Albert Camus

Birth Name:

Albert Camus

Birth Date:

November 7, 1913

Birth Place:

Mondovi, French Algeria

Death Date:

January 4, 1960

Place of Death:

Route Nationale 5, Villeblevin, France

Age:

Cause of Death:

Automobile accident

Cemetery Name:

Cimetière de Lourmarin

Claim to Fame:

Writers and Poets

Albert Camus was a French philosopher, author, dramatist, journalist, and political activist. He was the recipient of the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature at the age of 44, the second-youngest recipient in history. Some of his best known works include The Stranger, The Plague, The Myth of Sisyphus, The Fall, and The Rebel.The dominant philosophical contribution of Camus’s work is absurdism. While he is often associated with existentialism, he rejected the label, expressing surprise that he would be viewed as a philosophical ally of Sartre. Elements of absurdism and existentialism are present in Camus’s most celebrated writing especially in The Myth of Sisyphus (1942). The protagonists of The Stranger and The Plague must also confront the absurdity of social and cultural orthodoxies, with dire results. Camus died on January 4, 1960 at the age of 46, in a car accident near Sens, in Le Grand Fossard in the small town of Villeblevin. He had spent the New Year's holiday of 1960 at his house in Lourmarin, Vaucluse with his family, and his publisher Michel Gallimard, along with Gallimard's wife, Janine, and daughter. Camus's wife and children went back to Paris by train but Camus decided to return in Gallimard's luxurious Facel Vega FV2. The car crashed into a plane tree on a long straight stretch of the Route nationale 5. Camus, who was in the passenger seat, died instantly. Gallimard died a few days later, although his wife and daughter were unharmed.

Fun Facts

Camus, considered a handsome man at the time, was a bit of a womaniser. He married and divorced twice as a young man, stating his disapproval of the institution of marriage throughout, and had many extramarital affairs. When he was just 20 he met a beautiful drug addict named Simone Hié. She was addicted to morphine, and despite his family’s disapproval Camus married her to help her fight her addiction. He later discovered she was “cuddling” with her doctor at the same time and the couple divorced shortly after.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy suggested that his remains be moved to the Panthéon, an idea that was criticised by Camus’s surviving family and went no further.

Cemetery Information:

Final Resting Place:

Cimetière de Lourmarin

Avenue Henri Bosco

Lourmarin, , 84160

France

Europe

Map:

Map of Cimetière de Lourmarin in Lourmarin, France

Grave Location:

Camus Family Plot

Grave Location Description

As you enter the cemetery make an immediate left turn and walk to the end of the path then turn right. Walk about 50 feet and the simple stone memorial for philosopher and author Albert Camus is on the right.