One of Frances most high-profile writers, Albert Camus experienced both public adulation and acrimonious rejection during a career cut short by a fatal car accident in 1960. Edward J. Hughes analyses the life of an author whose work and stance were the subject of both intense interest and scrutiny. I do not guide anyone Camus was to plead in his last interview, thereby reinforcing the paradox of a leading figure who in private wrestled with the challenge of pursuing his craft as a writer in an age of pressing ideological conflict.