60 years ago, Camus died. "Or maybe yesterday, I don't know".
On January 4, 1960, Albert Camus died at the age of 46 in a car accident that stunned the whole of France. French literature then lost one of its most eminent figures. A figure which, six decades later, continues to fascinate, to be read, and cited.
Nobel Prize winner at the age of 43, the author of The Stranger, The Plague, The Fall or the Myth of Sisyphus was also a playwright, philosopher, journalist and editorial writer ... Translated into 70 languages, it is estimated more than 20 million copies of his books sold to date by its historic publisher, Gallimard.
"Democracy smuggler"
If he marked by his work, Albert Camus also stood out for not having shirked before any fight. A committed intellectual, he condemned in turn the great tragedies of his time: Hiroshima, the Spanish Franco dictatorship, Nazi horror, the terror of Russian gulags ...
If he did not fail to denounce the violence of the war in Algeria (1954-1962), country of his origins omnipresent in his life as in his work, not to take clearly "party" for independence will be worth to him many reproaches.
Even today, the desire for justice, freedom and revolt that emanates from his work continues to echo the news. Some say that the "Arab Spring", born in late 2010 in Tunisia, would be a very "Camusian" movement, since the people revolt to conquer their freedom.
Over the struggles, around the world, it is not uncommon to see the words of this "ferryman of democracy" repeated.
"Freedom is nothing but the chance to be better," said Albert Camus. This quote is now at the heart of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.
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