Who is Simone Weil from the memoir, Waiting For God?

Simone Weil was a French thinker and a Christian mystic. She was born in Paris, France in 1909 to Jewish parents. Though she never officially converted to the Christian faith (as the letter in this book indicate) she was always attracted to Christianity and began to align herself more overtly with its teachings in 1935. She was an active and studious young pupil, mastering ancient Greek by the age of 12 and learning Sanskrit shortly thereafter. She studied Western Philosophy at École Normale Supérieure in Paris, earning a graduate degree in 1931 with a thesis on Descartes. She taught philosophy at a secondary school in the South of France for most of her professional life.