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Birth
Albert Camus was born on November 7, 1931, in Mondovi, Algeria. His father had died a year after his birth in combat during WWI so he lived with his mother and brother. -
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Schooling (gradeschool-highschool)
In 1918, Camus began his journey in primary school and was fortunate to have an exceptional teacher who played a pivotal role in his academic development. Camus secured a scholarship at the Algiers lycée high school in 1923 thanks to this teacher's guidance. -
Health
In 1930, he was 17 when he was diagnosed with tuberculosis. -
College
He attended the University of Algiers studying philosophy -
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Wife #1
He marries Simone Hié to help her with her drug addiction, but the marriage is not long-lived as she also had a relationship with her doctor. -
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Political views
Camus had joined the Communist Party and then the Algerian People's Party during his student years. He opposed French colonization and wanted the empowerment of Algerians in politics as well as labor. During that time, he wrote, produced, adapted, and acted for the Théâtre du Travail (Workers’ Theatre). -
Graduate Degree
In 1936, he earned a Graduate Degree in philosophy for his thesis on the correlation between Greek and Christian thought as depicted in the philosophical writings of Plotinus and St. Augustine. -
First play
That year he also worked as both an actor and director, he contributed scripts, including his first published play Révolte dans les Asturies (Revolt in the Asturias), about workers in the Spanish Civil War (1934) who revolted against the Spanish government, that resulted in 1,500 to 2,000 deaths. -
Cycles
Camus wrote in three cycles —a novel, an essay, and a play—each focused on one moral problem. He completed only two of the five cycles planned. The uncompleted cycles would have focused on love and creation. wikipedia -
Wife #2
In 1940, Camus married Francine Faur. Around that time, he was hired by Paris-Soir magazine, so the couple moved to Paris which was occupied. -
The Myth of Sisyphus (Essay)
Camus’ best-known essay is ‘The Myth of Sisyphus’ published in 1942. The essay outlines Camus' ideas about the "absurd". He uses the legend of Sisyphus and transforms it into a metaphor for the insolvable fight humans have to face against the absurdity of life. -
The Stranger (Novel)
Albert Camus is best known for his 1942 novel The Stranger, which follows the character Meursault who gets drawn into a "senseless murder". The book is considered Camus's leading work on the absurdity of life. -
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Works during the war
Novel: The Stranger (1942)
Essay: The Myth of Sisyphus (1943)
Play: The Misunderstanding (1944)
Play: Caligula (1945)
Novel: Letters to a German Friend (1945)
Essay: Neither Victims Nor Executioners (1946)
Speech: “The Human Crisis” (1946) Thought.Co -
WWII
At the start of World War II, Camus joined the French Resistance, writing in the newspaper Combat to help liberate Paris from the Nazi occupation -
Fun Fact #1
Camus was a cheater. He had cheated on his wife with about four women, one of which he had been dating for 15 years up until his death. -
Caligula (Play)
Albert Camus wrote the play Caligula, which debuted in Paris on September 26, 1945. The play is part of Camus's "Cycle of the Absurd," alongside the 1942 essay The Myth of Sisyphus and the novel The Stranger. It explores the reign of Roman emperor Caligula, highlighting his brutality and depravity. Camus presents Caligula's historical story through his interpretation as a logical experiment. -
Children
Camus' wife birthed Catherine Camus and her twin brother Jean Camus on September 5, 1945 -
Retirement
Camus retired as a political journalist in 1947 due to the complications of the war, but he stayed an active writer as well as playwriter and a producer. -
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Works During the Political Conflict and Revolution
Novel: The Plague (1947)
Play: State of Siege (1948)
Play: The Just Assassins (1949)
Novel: The Rebel (1951)
Essay: Summer (1954) Thought.Co -
The State of Siege (Play)
The State of Siege is based on a true story of the Russian socialists who assassinated Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich in 1905. In the play, all but one man is based on actual historical terrorists. This play was a part of his second cycle, Revolt, which also included The Plague, The Rebel. -
Nobel prize
Albert Camus received a Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957. He is the second-youngest recipient in Nobel history, he used the money to fund The Possessed -
The Possessed (Play)
The Possessed is a three-part play written by Albert Camus in 1959, it was a theatrical adaptation of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's 1872 novel The Possessed. this piece was connected to his unfinished third cycle, Judgement. The play is studies of political ideologies, existentialism, and human nature. It follows a group of characters who become entranced with political conspiracies, leading them to a path of violence and catastrophe. -
Death
After a holiday weekend in Lourmarin, Camus, and his family were on their way back to Paris where unfortunately his car had swerved and crashed into two trees, killing Camus immediately. He was only 46. -
Tribute
In Tipasa, Algeria, a stele was made in 1961 in honor of Albert Camus with the phrase in French extracted from his work Noces à Tipasa: "I understand here what is called glory: the right to love beyond measure". -
Fun Fact #2
After Camus' unfortunate death, a policeman retrieved an unfinished manuscript for The First Man, a novel written for his mother despite her illiteracy. This book had not been released for another 30 years but when it was in 1994 it instantly became the best seller. -
Sources.
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Sources.