Some Context for Existentialism is a Humanism

I was researching a few things about Sartre while searching for things to blog about, and I discovered some interesting stuff about the excerpt we read from Existentialism is a Humanism. The excerpt is taken from a lecture Sartre gave in a Paris club in 1945 in which he attempted to defend and clarify his ideas. Later, the lecture was made into a short novel and was published to wide success. As it is relatively understandable and nontechnical, it has been seen as a good introduction to Sartre's existentialism. However, there has been some criticism of the work as it has some flaws especially as a literary work. The whole work is about 70 pages, but since it was based on a lecture that Sartre gave without notes or much preparation, it doesn't flow perfectly. Also, some philosophers including Sartre himself later on criticized some of the ideas that were based in Sartre's preliminary theories of existentialism. As many of these ideas were later refined and better expressed in his later works, Sartre even came to regret publishing the lecture as is considering that it became such a representative work of his philosophy to many. I think considering the context of the work helps add understanding to how it represents Sartre's early philosophical ideas. Here's a link to an article that discusses Sartre's lecture and work in some more depth: https://philosophynow.org/issues/53/Was_Existentialism_a_Humanism