How’s this for a bit of communication across cultures: an Australian biographer reporting a French writer commenting on the death of an American president. It comes from the book I’ll be reviewing in the next couple of days, Hazel Rowley’s Franklin and Eleanor: An extraordinary marriage. In it Rowley quotes Albert Camus on the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1945:
‘His face was the very image of happiness,’ Albert Camus wrote in the French Resistance newspaper, Combat. ‘History’s powerful men are not generally men of such good humour … There is not a single free human being who does not regret his loss and who would not have wished his destiny to have continued a little longer. World peace, that boundless good, ought to be planned by men with happy faces rather than by sad-eyed politicians.’
Somehow I didn’t expect something quite so sunny-sounding from Albert Camus, but perhaps I don’t know him as well as I thought I did. We are, I think, more cynical these days about the concept of “world peace” but we can still hope, can’t we? Does anyone know of any happy-faced world leaders out there that we can call on to promote the cause (besides the current Dalai Lama that is)?
Whispering Gums 
Oh, you and Albert Camus. Sometimes I think Dad should be worried… 😉
Since Camus has passed on to another world, I think Mr Gums is safe.
Wow, Camus is downright sunny in that quote. I wonder if he wasn’t feeling himself that day? Happy-faced world leaders seem to be in short supply these days.
He clearly was … I wonder how often he was like that. Perhaps his novels belie his disposition?!
Cannot imagine Monsieur Camus feeling this way. Love Hazel Rowley’s work and am curious about this one. You don’t think Barack Obama has a peace-inspiring smile? Trouble is, we have too much information about everything but the real and vital issues.
This is my first Rowley … but I would like to read more, particularly her Christina Stead and the one on Richard Wright. Oh, and I suppose I’d like the Sartre/de Beauvoir one too! Obama … yes I suppose he does really, though I haven’t seen him smiling much lately. The art of being a politician – of having to compromise one’s ideas/ideals (as Roosevelt found too) – does not sit easily on all people I think.
Yep you’ve just reminded me, must order the Simone de Beauvoir/Sartre one. Gosh I was obsessed with her, thought she was divine when I was a young thing.
Yes, she was great – I’d love to read it too. Will watch out for your review!
I think one should not put too much weight on war-time editorials. Nor, for that matter, in smiles–Eisenhower had quite a smile, too, but he and Roosevelt could be as ruthless as they considered they had to be.
Now that wasn’t kind to burst our bubble, George! As for smiles, what’s that song? Ah yes, “Never smile at a crocodile, Don’t be taken in by his cheery grin?”. I suppose you’re right!