Sarah Bakewell

Sarah Bakewell is an award-winning author, journalist, and literary critic whose works have been featured in a variety of notable publications such as The Guardian, The New Yorker, and The New York Times. She is known for writing engaging books that explore the ideas and philosophy of renowned thinkers, often focusing on their divergent lives and how those lives informed their beliefs.

Born in Yorkshire, England, Sarah Bakewell received her master’s degree in English and American literature from Oxford University. After graduating, she worked as a publisher’s editor before becoming a freelance writer. Not long after, in 2008, she published How to Live, or a Life of Montaigne in one Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer, which won her the French-American Foundation’s 2010 History Prize.

This book has been called “an engaging and immensely rewarding biography” by The Guardian, and is a reflection of the philosopher Michel de Montaigne’s life, who is known for his revolutionary contributions to existentialism. In the book, Bakewell gives readers an intimate glimpse into the life and works of Montaigne, exploring his commitment to truth-seeking, skepticism, and curiosity.

Since How to Live, Sarrah Bakewell has gone on to write several other acclaimed books, both fiction and non-fiction. Her 2013 non-fiction work At the Existentialist Café pulls from philosophy and personal history to tell the story of existentialism, focusing on the lives of famous philosophers such as Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir. In 2017, Bakewell received the Wellcome Book Prize for her book At the Existentialist Café.

In addition to her book writing, Sarah Bakewell has served as the PEN/Faulkner Visiting Writer in Residence at the University of Mississippi, and as a Visiting Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley. She has also held a variety of other positions such as writing columnist for The Guardian newspaper, reviewing books for The New York Times, and writing for Time, The Los Angeles Times, and The Washington Post.

Sarah Bakewell’s work has earned praise from all corners of the literary world. Her books provide readers with captivating and in-depth looks into the lives of some of the world’s most renowned philosophers and thinkers, providing an invaluable learning experience for anyone interested in the history of philosophy and existentialism. Her work has also been praised for its ability to make philosophical concepts digestible and relatable, providing readers from all backgrounds with an accessible way to learn and explore complex ideas.