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"Without you, without the affectionate hand you extended to the small poor child that I was, without your teaching and example, none of all this would have happened."
Albert Camus wrote these words in a letter to his elementary school teacher, Louis Germain, after being awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature. When the news arrived, Germain was the second person he thought of – after his mother.
Camus was born in Algeria to French parents, the second son of a poor family. His father died in World War I before Albert turned one. His mother, who worked as a cleaning woman, could not read or write. When Camus was still in elementary school, the family already expected Camus to leave school as soon as possible and take up manual work in order to contribute to the household income.
His teacher Louis Germain noticed his abilities and desire to learn. He convinced Camus's family that a secondary education could change the kind of work Camus would be able to find later in life. He included the young Camus in a small group of students preparing for scholarships and tutored them for several hours each day. With Germain's help, Camus obtained a scholarship and entered secondary school, and eventually went on to study at the University of Algiers.
Camus began his career as a journalist and an active member of an Algerian theatre group. In 1937, he published his first book, L’envers et l’endroit (The Wrong Side and the Right Side). His wider recognition came in 1942 with L’étranger (The Stranger), a novel that introduced the absurdity of life – a theme he returned to in other works. His other well-known works include the philosophical essay collection Le Mythe de Sisyphe (The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays, 1942), La Peste (The Plague, 1947), and La Chute (The Fall, 1956).
The Nobel Committee for Literature awarded him the literature prize "for his important literary production, which with clear-sighted earnestness illuminates the problems of the human conscience in our times."
English
