(1913–60). Living in a world overwhelmed by wars and political upheaval, Albert Camus believed that traditional human values must survive. While his novels, essays, and plays reflect an indifferent, meaningless universe, Camus argued the need to rebel against this absurdity—to defend such values as truth and justice.
Albert Camus was born on Nov. 7, 1913, in Mondovi, Algeria. Less than a year later, his father was killed in World War I. Camus studied philosophy at the University of Algeria, but his work was cut short by an attack of tuberculosis. His first published works, collections of essays, describe his life in Algeria. Both collections contrast the fragile mortality of human beings with the enduring nature of the physical world. He wrote and acted for the Workers’ Theatre, which aimed to bring outstanding plays to working-class audiences, and he worked as a journalist for the newspaper Alger-Républicain.
At the outbreak of World War II, Camus went to France, where he joined the Resistance movement and edited the Resistance newspaper Combat. His first novel, L’Étranger (The Stranger), and an essay, Le Mythe de Sisyphe (The Myth of Sisyphus), were published in French in 1942. His second novel, La Peste (1947; The Plague), is a symbolic account of the fight against an epidemic by characters who, while aware that their efforts are in vain, work on to try to ease the suffering of their fellow citizens.
Camus received the Nobel prize for literature in 1957. On Jan. 4, 1960, he was killed in an automobile accident near Sens, France. An unfinished manuscript of an autobiographical novel recovered from the accident wreckage was published posthumously in 1994 as Le Premier Homme (The First Man).