BEAUVOIR (Simone de). Le Deuxième Sexe. Paris, Gallimard, 1949. 2 volumes in-8, red half-maroquin, smooth spine, gilt head, untrimmed, cover and spine (Boichot). First edition. One of 55 first copies on vellum pur fil. It was in this famous essay that Simone de Beauvoir demonstrated that "one is not born a woman: one becomes one" (vol. II, p. 13). A pleasant, well-bound copy. Slight discharge on the first blank page of each volume, as is often the case.