Albert Camus (1913 – 1960) was a writer and thinker who wrote articles, novels, and short stories. He also directed plays, and was known for his political opinions. While he also hold a reputation as a philosopher, he never officially admitted to being one.
Camus’s first published book of essays, L’Envers et l’endroit, tells the story of his childhood in the setting of his home town. In 1918, Camus began primary school and was lucky to have a great teacher, Louis Germain, who helped him get a scholarship to the Algiers Lycée (high school) in 1923. Champion of loyalty, Camus dedicated his speech accepting the Nobel Prize for Literature to his friend Germain. After experiencing a period of intellectual growth, he became very enthusiastic about sports. In 1930, shortly after he had started playing sports and was beginning his studies, Camus became ill with tuberculosis. This caused him to stop playing sports and have to stop attending school.
He eventually decided to live on his own after years of staying with his uncle and study philosophy at the University of Algiers. Camus was influenced by one of his teachers, Jean Grenier, who helped him develop his writing and philosophical ideas, and who also shared his enthusiasm for football. He earned a degree from a university in 1936 for his thesis on the relationship between Greek and Christian thought in the philosophical writings of Plotinus and Augustine.
His dream of becoming an agrégé (a professional qualification that would have allowed him to pursue a career in academia) was cut short when he was diagnosed with tuberculosis again.
During the 1930s, Camus became interested in many different things. He read French classics as well as writers from the past, including André Gide, Henry de Montherlant, and André Malraux. He was a leading figure among young leftists in Algeria. In 1934 and 1935, he was a member of the Algerian Communist Party. He wrote, produced, adapted, and acted in plays that were meant to be seen by people who work for a living. Alan loved going to the theater until he died.
One or Camus’ most enduring contributions to the theatre may well be his stage adaptations of William Faulkner’s novel, Requiem for a Nun, and Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s novel, The Possessed. Camus worked as a journalist for two years before the outbreak of World War II. He was a leader writer, editor, political reporter, and book reviewer for Alger-Républicain. He read some of Jean-Paul Sartre’s early writing about social conditions in the Kabylie region, and then wrote a series of articles about them. These articles, published 15 years ago, highlighted some of the reasons why the Algerian War would eventually break out in 1954.
After the war, Camus was an editor at the Parisian newspaper Combat. But in 1947 he severed his connection with Combat, a magazine he had helped create. By now Camus had become a leading literary figure with his first book “L’Étranger”.
In the following years, Camus also published an essay called “The Myth of Sisyphus” and his second novel, “La Peste,”. His other famous books are the novel La Chute and a collection of short stories – L’Exil et le royaume. In 1957, Camus was 44 years old, and he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Three years later, he died in an automobile accident.
