May 19, 1942: "The Stranger" Is Published

May 19, 1942: L'Etranger is published in Paris by Éditions Gallimard. Traditionally, the title translates into English as "The Foreigner." But, in its English editions, the book is usually listed as "The Stranger."

Perhaps France's Nazi occupiers allowed it because it makes France, as a nation, look bad. If they had only known who they were dealing with.

Albert Camus (pronounced "Cam-OO," and he had no middle name) was born on November 7, 1913 in Mondovi, French Algeria -- now Dréan, Algeria. He was Pied-Noir (Black Feet), a person of French descent born in Algeria during France's rule over it from 1830 to 1962. Over 1 million of them lived in Algeria at the time of independence in 1962, and most of them left, having been pro-colonialism and not wanting to be ruled by a Muslim government.

Like many Europeans, including Frenchmen, Camus was a soccer fanatic. He was a goalkeeper for Algiers club Racing Universitaire d'Alger (RUA, now defunct), but tuberculosis ended his athletic career. He wrote, "What I know most surely about morality and the duty of man, I owe to sport." In his novel The Plague, he included a professional soccer player as a character, and discussed the sport in the dialogue.

He was in Paris when the Nazis invaded. He tried to flee, and then joined the Resistance, where he served as editor-in-chief at Combat, an outlawed newspaper. It was in this period that he wrote L'Etranger.

The novel concerns Mersault, a Pied-Noir, who begins his narrative by saying that his mother has died. He goes to her funeral, and feels nothing. He goes through several occurrences with people he knows, and seems to feel nothing with any of it. One thing leads to another, and Mersault ends up shooting an Arab man in self-defense.

His lack of remorse ties in with his apparently lack of any feelings, and while his friends speak on his behalf, it does him no good, and he is sentenced to die at the guillotine, which France still used for the death penalty until 1977. He realizes that everybody dies, and, unlike most people, he now knows when and how he's going to die, and he accepts it. He ends the novel feeling some happiness.

After The War, Camus became a celebrity figure, and gave many lectures around the world. Although he was called an existentialist due to his writing, he rejected this label. He was also called an absurdist, a label he did not oppose. He was a leftist who opposed Fascism, but also opposed Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union because of their brand of totalitarianism. He joined organizations seeking European integration, and argued for Algerian independence but as a multicultural and democratic nation.

In 1957, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. At 44, he was, and remains, its 2nd-youngest recipient. (Rudyard Kipling was 42.) On January 4, 1960, he was killed in a car crash in Sens, France. He was only 46, and had already written about the wars of independence from France by Vietnam and his native Algeria. He should have lived long enough to see the revolution of 1968, and perhaps even the dawn of the European Union.

*

May 19, 1942 was a Tuesday. These baseball games were played:

* The New York Giants lost to the St. Louis Cardinals, 8-4 at the Polo Grounds. Giant player-manager Mel Ott went 2-for-4 with an RBI. So did Cardinal rookie Stan Musial, who also drew 2 walks.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Chicago Cubs, 6-1 at Ebbets Field. Joe Medwick went 2-for-4 with a home run and 4 RBIs.

* The Boston Braves beat the Cincinnati Reds, 2-1 at Braves Field in Boston.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 5-4 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. (It was renamed Connie Mack Stadium in 1953.)

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 4-1 at League Park in Cleveland.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Boston Red Sox, 5-2 at Briggs Stadium in Detroit. (It was renamed Tiger Stadium in 1961.) Ted Williams went 0-for-4, but had an RBI on a sacrifice fly.

* The Chicago White Sox and the Washington Senators were supposed to play at Comiskey Park in Chicago, but the game was moved back as part of a more profitable Sunday doubleheader on May 17.  The ChiSox swept, 7-1 and 4-3.

* And the New York Yankees and the St. Louis Browns were simply not scheduled for that day.