Marquis de Sade

Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade (1740-1814) was an infamous French aristocrat and author of heavily philosophical pornography, as well as more traditional essays on philosophy. Sadism, a paraphilia in which pleasure is derived from inflicting pain or seeing pain being inflicted on others, is named after him.

His books featured murder, torture, blasphemy and grotesque, violent, and ritualistic sex. His more major works remain banned in many countries to the present day, even though some of them have been highly influential; Juliet, a book released early in his career, has been imitated right up until the present, most recently by radical feminist Andrea Dworkin.

The 120 Days of Sodom, perhaps his most notorious book, was written by the Marquis whilst imprisoned in the Bastille, where he witnessed daily executions from his window during the Reign of Terror. The last years of his life were spent in an insane asylum, though the reasons for this vary depending on the source. His years in the asylum have been dramatised in the critically-acclaimed play (and later film) Marat/Sade.

His work was largely banned in the USA until the relaxation of obscenity laws in the 1950s and 1960s.

He was also an atheist.