SUMMARY: Albert Camus (November 7, 1913 – January 4, 1960) French author and philosopher
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Albert Camus was a 20th century philosophier who was awarded the Nobel Prize. He was born November 7, 1913 in Mondovi, Algeria to a French-Algerian settler family. Albert’s was born to Lucien Camus and Helen Sintes. His father was an orphan in Algeria. Lucien’s parents were French immigrants looking for a better life. When Albert Camus was born Lucien, his father, was a callerman at a winery.

Albert Camus’ mother was of Spanish decent. Her family moved to Algeria from the Spanish island of Minorca. Helen was half-deaf and had a speech problem. She relied on her husband a lot.

Alberts father, Lucien was drafted into WW1 in 1914. He was killed at the battle of the Marne. This left Albert mother to raise him and his older brother alone. The family moved to Belcourt, which was a poverty section of Algiers. Here Albert’s grandmother raised him and his brother. Albert’s grandmother was dying of cancer and he had two uncles living with them all.

Life was not great here at an apartment that had no electricity or plumbing. Albert Camus escaped into his studies and sports teams. Camus excelled in academics as well as a leader and competitor in sports. He was tutored and accepted into and exclusive secondary school preparatory for college.

Albert Camus was then accepted into the University of Algiers’ school of philosophy and stepped out of poverty. In 1930 Albert studies and sports activities were interrupted with a bad case of tuberculosis. He was goalkeeper on the football (soccer) team at the University. His tuberculosis put an end to playing the sport and many more activities Albert had wanted to do, like serve in the war and become a teacher.

Albert Camus completed his University schooling in 1935 and wrote his thesis on Plotinus. Plotinus was a major philosopher who is considered the father of Neoplatonism.

Albert was married at this time, to Simone Hie. She was the daughter of a successful doctor and was from upper-class Algeria. Simone was however a drug addict and the marriage ended two years later when Albert found out she was having sex with a doctor for drugs.

Albert Camus joined the Communist party in 1935 because he was concerned about the rumors of war in Spain. He didn’t like the communist party and became an anti-communist from then on.

Albert joined up with socialist and anarchist groups. He didn’t like government and wrote for anarchist publications. Albert Camus was among the anarchist who expressed the support for the uprising in 1953 in East Germany. He also stood with the anarchist against the uprising in Pozan, Poland in 1956 and in the Hungarian Revolution that same year.

Albert Camus took on the theater to express his philosophical views. He founded and ran the Theatre de l’Equipe. The theatre was in operation until 1939. Starting in 1937 through 1939 Albert was writing for a socialist paper, Algerian-Republicain.

In 1939 Albert volunteered for service in WWII, but was rejected because of his tuberculosis. He then married Francine Faure in 1940. She was a pianist and a mathematician. Albert loved Francine, but still argued against marriage and said it was unnatural. The couple had twins on September 5, 1945, Catherine and Jean.

During WWII Albert Camus traveled into Paris, France and back into Algeria again. He was active in the French Resistance and wrote for a paper called the Combat. He was editor of this paper for four years. He wrote articles about the war and how bad it was in Paris and anywhere the Germans were.

In 1949 Albert Camus suffered from another bout of tuberculosis, he recovered in 1951. He then published The Rebel, which was not received well by many people, including his close friend, Jean-Paul Sartre.

During the 1950s Albert Camus became an advocate for human rights. From 1955 to 1956 he wrote for the L’Express. In 1957 Albert Camus was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature for his writings against capital punishment. He had written about this in his essay Reflexios sur la Guillotine. He had written the book, The Fall, which had attracted attention and was well received by the public prior to the Noble Prize.

Albert Camus died Jenuary 4,1960 in a car crash near Sens, France. The diver and Camus’ friend and publisher died in the car crash also. His children Catherine and Jean hold the copyrights to his works.