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Sarkozy ‘hijacking’ Camus?

Nobel Prize-winning author Albert Camus’ children and fans are stumped by a proposal by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to move the great writer’s remains (Camus is buried in Lourmarin, near Avignon) to the Pantheon — where many French luminaries are buried.

Sarkozy has said it would be an “extraordinary symbol” for Camus’ remains to be moved there for the 50^th anniversary of author’s death in January — but that he would need the family’s approval. Camus’ daughter, Catherine, has said she has doubts about a transfer of the remains, while her brother, Jean, is said to oppose any transfer because the author of The Stranger was reluctant to accept honours. In fact, Jean has told Le Monde that he suspected Sarkozy of wanting to “hijack” his father.

Sarkozy’s detractors have wasted no time in dismissing the President’s proposal as smacking of “political opportunism”. “This is a gimmick,” said Olivier Todd, a biographer of the author. “It’s part of his [Sarkozy’s] technique of hijacking the intellectual milieu. It flies absolutely in the face of everything that Camus stood for. Camus does not need Sarkozy; Sarkozy needs a little intellectual glitter.” Camus died in a car crash on January 4, 1960, at the age of 46.

Origin of Species gets a new price

A first edition of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species which had been kept in a bathroom bookcase in England for years, fetched $171,000 at an auction in London recently — around twice its pre-sale estimate, reports Reuters. Christie’s auctioneer offered the book at a sale held in London on the 150^th anniversary of the evolutionary work’s original publication. The copy was bought by the family of the current owners for “a few shillings” over 50 years ago, the auctioneer said. The seller’s son-in-law recently visited an exhibition on Darwin where he saw another first edition on display and realised it was the same book that was in his father-in-law’s guest bathroom.

Margaret Ford, Director and Head of Books and Manuscripts, Christie’s London, has been quoted elsewhere in media reports as saying: “It is a very fitting occasion to have sold this rediscovered copy of Darwin’s Origin of Species 150 years to the day after it was first published. One of the most important and influential scientific books ever written, the copy sold today was an unusual rediscovery having been found in the guest bathroom of the vendor’s house. We are thrilled to have seen so much interest for the book leading up to the auction, where clients competed in the room and by telephone, with an anonymous telephone bidder winning the battle and acquiring it.” On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection was first published on November 24, 1859, and became one of the most influential scientific books 
ever written.