Camus Biography Overview

Our Albert Camus biography is in three parts: 1913-43 covering his birth to the publication of The Stranger and Myth of Sisyphus; 1943-51 covering his work for Combat to the publication of The Plague; 1951-60 covering the furore over The Rebel, the aftermath and The Fall ending with Camus’s untimely death.

Part one: 1913-43

  • Camus’s birth in Algiers

  • Louis Germain mentorship and school scholarship

  • Tuberculosis and move to Uncle Acault’s

  • First articles published

  • University of Algiers and Jean Grenier mentorship

  • Marriage to Simone Hié

  • Awarded teaching diploma, rejected on health grounds

  • Split with Hié

  • Joins then leaves Communist Party

  • Publishes The Wrong Side and Right Side

  • Co-founds Théâtre de l’Equipe theatre group

  • Takes job as court reporter

  • Writes powerful series on the poverty in Kabylia

  • Reviews Sartre’s Nausea and Le Mur

  • Outbreak of war, newspaper closed, Camus tries to enlist

  • Moves to Paris

  • Divorce comes through, marries Francine Faure

  • Falls ill, The Stranger and The Myth of Sisyphus published

  • Allied landing in North Africa cuts Camus off from Francine

Part two: 1943-51

  • Works for Gallimard as manuscript reader

  • Accepted into Parisian intellectual circle

  • Meets Maria Casares

  • Friendship with Sartre

  • Friendship breaks down

  • Works for the Resistance

  • Writes Letters to a German Friend

  • The Misunderstanding is performed

  • Liberation of Paris

  • Combat published openly, Camus becomes a household name

  • Reunited with Francine

  • All ties broken with Communists

  • Visit to New York

  • Publication of The Plague

  • Just Assassins performed

  • Visit to South America

  • Depressed by the success of The Plague

Part three: 1951-60

  • Publishes The Rebel

  • Francis Jeanson savages The Rebel in Sartre’s Journal

  • Camus and Sartre enter into public spat

  • Publishes essay collection Summer

  • Francine hospitalized, possibly attempts suicide

  • Camus returns to journalism

  • Publishes The Fall

  • Algerian troubles, Camus proposes Civilian Truce

  • Adapts Requiem for a Nun for the Stage

  • Publishes Reflections on the Guillotine

  • Publishes Exile and the Kingdom

  • Wins Nobel Prize

  • Adapts The Possessed for the stage

  • Buys home in Lourmarin

  • Less than a year to live

  • Spends Christmas with family and friends in Cannes

  • Killed in car accident on January 3rd, 1960

  • Camus’s briefcase contains unfinished manuscript of The First Man