Foreign News: The Rebel

Paris-Presse told the news in one stark word so closely identified with Albert Camus in life: ABSURD. In Paris small crowds of his admirers gathered around newsstands, not quite knowing what they were waiting for. One by one the celebrated names of French literature poured out their stunned tributes. Author Camus, 46, France's (1957) Nobel prizewinner, had been killed in a speeding sports car. "A stupid death," cried one Academician bitterly, but somehow nothing could have seemed more in keeping with the vision Camus had had of his time.

He had come out of...