1913–1960 · French novelist, essayist & dramatist · Nobel Prize in Literature, 1957
Albert Camus (7 November 1913 – 4 January 1960) was a French novelist, essayist, dramatist and journalist, awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1957 — by then the author of The Stranger, The Plague, The Myth of Sisyphus and The Rebel. He died in a car crash near Sens at forty-six — almost twelve years before this saying’s first documented appearance in print. Wikiquote files the line under its Disputed heading with the note that researchers “have searched for this quote unsuccessfully in Camus’ extant works.” Camus wrote a great deal about solidarity and friendship, which is precisely why a warm, tidy aphorism about friendship sticks to his name so easily.