The Man who Changed Camus’ Life

Who do you think was the most important influence on Albert Camus? From the philosophical world there are a lot of contenders. He obviously was friends with Sartre and Beauvoir for some time before their falling out, and he was a voracious reader, so you could make an argument for Andre Gide, or Nietzsche, or perhaps Andre Malraux who, after all, Camus thought should have won the Nobel Prize for literature instead of him. Perhaps from the more personal sphere, we could talk about the many women he became romantically entangled with, or the Greniers, who were both his publishers and (for at least some of them) his friends.

However, there is someone who, in my view, surpassed all of these influences. He was not in Camus’ life for very long, and yet he is what made all of Camus’ work possible. He has also become a personal hero of mine.