On this day...

Albert Camus, an Algerian-born, French writer, was born in 1913. Camus, also a philosophical authority, was often cited as being an advocate of exisitentialist thought, in which induvidual should primarily be concerned with their own existance; yet Camus himself denied this. He later became associated with absurdism, which deems the search by humanity for meaning in the universe to be futile. Influenced by figures such as Orwell and Dostoevsky, Camus tranferred these ideas into novels; producing such works as 'The Stranger', 'The Plague' and 'The Fall'. Camus was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957 for illuminating 'the problems of the human conscience in our times', becoming the first African-born writer and second youngest recipient of the award. He died in 1960, earning him the undesirable title of shortest-lived literature laureate to date.

On this day...

Fyodor Dostoyevsky, the Russian Novelist, was born in Moscow in 1821. Most of his literary works are of a nature which delves into human psychology, and as such, he is often said to be a foreshadowing of 20th century existentialism; a philosophical school of thought in which emotions, responsibilities and induvidual existance are most prominent. In 1849, Dostoyevsky was put in prision for being part of Petrashevsky Circle, a literary discussion group strongly opposed to tsarist autocracy. After being sentanced to death and waiting outside to be shot by a firing squad, his sentance was reduced to four years hard labour in Siberia; an experience he described like being 'shut up in a coffin'. His most famous works, written after this experience, are 'Crime and Punishment' and 'The Brothers Karamazov'.