Justin O'Brien (scholar)

Justin O'Brien (November 26, 1906 – December 7, 1968) was an American biographer, translator of André Gide and Albert Camus and professor of French at Columbia University.^[1][2]

Biography

Justin McCortney O'Brien was born on November 26, 1906, in Chicago, Illinois, to Quin O'Brien and Ellen, née McCortney.^[3]

He was a biographer of André Gide, and a translator of Gide, Camus and Sartre. He was also a reviewer, and a professor of French at Columbia University.^[4] He was an enthusiast of Proust, Camus and Gide, and was able to transmit his enthusiasm to Americans, contributing to make these and other French authors known in the United States.^[5] Among the works of Camus translated by O'Brien are Caligula,^[6] The Fall,^[7] as well as The Myth of Sisyphus and other essays^[8] and Exile and the Kingdom.^[9] He was the translator of Gide's journals,^[10] translating and editing Journals, 1889–1949.^[11] Among his other translations of Gide is So Be It Or the Chips Are Down.^[12] In 1953 he published his critical biography on André Gide, Portrait of André Gide.^[13]

He was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship in French Literature in 1942.^[14][3] He died on December 7, 1968,^[15] aged 62.^[16]

Selected works

Author

• Portrait of André Gide: A Critical Biography (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1953)
• Les nourritures d'André Gide et les Bucoliques de Virgile, translated into French by E. van Rysselberghe, (Boulogne-Billancourt: Editions de la Revue Pretexte, 1953).
• The French literary horizon (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1967)
• Contemporary French Literature: Essays (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1971)

Translator

• Gide, André. The Journals of André Gide 1889-1949, four volumes, (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1951)
• Gide, André. Madeleine (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1952)
• Gide, André. Logbook of the Coiners (London: Cassell, 1952)
• Camus, Albert. The Myth of Sisyphus (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1955)
• Camus, Albert. The Fall (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1957)
• Camus, Albert. Exile and the Kingdom (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1958)
• Gide, André. So Be It Or the Chips Are Down (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1959)
• Camus, Albert. The Possessed (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1960)
• Camus, Albert. Resistance, Rebellion, and Death (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1961)
• Camus, Albert. Caligula: Adapted from the French by Justin O'Brien (New York: Samuel French, 1961)
• Camus, Albert. Notebooks 1942–1951 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1965)
• Camus, Albert. Create Dangerously (London: Penguin, 2020)
• Camus, Albert. Committed Writings (London: Penguin, 2020)
• Camus, Albert. Reflections on the Guillotine (London: Penguin, 2020)