Read about Simone de Beauvoir’s little-known adventures in America! On January 25, 1947, by invitation of the French Embassy’s Cultural Services, the existentialist philosopher arrived in New York to begin a series of presentations to American universities. She spent four months in the United States, became friends with author Richard Wright, hung out with bums and shoe shiners, and visited Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, and Chicago, where she met novelist Nelson Algren, the love of her life. She also wrote four articles for France-Amérique, including a two-part report on “the Poetry and Truth of the Far West.”