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Camus Albert 1913 - 1969 (56)

Man is the only creature who refuses to be what he is.


QUOTES

“If I had to write a book on morality, it would have a hundred pages and ninety-nine would be blank. On the last page I would write: "I recognize only one duty, and that is to love.”

excerpts from:

The Rebel



The Myth

of Sisyphus



Albert Camus (1913-1969) was a French philosopher, writer, theatrical director and actor. He was born on 7 November 1913 in Algeria; his father was French, his mother Spanish. He was 1 year old when his father died in the 1st world war’s battle of Arden. Albert grew up in poverty but he managed to study philosophy with a scholarship. He failed to become a teacher because of his tuberculosis. He joined the Communist Party in 1953 and resigned two years later.

He founded the "Theater of Labor" in which he worked as an actor and director. From 1938 he was working as a journalist but one of his investigations annoyed the Algerian government so he was fired and afterwards had difficulties in finding a job as a journalist. So he decided to move to Paris. In the French capital he collaborated with newspapers and magazines and in 1942 he published the novel "The stranger" and the essay "The myth of Sisyphus"; with those works he became famous.

In 1943 he was recruited as a reader by the publishing house "Gallimard" and took over the management of the newspaper "Battle". In 1947 he wrote one of his most famous novels "The plague" and resigned from the newspaper as he had disagreed with the whole editorial team. In the following years, he wrote many successful theatrical plays and novels and in 1951 wrote one of his most important essays: "The Rebel: An Essay on Man in Revolt " which provoked reactions on many different sides, as communists, Christians, surrealists.

Camus was twice married and had 2 children with his second wife. In 1957 he was awarded the Nobel Prize. On January 4, 1969, he was the co-driver in a car that crashed on a tree; he was instantly killed. "The most absurd way to die is in a car accident" he used to say.