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Albert Camus is considered by many to be one of the great existentialists, though the writer and philosopher himself famously rejected ideological labels — he simply considered himself an artist. Born in 1913 in French Algeria, Camus’ working-class family was close-knit. But tragedy struck the family within the first year of Camus’ life, when his father, Lucien, died in battle in World War I. Despite hardships in his early life, Camus flourished in school, showing an early aptitude in literature and philosophy. His first published essay collections, Betwixt and Between (1937) and Nuptials (1938) explored some of the philosophical themes that would come to define Camus’ work: love, death, the natural world, and, of course, the inherent absurdity of existence.

Years of higher education as well as stints in performance and journalism followed, but in 1942, Camus rose to prominence with his debut novel The Stranger and a philosophical essay titled “The Myth of Sisyphus.” Both works poignantly encapsulated the reluctant existentialist’s philosophy of the absurd. In 1957, Camus’ work earned him the Nobel Prize in literature; he died in a car accident just three years later at age 46.