Albert Camus
Facts
Photo from the Nobel Foundation archive.
Albert Camus
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1957
Born: 7 November 1913, Mondovi, French Algeria (now Algeria)
Died: 4 January 1960, Sens, France
Residence at the time of the award: France
Prize motivation: “for his important literary production, which with clear-sighted earnestness illuminates the problems of the human conscience in our times”
Language: French
Prize share: 1/1
Life
Albert Camus was born in Algeria to French parents. He wanted to be an author, and despite his impoverished upbringing, he got a chance to study at the university in Algeria. He wrote for the newspaper Alger Républicaine about the political situation in the country. The newspaper was banned, and Camus moved to Paris, where he subsequently worked as a journalist and author and in the theater. He married Francine Faure and they had twins, Catherine and Jean. Camus died at age 46 in an auto accident.
Work
Albert Camus made his debut in 1937, but his breakthrough came with the novel L’étranger (The Stranger), published in 1942. It concerns the absurdity of life, a theme he returns to in other books, including his philosophical work Le mythe de Sisyphe (The Myth of Sisyphus). Camus also worked as a playwright and journalist. Because of his friendship with Jean-Paul Sartre, Camus was labeled an existentialist, but he preferred not to be linked with any ideology. His last novel, La Chute (The Fall), was published in 1956, and an unfinished autobiography, (Le Premier homme) The First Man, was published posthumously.
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