Hello? I'm taking Sartre for you...: Recollections of the female secretary of Modern magazine

Author: Germaine Saliba (France)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-09-01
Features: This is a heartfelt memoir by Germaine Saliba, the female secretary of the Modern magazine who worked with many famous French modern intellectuals, including Merleau-Ponty. She does not repeat the countless legends already told; instead, she recalls the interesting, candid, funny, and touching daily anecdotes she witnessed and heard, filled with nostalgia. Lady Saliba's little book, Hello? I'm Taking Sartre for You, is truly amusing. She narrates the joys and sorrows, the anecdotes and emotions, in a way that makes Sartre, de Beauvoir, Merleau-Ponty, and others seem no longer unattainable but rather flesh-and-blood human beings. Merleau-Ponty was moody, and it wasn't easy to get along with him. However, Saliba had a trick: whenever he was about to lose his temper, his right eye would slightly cross. She could judge his mood based on this detail, and it always worked. de Beauvoir refused to shake hands with Saliba when she was acting as a grandmother and had children's urine odor on her. But seventeen years later, both were nearly sixty, and Saliba introduced her tall and handsome grandson to de Beauvoir. de Beauvoir chatted happily with the boy but coldly said to Saliba, "Now you should be happy!"
Cleaning up Sartre's mess was even harder. Saliba sometimes had to pay "" ( is a colloquial term for severance money) for women, and when she grew tired of it, she told Sartre, "Don't bother with them—they won't really commit suicide." Sartre replied, "I think so too, but what if just one of them actually does?" When Sartre, de Beauvoir, and many intellectuals called on French soldiers fighting in the Algerian War to defy orders, many young men did desert and came to Modern magazine for Sartre's help. Sartre told Saliba on the phone, "They're really foolish! They should have thought of an escape plan before acting!"
"This is Sartre: he cries out from the depths of his soul—‘Rise up, comrades, rebel against tyranny, children must have courage!’ But when reality suddenly confronts him, he is utterly stunned." Saliba wrote. Sometimes, being a scapegoat was unavoidable. Sartre asked Saliba to drive away some annoying visitors who came to see him, and she told some of them that Mr. Sartre had gone on a trip. When a writer encountered Sartre in a restaurant and was furious, Sartre had to appease the wounded soul by saying, "Madam Saliba sometimes has poor eyesight and lacks discernment." Saliba often called herself a "sheep," which had a hint of being a scapegoat. However, she wasn't particularly unhappy because there was an unspoken understanding among everyone. But after working for thirty years, when her request for a raise was rejected, she was truly upset. Fortunately, the "sheep" left us this little book, or it would have been a great pity.