Albert Camus (1913-1960) was a premier existentialist writer of the twentieth century. He is best known for his novel "L'Etranger" ("The Stranger") and his essay "The Myth of Sisyphus," both published in 1942. In 1957, after he published "Reflexions sur la Guillotine" ("Reflections on the Guillotine"), he was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature in recognition of "his important literary production, which with clear-sighted earnestness illuminates the problems of the human conscience in our times."