Albert Camus

Albert Camus (7 November 1913 – 4 January 1960) was a French philosopher, novelist, dramatist, journalist and political activist whose work became central to twentieth-century intellectual life. Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1957 at the age of forty-four, he remains one of the youngest recipients of the prize. Born in French Algeria and shaped by poverty, colonial tensions and wartime resistance, Camus developed philosophical ideas that contributed to the emergence of absurdism and influenced later existentialist discourse, even though he personally rejected the existentialist label. His major works include The Stranger, The Plague, The Myth of Sisyphus, The Fall and The Rebel.

Early Life and Education

Camus was born in Mondovi (now Dréan), in French Algeria, to a working-class pied-noir family. His father, Lucien Camus, died in 1914 during the First World War, leaving his deaf and illiterate mother Catherine Camus to raise him in modest conditions in the Belouizdad district of Algiers. As a French citizen in colonial Algeria he enjoyed greater legal rights than Arab and Berber inhabitants, yet his upbringing in poverty profoundly informed his later moral and political reflections.
A gifted pupil, Camus earned a scholarship in 1924 to continue his studies after being encouraged and tutored by Louis Germain, a teacher to whom Camus later dedicated his Nobel Prize acceptance speech. During his youth he developed a passion for football and played as a goalkeeper for the Racing Universitaire d’Alger junior team until tuberculosis forced him to abandon the sport at the age of seventeen.
His diagnosis led him to live with his uncle Gustave Acault, under whose influence Camus first engaged seriously with philosophical texts. He attended the University of Algiers, studying philosophy and completing his bachelor’s degree in 1936 with a thesis on Plotinus. He was deeply influenced by ancient Greek thought, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer and the literary philosophy of Dostoevsky, Kafka, Melville and Stendhal.

Formative Years and Early Career

Camus married Simone Hi in 1934 in an attempt to help her overcome an addiction to morphine. The marriage quickly deteriorated, and the couple divorced. During these years Camus joined and then departed from Communist organisations in Algeria. Initially sympathetic to the cause of social equality, he rejected the rigid Stalinist line of the Algerian Communist Party and was expelled. His experience with ideological bureaucracy deepened his commitment to human dignity and scepticism toward dogmatic political systems.
He became involved in theatre, founding the Théâtre de l’Équipe, and began contributing to the left-leaning newspaper Alger Républicain, where he opposed the rising tide of fascism and criticised the injustices of colonial administration. By 1940 he had completed the core works of what he called his “cycle of the absurd”: the novel L’Étranger, the philosophical essay Le Mythe de Sisyphe and the play Caligula.

Second World War and the French Resistance

The outbreak of the Second World War forced Camus to leave Algeria. In France he briefly worked as a layout editor but was soon displaced by the German advance. After his marriage to Francine Faure in late 1940, he returned to Algeria before illness required him to seek a more favourable climate in the Alps, where he began work on his second intellectual cycle, centred on revolt.
By 1943 he had returned clandestinely to Paris and joined the Resistance. As a leading writer and editor of the underground newspaper Combat, he wrote influential editorials under pseudonyms and later under his own name, articulating a moral defence of resistance, freedom and human solidarity. His Letters to a German Friend later became emblematic of wartime intellectual resistance.
Camus formed close friendships with prominent post-war intellectuals, including Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, although political disagreements eventually distanced him from Sartre.

Post-War Career and Public Life

After the liberation of France, Camus emerged as a major public figure. He lectured widely in Europe, the United States and Latin America, and continued to write essays, fiction and plays. His wife Francine gave birth to twins, Catherine and Jean, in 1945.
Although he remained committed to humanist ideals, Camus displayed a consistent apprehension toward authoritarianism of all kinds. He opposed Stalinism and became a voice of the anti-totalitarian left, often described as leaning towards anarcho-syndicalism. He participated in movements promoting European integration and world federalism, emphasising the need for supranational cooperation in the wake of war.

The Algerian War and Political Stances

The Algerian War (1954–1962) presented Camus with an acute moral and personal challenge. Neither aligned with French colonial authorities nor with the full independence claims of the National Liberation Front, he advocated a pluralistic and binational Algeria in which both Arabs and Europeans could coexist. This position, although rooted in humanist principles, satisfied neither side and drew criticism across the political spectrum.
Camus’ refusal to endorse violence, whether revolutionary or state-sponsored, further defined his public engagements. His political writings reflect his belief that justice must not be pursued at the cost of humanity.

Philosophical Contributions

Camus’ philosophical outlook is most closely associated with absurdism, the idea that human beings confront a silent, indifferent universe and must create meaning despite this existential conflict. His notion of the “absurd” does not entail despair but advocates a form of defiant acceptance and personal responsibility.
Works such as The Myth of Sisyphus and The Stranger explore the absurd condition, while The Rebel examines the moral boundaries of revolt and resistance. Though often grouped with existentialists, Camus repeatedly denied belonging to the existentialist movement, distinguishing his views from those of Sartre.

Personal Life and Death

Camus married twice and engaged in several extramarital relationships, most notably with the actress Maria Casarès. His private correspondence reveals a complex personal life marked by charm, melancholy and emotional intensity.
On 4 January 1960 Camus died in a car accident near Villeblevin, France, while travelling with his publisher Michel Gallimard. He was forty-six. His death abruptly ended one of the most influential literary and philosophical careers of the twentieth century.