Albert Camus

Born: November 7, 1913 in Algeria (North Western Africa) primarily a European region, to a Pied-Noir family.


Mother: Spanish descent, humble means (Illiterate, maid)
Father: Lucien, a poor agricultural worker. Succumbed to wounds from WWI 1914 October 11


Grew up primarily minimalist, with few material possessions

Studied: The University of Algiers 

Notable: Second-Youngest recipient of the Nobel Prize in literature @ 44

Died: January 4, 1960 Age 46 Car accident, with train ticket to visit his 
family.

In August 2011, the Milan newspaper Corriere della Serareported a theory that the writer had been the victim of a Soviet plot, but Camus's biographer, Olivier Todd, did not consider it credible.

Primary School: Absurdism 
                Focus: Ethics, Humanity, Justice, Politics


Played football, though due to tuberculosis (1930) could not continue.

Worked odd jobs; tutor, car parts, etc. 

Married: 1934 Simone Hie 1940 Francine Faure
 Dismissed the institution of marriage as unnatural. Partook          in numerous affairs

Childeren:  Catherine and Jean, on 5 September 1945

Books: The Stranger, and The Myth of Sisyphus.
       1942 Published: The Stranger: A man living an absurd life
                       Myth of Sisyphus: A work about the Absurdity 

Does the realization of the absurd require suicide? Camus answers: "No. It requires revolt." He then outlines several approaches to the absurd life. The final chapter compares the absurdity of man's life with the situation of Sisyphus, a figure of Greek mythology who was condemned to repeat forever the same meaningless task of pushing a boulder up a mountain, only to see it roll down again. The essay concludes, "The struggle itself [...] is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy."

Timeline:

1945 One of the few French editors to publicly express opposition and disgust to the United States' dropping the atomic bombs on Japan

1949, his tuberculosis returned, whereupon he lived in seclusion for two years.

1950’s Devoted his efforts to human rights. 

1951 Published The Rebel a philosophical analysis of rebellion and revolution which expressed his rejection of communism.

Absurd:

Camus presents the reader with dualisms such as happiness and sadness, dark and light, life and death, etc. He emphasizes the fact that happiness is fleeting and that the human condition is one of mortality; for Camus, this is cause for a greater appreciation for life and happiness. In Le Mythe, dualism becomes a paradox: we value our own lives in spite of our mortality and in spite of the universe's silence. While we can live with a dualism (I can accept periods of unhappiness, because I know I will also experience happiness to come), we cannot live with the paradox (I think my life is of great importance, but I also think it is meaningless). In Le Mythe, Camus investigates our experience of the Absurd and asks how we live with it. Our life must have meaning for us to value it. If we accept that life has no meaning and therefore no value, should we kill ourselves?

Rejecting Labels "Once you label me you negate me." - Soren Kierkegaard

Camus regretted the continued reference to himself as a "philosopher of the absurd".

Camus did not specifically consider himself to be an existentialist despite being publicly classified as such, even in interviews he readily denied that he was an existentialist.  

Camus addressed one of the fundamental questions of existentialism: the problem of suicide. He wrote, "There is only one really serious philosophical question, and that is suicide. Deciding whether or not life's worth living is to answer the fundamental question in philosophy. All other questions follow from that." Camus viewed the question of suicide as arising naturally as a solution to the absurdity of life.

Novels:
1942 The Stranger (L'Étranger, often translated as The Outsider) (1942)
The titular character is Meursault, an indifferent French Algerian ("a citizen of France domiciled in North Africa, a man of the Mediterranean, an homme du midi yet one who hardly partakes of the traditional Mediterranean culture"), who, after attending his mother's funeral, apathetically kills an Arab man whom he recognises in French Algiers. The story is divided into two parts, presenting Meursault's first-person narrative view before and after the murder, respectively.

1947 The Plague (La Peste) (1947)

1956 The Fall (La Chute) (1956)

1971 A Happy Death (La Mort heureuse) (written 1936–38, published posthumously 1971)

1995 The First Man (Le premier homme) (incomplete, published posthumously 1995)

Short story Collection
1957 Exile and the Kingdom (L'exil et le royaume) (collection) (1957)
"The Adulterous Woman" ("La Femme adultère")
"The Renegade or a Confused Spirit" ("Le Renégat ou un esprit confus")
"The Silent Men" ("Les Muets")
"The Guest" ("L'Hôte")
"Jonas or the Artist at Work" ("Jonas ou l’artiste au travail")
"The Growing Stone" ("La Pierre qui pousse")