From a stranger to a stranger

Letter sent by Albert Camus to Jean-Paul Sartre shows the two Parisian philosophers had been the dearest of friends.

Jean-Paul-Sartre and Albert Camus, lauded as two of the most gifted minds of the 20th century, developed a quick friendship, but a recently found letter revealed that their camaraderie turned bitter over the time.  The unknown letter, sent to Sartre by Camus, showed that the two French philosophers were the dearest of friends only a few months before they had a fallout, reported the Independent.

The undated letter has been authenticated by experts and is thought to be written in 1951. “[It] was acquired by an autograph collector in the 1970s and kept in a frame above his fireplace ever since,” said Nicolas Lieng of the Le Pas Sage Bookstore, which specialises in 19th and 20^th-century literature. “It was sold to a private French collector, who owns one of the most beautiful Camus collections, a week ago,” he added.



The letter opens with ‘My dear Sartre’ and concludes with ‘I shake your hand’.  Camus of The Stranger fame also recommended an actor by the name of Aminda Valls for Sartre’s new play. Camus calls the actor a ‘Spanish republican’ and ‘marvel of humanity’.

When the letter was written, Sartre was busy in the production of his play Le diable et le bon dieu, which opened in 1951 in Paris’ Théâtre Antoine. Valls didn’t end up being cast in the play. The letter clarifies that Camus had written it in his apartment in Paris, which remained his residence between 1950 and 1954. This is not the first time that a piece of correspondence between the two intellectuals has been discovered in recent times. Last year, a short note written to Sartre by Camus revealed one of the most notorious friendships of the 20th century.

The two thinkers had their first interaction during the German occupation of France and received instant recognition for their respective works. They even had the same publisher and were both winners of the Nobel Prize for literature. Camus accepted his award in 1957 but Sartre, who was to receive the prize seven years later, declined it claiming to not have been insulted “because Camus had received it before [him].” However, things took an unfavourable turn between them during the Cold War, when they began to disagree over philosophical and political matters.

A few months after writing the letter, Camus published L’Homme révolté, which was criticised by Sartre. This placed them at loggerheads, leading to their very public fallout. In an open letter, Sartre wrote, “Dear Camus, our friendship was not an easy one, but I shall miss it,” and panned his former friend for ‘philosophical incompetence’. The summer in 1952 saw their friendship disintegrate with the two never speaking again despite continuing with their public disagreements till Camus’ death in 1960. After 15 years, when the then 70-year-old Sartre was asked to comment on his relationship with Camus, he said that he was “probably my last good friend.”

Published in The Express Tribune, December 2^nd, 2014.

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