</ref> and he had previously refused the Légion d'honneur, in 1945. The prize was announced on 22 October 1964; on 14 October, Sartre had written a letter to the Nobel Institute, asking to be removed from the list of nominees, and that he would not accept the prize if awarded, but the letter went unread;<ref name="letter">[http://fondation-la-poste.com/article.php3?id_article=251 Histoire de lettres Jean-Paul Sartre refuse le Prix Nobel en 1964], Elodie Bessé</ref> on 23 October, ''Le Figaro'' published a statement by Sartre explaining his refusal.  He said he did not wish to be "transformed" by such an award, and did not want to take sides in an East vs. West cultural struggle by accepting an award from a prominent Western cultural institution.<ref name="letter" /> After the prize award he tried to escape the media by hiding in the house of Simone's sister Hélène de Beauvoir in Goxwiller in Alsace.

</ref> and he had previously refused the Légion d'honneur, in 1945. The prize was announced on 22 October 1964; on 14 October, Sartre had written a letter to the Nobel Institute, asking to be removed from the list of nominees, and that he would not accept the prize if awarded, but the letter went unread;<ref name="letter">[http://fondation-la-poste.com/article.php3?id_article=251 Histoire de lettres Jean-Paul Sartre refuse le Prix Nobel en 1964], Elodie Bessé</ref> on 23 October, ''Le Figaro'' published a statement by Sartre explaining his refusal.  He said he did not wish to be "transformed" by such an award, and did not want to take sides in an East vs. West cultural struggle by accepting an award from a prominent Western cultural institution.<ref name="letter" /> After the prize award he tried to escape the media by hiding in the house of Simone's sister Hélène de Beauvoir in Goxwiller in Alsace.

Though his name was then a household word (as was "existentialism" during the tumultuous 1960s), Sartre remained a simple man with few possessions, actively committed to causes until the end of his life, such as the student revolution strikes in Paris during the summer of 1968 during which he was arrested for civil disobedience. President Charles de Gaulle intervened and pardoned him, commenting that "you don't arrest Voltaire."<ref>[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE4DF1538F934A35755C0A961948260 "Superstar of the Mind"], by Tom Bishop in ''New York Times'' 7 June 1987</ref>

Though his name was then a household word (as was "[[existentialism]]" during the tumultuous 1960s), Sartre remained a simple man with few possessions, actively committed to causes until the end of his life, such as the student revolution strikes in Paris during the summer of 1968 during which he was arrested for civil disobedience. President Charles de Gaulle intervened and pardoned him, commenting that "you don't arrest Voltaire."<ref>[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE4DF1538F934A35755C0A961948260 "Superstar of the Mind"], by Tom Bishop in ''New York Times'' 7 June 1987</ref>

in 1975, when asked how he would like to be remembered, Sartre replied:

in 1975, when asked how he would like to be remembered, Sartre replied:

<blockquote>I would like <nowiki>[people]</nowiki> to remember ''Nausea'', <nowiki>[my plays]</nowiki> ''No Exit'' and ''The Devil and the Good Lord,'' and then my two philosophical works, more particularly the second one, ''Critique of Dialectical Reason''. Then my essay on Genet, ''Saint Genet''...If these are remembered, that would be quite an achievement, and I don't ask for more. As a man, if a certain Jean-Paul Sartre is remembered, I would like people to remember the milieu or historical situation in which I lived,...how I lived in it, in terms of all the aspirations which I tried to gather up within myself.</blockquote>

<blockquote>I would like <nowiki>[people]</nowiki> to remember ''Nausea'', <nowiki>[my plays]</nowiki> ''No Exit'' and ''The Devil and the Good Lord,'' and then my two philosophical works, more particularly the second one, ''Critique of Dialectical Reason''. Then my essay on Genet, ''Saint Genet''...If these are remembered, that would be quite an achievement, and I don't ask for more. As a man, if a certain Jean-Paul Sartre is remembered, I would like people to remember the milieu or historical situation in which I lived,...how I lived in it, in terms of all the aspirations which I tried to gather up within myself.</blockquote>

===Sartre as a public intellectual===

===Sartre as a public intellectual===

While the broad focus of Sartre's life revolved around the notion of human freedom, he began a sustained intellectual participation in more public matters in 1945. Prior to this—before the Second World War—he was content with the role of an apolitical liberal intellectual: "Now teaching at a lycée in Laon [...] Sartre made his headquarters the Dome café at the crossing of Montparnasse and Raspail boulevards. He attended plays, read novels, and dined <nowiki>[with]</nowiki> women. He wrote. And he was published" (Gerassi 1989: 134). Sartre and his lifelong companion, [[Simone de Beauvoir]], existed, in her words, where "the world about us was a mere backdrop against which our private lives were played out" (de Beauvoir 1958: 339).

While the broad focus of Sartre's life revolved around the notion of human freedom, he began a sustained intellectual participation in more public matters in 1945. Prior to this—before the Second World War—he was content with the role of an apolitical liberal intellectual: "Now teaching at a lycée in Laon [...] Sartre made his headquarters the Dome café at the crossing of Montparnasse and Raspail boulevards. He attended plays, read novels, and dined <nowiki>[with]</nowiki> women. He wrote. And he was published" (Gerassi 1989: 134). Sartre and his lifelong companion, Simone de Beauvoir, existed, in her words, where "the world about us was a mere backdrop against which our private lives were played out" (de Beauvoir 1958: 339).