Nobel Prize Recipient. Albert Camus, a French author, received world-wide recognition after being awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature at the young age of 44. According to the Nobel Prize committee, he received this coveted award "for his important literary production, which with clear-sighted earnestness illuminates the problems of the human conscience in our times." He received eleven nominations for the Nobel candidacy. He was a journalist, editor and editorialist, playwright and director, novelist and author of short stories, political essayist and political activist. Born in Algeria, which was a French colony at time, he was a French citizen. His father, an agricultural laborer, was mortally wounded during World War I in 1914 at the First Battle of the Marne. His mother, who was of Spanish ancestry, was shocked by the news of her husband's death, and she suffered a stroke that permanently impaired her speech. At that point, he, along with his widowed mother and his older brother, went to live in poverty with his grandmother and a handicapped uncle in a two-room apartment. In 1923 he received a scholarship to the prestigious school in Algiers, where he studied from 1924 to 1932. After being diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1930, his sports activities, such as boxing and swimming, ended. The complications of this disease were with him the rest of his life. In 1936 he received his diploma from the University of Algiers in philosophy, and to recover his health, he made his first visit to France. His first book was a collection of essays, appeared in 1937. By this time, his reputation in Algeria as a writer was growing. His closest colleague was French philosopher and playwright, Jean-Paul Sartre, until their political difference destroyed the relationship. He was also active in theater. During this time, he authored several successful plays. From 1938 to 1940 he worked for the leftist newspapers "Alger-Republica" and in Paris "Soir." During World War II, he was a member of the French resistance as his chronic health problem caused the army to reject him. After the war, he lectured about his war experience. His novel, "The Stranger," which he had begun in Algeria before the war, was published in 1942. The same year he published his philosophical essay, "The Myth of Sisyphus." In 1947 he published his third novel, "La Plague." He admired the American tough novel and wrote the "The Rebel" in 1951. In 1957 he published "Exile and the Kingdom." He was known for rallying for leftist political causes and was a member of the Communist Party. Sartre was a supporter of Royal Socialism practiced in the Soviet Union after a 1954 trip, but after the 1956 X Congress of the Soviet Communist Party, he moved away from this ideology. He promoted freedom from the injustices of being a colony of a great nation. Some sources consider his philosophy as Absurdism, mankind's ability to try to have a meaningful life conflicting with mankind's ability to have a purposeless life. He married twice and with his second wife, Francine Faure, the couple had twins, Catherine and Jean. Returning to Paris after a holiday, he died in a single-passenger car accident when his Facel Vega FV/FVS left the highway, hitting a group of trees. His wife and the twins had gone home earlier by train. His 144-page unfinished autobiography "First Man" was found in the car in which he died and was published posthumously by his wife. His grave is located in Lourmarin Cemetery, but he has a cenotaph marker on the base of his father's grave marker in Saint Michel Cemetery.