Camus, Albert - in New York Book

Albert Camus spent the spring of 1946 in New York. His popularity in his native France was assured, yet here in New York he was known only to a small circle of writers and students. The Stranger, his first influential novel, was to be published in English for the first time during this visit. He was introduced to American readers with articles in the press, notably in The Herald Tribune and The New Yorker.

Quite apart from his lectures and the cocktail parties given in his honor, he had time to relax and enjoy the company of new friends. Lifelong friendships were cast with fellow writer A.J. Liebling and with the attractive and sympathetic Patricia Blake, a student who would become his guide to the city. Between lectures at Columbia University and the New School, and receptions with cultural representatives, his new friends took Camus to what would become favorite haunts. He was absorbed by the life on the Bowery, Little Italy, and struck by the American way of life and death.