Jean-Paul Sartre was born on June 21, 1905, in Paris. With his philosophical masterpiece 'Being and Nothingness,' published in 1943, he became the most important representative of existentialism and one of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century. His plays, novels, short stories, and essays made him world-famous. Through his unconditional humanitarian commitment, especially during the French-Algerian War and the American Vietnam War, he became a kind of moral conscience for the world. In 1964, he declined the Nobel Prize for Literature. He died on April 15, 1980, in Paris.