Albert Camus was born in French Algeria. He never met his father and spent his childhood with his mother in Algiers. Although his health problems considerably complicated his studies at university (he suffered from tuberculosis), he still managed to obtain a degree in philosophy. He then began a career in political journalism (he joined the Communist Party and started working for the daily newspaper Alger républicain), before leaving for Paris. When the Second World War (1939-1945) broke out, he joined the Resistance movement in Paris and met Jean-Paul Sartre (French writer and philosopher, 1905-1980), who he became friends with. After the Liberation, he became editor-in-chief of the Resistance newspaper Combat, where Sartre also worked.
Throughout his life, Camus developed an existentialist philosophy of the absurd, resulting from the awareness that life lacks meaning. He took full advantage of his talents as a writer to spread his philosophy through books, essays and plays. Generally admired and occasionally criticised, Camus’ ideas resonated across the world after the release of works like The Stranger and The Plague.
He received the Nobel Prize in 1957 “for his important literary production, which with clear-sighted earnestness illuminates the problems of the human conscience in our times” (Swedish Academy). He died three years later in a car accident.