65 years ago, Albert Camus died in a car accident

On January 4, 1960, Albert Camus, Nobel Prize in Literature, lost his life in a tragic car accident on a road in Yonne.

On that day, France lost one of its greatest writers under tragic and sudden circumstances. On January 4, 1960, Albert Camus, aged 46, was killed in a car accident near Villeblevin, in Yonne. Nobel Prize in Literature since 1957, Camus left behind a monumental body of work marked by the philosophy of the absurd and the exploration of the human condition.

On that day, Camus was traveling as a passenger in a Facel Vega HK500, a luxurious French sedan known for its power, driven by Michel Gallimard, nephew of his publisher Gaston Gallimard. On a straight national road, the car suddenly veered off the roadway and crashed into a plane tree. The impact was extremely violent: Albert Camus was killed instantly, while Michel Gallimard succumbed to his injuries a few days later.

The Fall of Camus

The accident strikes with its tragic irony: Camus, who preferred trains over cars and despised speed, was initially supposed to return to Paris by train. A train ticket found on him recalls the cruel role of chance in his life, a direct reflection of the themes he explored in his novels and essays.

Beyond the literary loss, this tragedy highlights automobile safety in the 1960s. Powerful cars like the Facel Vega, lacking seatbelts and modern protective structures, combined with tree-lined roads, made any accident particularly dangerous.

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Sixty-five years later, January 4, 1960 remains etched in history: a date when the road claimed a giant of literature, reminding us of the fragility of life and the dangers of automobiles before the era of modern safety.

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