Albert Camus Biography

Algerian-born French Novelist, Philosopher, Journalist, Playwright

Feb 28, 2009

Brief biography of Albert Camus, influential French thinker of the 20th century.

Camus was a major and influential French author of the 20th century who received the 1957 Nobel Prize for literature. He is famous for his books The Plague, The Fall and The Rebel.

Early Life of Albert Camus

Albert Camus was born into a poor working-class family in Algeria, North Africa, which at that time belonged to France and which was the setting for much of his work. After his father was killed in World War I, he was raised by his mother in the capital city, Algiers.

He studied at local schools and despite suffering from the lung disease tuberculosis, obtained a degree in philosophy from the University of Algiers.

Camus went to France and in 1942 joined the French Resistance, which fought against Nazi occupation in World War II. He then became a journalist and made his reputation as a novelist with the publication of The Stranger when he was 29. The main theme of the book is the absurd and pointless nature of human existence.

Camus's Great Books

The next major novel from Camus, The Plague, is allegorical and was published when he was 34. In this novel, he called on people to fight against injustice. Unlike other left-wing authors, such as Jean-Paul Sartre, Camus believed in the need for a moral rather than a political revolt to change society.

His essay The Rebel deals with the need for people to take moral responsibility for their actions. His last novel, The Fall, was published when he was 43. It shows how human beings should solve the problem as an individual by effort and moderate behaviour, at the same time, as part of a community.

Camus was the second-youngest Nobel laureate (after Rudyard Kipling) when he received the award in 1957. He died in an automobile accident in France at the age of 46, on January 1960.

"All those folk are saying, "It was plague. We've had the plague here." You'd almost think they expected to be given medals for it. But what does that mean - "plague"? Just life, no more than that." ~The Plague, Albert Camus, translated by Stuart Gilbert

Works by Albert Camus

Biographical Dictionary, edited by Una McGovern, Edinburgh: Chambers, Harrap Publishers, 2002

Larousse Dictionary of Writers, edited by Rosemary Goring. New York: Larousse, 1994

The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English by Ian Ousby. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993

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