Biographical note

Albert Camus was born in Algeria in 1913. His childhood was poor, although not unhappy. He studied philosophy at the University of Algiers, and became a journalist as well as organizing the Theatre de l'Equipe, a young avant-garde dramatic group. After the occupation of France by the Germans in 1941, Camus became one of the intellectual leaders of the Resistance movement. After the war he devoted himself to writing and established an international reputation with such books as L'Etranger (The Outsider 1942), La Peste (The Plague 1947), Les Justes (The Just 1949) and La Chute (The Fall; 1956). He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957. He was killed in a road accident in 1960. His last novel, Le Premier Homme (The First Man), unfinished at the time of his death, appeared for the first time in 1994. An instant bestseller, the book received widespread critical acclaim, and has been translated and published in over thirty countries.