Born to a French-, Spanish-, and Alsatian family on November 7, 1913 in Mondovi, French Algeria and raised in Algiers, Albert Camus was one of the most important philosophers in the 20th Century and, no doubt, all of history. A thinker of the Absurdist tradition, Camus is often considered to be one of the main existentialists, though he fiercely disputed being placed in that group.

Following his part-time attendance at the University of Algiers that eventually culminated in the equivalent of a Master's degree in philosophy, Camus embarked on his career as an intellect. He worked odd jobs and eventually became involved in the French anarchist movement, standing up for the rights of indigenous Algerians. After multiple marriages and many affairs and a stint in the French resistance against Nazi Germany, Camus first achieved notability as a journalist and then as a travelling lecturer on French philosophy. He was close to Jean-Paul Sartre during this time, but the two eventually had an intellectual and personal split over differences in their ideologies.

Camus went on to publish many books and essays during his life, including The Rebel, The Myth of Sisyphus, The Stranger, The Plague, and Exile and the Kingdom. He dedicated much of the later years of his life to human rights work, including for UNESCO. His left-wing politics, including his pacifist and anti-capital punishment beliefs, earned him much respect from fellow academics and thinkers, but some of his more complicated positions, especially those regarding the Algerian War, led to him being ostracized by many in the intellectual community.

In 1957, Camus received the Nobel Prize in Literature. The award was officially given to him for his essay Réflexions sur la Guillotine, but it is generally regarded as being awarded for The Fall.

On January 4, 1960, Camus died in a car accident in the small French town of Villeblevin. His children, twins Catherine and Jean, published some additional works following their father's death, though these previously unknown works never achieved much popularity amongst readers or scholars.