On this day in 1913, French novelist Albert Camus was born in Algeria. Illness twice prevented his career from taking the direction he planned; instead of becoming a professional athlete or a philosophy teacher, he became a Nobel prize-winning writer.
Source: French novelist Albert Camus is born – Nov 07, 1913 – HISTORY.com
Albert Camus was an athlete, a philosopher, and a Nobel Prize-winning author.
Who says athletes aren’t smart? Albert Camus played as a football (soccer, in the U.S.) goalkeeper for Racing Universitaire d’Algier’s junior team from 1928 – 1930 while a student at the University of Algiers. He was so good he aspired to play professionally but contracted tuberculosis at age 17, which was incurable at the time. After recovering, he decided to become a philosophy teacher: tuberculosis again stepped in and forced him to change his plans. He began writing and producing plays for a theater group while working as a journalist. He later moved to France, where he published essays and the novels he is known for, including The Plague and The Stranger.
He contributed to the philosophies of absurdism (the human attempt to find meaning in life, and the inability to do so) and existentialism (the philosophy that states an individual is responsible for their choices, and is against apathy). Intriguingly, he rejected the label of “existentialist” since The Stranger in many U.S. high schools is regarded as a study of existentialism. My senior English teacher certainly did, and I still remember being the only student in my English class who answered a quiz question correctly: “Why did Meursault shoot the Arab?” My answer, which I felt foolish for writing but did so as if by rote: “The sun was in his eyes.” In other words, in his apathy — or, because he was hot and uncomfortable with the sun in his eyes — he shot someone dead. He blamed the sun; an existentialist would say he made the choice to shoot.
The book, along with my father’s and grandfather’s work ethic, had a profound effect on me: I made it my mission in life to give every effort my best. Perhaps I have faltered sometimes. In part because of Albert Camus’s influence in my life, I continue to try. Camus’s influence lives on.
Albert Camus became the second-youngest person to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, at age 44, after Rudyard Kipling, who was 42. Camus died in 1960 at the age of 46 in a car accident. He is buried in Lourmarin Cemetery in Lourmarin, France. There is also a plaque dedicated to his memory in Villeblevin, France, where he died.
The gravestone of Albert Camus in Lourmarin Cemetery, Lourmarin, France.
Au revoir.
Image of Albert Camus by Antonio Marin Segovia, Flickr, CCBY 2.0. Image of Albert Camus gravestone by Walter Popp, Wikimedia Commons, CCBY 3.0.
Reference:
“Albert Camus” published by Wikipedia, CCBY 3.0.
