Pg. 60 of David Markson’s copy of Fates Worse than Death by Kurt Vonnegut:

On which Markson placed a checkmark next to a paragraph discussing the sex life of Nelson Algren:
“My introduction stops here. I knew very little about Algren’s sex life (or about my own, for that matter). I subsequently learned from Deirdre Bair’s Simone de Beauvoir (Summit, 1990) that he helped Miss de Beauvoir achieve her first orgasm. (The only person I ever helped achieve a first orgasm was good old me.) In Iowa City, Algren would refer to her as ‘Madame Yak Yak’ because she had given their relationship so much publicity.”

—-

“Nelson Algren, not Sartre, gave Simone de Beauvoir her first orgasm.”
Wrote Markson on pg. 30 of Reader’s Block, utilizing the above information.

He also mentions it on pg. 145 of The Last Novel:
“Simone de Beauvoir’s affair with Nelson Algren.
Which she later infuriated him by writing about.”

Not only did “Madame Yak Yak” not achieve her first orgasm with Sartre, but she was also taller than him, as Markson explained in Vanishing Point:
“Simone de Beauvoir was one inch taller than Sartre.” (Pg. 133).

Though there is absolutely no evidence to conclude that these facts are at all related—and how or why would they be?—am I the only one tempted to draw some sort of ridiculous conclusion? 

Maybe I should write The Essential Sartre: A Biographical Adventure…

I’m sure I could come up with some stuff so speculatively silly it’s laughable…