An Existential Life

Albert Camus by Cecil Beaton

Albert Camus (French pronunciation: [albɛʁ kamy]  (listen); 7 November 1913 – 4 January 1960) was a French Algerian author, journalist, and key philosopher of the 20th-century. In 1949, Camus founded the Group for International Liaisons within the Revolutionary Union Movement, which was opposed to some tendencies of the Surrealist movement of André Breton.

Camus was awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize for Literature “for his important literary production, which with clear-sighted earnestness illuminates the problems of the human conscience in our times”. He was the second-youngest recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature, after Rudyard Kipling, and the first African-born writer to receive the award. He is the shortest-lived of any Nobel literature laureate to date, having died in an automobile accident just over two years after receiving the award.

Although often cited as a proponent of existentialism, the philosophy with which Camus was associated during his own lifetime, he rejected this particular label. In an interview in 1945, Camus rejected any ideological associations: “No, I am not an existentialist. Sartre and I are always surprised to see our names linked…”

Specifically, his views contributed to the rise of the philosophy known as absurdism. He wrote in his essay “The Rebel” that his whole life was devoted to opposing the philosophy of nihilism while still delving deeply into individual freedom.

• Albert Camus on In Our Time at the BBC. (listen now)
• Many books of Albert Camus available, in French, in Les Classiques des sciences sociales.
• Albert Camus’ Week: Excerpts, articles, interviews and videos on the website of the Prague Writers’ Festival
• “Accidental Friends” the story of the Camus-Sartre friendship and very public breakup
• Interview with daughter Catherine – 3AM
• Another interview with daughter Catherine – Spike
• The Logic of Existential Meaning
• Université McGill: le roman selon les romanciers (French) Inventory and analysis of Albert Camus’ non-novelistic writings
• Lesjustes.co.uk : English synopsis of “Les Justes” for students
• Camus ‘Bookweb’ on literary website The Ledge, with suggestions for further reading.
• Camus Interview with Prof. Jean-Marie Apostolides, from the radio program Entitled Opinions
• Works by Albert Camus on Open Library at the Internet Archive
• (French) Pierre Michel, Albert Camus et Octave MirbeauPDF (640 KB)