The Plague

Gary first mentioned Albert Camus in 1945, in a letter addressed to Maurice Nadeau. The two men quickly formed a bond, despite their frequent geographical separations. In 1947, Camus sent Gary a copy of La Peste, inscribed with a dedication explicitly referring to Éducation européenne. Deeply affected by Camus’s death in 1960, Gary agreed to write the preface for the American edition of the novel, reissued in 1962.

A tribute to a strong and little-known friendship between the two men: “It is very difficult, oddly enough, to remember the words of friends who are gone; one does not pay much attention when they are still there. I remember Camus’s smile and the gravity of his face — the two expressions sometimes following one another within seconds — far better than his conversation. I never set much store by words, in any case. But now that his voice has fallen silent, words only make me feel his absence more keenly. I do seem to recall, though, that he once said… no, actually, nothing very important. ‘Just that there are truths worth dying for, but none worth killing for.’ That was when he wrote La Peste.”