A Favorite Letter

Happy Fourth of July to one and all!

Albert Camus was less than a year old when his father was killed during WWII.  He and his older brother were raised by their illiterate mother and grandmother.  They were extremely poor. This letter serves as a testament as to the potential of education in delivering a way out of poverty.

Albert Camus's Letter of Gratitude to His Childhood Teacher After Winning the Nobel Prize.

9 November 1957

Dear Monsieur Germain,

I let the commotion around me these days subside a bit before speaking to you from the bottom of my heart. I have just been given far too great an honor, one I neither sought nor solicited. But when I heard the news, my first thought, after my mother, was of you. Without you, without the affectionate hand you extended to the small poor child that I was, without your teaching and example, none of all this would have happened. I don’t make too much of this sort of honor. But at least it gives me the opportunity to tell you what you have been and still are for me, and to assure you that your efforts, your work, and the generous heart you put into it still live in one of your little schoolboys who, despite the years, has never stopped being your grateful pupil. I embrace you with all my heart.

Albert Camus