Possible Clues:

• French writer quietly exits the academic field
• 'The Fall' guy?
• French existentialist writer
• Albert, writer of 'Tree Climbing'
• Big name in absurdism
• Existentialist writer
• First African-born winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature
• 20th century French philosopher and novelist
• He wrote chapter to entertain mainly
• Who wrote 'Can one be a saint if God does not exist?'