Who Was Albert Camus?

Born in 1913 in French Algeria and killed in a car accident in 1960 at just 46 years old, Camus produced some of the most influential literature and philosophy of the 20th century. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1957, the second-youngest recipient ever. His works, including The Stranger, The Myth of Sisyphus, The Plague, and The Rebel, have sold tens of millions of copies and continue to resonate with readers searching for meaning in a confusing world.

But Camus wasn't an ivory tower intellectual. He was a goalkeeper, a journalist, a resistance fighter, a playwright, and a man who loved swimming in the Mediterranean. His philosophy wasn't abstract theorizing. It was a practical guide for how to live fully in a world that offers no guarantees.

Camus's Early Life

Albert Camus was born on November 7, 1913, in Mondovi, a small town in French Algeria (now Dréan, Algeria). His father, Lucien Camus, was a farm worker who died in the Battle of the Marne during World War I when Albert was less than a year old. His mother, Catherine, was of Spanish descent, partially deaf, and illiterate. She worked as a cleaning woman to support the family.

Camus grew up in poverty in the Belcourt neighborhood of Algiers, sharing a small apartment with his mother, grandmother, uncle, and brother. There was no running water, no electricity, and few books. His grandmother, a domineering woman, ruled the household with an iron hand.

Despite these circumstances, Camus found two things that would shape his entire life. The Mediterranean sun and a teacher who believed in him.

The beaches and light of Algeria gave Camus a deep, physical sense of happiness that he carried throughout his life. "In the midst of winter," he would later write, "I found there was, within me, an invincible summer." This wasn't metaphor for Camus. It was lived experience.

His elementary school teacher, Louis Germain, recognized Camus's intelligence and pushed his family to let him continue his education. Without Germain's intervention, Camus would likely have gone to work at age 12 like other boys in his neighborhood. When Camus won the Nobel Prize decades later, he dedicated his acceptance speech to Germain.

The Philosophy of the Absurd

At 17, Camus was diagnosed with tuberculosis, which would plague him for the rest of his life. The disease forced him to confront his mortality at an age when most young people feel invincible. This confrontation with death shaped his entire philosophical outlook.

Camus's central insight is what he called "the Absurd," the conflict between our human desire for meaning and the universe's silent indifference to that desire. We want life to make sense. The universe doesn't care.

This might sound bleak, but Camus saw it as liberating. Once you accept that the universe won't hand you meaning, you're free to create your own. You're free to live fully, love deeply, and find joy in the present moment rather than waiting for some future redemption that may never come.

In his essay The Myth of Sisyphus (1942), Camus used the Greek myth of a man condemned to roll a boulder up a hill for eternity as a metaphor for human existence. Every time Sisyphus reaches the top, the boulder rolls back down, and he must start again. It seems pointless. It seems like torture.

But Camus concludes with one of the most famous lines in philosophy. "One must imagine Sisyphus happy."

Why? Because Sisyphus owns his fate. The gods wanted to punish him with meaningless labor, but they can't control his inner response. In the moment he turns to walk back down the hill, knowing full well the boulder will roll down again, Sisyphus is free. His struggle itself becomes his meaning.

Camus vs. Existentialism

Camus is often grouped with existentialists like Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, and it's easy to see why. They were contemporaries in post-war Paris, they shared some philosophical concerns, and they were friends (for a while).

But Camus rejected the existentialist label. He considered himself an absurdist, and the distinction matters.

Existentialists like Sartre believed that humans must create meaning through radical freedom and commitment, often to political causes. Sartre famously supported various communist movements and believed philosophy demanded political engagement.

Camus was more skeptical of grand ideological projects. He had seen how revolutionary movements could become as oppressive as the systems they replaced. His book The Rebel (1951) argued that rebellion must have limits, that the moment a revolutionary says "the ends justify the means," they become a tyrant.

This disagreement led to a famous public falling-out between Camus and Sartre in 1952. They never reconciled.

Where Sartre's existentialism can feel heavy with responsibility, Camus's absurdism has a lightness to it. Yes, life is meaningless, but that means you're free. Free to swim in the sea, to love, to create, to revolt against injustice while still enjoying a good meal with friends.

Major Works

The Stranger (1942)

Camus's first novel tells the story of Meursault, an Algerian clerk who kills an Arab man on a beach and seems to feel nothing about it. The novel's famous opening line, "Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday, I don't know," signals that this will not be a conventional story about grief and redemption.

The Stranger isn't really about murder. It's about a man who refuses to play society's games, who won't pretend to feel what he doesn't feel, and who is ultimately condemned more for his honesty than his crime.

The Myth of Sisyphus (1942)

Published the same year as The Stranger, this philosophical essay begins with what Camus calls "the one truly serious philosophical problem," suicide. If life is absurd, why not just end it?

Camus argues that suicide is not the answer. Instead, we must embrace the absurd, live with full awareness of life's meaninglessness, and revolt against it through passionate engagement with life itself.

The Plague (1947)

Set in the Algerian city of Oran during a fictional plague outbreak, this novel follows Dr. Bernard Rieux and others as they fight against an epidemic that kills indiscriminately. It works on multiple levels, as a literal story about disease, as an allegory for the Nazi occupation of France, and as a meditation on how humans find meaning through solidarity in the face of suffering.

The Plague has experienced a resurgence during recent global health crises, as readers find uncanny resonance with Camus's depiction of quarantine, denial, and collective struggle.

The Rebel (1951)

In this extended essay, Camus traces the history of rebellion and revolution from the French Revolution to the communist movements of his own time. He distinguishes between rebellion, a necessary human response to injustice, and revolution, which often becomes a new form of tyranny.

This book caused Camus's break with Sartre and the French left, who saw it as an attack on their revolutionary politics.

The Fall (1956)

Camus's last completed novel is a monologue delivered by Jean-Baptiste Clamence, a former Parisian lawyer who now spends his nights in an Amsterdam bar confessing his sins to strangers. It's Camus's most psychologically complex work, exploring guilt, hypocrisy, and the human need for judgment.

Camus's Legacy

Camus died on January 4, 1960, when the car driven by his publisher, Michel Gallimard, crashed into a tree. He was 46. In his pocket was an unused train ticket. He had planned to take the train but accepted a last-minute offer to drive. An unfinished autobiographical novel, The First Man, was found in the wreckage.

His death robbed the world of what might have been decades more of brilliant work. But what he left behind continues to speak to readers with remarkable freshness.

Why does Camus still matter?

Because he asked the questions we're still asking. How do we find meaning in a world that doesn't provide it? How do we face suffering without despair? How do we rebel against injustice without becoming what we hate?

And because his answers weren't abstract philosophical formulas. They were rooted in sun and sea, in friendship and love, in the simple pleasures of being alive on a planet that didn't have to include us but somehow does.

Camus offers something rare. A philosophy that takes the darkest truths seriously and still arrives at joy. Not naive optimism. Not denial. Just a clear-eyed recognition that the absurdity of life is not a reason to despair. It's an invitation to live fully.

"In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer."