Albert Camus: A Pure Rebel

In a tribute to Albert Camus, who died on January 4th 50 years ago, ad in connexion with our year´s theme, PWF presents an Albert Camus Week. Each day of the 4th January's week we will publish new articles, excerpts and videos about the Nobel Prize in Literature 1957.

On 4 January 1960, Albert Camus was killed when the car in which he had been travelling left the road. In his pocket was a train ticket for the journey he had been intending to take. In the boot of the car was the unfinished manuscript of The First Man, his autobiography. “I was born halfway between sunlight and poverty”, wrote Camus in his first collection of essays, entitled Betwixt and Between. Everything he went on to write was influenced by this ever-present conflict. Born in Algeria, Camus grew up in a family of modest means, without a father, and began to study philosophy until his studies were interrupted for health reasons. He was briefly (1935-36) a member of the communist party, and set up two theatre companies, running them with a view to putting classical and contemporary theatre before underprivileged audiences. In 1937 he published his first work, Betwixt and Between, a series of literary essays in which one can already discern the major themes of his mature work: death, sunlight, the Mediterranean, isolation, ...

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