,' refused to perform at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and conceived the piece 'Chronicle' in response to the experience.

Against his wishes, Albert Einstein's brain was removed before his cremation, and the pathologist responsible stored it for decades in mason jars within a beer cooler.

In 1939, baseball star Lou Gehrig delivered his inspirational 'Luckiest Man' speech after retiring due to the health condition that now bears his name.

Before writing 'Walden,' transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau nearly burned down his hometown with a campfire that grew out of control.

SpongeBob exemplifies Aristotle's philosophy for living well because he understands that happiness doesn't come from external factors like money, recognition, or power.

Mark Twain spent decades feuding with the US Postal Service, convinced its costs and regulations were bureaucratic overreach.

During the French Revolution, a botanist's letter asking about "dear Rhus" (poison ivy) was intercepted, leading authorities to suspect he was conspiring with the Russians.

In 1945, Surrealist artist Salvador Dalí and legendary animator Walt Disney began collaborating on a short film that was not completed until 2003, years after both men had died.

Sunflowers have long been a symbol of nuclear disarmament because they can extract large amounts of radioactive cesium from soil.

After NASA's Voyager 1 captured Earth as a single pixel as it left the solar system in 1990, astronomer Carl Sagan used the image to reflect on humanity's fragility and the responsibility to protect 'the only world we've ever known.'

The Ramones' 'Pet Sematary,' the theme song for the Stephen King novel of the same name, was written while the band was admiring the writer's collection of horror memorabilia.

One of the most famous portraits ever taken is 'Afghan Girl' (1984) by Steve McCurry, yet the subject Sharbat Gula went much of her life without being identified or benefitting from the image's success.

Browse a detailed visual analysis of over 200,000 similes—comparisons that often use 'like' or 'as'—from popular fiction to see how frequently writers the same idiomatic expressions.

20,000 letters to the advice columnist 'Dear Abby' provide insight into prevailing sex, religion, and LGBTQ fears, anxieties, and concerns from the 1950s onward.

Hotels in Cannes, the glamorous city on the French Riviera, hire hawks to ward off seagulls during the city's famous film festival.

A vending machine run with Anthropic's AI went out of business after it was convinced to give away items for free and sell a video game console.

Stars appear to twinkle because turbulence in the motion of molecules in Earth's atmosphere causes light to bend and wiggle rapidly on its way to the surface—a phenomenon called scintillation.

Stanford built a Google Maps for the Roman Empire, revealing how much it cost to travel in the ancient world

Studies suggest when you sleep is as important as how much you get, and syncing with your circadian rhythms may lead to less fatigue and improved long-term health outcomes

NBA superstar Victor Wembanyama spent the 2025 summer training with monks in central China to enhance his body and mind.

'Shogun,' a 1980s TV series, helped popularize sushi in the US by stimulating an American interest in Japanese culture.