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Between the late 1940s and the late 1950s, French sociologist Henri Lefebvre wrote five biographical studies of French authors (Descartes, Rabelais, Diderot, Pascal and Musset). This part of his work has remained quite unknown until now. Yet, it still can be understood as a discrete and coherent fraction of his works, that may be characterized by a threefold logic. First, it contains an epistemological approach that Lefebvre describes as being a social history of ideas, and that allows him to take into considerations the complex and reciprocal relationship between authors and their time. Those writing also stem from a political logic, through which Lefebvre expresses his disagreement with the ideological Jdanovism endorsed by the French Communist Party. Third, each of the authors chosen by Lefebvre happens to be seen as torn and divided, thus providing a mirror into which the man Lefebvre can recognize himself too.