Albert Camus : The Artist in the Arena

In focusing on his extensive journalistic activities, Emmett Parker brings into clear relief the figure of Albert Camus as an artiste engagé and demonstrates the evolution, the development, as well as the profound unity of Camus's thought.

""No free man is assured of his dignity in the face of such procedures. When base methods can lead to the imprisonment of men whose lives are already only a series of privations, then for all of us they amount to a kind of personal insult that it is impossible to bear.""
—Albert Camus, defending Muslim workers convicted on the basis of confessions obtained by torture, later repudiated by the accused, 1937

The words of this principled French writer and philosopher, who was born in Algeria, ring strongly today. Besides being a novelist and a playwright, Camus was an active journalist, writing hundreds of articles and editorials for newspapers, such as Combat and L''Express, in Algeria and in France during the Resistance and postliberation periods. In focusing on these extensive journalistic activities, Emmett Parker brings into clear relief the figure of Camus as an artiste engagé and demonstrates the evolution, the development, as well as the profound unity of Camus''s thought.

This Wisconsin paperback edition was first published in 1966. It includes an appendix of selected citations in French by Camus, an appendix of articles and editorials by Camus, and a list of works consulted, which were mostly in French.