PARIS – The two men were known to be bitter rivals. Jean-Paul Sartre once denounced the “philosophical incompetence” of Albert Camus and was said to have thrown out most of the letters he and Camus had exchanged.
But this week Nicolas Lieng, a bookstore owner here, revealed a rare letter written by Camus to the man he called “my dear Sartre.”
The two-page letter, which had been hanging above the fireplace of a private collector for decades, provided a rare testimony of the friendship between the men before they famously clashed in 1952.
“Let’s try to see each other more often,” Camus wrote in the letter, which the owner of the bookstore, Le Pas Sage, believes was written in 1951. “I have thought a lot about us lately.”
Camus wrote to Sartre in part to ask him to hire a young actress, Aminda Valls (described as “a marvel of compassion”) for a play Sartre was directing. He also emphasized the “repulsive attitude” of François Mauriac, the author of the 1927 novel “Thérèse Desqueyroux,” after the death of another well-known author, André Gide. Mr. Lieng said a private collector who chose to remain anonymous had handed the letter over to him earlier this year. He said the collector’s family had bought it in the 1970s from an undisclosed seller.
“I’ve made many great discoveries over the years but I knew that this one would touch many people,” Mr. Lieng said, adding that the letter had been recently authenticated by a Camus expert.
Sartre and Camus, two of France’s most famous intellectuals and writers, first met in 1943 and became friends. Three years later Camus, then editor of “Combat,” the main newspaper of the French Resistance, offered Sartre a position as the newspaper’s correspondent in the United States, which Sartre accepted.
But Sartre’s disagreements with Camus crystallized after the 1952 publication of Camus’ “The Rebel.” The two tussled over many topics, including Communism and the war in Algeria. After Sartre’s denunciation Camus argued, “I am wary of being criticized by people who have done nothing more than turn their seat towards the tide of history.”
Last year two private collectors found an undated letter written by Camus and addressed to Sartre, which also emphasized the men’s friendship. But it was much shorter and less important, according to Mr. Lieng.