November 7, 1913

We have this precis of Camus's philosophy:

The essential paradox arising in Camus's philosophy concerns his central notion of absurdity. Accepting the Aristotelian idea that philosophy begins in wonder, Camus argues that human beings cannot escape asking the question, “What is the meaning of existence?” Camus, however, denies that there is an answer to this question, and rejects every scientific, teleological, metaphysical, or human-created end that would provide an adequate answer. Thus, while accepting that human beings inevitably seek to understand life's purpose, Camus takes the skeptical position that the natural world, the universe, and the human enterprise remain silent about any such purpose. Since existence itself has no meaning, we must learn to bear an irresolvable emptiness. This paradoxical situation, then, between our impulse to ask ultimate questions and the impossibility of achieving any adequate answer, is what Camus calls the absurd.

Albert Camus (November 7, 1913 to January 4, 1960), won a Nobel Prize (1957) "for his important literary production, which with clear-sighted earnestness illuminates the problems of the human conscience in our times".

Camus died a few years later in a car crash. Which you could consider absurd. And this next point, some will say falls into that category:

There is a vandalism in the records regarding the cats of certain writers. Camus is reported to have named a cat "Stranger" which if true would reveal an obvious lack of taste. It cannot be true. I have noticed a parallel tackiness with other writers. It is not surprising that someone's joke has been copied all over. What I have not found is the origin of these errors.

We do know Albert Camus had a black cat.