Albert Camus (1913

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Biography

Albert Camus was a French philosopher, novelist, author, dramatist, journalist, world federalist, and political activist. He was the recipient of the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature at the age of 44, the second-youngest recipient in history, and the first laureate in literature born in Africa. His works include The Stranger, The Plague, The Myth of Sisyphus, The Fall and The Rebel.

In Their Own Words (5)

Don't let them tell us stories. Don't let them say of the man sentenced to death "He is going to pay his debt to society," but: "They are going to cut off his head." It looks like nothing. But it does make a little difference. And then there are people who prefer to look their fate in the eye.

"Entre oui et non" in L'Envers et l'endroit (1937), translated as "Between Yes and No", in World Review magazine (March 1950), also quoted in The Artist and Political Vision (1982) by Benjamin R. Barber and Michael J. Gargas McGrath , 1937

We have exiled beauty; the Greeks took up arms for her.

"Helen's Exile" (1948) , 1948

With rebellion, awareness is born.

As quoted in The Estranged God : Modern Man's Search for Belief (1966) by Anthony T. Padovano, p. 109 , 1966

Perhaps we cannot prevent this world from being a world in which children are tortured. But we can reduce the number of tortured children. And if you don't help us, who else in the world can help us do this?

Said at the Dominican Monastery of Latour-Maubourg (1948); reported in Resistance, Rebellion and Death (translation by Justin O'Brien, 1961), p. 73 , 1948

What must be remembered in any case is that secret complicity that joins the logical and the everyday to the tragic.

"Hope and the Absurd in the work of Franz Kafka" , 1942

Timeline

The story of Albert Camus, told in moments.

Legacy

He wrote about the absurd and insisted on rebellion anyway. "One must imagine Sisyphus happy." The boy from colonial poverty who lost his father to one war and fought in another left behind books that outsell most living authors.

'One must imagine Sisyphus happy.' Did you believe that yourself? Do people understand the absurd, or just quote it?

1942 Event

Publishes The Stranger. Its famous opening line: "Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday; I can't be sure." He writes it in a Paris occupied by the Nazis, having failed to flee south.

Writing The Stranger under Nazi occupation. Was the absurd already real? That opening line. Did you know immediately it was right?

1943 Life

Joins the French Resistance. Edits Combat, the underground newspaper, under the pen name Beauchard. He writes editorials calling for justice while the Gestapo hunts his colleagues.

Editing underground papers while the Gestapo hunted your friends. Were you scared? Did 'Beauchard' feel like protection or pretense?

1947 Event

The Plague is published. An allegory of occupation and resistance set in quarantined Oran. It sells steadily for decades and surges again during COVID-19.

The Plague surging during COVID. Would that amuse you? Did you write allegory on purpose, or just tell the truth?

1957 Event

Wins the Nobel Prize in Literature at 44, the second-youngest laureate. The committee cites his work illuminating "the problems of the human conscience in our times." He dedicates the prize to his childhood teacher, Louis Germain.

Second-youngest laureate. Did you feel too young for the Nobel? Dedicating it to your childhood teacher. What did he give you?

1960 Death

Killed when his publisher Michel Gallimard's car slams into a tree near Sens, France. He is 46. In his coat pocket: an unused train ticket. He'd planned to take the train but accepted the car ride at the last minute.

An unused train ticket in your pocket. Do you think about that? Did accepting the car ride feel like a small decision at the time?