''My Dear Friend'': Further Letters to and about Joseph Conrad

“My Dear Friend” Further Letters to and about Joseph Conrad

C O N R A D Studies

3

General Editors

Allan H. Simmons and J. H. Stape Advisory Editors

Owen Knowles, Gene M. Moore, and Laurence Davies

“My Dear Friend” Further Letters to and about Joseph Conrad

Edited by

Owen Knowles

Amsterdam - New York, NY 2008

Cover design: Pier Post Selection and editorial matter © 2008 Owen Knowles The paper on which this book is printed meets the requirements of “ISO 9706:1994, Information and documentation - Paper for documents - Requirements for permanence”. ISBN: 978-90-420-2464-9 ©Editions Rodopi B.V., Amsterdam - New York, NY 2008 Printed in the Netherlands

Contents List of plates Acknowledgements Foreword Holders of letters Published sources of letters and cue-titles Correspondents Editorial procedures

vi vii ix xiii xv xix xxxiii

Letters 1857–1900 1904–1906 1907–1914 1915–1920 1921–1924 Post-1924

1 7 42 71 108 166

Appendix I: Ford Madox Ford’s Letter to Edward Garnett, 5 May 1928 191 Appendix II: Additions to the Calendar of Letters Addressed to Conrad 195 Appendix III: A Calendar of Missing Conrad Letters 197 Index of correspondents Index of names, places, titles

201 204

List of plates 1 2 3

Three cheques issued by the Royal Bounty fund trustees to Conrad’s creditors, 1905 Letter from Pathé Frères Cinema, Limited, 19 July 1913 F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “Confessions,” Chicago Daily Tribune, 19 May 1923

These plates appear by kind permission of (1) a Private owner; (2) The Berg Collection: Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations, New York Public Library; and (3) the Chicago Daily Tribune.

Acknowledgements I SHOULD LIKE to thank the individuals and institutions listed in “Holders of Letters” for their kind cooperation in providing access to their collections. I am grateful to them and the various estates concerned in regard to permission to publish. Whilst every effort has been made to locate owners of copyright material, this search has in some cases proved unsuccessful. The editor and publishers shall be glad to include any necessary acknowledgements in subsequent printings. A number of friends and colleagues have kindly offered invaluable advice and assistance. My principal debt is to J. H. Stape, who, in addition to sharing his expertise and substantial archival findings, generously encouraged this endeavour from its inception. Keith Carabine, Laurence Davies, the late Hans van Marle, Gene M. Moore, Walter Putnam, and Allan H. Simmons also kindly provided both materials and invaluable scholarly assistance. I am also deeply indebted to Cedric Watts, who graciously responded to many queries and provided contextual information, and to Max Saunders for his guidance in matters Fordian and for permission to use an extract from his Ford Madox Ford: A Dual Life (1996). Thanks are also due to his publisher, Oxford University Press, for permission for that extract to appear here. I am also grateful to the following individuals for answering enquiries or facilitating the search for letters: Anne Arnold; Dennison Beach and his colleagues at The Houghton Library, Harvard University; Katharina Binder; the research librarians at the Brynmor Jones Library, University of Hull; Mary Burgoyne; Becky Cape at The Lilly Library, University of Indiana; Peter Grogan of R. Gekoski, Bookseller; Richard High at The Brotherton Library, University of Leeds; Israel Gewirtz, Philip Milito, and Robinson Gomez at the New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations; Vincent Giroud (Modern Books and Manuscripts), Patricia Middleton (Reference Section), and Graham Sherriff (Public Services Assistant) at The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University; Christopher Hilton, archivist at The Wellcome Institute, London; R. Russell Maylone at Northwestern University Library; Donald W. Rude; and Richard Workman, Research Librarian, The Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin. Special thanks are due to Helen Baron, who assisted in translating letters in French.

Foreword THE PRESENT VOLUME is a sequel and supplement to A Portrait in Letters: Correspondence to and about Conrad (Rodopi, 1996). Since its publication, the Portrait, as it is commonly abbreviated, has gratifyingly become an essential companion to the nine volumes of Conrad’s own correspondence. Its gathering of “letters to” aimed to restore the quality of exchange, interaction, and debate that inevitably belongs to a major correspondence such as Conrad’s as well as to counter the inevitable one-sidedness that results from the convention of publishing the writer’s letters in splendid isolation. In all manner of ways, such epistolary two-sidedness contributes to a fuller, more rounded picture of the subject in his personal and professional dealings with others: of the mutualities and rituals that underpinned close friendships as of the mutual grievances that served to fire prolonged and acrimonious disagreements. The Portrait has also acted as a sharp reminder of how letters about Conrad can refine and enrich our knowledge of the writer’s personal and literary lives. At their simplest level, these may provide sharply etched impressions and reminiscences; describe the impact of his life and work on others; or show members of the Conrad circle keeping each other informed of the writer’s activities. On other occasions, letters “about” Conrad as a third person can have the force of a first-person intervention by Conrad himself. Thus, during periods of frosty non-communication between the writer and his agent J. B. Pinker, Conrad seems regularly to have enlisted as a mouthpiece and go-between his friend John Galsworthy, whose letters to Pinker about Conrad are written at the writer’s express request and represent his wishes so faithfully that they virtually belong in the volumes of Conrad’s collected correspondence. For example, a letter from Galsworthy to Pinker of 24 July 1908 begins with the statement, “Conrad asks me to ask you to write to him,” goes on to refer to their previous correspondence, quotes verbatim from a Conrad letter recently sent to him, and finishes: “I have told you, and I have told him what I think, and now I must retire from the position of ‘in between’ man.” Letters about Conrad of an “in-between” kind also become especially revealing at moments of financial crisis in the writer’s life. For example, his various applications for literary awards involve the inevitable official letters of support from his sponsors. But these are invariably supplemented by a complicated network of unofficial correspondence involving friends and mentors who, worried by his insolvency and failing spirits,

x

can be found negotiating with each other and a more public sphere in an effort to remedy his financial position. The tired description of Conrad’s career as “a life in letters” can turn out to have an accurate literal force in evoking his prominence in a network of third-party correspondence. A main aim of the present volume has been to collect a number of newly discovered letters to and about Conrad, notably including the substantial group of late letters from John Galsworthy and Philippe Neel located by J. H. Stape and Walter Putnam, respectively. In addition, the present collection allows for the inclusion of letters unknown or unavailable in 1996 as well as others that, through considerations of space, were not presented in the previous volume; in particular, these include letters from Jessie Conrad, Ford Madox Ford, John Quinn, Stephen Reynolds, old seamen-friends, and a variety of Conrad’s publishers. Finally, a group of post-1924 letters about Conrad has been included as a way of evoking the kinds of personal impact that a major writer may have after his death. A special feature of the present volume is the newly recovered correspondence relating to the administration of the Royal Bounty grant awarded to Conrad during 1904–06. Fleeting references to the main body of this correspondence were made in the 1983 biography by Zdzisław Najder, who had access to a cache of letters then owned by Ugo Mursia, the distinguished Italian publisher and Conrad scholar. After Mursia’s death, ownership of the letters passed into another private archive, and only recently has it been possible to gain access to the collection, published here for the first time. In order to give the fullest possible picture of this episode of Conrad’s life, this cache has been supplemented by a further seventeen unpublished letters relating to Conrad’s Bounty Fund award (held in the Special Collections divisions at Harvard, Leeds, and Yale University Libraries). In a 1904 letter to H. G. Wells, Arnold Bennett wryly suggested that the needy and impractical Conrad “ought to be administered by trustees,” but, as subsequent events were to show, the Royal Bounty trusteeship led to no such easy panacea. Indeed, the two main trustees, Henry Newbolt and William Rothenstein, often seem close to regarding their position as similar to that of a Rosencrantz and Guildenstern awkwardly embroiled in the life of an antic Hamlet. Also involving other players – Edmund Gosse, M. G. Ramsay, Gilbert Murray, and Alice Rothenstein – the correspondence offers an astonishingly detailed portrait of one of the writer’s most serious financial crises as well as of the Edwardian literary establishment at work in a well-intentioned, but sometimes fraught act of financial rescue.

xi

This collection follows the policy of the previous one in omitting correspondence available in readily accessible published volumes. Thus no letters from, for example, Tadeusz Bobrowski, early Polish friends, and the Blackwood firm have been included. Wherever possible, unpublished materials have been preferred along with the re-publication of letters from less well-known sources. The volume concludes with three appendices on more specialized topics, including commentary on an important letter from Ford Madox Ford to Edward Garnett of May 1928 and an updating of the “Calendar of Letters Addressed to Conrad” compiled by J. H. Stape for A Portrait in Letters.

Holders of letters Berg BL Brandeis Columbia Harvard HL Illinois Indiana Jagiellonian Leeds McMaster Northwestern NYPL Princeton Texas UCL VL Watts Wellcome Williams Woods Yale

Berg Collection, New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations British Library Special Collections, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts Special Collections Division, Columbia University, New York Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts House of Lords Record Office University of Illinois Library, Champaign-Urbana Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington Jagiellonian University Library, Cracow Brotherton Collection, University of Leeds Russell Archives, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario Charles Deering McCormick Library of Special Collections, Northwestern University Library, Evanston, Illinois Miscellaneous Manuscripts Division, New York Public Library Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations Special Collections, Firestone Library, Princeton University, New Jersey Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin Library of University College London Voralberger Landesbibliothek, Bregenz, Austria Professor Cedric Watts Special Collections, Wellcome Institute, London Chapin Library, Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts Mrs Gill Woods Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut

Published sources of letters B. & M.

Karl Beckson and John M. Munro, eds., Arthur Symons: Selected Letters, 1880–1935. London: Macmillan, 1989 Baines Jocelyn Baines, Joseph Conrad: A Critical Biography. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1960 Baxter Katherine Isobel Baxter, “Conrad’s Application to the British Museum: An Unpublished Letter,” The Conradian, 31.2 (2006), 79–84 Berryman John Berryman, Stephen Crane. New York: William Sloane, 1950 Bookman (NY) Bookman (New York), 61 (June 1925), 500 CL The Collected Letters of Joseph Conrad, eds. Laurence Davies, Frederick R. Karl, Owen Knowles, Gene M. Moore, and J. H. Stape. 9 vols. Cambridge University Press, 1983–2007 Curreli (1) Mario Curreli, Cecchi e Conrad: Tre lettere inedite. Viareggio: Pezzini Editore, 1999 Curreli (2) Mario Curreli, “Cecchi, Critico Conradiano,” Italianistica, 28.2 (May–August, 1999), 251–64 DG David Garnett, ed., The Letters of T. E. Lawrence. London: Cape, 1938 ER English Review, 31 (August 1920), 178–79 Garnett Richard Garnett, Constance Garnett: A Heroic Life. London: Sinclair-Stevenson, 1991 H. & W. John Halverson and Ian Watt, “Notes on Jane Anderson: 1955–1990,” Conradiana, 23.1 (1991), 59–87 Hepburn James Hepburn, ed., Letters of Arnold Bennett. 3 vols. London: Oxford University Press, 1968-70 J-A G. Jean-Aubry, Joseph Conrad in the Congo. Boston: Little, Brown, & Co., 1926 JCLW Jessie Conrad, ed., Joseph Conrad’s Letters to his Wife. Privately printed, 1927 Knowles Owen Knowles, “Joseph Conrad and Bertrand Russell: New Light on their Relationship,” Journal of Modern Literature, 17.1 (1990), 139–52 Kryżanowski Ludwik Kryżanowski, “Florilegium on the Sexagenary of the Death of Joseph Conrad,” Polish Review, 29.3 (1984), 3–6

xvi

LL MacShane Marrot Mérédac Mizener Mursia Newbolt NM NSN Portrait Putnam Ray, ed. Reid S. & C. S. & K. Saunders Schwab

Joseph Conrad: Life and Letters, ed., G. Jean-Aubry. 2 vols. London: Heinemann, 1927 Frank MacShane, ed., Ford Madox Ford: The Critical Heritage. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1972 H. V. Marrot, The Life and Letters of John Galsworthy. London: Heinemann, 1935 Savinien Mérédac, “Joseph Conrad et nous,” L’Essor: Revue de Cercle Littéraire de Port-Louis (Mauritius), 15 February 1931 Arthur Mizener, The Saddest Story: A Biography of Ford Madox Ford. London: Bodley Head, 1971 Ugo Mursia, “‘The True ‘Discoverer’ of Joseph Conrad’s Literary Talent and Other Notes on Conradian Biography,” Conradiana, 4.2 (1972), 5–22 Henry Newbolt, My World as in My Time: Memoirs of Sir Henry Newbolt, 1862–1932. London: Faber, 1932 Nautical Magazine: A Technical & Critical Journal for the Officers of the Mercantile Marine, June 1921, 567 New Statesman and Nation, 31 (28 July 1928), 511 J. H. Stape and Owen Knowles, eds., A Portrait in Letters: Correspondence to and about Joseph Conrad. Amsterdam: Editions Rodopi, 1996 Walter Putnam, “A Translator’s Correspondence: Philippe Neel to Joseph Conrad,” The Conradian, 24.1 (1999), 59–91 Martin Ray, ed., Joseph Conrad: Interviews and Recollections. London: Macmillan, 1990 B. L. Reid, The Man from New York: John Quinn and His Friends. New York: Oxford University Press, 1968 J. H. Stape and Keith Carabine, “Family Letters: Conrad to a Sister-in-Law and Jessie Conrad on Conrad’s Death,” The Conradian, 30.1 (2005), 127–31 J. H. Stape and Owen Knowles, “‘In-between man’: Conrad–Galsworthy–Pinker,” The Conradian, 31.2 (2006), 48–61 Max Saunders, Ford Madox Ford: A Dual Life. 2 vols. Oxford University Press, 1996 Arnold T. Schwab, “Joseph Conrad and Warrington Dawson,” Modern Philology, 68.4 (1971), 364–74

xvii

Scoble Sherry Stape (1) Stape (2) Stone Trough Times TLS (1) TLS (2) To-day Tribune Vidan Watson Watts (1) Watts (2)

Christopher Scoble, Fisherman’s Friend: A Life of Stephen Reynolds. Tiverton: Halsgrove Press, 2000 Norman Sherry, Conrad’s Eastern World. Cambridge University Press, 1966 J. H. Stape, ed., “Conrad and J. St. Loe Strachey: A Correspondence Recovered,” Conradiana 21.3 (1989), 231–40 J. H. Stape, ed., “From ‘The Most Sympathetic of Friends’: John Galsworthy’s Letters to Joseph Conrad, 1906–1923,” Conradiana, 32.3 (2000), 228–45 Richard Curle: The Pre-Eminent Conradian. York: Stone Trough Books, Catalogue Seven, 1995 The Times, Tuesday, 10 December 1957, 11 Times Literary Supplement, 7 October 1955, 589 Times Literary Supplement, 14 October 1955, 605 To-day, 28.5 (June 1919), 152 “Confessions,” Chicago Daily Tribune, 19 May 1923, 9 Ivo Vidan, “Saint-John Perse’s Visit to Conrad: A Letter by Alexis Saint-Léger Léger to G. Jean-Aubry,” Conradiana, 2.3 (1969–70), 17–22 Frederick Watson, The Life of Sir Robert Jones. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1934 C. T. Watts, ed., Joseph Conrad’s Letters to R. B. Cunninghame Graham. Cambridge University Press, 1969 Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness”: A Contextual Discussion. Milan: Mursia International, 1977

Cue-titles Najder

Zdzisław Najder, Joseph Conrad: A Life. Trans. Halina Carroll-Najder. Rochester, New York: Camden House, 2007

Wilson

Harris Wilson, ed., Arnold Bennett and H. G. Wells: A Record of a Personal and Literary Relationship. London: Hart-Davis, 1960

Correspondents Jane ANDERSON (née Foster Anderson, 1893–1950s?; Mrs Deems Taylor; Señora or Marquesa de Cienfuegos) was a journalist from Arizona. At the time of her first visit to Capel House in 1916, she was married to Deems Taylor and working as a war correspondent, employed by Lord Northcliffe, in England and France. She seems to have been close to the Conrad family for about two years. Fred ARNOLD was, as his 1958 letter to the Daily Telegraph implies, a resident of Canterbury and a regular visitor to the town’s mediæval inn, the “Fleur-de-Lys.” AUBRY: see JEAN-AUBRY The AUTHORS’ SYNDICATE LTD, established in 1890 by William Morris Colles, acted as a clearing-house for placing writers’ work. Lindsay BASHFORD (1881-1921), literary editor of the Daily Mail. Lt-Colonel Matthew Gerald Edward BELL (1871–1927) was the owner of Bourne Park, Bishopsbourne, and thus the Conrads’ landlord at Oswalds. He had served in India and Somalia. (Arnold) Henry Sanford BENNETT (1868–1972), a Canadian based in Paris, first met Stephen Crane in 1896 and became a close friend. (Enoch) Arnold BENNETT (1867–1931), novelist and prolific literary journalist. The chronicler of Potteries life in a series of novels, he was – with H. G. Wells and Edward Garnett – an early admirer of Conrad’s fiction, which he reviewed as assistant editor of the Academy in the late 1890s. Glasgow-born Muirhead BONE (1876–1953; knighted 1937), a talented draughtsman and engraver, was the brother of the journalist James Bone and David Bone, captain of the Tuscania on which Conrad sailed to America in 1923. Muirhead also made the voyage and drew several portraits of Conrad.

xx

Lady Margaret Alice Lily BROOKE, Dowager Ranee of Sarawak (née de Windt, 1849–1936), the estranged wife of Rajah Charles Brooke of Sarawak, mingled in London’s literary and artistic circles, counting Henry James and Edmund Gosse among her many friends. Louise BURLEIGH (1890–1961), an American actress, director, and playwright, was a supporter of the Community Theatre movement and published The Community Theater in Theory and Practice (1917). In 1919, she moved to Virginia, to direct the Richmond Little Theatre League and corresponded with Conrad about One Day More; in 1928, she married the American composer and pianist, John Powell. Emilio Martino Gaetano CECCHI (1884–1966), a Florentine living in Rome, had published books on Kipling (1910) and the English Romantics (1915) before becoming literary critic for the daily La Tribuna. In 1919, he helped to found a new literary magazine, La Ronda. He moved to Milan in 1923 to become resident critic for Corriere della Sera. Wilfrid Hugh CHESSON (1870–1952), novelist, biographer, and critic, was the first to see the manuscript of Almayer’s Folly in 1894 as one of T. Fisher Unwin’s readers and was swift to appreciate its promise. As a reviewer, he later contributed several perceptive appraisals of Conrad’s fiction. Harald Leofurn CLARKE (1874–1942) was an apprentice on Conrad’s first voyage in the Torrens in 1891–92. He eventually earned a master’s certificate and was Harbour Master of Suva in the British colony of Fiji, where he died. Hugh (Charles) CLIFFORD (1886–1941; knighted 1909) combined a distinguished career as a colonial administrator and governor (in Malaya, North Borneo, Trinidad and Tobago, Africa, and Ceylon) with that of a man of letters. An early admirer of Conrad’s work, he wrote one of the first general appreciations of Conrad’s fiction. Conrad dedicated Chance to him. (Alfred) Borys (Leo) CONRAD (1898–1978), Conrad’s elder son. Jessie Emmeline CONRAD (née George, 1873–1936), the second of nine children, probably met her future husband in 1894 when she was

xxi

working for a typewriter manufacturer and living with her widowed mother in Peckham. She and Conrad married in 1896. Stephen CRANE (1871–1900), American writer and war correspondent, lived in England from 1897 to 1900 and established an immediate rapport with Conrad, who later recalled their friendship in three essays. Richard Henry Parnell CURLE (1883–1968), Scots-born journalist, shortstory writer, and bibliophile. An indispensable friend of Conrad’s later years, he was his literary executor, editor of his letters and posthumous work, and author of memoirs about him. Henry DANA (1855–1921) began his career as an actor, before becoming business manager of His Majesty’s Theatre and then general manager at the Globe Theatre, where he worked with Marie Löhr on the staging of Victory. F(rancis) Warrington DAWSON (1878–1962), the son of a wealthy newspaper owner from Charleston, South Carolina, was a successful journalist and aspiring novelist living in Paris when he first met Conrad in 1910. Conrad read his work-in-progress and helped to promote his novels. Founded in 1888 by Joseph Mallaby Dent (1849–1926), the Dent publishing company evolved in 1909 into J. M. DENT & SONS. Conrad’s principal British publisher after 1912, the firm brought out ’Twixt Land and Sea (1912), Within the Tides (1915), The Shadow-Line (1917), The Rescue (1920), Notes on Life and Letters (1921), and the posthumous volumes Suspense (1925) and Last Essays (1926). Florence DOUBLEDAY (née Van Wyck, 1866–1946) married F. N. Doubleday, who was a widower, in 1918. Her memoir, Episodes in the Life of a Publisher’s Wife, appeared in 1927. F(rank) N(elson) DOUBLEDAY (1862–1934), American publisher, became chairman of his own company in 1913. From the publication of Chance onwards, he took over as Conrad’s main American publisher, played a major role in shaping the writer’s reputation in America, and organized the writer’s New York visit in May 1923.

xxii

F. N. Doubleday’s brother, Russell DOUBLEDAY (1872–1949), publisher and author, held a number of managerial positions in the Doubleday, Page publishing company, eventually becoming its vice-president. Austrian-born and educated in England and Germany, (George) Norman DOUGLAS (1868-1952), traveller, polymath, wit and former diplomat, met Conrad in Capri in 1905. Conrad generously nurtured the career of the apprentice writer, brokering for him contacts with Pinker and Ford. Douglas’s later works include Old Calabria (1915) and South Wind (1917). THE ENGLISH REVIEW, founded in 1908 and initially edited by Ford Madox Ford, was published until 1937, when it merged with the National Review. Herbert Albert Laurens FISHER (1865–1940), historian, statesman, and President of the Board of Education, had a powerful influence on all aspects of British education. When Conrad met him in 1914, he had recently been appointed Vice-Chancellor of Sheffield University, where he encouraged links between academia and industry. He was Richard Curle’s brother-in-law. F(rancis) Scott FITZGERALD (1896–1940), the American novelist and short-story writer, was an ardent admirer of Conrad’s works. Wilson FOLLETT (1887–1963), educated at Harvard, taught at Brown University, where he wrote Joseph Conrad: A Short Study (1915). He soon began a new career in publishing, working successively for Yale University Press, Knopf, and New York University Press. He wrote introductions to many books and edited the complete works of Stephen Crane (1925–26). His Modern American Usage: A Guide was published posthumously in 1966. Ford Madox FORD (né Hueffer, 1873–1939), novelist and man of letters, was an intimate friend of Conrad’s during the period 1898 to 1909 and collaborated with him on The Inheritors (1901), Romance (1903), and The Nature of a Crime (1909). Conrad and Ford quarrelled in 1909; by the end of 1911 a rapprochement had begun, but the friendship never regained its earlier closeness.

xxiii

Henry FURST (1893–1967), born in New York, settled in Italy in 1912, working as a secretary for Gabriele d’Annunzio and Gordon Craig, and translating the works of many British and American writers. John GALSWORTHY (1867–1933), novelist and playwright, awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1932. As a passenger on the Torrens (with E. L. Sanderson), he met Conrad in 1893 and became a lifelong friend. Conrad dedicated Nostromo to him. Edward William GARNETT (1867–1937), critic, dramatist, publisher’s reader, and nurturer of literary talent, was a key influence in the making of Conrad’s early professional career after they met in 1894. Conrad dedicated The Nigger of the “Narcissus” to him. Although Conrad disapproved of Garnett’s pacifism and Russophilia, they remained close and loyal friends. Olivia (“Olive”) Rayne GARNETT (1871–1958), Edward Garnett’s sister, knew many Russian émigrés during the 1890s and was particularly close to Fanny Stepniak and her husband Sergei, the anarchist. Heinemann published her collection Petersburg Tales in 1900. Louis GILLET (1876–1943), an art historian and student of English and German literatures, was a long-standing contributor to Revue des Deux Mondes, in which he reviewed The Arrow of Gold and Suspense. Edmund GOSSE (1849–1928; knighted 1925), poet, literary historian, biographer, and author of the semi-autobiographical Father and Son (1907), exercised a powerful influence in the late-Victorian and Edwardian literary world. In 1904, he was appointed Librarian of the House of Lords. In 1894, he read the manuscript of Almayer’s Folly, and in 1902 and 1904 helped to procure literary grants for Conrad. R(obert) B(ontine) Cunninghame GRAHAM (1852–1936), Scottish aristocrat, Liberal MP (1886–92), traveller, writer, and socialist radical, began a lasting friendship with Conrad in 1897. The latter dedicated Typhoon and Other Stories to him. Clifford HACKNEY (1874–1956), a medical practitioner in Hythe, attended Conrad during his breakdown in early 1910.

xxiv

Before moving to Sussex in 1913, Michael James HOLLAND (1870–1956) had been a neighbour of the Conrads at Smeeth Hill, near Aldington. In his earlier years he had lived adventurously in South Africa and British Columbia, as he recounts in Verse (1937). He was also an avid bookcollector. Elsie HUEFFER (née Martindale, 1876–1949) married Ford in 1894, against her parents’ wishes. She wrote several novels and published her translations of de Maupassant’s stories in 1903. Ford Madox HUEFFER: see FORD The younger son of Sir Henry Irving, Laurence Sidney Brodribb IRVING (1871–1914), continued the family tradition in the theatre as an actor and dramatist. With a strong interest in Russian life and culture, he approached Conrad in 1911 about a possible dramatization of Under Western Eyes. He and his wife died in the Empress of India disaster of May 1914. Alice Howe JAMES (née Gibbens, 1849–1922), a Boston schoolteacher and accomplished pianist, married William James, the eminent American psychologist and philosopher, and the elder brother of Henry James, in 1878. G(érard) JEAN-AUBRY (né Jean-Frédéric-Émile Aubry, 1882–1950), a French music critic and man of letters who divided his time between London and Paris, met Conrad in 1918. An admirer and close friend of the writer, he promoted Conrad’s reputation in France, translated a number of his works, edited his letters, and produced the first Conrad biography. Robert Armstrong JONES (1857–1933; knighted 1917, baronetcy 1926), the distinguished Liverpool-based orthopædic specialist, became Jessie’s surgeon and a close friend of the Conrad family from 1917 onwards. New York-born George T(homas) KEATING (1892–1976) amassed a rich collection of Conradiana from various sales as well as from Thomas J. Wise. He donated his collection, catalogued in A Conrad Memorial Library: The Collection of George T. Keating (1929), to Yale University in 1938.

xxv

Apollo KORZENIOWSKI (1820–69), Conrad’s father. Józef Ignacy KRASZEWSKI (1812–87), a prolific Polish novelist, historian, and man of letters, was forced to emigrate from Poland in 1863. His writings held great moral and political authority for the intellectuals of Apollo Korzeniowski’s generation. Paul LANGLOIS, a junior director of Langlois & Co., a firm of Port-Louis charterers that acted for the Otago during Conrad’s stay in Mauritius in 1888. Popularly known as “Lawrence of Arabia,” Thomas Edward LAWRENCE (né Shaw, 1888–1935), the author of The Seven Pillars of Wisdom (1926), greatly admired Conrad’s work and visited him at Oswalds in July 1920. E(dward) V(errall) LUCAS (1868–1937), essayist, anthologist, and biographer of Charles Lamb, was introduced to Conrad by Garnett in 1895. He acted as advisory editor at Methuen for many years, becoming chairman in 1925. For his novels, stories, and essays, William MCFEE (1881–1966) drew upon his experiences as a ship’s engineer in the Royal Navy and the United States Merchant Marine. The example of Conrad inspired his life as a writer. In 1942, he introduced the handsomely produced A Conrad Argosy for Doubleday and also wrote introductions to several Doubleday editions of the novels. Elizabeth Jelliffe MACINTIRE was an aspiring playwright when she wrote to Conrad in 1915; she later became a scholar and translator. MADGE, who lived in Packham Wood, Kent, wrote to Conrad protesting about the fate of Peyrol in The Rover. She is otherwise unidentified. Arthur Pierson MARWOOD (1868–1916), younger on of a Yorkshire baronet, emerged from Trinity College, Cambridge, as a talented mathematician. Poor in health, he was never fit for a career and lived the life of a gentleman-farmer in Kent. He was one of Conrad’s closest friends during the period 1908-16, an intimate with whom the novelist could regularly discuss his work and sound out his ideas.

xxvi

Harry E. MAULE (1886–1971) was a Doubleday employee and editor of Short Story. A versatile writer, his publications range from The Boy’s Book of New Inventions (1912) to Selma Lagerlöf (1926). He met Conrad during the latter’s visit to New York in May 1923 and visited Oswalds later in the year. Savinien MÉRÉDAC (né Auguste Esnouf, 1880–1939), Mauritian novelist and man of letters. Established in 1889, the METHUEN publishing company prospered on the sale of textbooks, but also developed an impressive list of writers. Between 1906 and 1915, the firm brought out six Conrad titles; they also published Arnold Bennett, Rudyard Kipling, A. A. Milne, and Robert Louis Stevenson. Dolly MOOR (née Alice Dora George, 1884–1949) was one of Jessie’s younger sisters. She and her second husband, G(eorge) H(arold) MOOR (1885–1975), lived in South Africa. Lady Ottoline Violet Anne MORRELL (née Cavendish-Bentinck, 1873– 1938), half-sister of the sixth Duke of Portland, was the patroness of a celebrated literary and artistic circle at Garsington Manor, Oxfordshire, and later in Bloomsbury. With an introduction from Henry James, she visited Conrad’s home in August 1913 and in the following month arranged a meeting between Conrad and Bertrand Russell. Thomas F(rank) MOXON (1865–1936), born in Charlton, south-east London, went to sea at the age of fourteen and obtained his master’s certificate in 1887. He later settled in Brisbane, Australia, where he founded a coastal shipping firm dealing in timber and coal. In later life, he was Australian consul to Panama. (George) Gilbert (Aimé) MURRAY (1866-1957), the Australian-born English classical scholar, poet and translator, held the position of Regius Professor of Greek at Oxford University from 1908 to 1936. From 1918 onwards, he was a notable public figure and champion of liberal causes, being chairman of the League of Nations Union (1922-38). Philippe NEEL (1882–1941), a Parisian physician, took a keen interest in contemporary English writing and in addition to Conrad translated

xxvii

Thomas Hardy and Henry James. His Conrad translations, commissioned by André Gide, included Lord Jim, Nostromo, Under Western Eyes, and Victory. Henry John NEWBOLT (1862–1938; knighted 1915), former barrister, later became a naval historian and patriotic poet. He served as one of the trustees appointed to administer the Royal Bounty Fund grant awarded to Conrad in 1905, an episode remembered in his My World as in My Time (1932). The PATHÉ FRÈRES CINEMA, LIMITED, a subsidiary of the French company founded by Charles Pathé in Paris in 1896, started trading in London in 1904. St-John PERSE (né Marie-René-Alexis Saint-Léger Léger, 1887–1975), French poet and diplomat whose career took him to China and the United States, visited Capel House in August 1912. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1960. Eric S(eabrooke) PINKER (1891–1973) went to work for his father after leaving Westminster School. When J. B. Pinker died in 1922, he became the firm’s senior partner and thus Conrad’s principal agent, taking over the marketing of his work. J(ames) B(rand) PINKER (1863–1922), Conrad’s literary agent. From 1900 until his death he sustained Conrad’s career and, despite an estrangement during the period 1910-12, remained an enduring friend and supporter. Over the years his clients included James, Wells, Bennett, Crane, Ford, and Galsworthy. Stefan POMERAŃSKI (1893–1944), a Polish archivist and historian, was an editor and biographer of General Józef Piłudski. In 1924, he sent Conrad some manuscripts of his father’s poems. Marguerite-Blanche-Marie PORADOWSKA (née Gachet de la Fournière, 1848–1937), Belgian-born novelist, the wife of Aleksandr Poradowski, a distant relative of Conrad’s, advised Conrad about his early work and was instrumental in obtaining him a position in the Congo in 1890.

xxviii

Kate Gordon QUILL, an admirer of Conrad’s work, lived in Nashville, Tennessee. John QUINN (1870–1924), the son of Irish immigrants, came from Ohio. As a New York lawyer, he had a highly lucrative practice in commercial and financial law. A collector of modern painting and sculpture, he also amassed modern literary manuscripts, and began purchasing items from Conrad in 1911. Though they never met, the two corresponded at length, and Conrad continued to sell him manuscripts until 1918, when he found another willing buyer in T. J. Wise. Quinn auctioned off his collection of Conradiana in 1923. M(alcolm) G(raham) RAMSAY (1871–1946; knighted 1915) held a number of Civil Service posts from 1896 onwards; during the period 1902–05, he was private secretary to Prime Minister Balfour. Józef Hieronim RETINGER (1888–1960), a Polish literary scholar active in Parisian literary and political circles, first met Conrad in the autumn of 1912, when he arrived in London to enlist support for the cause of Polish independence and supervise a Polish Bureau in Arundel Street. He helped to awaken Conrad’s feeling for the fate of wartime Poland and worked very closely with him on “A Note on the Polish Problem” (1916), prepared for the Foreign Office. Stephen Sydney REYNOLDS (1881–1919), a promising young Edwardian prose writer resident in Sidmouth, Devon, first met Conrad in 1907 and found in him an encouraging mentor. His works include A Poor Man’s House (1908) and Alongshore (1910), and “Joseph Conrad and Sea Fiction” (Quarterly Review, 1912). (Edric) Cecil Mornington ROBERTS (1892–1976) was to become a bestselling novelist, acclaimed playwright, and cosmopolitan bon viveur. Among his books were Pilgrim Cottage (1933) and Victoria Four Thirty (1937). Introduced by Grace Willard, he first met Conrad in 1918. Alex ROBINSON (1873–1948) was indentured in Glasgow in 1888 and served as an apprentice in the Loch Etive from 16 November 1889 to 27 June 1891; he also sailed in the Loch Carron. When he wrote to Conrad, he was living in Woodford (Essex).

xxix

Alice Mary ROTHENSTEIN (née Knewstub, 1867–1957), an actress who had appeared on the stage as Alice Kingsley, married Will in 1899. William ROTHENSTEIN (1872–1945; knighted 1931), born in Yorkshire of German parents, trained in art in Paris after leaving London’s Slade School of Art, becoming a noted painter, etcher and lithographer. He was an official artist during the war and Principal of the Royal College of Art (1920–35). The Hon. Bertrand Arthur William RUSSELL (1872–1970; third earl, 1931), philosopher, mathematician, and Nobel Prize laureate in 1950, first met Conrad in 1913 through Lady Ottoline Morrell and enjoyed a brief but intense friendship with him. Born and educated in Scotland, William Graeme ST CLAIR (1849–1930) later taught in Burma and then moved to Malaya in 1887 to edit the Singapore Free Press. He was also conductor of the Singapore Philarmonic Society and a major in the Singapore Voluntary Artillery. When he retired in 1916, he settled in Colombo, but was visiting Britain in 1917. Born in Queensland in 1885, Alfred Thomas SAUNDERS of Adelaide, South Australia was an accountant and amateur historian who often published his findings in the Adelaide Mail. Earlier in his career, he had worked as a clerk for Henry Simpson & Co, owners of the Otago, during the period when Conrad commanded her. Born in Los Angeles, Arnold T. SCHWAB (1922– ) was for most of his career a professor of English at California State University at Long Beach, retiring in 1980. William Marston SEABURY (1878–1949) was an American film lawyer, General Counsel to the Motion Picture Board of Trade and the National Association of the Motion Picture Industry. His works include The Public and the Motion Picture (1926) and Motion Picture Problems: The Cinema and the League of Nations (1929). Fanny Markovna STEPNIAK (née Lichkus, 1855–1945) was the wife of Sergei Stepniak (né Kravchinsky), the self-styled “revolutionary scourge” who had fled Russia in 1880 after assassinating the St Petersburg Chief of Police and settled in Britain in 1884. After her husband’s death in 1895, she moved to Crockham Hill, Surrey, to be near the Garnetts.

xxx

John St Loe STRACHEY (1860–1927), journalist and editor, briefly edited the Cornhill Magazine before becoming the proprietor and editor of the Spectator from 1898 to 1925. A resident of Princeton, New Jersey, Julian Leonard STREET (1879– 1947) was a prolific author of novels, autobiographical works, film scripts, and books about French food and wines. He corresponded with the writer in early 1923 and met him during his American visit in May. Arthur William SYMONS (1865–1945), poet, critic, and author of The Symbolist Movement in Literature (1899), first met Conrad in 1908. As near neighbours in Kent, the two met fairly regularly, with Conrad helping to console the depressive Symons. The latter’s Notes on Joseph Conrad appeared in 1925. (Joseph) Deems TAYLOR (1885–1966), American composer, music critic, and broadcaster, was married to Jane Anderson from 1910 to 1918. Andrew de TERNANT, an Anglo-French journalist, bibliophile, and musicologist, recalled an “unknown” episode from Conrad’s life during the period 1889–91. Albert-Jean-Baptiste-Joseph THYS (1849–1915), aide-de-camp to Leopold II and managing director of the Société Anonyme Belge pour le Commerce du Haut-Congo, had interviewed Conrad in Brussels in 1889 and 1890, and was his employer during his stay in Africa in 1890. Ernest William Gain TWENTYMAN (1868–1946) sailed with Conrad in the Highland Forest as a seventeen-year-old apprentice and went on to pursue a career at sea, finally becoming Harbour Master in Fiji. Conrad recalls him by name in The Mirror of the Sea. T(homas) Fisher UNWIN (1848–1935), founder of the Unwin publishing house in 1882, brought out Almayer’s Folly, An Outcast of the Islands, and Tales of Unrest at the beginning of Conrad’s career, The Arrow of Gold and The Rover towards its end, and Tales of Hearsay posthumously. Neither his business practices nor his adherence to the Liberal party endeared him to Conrad, and their later relations were often acrimonious.

xxxi

Allan WADE (1881–1955), actor, director, bibliophile, and scholar, made his stage début in 1904 and worked for Harley Granville-Barker from 1906 to 1916. A producer for the Stage Society, he was a founder of the Phœnix Players (1919) and in 1922 managed London’s Kingsway Theatre. Ian P(ierre) WATT (1917–99), taught at the Universities of Cambridge, Berkeley, East Anglia, and Stanford. His publications include the seminal study on the origins of the novel, The Rise of the Novel: Studies in Defoe, Richardson, and Fielding (1957), and several important works on Conrad, including Conrad in the Nineteenth Century (1979). Cedric T(homas) WATTS (1937– ), Research Professor of English in the University of Sussex, is the author of numerous editions and critical studies of Conrad, including A Preface to Conrad (1982), The Deceptive Text (1984), and Joseph Conrad: A Literary Life (1989). H(erbert) G(eorge) WELLS (1886–1946), novelist, short-story writer, popular historian and sociologist, was an early champion of Conrad’s fiction and a close friend during the period 1897–1907. Conrad dedicated The Secret Agent to him. Paul WOHLFARTH (1883–1972), born in Breslau, Germany, taught at the University of Breslau and wrote several articles on Conrad from 1930 to 1950.

Editorial procedures THE FOLLOWING conventions have been adopted in the transcription and presentation of the letters printed here: 1. Letters to Conrad are printed in full, with two exceptions: (a) those from John Quinn are often so lengthy and detailed as to require editorial excisions; and (b) two letters that survive only as printed fragments – from Sir Robert Jones and Harald Leofurn Clarke – have been included. Letters about Conrad are more consistently contracted, since they naturally often contain material unconnected with the novelist or exist only as extracts in printed sources. All texts are based on original documents unless indicated by the word “transcription” in parentheses in the provenance heading. 2. Letterheads are given in abbreviated form. Telephone numbers, addresses for telegrams, and other incidental matter on printed stationary have been omitted. When supplied by a correspondent, Conrad’s address has likewise been omitted. 3. Placement of the date has been standardized to follow the address. Lineation of the final greeting and signature has not been diplomatically reproduced, and the absence of a signature in a text derived from a carbon copy has not been signalled. 4. Square brackets are used for missing words and letters, for the expansion of abbreviations, and, when signalled by an equal sign, for the translation of foreign words and phrases. A question mark within square brackets indicates a doubtful meaning. Syntactical or linguistic oddities are signalled by [sic], and words that are illegible or irrecoverable because of damage to the document by [****]. 5. Ellipses within square brackets ([…]) indicate editorial excisions in the original printed version or included in this edition, while a row of three or four spaced dots represents an ellipsis present in the original text. 6. Obvious spelling or typist’s errors have been silently corrected and the occasional missing bracket or quotation mark silently supplied. The occasional missing accent in letters in French has also been silently supplied. Words repeated inadvertently have been silently omitted. 7. Annotations are limited to essential information, and biographical details are not provided for well-known members of the Conrad circle or

xxxiv

for individuals whose careers are readily available in standard reference sources. 8. American readers should note that letters are dated in the standard international order of day, month, and year.

1857–1900 From Apollo Korzeniowski to Józef Ignacy Kraszewski Text MS Jagiellonian; Kryżanowski (transcription)

Translation from Polish [Terechowa] 23 November 1857 On November 211 of this year God has given me a son. Entrusting him in my heart to Divine Protection and the shield of the blessing of the decent and honest and meritorious in life – I make bold to ask you for a blessing for my child. I trust that my son will be decent and honest when on the threshold of his life he will be greeted and ennobled by the sign of the cross made by your hand and thought over him. That is all. If my child will have this he will never be poor and miserable. Do not hold this against a father who wants to give treasures to his son, and believe me that a profound respect and genuine honour for you dictate these words to me. Your most faithful and most humble servant, Apollo Korzeniowski

From Marguerite Poradowska to Albert Thys Text J-A 70–71 Translation from French [Lublin] 29 November 1890

Both this date and that of the letter’s composition are Old Style (Julian) datings; the equivalent New Style (Gregorian) dating for 21 November is 3 December.

1

2

[…] I received a letter from Mr. Konrad Korzeniowski himself,1 who has just returned from Stanley Falls after two months’ navigation on the upriver. […] He tells me that his health is greatly affected, and he feels utterly demoralized. Further, the steamer of which he is to take command will not be ready before June, perhaps, and the Director, M. Delcommune, told him plainly that he was not to expect either promotion, or an increase in his salary, as long as he will be in the Congo. He also added that the promises made in Europe do not bind him in any way as long as they are not in the contract, and the promises which you were kind enough to make him are, indeed, not specified in the contract. Mr Korzeniowski’s position, therefore, is as false as it can be, which is aggravated by these fevers and dysentery that have greatly weakened him. Mr Korzeniowski’s family is naturally worried to hear this news; we all hoped that he would be able to stand the climate, but another voyage might destroy his health for good. You can understand that we are all very anxious, and that is why the family has asked me to write to you for advice so that we may know how to get this poor young man out of this dreadful position. There is some means, which Mr Conrad submitted himself in his letter, asking me to speak to you about it (as he thinks I am already back in Brussels). It appears that the C[ompagn]ie. Commerciale du Congo (or another affiliated firm) owns a steamer that makes the trip between Banana and Antwerp. It is even said that this society owns several other steamers. If Mr Conrad could obtain the command of one of these steamers it would mean that the solution of the problem is ready found, as at sea there will be no more fever or dysentery. He has asked me, therefore, to beg you kindly to submit his name for the command of one of these steamers that starts from Antwerp. He adds that if he were called back for this purpose he would be prepared to bear the expenses of the return voyage.2 […] It is sad to think that a capable man such as Mr Conrad Korzeniowski, who has been used to commanding steamers for fifteen years, should be reduced to this subordinate position, and should be exposed to such fatal disease. 1 Conrad had asked his “aunt” to intercede for him with the Brussels company in a letter of 26 September 1890 (CL1 63). 2 These plans had, of course, already been overtaken by events. By the time that Thys would have received Poradowska’s letter, Conrad was already on his way back to Europe, having left Boma on 4 December.

3

You seemed to have taken an interest in Mr C. Korzeniowski, and during my stay in Brussels I was able to form an opinion of your kindness, and I hope that you will not withdraw your support, but that, on the contrary, you will advise him as to the steps he should take. […]

From Arnold Bennett to H. G. Wells Text MS Illinois; Hepburn II, 94

6 Victoria Grove 8 Dec[embe]r 97 My dear Wells, I owe you a good turn for pointing out Conrad to me.1 I remember I got his first book, Almayer’s Folly, to review with a batch of others from Unwin, & feeling at the time rather bored (you know the feeling – I get through 50 or 60 novels a month for two papers) I simply didn’t read it at all – wrote a vague and discreet par[agraph] and left it.2 I have just read his new book The Nigger of the Narcissus, which has moved me to enthusiasm. Where did the man pick up that style, and that synthetic way of gathering up a general impression & flinging it at you? Not only his style, but his attitude, affected me deeply. He is so consciously an artist. Now Kipling isn’t an artist a bit. Kipling doesn’t know what art is – I mean the art of words; il ne se préoccupe que de la chose racontée.3 He is a great writer but not an artist. There are only about six artists among our prominent novelists. George Moore is one, though he writes, on the surface, damnably. But he can see like a poet. I greatly admire George Moore. If George Moore had been a South Sea trader & had learned grammar etc, he would have treated the sea as Conrad has treated it. I dare say this sounds odd, but it is profoundly true and, for me, throws light on both men.

At the beginning of December, Wells had written to ask Bennett whether he had read the “magnificent Conrad yet”: “If not, read Almayer’s Folly and The Outcast of the Islands. It’s thick in places and he hammers in and repeats but it’s the palette” (Wilson, pp. 37–38). 2 Bennett had written: “Mr Joseph Conrad writes satisfactorily, and the characters … are rather well drawn,” “Book Chat,” Woman, 29 May 1895, 7. 3 Trans.: “he is only concerned with the thing narrated.” 1

4

Some pages of The Nigger are exquisite in the extraordinary management of colour they display. But Conrad needs to curb his voracity for adjectives. Have you read de Maupassant’s Étude sur Gustave Flaubert, preface to Bouvard et Pécuchet – from which I quote above? It is a most illuminating business, & one of the best bits of general literary criticism that I know of. Sincerely yours, E. A. Bennett

From Fanny Stepniak to Olivia Rayne Garnett Text Garnett 166–67 [Crockham Hill, Surrey] [3 March 1898] […] Yesterday I went to the Cearne to see Mr Conrad … and I saw him. I am glad I went, but (or perhaps because?) I shall never repeat such an experiment again. Best of all I liked Nellie Heath1 – there is no nonsense about her. She is painting the hero and a very good bit of work it will be.2 Now let me describe the man. He is dark, dry, shapeless, with a cruel smile in his face. First of all he has nothing Polish neither in his appearance, nor in his manners. I took him for an Irishman at first glance. He is decidedly unsympathetic, his eyes have such a hard expression that you would never dream to see them veiled by a tear of tenderness or compassion. He has strong likes and dislikes, to be sure, judging by the few remarks he made on men of our time. I liked his book much better. The missus and the baby were absent,3 kept by some illness. The great man had tea with us in the big room and very soon disappeared in the study, where he was kept all the time in undisturbed quiet, only Edward [Garnett] having free access to the room. Edward himself is very nice, much better than his idol, he is a dear warmhearted Ellen Maurice (“Nellie”) Heath (1873–1962), portraitist, Edward Garnett’s lifelong companion. 2 Her portrait is in the Leeds City Art Galleries. (It is reproduced as the frontispiece in J. H. Stape, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Joseph Conrad [Cambridge University Press, 1996]). 3 Borys Conrad had been born on 15 January. 1

5

boy, only too influenced by others. But in what he cannot be influenced is his literary, artistic judgement. I enjoyed very much reading the “Narcissus.” Soon after six I left the house, the atmosphere of which was oppressing to me. Connie1 did not even put on her charming ways, I believe she was already exhausted by the hero worshipping exertions of the day before. And I breathed freely when I was out in the wood, bathed in soft moonlight, full of spring perfumes […]

Edward Garnett to R. B. Cunninghame Graham Text MS Private collection; Watts 212 (1) (transcription)

[19 to 24 May 1898] […] All you say about Conrad is very true. Apart from the personal side he is, I believe, all that the words – Polish genius – imply. There’s a very good analysis of the Polish spirit in Lister’s Life of Chopin2 – & it hits off all Conrad’s characteristics in a remarkable degree. The greatest delicacy of feeling, the greatest subtlety of thought – each quality hidden & shadowed by a contradictory quality – giving strangeness depth charm & mystery – but I won’t widen the analysis any further. Just now Conrad seems in low health & worse spirits – he wants a change to active life – but “The Rescuer” & circumstances bar the way. No doubt as a friend you know this – anyway his friends ought to know it – as he is a very delicate instrument – & delicate instruments are easily broken. Yours truly Edward Garnett.3 Constance Garnett (née Black, 1862–1946), Edward’s wife. Whether the result of mistranscription or of an error by Garnett, the reference to “Lister” must be to Franz Liszt’s Life of Chopin, published in 1863. Liszt had written of the Polish-born composer: “His character was indeed not easily decipherable. A thousand subtle shades, mingling, crossing, contradicting and disguising each other, rendered it almost undecipherable at a first view. As is usually the case with the Sclaves, it was difficult to read the recesses of his mind. […] Like the twisted folds of a serpent rolled upon itself, their feelings are half hidden, half revealed,” trans. John Broadhouse (London: Reeves, 1899, p. 14). 3 In his reply of 25 May 1898, Graham responded: “Yes, I know about Conrad, poor fellow. I think, he is far from strong, & and as you say a delicate instrument soon breaks. He is in every way an intelligence elite. I enter now & 1 2

6

Stephen Crane to Sanford Bennett Text Berryman 259

[Brede Place Ravensbrook, Sussex] 14 May 1900 […] My condition is probably known to you. […] I have Conrad on my mind very much just now. Garnett does not think it likely that his writing will ever be popular outside the ring of men who write. He is poor and a gentleman and proud. His wife is not strong and they have a kid. If Garnett should ask you to pull wires for a place on the Civil List for Conrad please do me the last favor. . . . I am sure you will.1 […]

for the past[,] the present & the future my protest against the horrible title “Rescuer”[;] it will hurt the book. I shall write to Conrad about it” (Watts p. 213). 1 According to Berryman (p. 259), this was Crane’s last letter. The next day he was taken to Dover – where Conrad visited him – en route to the Black Forest where he died on 5 June.

1904–1906 The Royal Bounty Fund Correspondence “The Conrads are under an upset hay cart as usual and God knows what is to be done. J.C. ought to be administered by trustees.”1

From William Rothenstein to Henry Newbolt Text MS Private collection; Newbolt 301

26, Church Row, Hampstead. June 9 1904 My dear Newbolt. I saw Conrad again yesterday – he really is in a very bad state of mind, & I learn very hard pressed at the moment. Could you advise me whom to approach, or help yourself in any way? I am sorry to bother you in the matter, but an artist’s life is a precarious one, & I never cease to marvel myself that more of us are not in Conrad’s position. I feel sure, & he feels sure, that if he can tide over the present difficulties he will be alright; but his nerves are in a terrible state, & his wife is pretty seriously ill with heart trouble,2 & help would do a great deal just now. Do you think I might approach Mrs Craigie?3 Your advice would be most useful. Believe me with kindest regards to your wife sincerely yours W. Rothenstein4

H. G. Wells to Arnold Bennett, 29 March 1904 (Wilson, ed., p. 107). In a letter of 5 April 1904, Conrad informed David S. Meldrum that his wife had been diagnosed as having “a valvular defect of the heart” (CL3 128). 3 Pearl Mary-Teresa Craigie (née Richards, 1867–1906), American-born novelist and playwright, published under the name “John Oliver Hobbes.” She had been one of Conrad’s sponsors in his application for a Royal Literary Fund award in 1902 (see Portrait, p. 37). 4 Conrad agreed to Rothenstein’s plans to seek loans for him on the following day, and on 10 June acknowledged the receipt of £150 in loans (CL3 144–45). 1 2

8

From William Rothenstein to Henry Newbolt Text MS Private collection; Unpublished

Hill side Farm, Hawksworth, nr Guiseley. Yorks. June 22 [19]04 My dear Newbolt. I could stay in London no longer. Here our eyes command half of the known world & our lungs the choicest air the moors feed. I am sorry however to have left without seeing you – you should come here for a few days to recruit. Could you see Gosse or Colvin1 about Conrad? I have sent him £150 for pressing debts (£100 I got from Hugh Hammersley2) & he wants another £350 to put him straight. If you can get any one to contribute I should be most grateful to you, for I know how peculiarly hard his circumstances have been, & still are, better than most people. But I know too how full our lives are in London, & what a bother all this will be to you on the top of your thousand and one duties. Still I feel it is a good object, & I know that if I myself had been without generous help from my people, I should not be here now & Conrad has no one to fall back on. I can never take my own good fortune, when it comes, for granted, but always marvel at it, for the reverse seems to me so much more likely to happen to a useless artist: Hence when it happens to my friends, it seems to me so natural, that to lecture or to move a seat away is impossible for me, & indeed I should have lost many good ones if my mouth had pinched. Had you spoken less generously of Conrad I should not have written you or bothered you on the subject, & if you have time to see any one I shall be most grateful. I am writing to Mrs Craigie & to Gilbert Murray; if you can suggest any one else that will be rendering me a real service. Pray remember us most kindly to Mrs Newbolt.3 Yours always W. R. Sidney Colvin (1845–1927; knighted 1911) would soon become a good friend to Conrad, as he had been to R. L. Stevenson. The former Slade Professor of Fine Arts at Cambridge and director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, he was at this time Keeper of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum. His works include an edition of Stevenson’s letters and biographies of Keats and Landor. 2 Hugh Hammersley (1858–1930), a Hampstead banker and patron of the arts. 3 Margaret Edina Newbolt (née Duckworth, 1868–1960), the daughter of an Anglican clergyman and magistrate, had married Newbolt in 1889. For details of the Newbolts’ unconventional domestic life, see the note to the letter of 3 April 1906. 1

9

Gilbert Murray to William Rothenstein Text MS Harvard; Unpublished

Barford, Churt, Farnham [Surrey]. June 23. 1904. My dear Rothenstein, Conrad is indeed in bad luck, & my wife & I are very glad to be able to send him £50, which I enclose herewith. He can repay it, without interest, when he finds it convenient to do so. An old pupil of mine, now a doctor and quasi-missionary at Chuide at the mouth of the Zambesi has just been to see me, & was saying that Conrad was the only living writer of whom he wished to read every word. […] You will see an erasure above, at a critical point! I wrote 100, but the sight of my bank book has given me a slight shock – it is always exciting, but too realistic & painful, reading – & I came down to 50. But, if there is the least difficulty in getting the £500, please let me know again & another 50 shall follow. Yours very sincerely Gilbert Murray.

From Edmund Gosse to Henry Newbolt Text MS Private collection; Unpublished

17 Hanover Terrace, Regent’s Park, N. W. June 26 [19]04 My dear Newbolt I have had a long talk with the Prime Minister1 this afternoon about a Royal Pension for Conrad. I don’t regard it as at all hopeless, although he naturally made all the objections which I was prepared to hear. He was very much interested in Conrad’s romantic history, and he has asked me to lend him some of Conrad’s books.2 I am very well accustomed to Mr. Balfour’s methods, and I feel more encouraged than usual.

Arthur James Balfour (1848–1930), Prime Minister 1902–05. Rothenstein later recalled that “Balfour went off to Scotland, taking with him half a dozen of Conrad’s books, which so impressed him that he arranged for a substantial sum to be put at Conrad’s disposal” (Men and Memories, p. 61).

1 2

10

Meanwhile it would be well to discover whether Conrad would accept such a pension. The Prime Minister naturally would not like, supposing he should consent, to have it refused, and I should feel foolish. Can you, with perfect tact, discover what Conrad’s attitude would be?1 Sincerely yrs Edmund Gosse

From William Rothenstein to Henry Newbolt Text MS Private collection; Unpublished

[letterhead:] Hôtel d’Orient, 6 et 8, Rue Daunou, Paris. June 28th 1904 My dear Newbolt – it was very good of you to have taken the trouble to see Gosse. I told you, you may remember, that Conrad had already been helped by the Literary Fund, & that he is quite aware of their generous treatment, so that Gosse was quite justified in referring to it.2 My own idea was that a few more people might be induced to lend, as Conrad has every intention, and you also helped me to believe the honour, to pay back the loan. I have sent him £200 in all, & am rather hoping I may be able to get more. I don’t in the least see why you should think of inconveniencing yourself, nor did I for a moment wish to suggest it. But I thought you might know one or two people who might be approached, for I don’t think it would be reasonable to expect the literary fund to do more than it has done. At any rate you will I hope forgive me for bothering you. You will know it is not a very grateful task I have undertaken. I had to come here for a couple of days, but return to Hawksworth3 to-night. My wife sent me on your letter. Again many thanks. Always sincerely yours W. Rothenstein

1 On the following day, Conrad thanked Rothenstein for his financial salvaging of “a rather rotten old hulk (but full of the best intentions)” (CL3 146–47). 2 With Gosse as a moving force, Conrad had received a Royal Literary Fund award of £300 in July 1902. 3 Near Bradford.

11

From Henry Newbolt to William Rothenstein Text MS Harvard; Unpublished

[letterhead:] 50A Albemarle Street, London, W. 30. vi. [19]04 My dear Rothenstein Quite unexpectedly Gosse writes to me, that he has seen the Prime Minister, and has hopes that the Crown would grant Conrad a pension if it were quite certain that he would accept it. Can you ascertain this? Of course no promise has been made, and the idea might possibly after all come to nothing: I don’t think anything sh[oul]d be said to arouse strong hopes. But you might ask him whether he would sanction an application to the Prime Minister if made with the utmost privacy and by a third party, so as to involve no “begging” on his part. Tell him too that Tennyson enjoyed such a pension not only at 23 years of age, but till he died with an income of £8000 a year. William Watson1 has one now – and scores of others: Austin Dobson2 etc. Please reply as speedily as possible [to] this for it may die at any moment. Yours sincerely H. Newbolt Gosse is a brick as I told you.

From William Rothenstein to Edmund Gosse Text MS Yale; Unpublished

Hawksworth Near Guiseley. Yorks June 31 [19]04 (John) William Watson (1858–1935; knighted 1917), Yorkshire-born poet, published several volumes of neo-Romantic poetry, among them Wordsworth’s Grave (1890) and Lachrymæ Musarum (1892). His Collected Poems appeared in 1899 and 1906. 2 (Henry) Austin Dobson (1840–1921), poet, essayist, and biographer, whose volumes of light verse include Vignettes in Rhyme (1873), Proverbs in Porcelain (1877), and At the Sign of the Lyre (1885). He was awarded a Civil List pension of £250 in 1904. 1

12

My dear Gosse, Newbolt has just written me of your prompt action in the direction of help for Conrad. I have often heard of great help given by you to people in distress, but my present experience of it I shall not forget. Knowing how things were with Conrad I was doing my best to help – get people to help a little; but your assistance is of a very much more weighty kind, & I am grateful to you for acting in the matter as you have done. That Conrad will be so I know – he has already told me of his generous treatment from the literary fund. Ill health & the seriousness of his wife’s condition have been hindering such productiveness as would keep things running smoothly, & and I fear that the selling of most of his books outright for ready money has not improved matters – he has had no one to fall back upon for help while work was proceeding, so that probably all the money to be got from his efforts has been spent before the production of the book. You will know, however, better than most men how such things are. In his case, a mortal fear of breaking down & leaving his wife & boy penniless is really tearing his nerves to shreds. I have written him of your most kind support, telling him of course the idea is only in the air at present. I will write Newbolt directly I hear from him. If the thing could be arranged by Jan[uary] you would make all Conrad’s friends grateful to you. Believe me to be sincerely yours W. Rothenstein

From William Rothenstein to Henry Newbolt Text MS Private collection; Unpublished

Hawksworth, nr Guiseley. June 31st [19]04 My dear Newbolt. I am most touched by Gosse’s prompt & considerate action in seeing Balfour, & owe you many thanks for stating Conrad’s case so clearly. I have often heard of Gosse’s kindness, but I must confess to having it shown in this instance in a most clear light, & I shall not readily forget the way in which he has acted. I have written to Conrad, & have no doubt he will consent. I told him the idea was only in the air, so to say, – have raised no false hopes. If the approach to Balfour does lead to anything, I shall feel myself excused for having bothered you so much, &

13

taken up your time in the way I have done. I have written a few lines to Gosse – will you be good enough to forward them: I will write to you the instant I hear from Conrad. It is delightful to be here again, & at work. Will you remember me kindly to your wife. Always very gratefully yours W. Rothenstein

From William Rothenstein to Henry Newbolt

Text MS Private collection; Unpublished

Hawksworth, nr Guiseley. Yorks. July 4th [19]04 My dear Newbolt. Conrad is evidently touched by your & Gosse’s proposal, & is very willing to have the application made.1 I sincerely hope something may come of it. In the meanwhile I will do my best for him. I shall be glad to hear how things go. Perhaps you will write me a line when you hear. In the meanwhile believe me yours very sincerely W. Rothenstein

Henry Newbolt to Edmund Gosse Text MS Yale; Unpublished

[letterhead:] 23 Earl’s Terrace, Kensington, W. Tuesday morning [5 July 1904] My dear Gosse I have this moment heard from Rothenstein that he has ascertained what you wished to know: viz. that Conrad would gratefully accept a pension if it were offered. He is much touched by the kindness of those who are interesting themselves in the matter. Yours sincerely Henry Newbolt

1

Rothenstein had heard from Conrad on 3 July (CL3 149–50).

14

From Edmund Gosse to Henry Newbolt Text Private collection; Unpublished

[17, Hanover Terrace] July 7. 1904 Dear Newbolt, Many thanks for your letter just received. I am glad to learn from it that Conrad approves of the efforts that we are making to secure him a pension. I hope he clearly understands that nothing whatever is assured, but that Mr Balfour has merely authorised me to lay the particulars of the case before him. With regard to obtaining these particulars, it would be a great convenience to me if I could see you on Saturday. Yrs very sincerely Edmund Gosse

From Edmund Gosse to Henry Newbolt Text MS Private collection; Unpublished

[17, Hanover Square] Friday [8 July 1904] My dear Newbolt I wish you could manage to come to the Savile1 tomorrow. I have a communication to make to you about Conrad, and to ask your counsel. Yours ever Edmund Gosse

From Henry Newbolt to Edmund Gosse Text MS Yale; Unpublished

[letterhead:] Savile Club, 107 Piccadilly, W. Saturday morning [9 July 1904] My dear Gosse

The Savile Club (established 1868), at this time situated in Piccadilly, is one of Britain’s most prestigious private clubs. Among its literary members were Robert Louis Stevenson, Thomas Hardy, H. G. Wells, Rudyard Kipling, Max Beerbohm, and W. B. Yeats.

1

15

I am weekending in Sussex and cannot stay to lunch today, so in case you do not come in by 12.0 I leave this note. I do not think I could in any case be sure of giving you very accurate information about Conrad: the best source of information is W. Rothenstein Hillside Farm Hawksworth Nr Guiseley Yorkshire I have written to him asking to send you details which you ought to know. I am very sorry to be absent from the luncheon table today but I cannot disobey my marching orders. Yours sincerely Henry Newbolt

From Edmund Gosse to Henry Newbolt Text MS Private collection; Unpublished

[17, Hanover Terrace] 12. 7. [19]04 Private My dear Newbolt To my great vexation, Rothenstein, to whom I wrote several days ago begging to have full information by this morning at latest, has not replied. But, even thus handicapped, I had a very satisfactory visit to Downing Street this afternoon. But is Conrad a British subject? That is absolutely indispensable, and if he is not, his friends ought to see that his naturalisation takes place at once.1 I must not say more, but I have very great hopes. The Chief is manifestly affected by the romance of Conrad’s life. The thing will be now not to let it drop. But Rothenstein is heartbreaking! C[onrad]’s friends must help me if I am to carry this through. Sincerely y[our]s Edmund Gosse 1

Conrad had been a British subject since 1886.

16

From William Rothenstein to Edmund Gosse Text MS Leeds; Unpublished

Hill side Farm, Hawksworth, near Guiseley. Yorks. 12 July [19]04 Dear Mr Gosse Conrad told me some little time ago that his earnings during the 10 years he has been writing were £1400. In consequence, in spite of the help he has had from the Literary Fund, he has always been in difficulties. What has largely contributed to his present ones, besides his wife’s serious illness, was the failure of Watson’s bank.1 Watson himself liked Conrad & knew, I fancy, of his difficulties, & allowed him to overdraw, with the consequence that Conrad had to refund an overdraft of £350.2 This sum I believe was advanced him by his agent Pinker on his present story he is writing for Harpers, with whom he has, for 2 future works, excellent contracts.3 I rather fear most of the money due to him from his present story (Nostromo) will have been advanced him by Pinker, & the painfully slow habits of work which Conrad tells me are his will not allow of his producing the other two volumes before three years. His wife broke both her knees, & at the same time developed heart trouble a few months ago, at a time when I fear there was very little money in the house; her condition is still serious, & the knowledge of his unsatisfactory circumstances has been seriously depressing Conrad, who wishes to take her away, or send her to a home, & yet feels he ought not to miss a day in writing so that he may earn money sufficient to enable him to do what he wishes for her. He has one son, six years old. I believe he has had to help his wife’s family, I know he sent her sisters to school.4 I fear he has no savings, & a policy of £500 is in his agent’s hands, as security. His contracts for Harpers are for £900 each. I have borrowed £150 for him, to which I have myself added £50, to ease his immediate The bank had gone into liquidation in February 1904. The actual amount of the overdraft was £198. 3 In addition to Nostromo (1904), the firm brought out The Mirror of the Sea (1906) and The Secret Agent (1907) in America. 4 Since April 1900, Conrad had been helping to pay school fees for two of Jessie’s younger sisters, Eleanor Joyce (“Nellie,” 1886–1931) and Alice Dora (“Dolly,” 1884–1949) George at St Bernard’s Convent in Slough. 1 2

17

difficulties, & I am trying to get £300 more, to put his affairs on a proper basis. This sum he promises to repay in 3 years time, before which it will be impossible for him to carry out his part of the contract. You asked for precise information, which I have given, without asking Conrad’s consent, to the best of my knowledge. I hope I have not done wrong, but I know the information is safe in your hands. Your letter did not reach here until yesterday afternoon, when I was unfortunately out for the day – I am now sending this to Bradford, & hope it will reach you in time to be of some service. I know it to be very needful that something should be done for Conrad, & I hope your kind endeavours may be fruitful. With best thanks believe me sincerely yours W. Rothenstein

From Edmund Gosse to Henry Newbolt Text MS Private collection; Unpublished

[letterhead:] 17, Hanover Terrace 12. 7. [19]04 Dear Newbolt I was unjust to Rothenstein. He has sent me full & invaluable information this evening, & was prevented by an accident from doing it sooner. Yours ever E. G.

From Edmund Gosse to William Rothenstein Text MS Harvard; Unpublished

[letterhead:] 17, Hanover Terrace 12. 7. [19]04. Dear Rothenstein, Very many thanks for your valuable letter. I was sorry not to get it in time for my visit to Downing Street, but it does not matter. My interview was very encouraging, and I shall not let the matter drop. Of course you will understand that it is difficult to catch the Prime Minister at this busy time. But he is genuinely interested. One most important question. It appears, which I did not know, that by the terms of the regulation, no one who is not a British subject

18

can receive a pension from the King. Is Conrad naturalised? If not, he ought to become so at once. My great hope is to get the matter arranged before Mr Balfour leaves town when the House rises. Whether this can possibly be done I don’t know, because he dislikes extremely to be hurried. I will let you know when I manage to move another step. Meanwhile, please let me know at once about the naturalisation. With best thanks, and apologies for my impatience. Sincerely yours, Edmund Gosse.

From William Rothenstein to Edmund Gosse Text MS Yale; Unpublished

Hillside Farm Hawksworth in Leeds July 15 – [19]04 Dear Mr Gosse Conrad wired me that not only has he long since been naturalised but he had also taken the trouble to have this recognised in Poland by special appeal to the Czar in 18861 – his father & various relatives were compromised in one of the various disturbances in Poland & all of their property & rights confiscated – and has all the documents in his possession. I am very sorry that my letter did not reach you in time, but you seem none the less to have advanced Conrad’s cause pretty well. I may hope to hear from you again before long. With many thanks Sincerely yours W. Rothenstein

From M. G. Ramsay to Edmund Gosse Text MS Yale; Unpublished

[letterhead:] 10 Downing Street, Whitehall, S. W. 10.8. [19]04 Conrad’s release from the status of Russian subject was officially gazetted in 1889. 1

19

Private My dear Gosse, I have been meaning to write to you every day & yours comes aptly! Conrad. I have spoken to the Chief, but his feeling is that the case must stand over for a little, till he can see more clearly what demands there are on his purse. An application came from Miss Davenport Adams within 24 hours of her poor brother’s death. We, as I daresay you know, have had dealings with this family now since the father died,1 and they have met Mr Balfour in rather an impracticable spirit: & it is difficult to devise means of giving them practical & permanent help, but I think the chief w[oul]d be willing to help if this difficulty was surmounted. […] Yrs. very sincerely M. G. Ramsay

From Edmund Gosse to William Rothenstein Text MS Harvard; Unpublished

[letterhead: 17, Hanover Square] August 16, 1904. Dear Rothenstein, I am sorry that I cannot report to you complete success with regard to Conrad, but I do not think there has been any failure either. The Prime Minister has, naturally, been so excessively busy that he has not been able to go into the matter exhaustively. But he is very well disposed, and he has started north with three of Mr Conrad’s books in his travelling-bag. He has, as I think I told you, a great reluctance to pensioning novelists, and I think that broadly speaking is right. That is to say, manifestly it is among them that the largest amount of money is earned by the smallest exercise of brain-energy. But there are, of course, great exceptions, and the hope is that we shall persuade Mr Balfour that Conrad is one of these. All that could be done I have done in the way of bringing the facts minutely before the Prime Minister, and insisting on my own view of Conrad’s genius. The Prime Minister has shown himself Critic and journalist, W(illiam) Davenport Adams (b. 1851) had died of a heart attack on 28 July, leaving his family in straitened circumstances.

1

20

interested and sympathetic, but the case has now reached the point when everything depends on his own personal view of Conrad’s merits. It is not probable that he will make his decision till later in the year: when he does, I will communicate with you again. We leave for the Continent at the end of this week, Yours very truly, Edmund Gosse.

From Henry Newbolt to Edmund Gosse Text MS Yale; Unpublished

[23, Earl’s Terrace] Sunday 19 iii. [19]05 My dear Gosse The address is W. Rothenstein 26 Church Row, Hampstead. I do not doubt that he [Rothenstein] will advise, and if necessary persuade, Conrad to accept: though of course his (R’s) point was that the real difficulty was the uncertainty and consequent anxiety which diminishes Conrad’s power of work. He is a very sensible fellow. […] Yours sincerely Henry Newbolt

From William Rothenstein to Henry Newbolt Text MS Private collection; Newbolt 302–03 [letterhead:] 26, Church Row March 20th [19]05 My dear Newbolt. Gosse wrote me the good news to-day: I don’t think the offer of help could have been made in a more delicately thoughtful way than in Gosse’s form of Balfour’s excellent proposal. As a matter of fact a sum such as that proposed will be of far greater use to Conrad at the present moment than a pension would be, & I have not the smallest doubt of Conrad’s accepting it most gratefully & joyfully. I don’t think we need have any fear on that score. I owe you many thanks for having in the

21

first instance approached Gosse on the subject. I have written to Conrad this evening, & sent him a copy of Gosse’s letter, & we shall no doubt hear without delay from Capri.1 Conrad writes that he has been suffering from influenza, and unable to get any work done in consequence.2 His wife is getting on however very satisfactorily, & the copy of Gosse’s letter should do much to cheer him.3 Again, thanks for your services. Please remember me kindly to Mrs Newbolt. Yours very sincerely W. Rothenstein

From William Rothenstein to Edmund Gosse Text MS Yale; Portrait 46–47 [letterhead:] 26, Church Row March 20th [19]05 Dear Mr Gosse – I found your letter when I reached home this evening, & needless to say it gave me the greatest possible pleasure. The last I heard from Conrad a few days ago was that he had been suffering from influenza, & unable to work. I have just sent him off a copy of your letter, & you will no doubt hear from him without delay on his part. Of course I have not the smallest doubt of Conrad’s accepting what is so generously & delicately afforded by Mr Balfour; I know that his affairs are still far from being in a satisfactory state, & I think the sum proposed should do much to enable him to feel the ground under his feet again. For myself, I can only thank you for your part in the matter. I think there are few who would have acted so promptly as you did, & fewer still who would have translated good intentions into positive help: that you have the power as well as the will to do this must be no small source of pleasure to you. Believe me to be very truly yours W. Rothenstein

Conrad, who had gone there to work and to save on expenses in mid-January, was to stay on until May. 2 Conrad’s letter to Rothenstein does not appear to have survived. 3 Conrad wrote to Gosse to thank him for his support on 23 March (CL3 224– 25). 1

22

From William Rothenstein to Edmund Gosse Text MS Yale; Unpublished

[letterhead:] 26 Church Row] March 28th [19]05 Dear Mr Gosse, Conrad has written to ask me to signify to you his grateful acceptance of the Prime Minister’s proposal.1 He tells me he has written to you, so you will be fully aware of his sentiments regarding Mr Balfour’s sympathy, and your own, for his work & the difficulty connected with it. Sincerely yours W. Rothenstein

From M. G. Ramsay to Edmund Gosse Text MS Yale; Portrait 47

[letterhead:] 10, Downing Street 5 April 1905 Private My dear Gosse, Mr Balfour has opened his purse strings to their fullest extent, & will give Joseph Conrad £500 R[oyal] Bounty.2 To whom should the money be paid and where? You will know better than I whether or not there is anything in the circumstances to make it advisable to place the money in the hands of trustees – I mean nothing formal, & w[oul]d not for the world “froisser”3 Conrad’s letter does not seem to have survived. As J. H. Stape explains, a Royal Bounty grant was “a one-time bursary given on the Prime Minister’s recommendation to worthy persons in distress. Widows of writers, civil servants, and officers figured prominently among recipients, although there were no strict guidelines and indigent persons engaged in work thought to be valuable to the nation – a category that included writers, scientists and scholars – could also apply” (The Several Lives of Joseph Conrad [London: Heinemann, 2007], pp. 146–47). The grant was intended to secure “permanent benefit” for the recipient by being held in trust or used for the purchase of a life-insurance policy. The £500 granted to Conrad was the maximum single sum allowed by Bounty Fund regulations. 3 “To hurt or offend.” Gosse echoes this same formulation in the next letter. 1 2

23

an unstrung temperament – only sometimes a friend[’]s help is useful, if one can avoid offence. Yours always sincerely MG Ramsay.

From Edmund Gosse to Henry Newbolt Text MS Private collection; Unpublished

[17, Hanover Terrace] 6. 4. [19]05 My dear Newbolt, The Prime Minister has opened his purse-strings to their fullest extent, and gives our friend Joseph Conrad – £500. Now, do advise me. To whom should the money be paid, and when? Is it advisable to send a lump to Conrad? Should it be placed in the hands of a friend, or trustee? For instance, yourself? I should like to prevent his doing something sudden and silly with it, at the same time I don’t want to “froisser” his sensitive temperament. Advise me sensibly. Rothenstein, whom I asked, has returned a most asinine reply, evidently wishing to take no responsibility, even in advice. Sincerely y[our]s Edmund Gosse

From Henry Newbolt to Edmund Gosse Text MS Leeds; Unpublished

[letterhead:] Piccard’s Rough, St Catherine’s, Guildford. 10 Apl. 1905 till Saturday My dear Gosse You have managed splendidly – £500 is worthy of the Renaissance. Poor Rothenstein’s head was probably whirling. I agree very decidedly with your suggestion of an Almoner to see that the Royal munificence is not diverted into side channels or sunk in quicksands. The idea of undertaking anything of the kind myself is most abhorrent: I am a trustee seven times over already, and never swing the scaly horror of my sevenfold tail without a groan. But in the company of the good I would

24

venture on anything. You – as “Royal favourite” and Deputy Patron – Rothenstein as Bear leader, knowing the animal’s idiosyncracies and tender spots, must certainly be Trustees: and I will be a third if it will be any comfort to you. I imagine we should simply have to get Rothenstein to procure a more or less accurate table of debts, and then pay them off as best we could, always remembering that there will probably be half as much again owing as appears in a first statement. I shall be in town on the 17th probably and could come to see you or meet you at the Savile. I do congratulate you on your diplomacy – the more because I know you take a pleasure in helping people. Yours very sincerely Henry Newbolt. Forgive delay: I am in the act of finishing the last two chapters of a book I am doing for May.1

From Edmund Gosse to Henry Newbolt Text MS Private collection; Unpublished

[17, Hanover Terrace] 13. 4 [19]05 Dear Newbolt Mr. Balfour would think it very kind if you and Rothenstein would jointly receive and expend the £500 for Conrad. Will you? Yours sincerely Edmund Gosse I am making the same proposition to Rothenstein.

From M. G. Ramsay to Henry Newbolt Text TS Private collection; Unpublished

[letterhead:] 10, Downing Street May 4th., 1905. 1

Newbolt’s centennial history, The Year of Trafalgar.

25

Private My dear Sir, Mr. Balfour has heard from Mr. Gosse that you have very kindly consented to act with Mr. Rothenstein as Trustee for a grant of £500 which it is proposed to make from the Royal Bounty Fund for the benefit of Mr. Joseph Conrad. I am accordingly to convey to you Mr. Balfour’s best thanks for your kindness in consenting to act in this matter, and to enclose an order for the amount.1 The First Lord desires me to add that at the present moment he is hardly in a position to give any specific directions as to the expenditure of this grant, and he would suggest that you should use your discretion as to the way in which it can be appled so as to secure the greatest and most permanent benefit for the recipient. He would ask whether it is agreeable to you and Mr. Rothenstein to receive the grant on this understanding, or whether you would prefer a more definite arrangement. I am Very truly yours, M. G. Ramsay

From Alice Rothenstein to Henry Newbolt Text MS Private collection; Unpublished

[letterhead:] 26, Church Row Friday [5 May 1905] Dear Mr. Newbolt. I don’t know whether my husband has written you – I know he meant to, but has been very much “rushed” with much work & a small holiday together – Conrad writes from Capri & wired for some money2 – he is so delighted with the grant and would much like to be able to use some of it immediately in order to get back to London at once. It seems there is some prospect of the Stage Society producing a little play of his3 – & he thinks it will lead to commissioned stage work for himself. I was under the impression from Mr Gosse’s letter that the money would be forthcoming at once. Have you heard whether it is on the way The money had been made available by the minutes of 25 April 1905 and paid out to the trustees by the Paymaster General on 3 May 1905 (Najder 559, n. 45). 2 Conrad had written to Alice Rothenstein on 1 May, urging her to ask “Will” to send “at once £150 in notes if possible” (CL3 237–38). 3 One Day More, to be performed by the Stage Society in June 1905. 1

26

or not? I hope Mrs Newbolt is well – please tell her I’ve been hoping to get over & see her long before this – and remember me kindly to her – I am yours sincerely Alice Mary Rothenstein

From William Rothenstein to Edmund Gosse Text MS Yale; Unpublished

[no address] May 5 [19]05 Dear Mr Gosse Conrad writes that there is a chance of a play of his being given by the Stage Society; and that he is very anxious to return to England about the middle of this month. Could you I wonder give me some idea as to when Newbolt or I might expect some of the King’s gift. There seems to be a difficulty over his leaving until he can be sure of a certain sum, and if I can assure him that he can count on it soon, or perhaps send him a temporary remittance, it would relieve his mind. Believe me to be sincerely yours W. Rothenstein

From Edmund Gosse to Henry Newbolt Text Telegram Private collection; Unpublished

House of Commons 5 May 1905 Prime Minister wishes to know where you are as he does not wish to commit order at Random to post. Please reply Gosse House of Lords.

From William Rothenstein to Conrad Text MS Yale; Portrait 47–48 [letterhead:] 26 Church Row May 8 – [19]05

27

My dear Conrad. The money granted has come at last, & has been given to Newbolt & myself by Balfour with certain expressed conditions imposed – suggesting the use to be made of it, that it may prove of permanent benefit to yourself. I had not realized that I was taking upon myself any responsibility in accepting the charge of the sum with Newbolt, & thought it was simply to be handed over to you on our receipt of it. You must therefore be kind & patient with us, & whenever you satisfy us that money at any particular moment is of imperative use to you, you will have it. But it appears that it cannot be used for instance for discharging ordinary now established debts, such as your debt to Gilbert Murray, for in that case I am told that the whole of the sum might be swallowed within a short time without proving of any special benefit to you. It is a bore for me to have to take up this pedantic attitude, nor would I, had I known precisely what I was doing, have been very willing to accept the charge. But if you are reasonably thoughtful about our position, I do believe we can all make the most cheerful use of the £500 in our charge. We enclose to begin with £100 towards your present expenses at Capri & your return home. My own private opinion is that the money is better in our hands, so that you need not feel yourself called upon to use it for all kinds of claims on it, but can save yourself by explaining that it is held in trust for you, & I hope you may see it in this light; it will make a valuable fund to draw on on the top of what you make in the ordinary way by your pen. We are most happy to hear good news of you all, & that Jessie is so well again. I expect you will be staying in London on your way through, so that we may be seeing you very soon. John1 will be delighted to see Borys again. In a very few weeks A[lice] will be expecting visits. I expect Capri will be growing hot now, & you will not be ungrateful for the cool of Kent. I run off to my work. Let me hear from you soon. With much love to all ever yours affectionately – Will

Rothenstein’s elder son, John Knewstub Maurice Rothenstein (1901–92) became an art historian and served as Director of the Tate Gallery. 1

28

From William Rothenstein to Henry Newbolt Text MS Private collection; Unpublished

Hampstead Tuesday [9 May 1905] My dear Newbolt. Many thanks for your note. Conrad begs for the balance, as he wants to be getting back home. I think we may as well send it to him, & then our duty is done once & for all. How much good it will have done for C[onrad] I don’t know – I don’t for a moment imagine he is much less troubled by his money affairs. Yours always W. R.

From William Rothenstein to Henry Newbolt Text MS Private collection; Unpublished

[letterhead:] 26, Church Row Monday night [16 May 1905] Could you meet me at the Vienna Café at 4 o’clock to-morrow afternoon. I have heard from C[onrad]1 who has taken the arrangement rather badly. If you can’t come could you send me a line to 20 Spital Square2 first thing in the morning or a wire; if I don’t hear I will come to the Café. Yrs in haste W. R.3

From William Rothenstein to Henry Newbolt

Text MS Private collection; Unpublished

[letterhead:] 26, Church Row Friday [19 May 1905] Conrad’s angry letter to Rothenstein does not appear to have survived. The address of Rothenstein’s studio, which he had rented in order to be close to a community of Galician and Russian Jews who had recently moved into London’s East End and whom he wished to paint. 3 With a postscript added by Newbolt: “Met accordingly. Conrad’s letter. R to see him on Thursday & write to me.” 1 2

29

My dear Newbolt. Conrad wired to-day that he has only just arrived.1 I go out of town to-morrow & stay until Monday, and it is not likely that I shall see him before Tuesday. The more I think of his letter the less I like it, & I want to try and make it clear to him that he has not acted towards us quite as he should have done. I will let you know directly I have seen him. In the meanwhile believe me yours always W. Rothenstein I open this letter to tell you I have just had a most decent letter from Gosse; you were quite right about the attitude you thought he w[ou]ld adopt, & he has furthermore written in the most seemly and firm way to Conrad in answer to a letter evidently of the same hysterical kind as the one I got.2 You will see G[osse] to-morrow, & I shall be writing him.

From William Rothenstein to Edmund Gosse Text MS Yale; Portrait 48-49

[letterhead:] 26, Church Row May 20 – [19]05 Dear Mr Gosse – I am sorry you should have had any further trouble in the matter of Conrad, & that he should have written you in a similar strain to that in which he often writes to me. Of course he is terribly hysterical – indeed last year I feared for his reason – that was the beginning of my wish to remove at least one weight from his morbid & excitable mind. I hope he will soon come to his senses over the help you have been able to render him, & settle down to work & rest. I had a rather more reasonable letter from him this morning in answer to mine3 – yours having had its proper That is, from Capri. Expecting to receive the whole of the £500 and outraged by Rothenstein’s letter of 8 May, Conrad had written an angry letter to Gosse on 16 May, enclosing Rothenstein’s letter for him to see. He strongly objected to a scheme that made him answerable to trustees – as if the grant “were a bounty which has to be begged for” – and that created the impression of “Conrad having to be saved from himself” (CL3 246–48). Gosse’s reply to Conrad’s letter has not survived; for Conrad’s response to Gosse’s “chiding letter,” see CL3 248–49. 3 Conrad’s letter to Rothenstein does not appear to have survived. 1 2

30

effect I imagine. I am terribly sorry for him, but it is very hard at times to be patient – natures like his demand as a right, if once one gives affection, a very great deal of one’s time & energy. Hauptmann is coming over next week,1 & if you would be interested in meeting him, I am sure he would be greatly pleased to make your acquaintance. He does not speak one word of English, although his wife can talk fairly well. They are giving him a degree at Oxford. I fancy he will be staying here some little time. Believe me to be sincerely yours W. Rothenstein

From William Rothenstein to Henry Newbolt Text MS Private collection; Unpublished

[letterhead:] 26, Church Row May 24 [19]05 My dear Newbolt. I saw Conrad on Tuesday2, & I purposely did not write you as I wanted him to speak with you, & afterwards I thought we would exchange impressions. It seemed to me a little mean to prejudice you in any way without your hearing directly from Conrad himself what he had to say; and I was worn out by the time he left, having argued with him until late in the night. I stuck to my point pretty stiffly I may tell you, as I did not want to give way too easily, – I suggested he should see you alone, & speak to you as he had spoken to me. I could meet you somewhere on Friday or Saturday – on Sunday I go to Oxford. Conrad is a pathetic person, & he seems to me, like so many artists, to have muddled his life quite unnecessarily. Remember me kindly to Mrs Newbolt. Conrad feels your interest & kindness very much, & I have made certain things much more clear to him I think. Yours always W. Rothenstein If I can possibly manage I will come early to-morrow morning, but I fear it will be very difficult. Am sorry I forgot to write the Bank. Gerhart Hauptmann (1862–1946), German dramatist and novelist. In response to Conrad’s request of 23 May for an interview with the trustees (CL3 250–51).

1 2

31

From Henry Newbolt to Edmund Gosse Text MS Yale; Unpublished

[23, Earl’s Terrace] 27 May 1905 My dear Gosse Thanks no doubt to your firm inspiration Conrad has written me a most sensible and in every way suitable letter.1 I have also seen him, and his manner is altogether quite changed from that which you and Rothenstein experienced. I do not anticipate much further difficulty. […]

From William Rothenstein to Henry Newbolt Text MS Private collection; Unpublished

[letterhead:] 26, Church Row Sunday [28 May 1905] My dear Newbolt. I return you Conrad’s long & carefully explicit letter. I went into all these things with him & am glad he has gone into them again with you. I am certainly of [the] opinion that we do as much as we can to help him now – we cannot I think under the circumstances take up any other attitude. […] W. R.

From Henry Newbolt to Conrad Text MS Private collection; Unpublished

[23, Earl’s Terrace] 30. 5 [19]05 Dear Mr. Conrad Many thanks for your clear and detailed account of the position. I have seen Rothenstein upon it, and we have formed the opinion that although at first sight the words “permanent benefit” might seem to point in a different direction, yet as peace of mind is obviously a first Of 25 May, in which, following upon his interview with Newbolt, he listed his sundry debts totalling £298 and asked for an immediate sum of £250 from the Royal Bounty award (CL3 251–52). 1

32

essential to your work, upon which your future depends, we shall be doing our best for your future by lightening as far as we can your present anxieties. We therefore accept your suggestion that we should deal at once with some or all of the liabilities you have summarised. Under the conditions of the Trust we feel bound to do what can be done in the way of bargaining for easier terms, and we see nothing wrong in asking the creditors for a reduction of their claims in return for the immediate payment in cash. Of course we understand that there may be individual cases in which this w[oul]d be impractical or undesirable. Negotiations and payments of this kind cannot be effectively made either by you or by ourselves. We propose therefore that you sh[oul]d agree to our employing for this purpose a solicitor of undoubted character and professional standing: and we suggest the name of Mr Wells of Broad St who has acted for Whistler,1 Rothenstein and other artists, and is in sympathy with people like ourselves. His services w[oul]d not be expensive and w[oul]d probably result in a very considerable economy of our small fund. With kind regards I am Yours sincerely H. N.

From William Rothenstein to Henry Newbolt Text MS Private collection; Unpublished

[letterhead:] 26, Church Row May 31st [19]05 My dear Newbolt, Many thanks for the enclosed,2 which is excellent. It was very nice of you to have come all the way up to Hampstead on Monday – to have been so prompt in writing to Conrad. I have just written him a few lines on the subject. With kindest regards Yours always W. Rothenstein

James (Abbott) McNeil Whistler (1834–1903), American-born etcher and painter, lived abroad for most of his life, dividing his time between France and England. 2 A copy of Newbolt’s letter to Conrad of the previous day. 1

33

From William Rothenstein to Henry Newbolt Text MS Private collection; Unpublished

[letterhead:] 26, Church Row June 3 [19]05 My dear Newbolt. Evidently Conrad has set his face against any plan & wants to spend the money given him as he thinks fit.1 To my dull mind it is nonsense to talk of settlement being worse than bankruptcy. Any man may spend more than he earns for a few days, – then, becoming aware of his growing obligations, wish to see where he is & try to settle all accounts – & how can he do it better, if he is wise, than through a solicitor. I am therefore perfectly willing to sign a cheque for any amount you choose to consider. The more debts Conrad settles the better for him, & as he feels capable of looking after himself, afterwards, so much the better. I can’t pretend that I like his letter, for I don’t. But he does not relish our way, & I do think all three of us have given up enough time to discussing the question, & I think he had better have his own way. After our correspondence I think we need have no scruples about not having wished to do our best for him. What say you? Yours always sincerely W. Rothenstein

From William Rothenstein to Henry Newbolt Text MS Private collection; Unpublished

[letterhead:] 26, Church Row June 5 [19]05 My dear Newbolt. I am afraid Conrad won’t relish our sending out the cheques at all – I am not sure that I don’t think that our doing so would put him in a rather undignified position all against his conditions. My idea was that the solicitor should be instructed by all three of us, & act apparently for Conrad. As he did not wish this, & took a monstrous amount of trouble to state his objections clearly, he is less likely to fall in with your present suggestion I fear. My own feeling is that we shall have to give him the As he had made clear in a lengthy letter of 1 June, in which he again protested about the conditions attached to the grant and rejected the idea that a solicitor should be involved (CL3 257–58).

1

34

money, or he will whip himself up into a hysterical sense of persecution, which is not good for him. If he agrees to your proposal – so much the better. If not, don’t you think we might send him a cheque? Yours always W. R.

From Henry Newbolt to Conrad Text Newbolt 310

[23, Earl’s Terrace] 7 th June [19]05 My dear Conrad, I am sorry that we have consumed so much time in this three cornered deliberation, but I hope we have now settled the matter. Rothenstein & I are willing to adopt your reasoning and apply the sum of £250 in your way;1 our only object being to relieve you as far as possible from your present anxieties. I do not see why you should go to the trouble of another journey to town. As you see the position so clearly[,] I need not explain it further: we are bound as trustees to see to the application of the money ourselves, but we can do this as you suggest by drawing the cheques to you and posting them in envelopes addressed by you.2 Please send me a list of the exact amounts: then we will send you the cheques, and you can return them to us endorsed with the bills each in its envelope. I think this plan, with your letters, will effectually clear us from any suspicion of having paid away the money in a lump to save ourselves trouble of consultation.3 Yours sincerely Henry Newbolt P.S. – As to your work, I shall look forward to talking about it with you when we next meet. In the meantime do believe what I said: I have a As set out in Conrad’s long and indignant letter to Newbolt of 5 June (CL3 259–62). 2 All of the cheques issued by Rothenstein and Newbolt during 1905–06 were, upon their being cashed, returned to them by the National Provincial Bank, Kensington, and have miraculously survived, as have their cheque-book stubs (Private collection). For three of the cheques issued in June 1905, see Fig. 1. 3 Conrad replied on 9 June, detailing and annotating his debts for the trustees (CL3 262–66). 1

35

Fig. 1. Three cheques issued by the Royal Bounty fund trustees to Conrad’s creditors, 14 June 1905 (see CL3 264).

36

plentiful knowledge of literature and in this case I feel no doubt about my judgment, especially since all my friends agree with it. Yours sincerely H. N.

From William Rothenstein to Henry Newbolt Text MS Private collection; Unpublished

[letterhead:] 26, Church Row June 14 [19]05 My dear Newbolt. I return the cheques which I joyfully signed. You have been awfully good & have worked miracles – I feel that you have had more than your fair share of correspondence to do. Thank you de cœur. I hope this will take some of the weight off Conrad’s mind – I wish he would not be so humble about his books & his dinner, as though apart from this windfall no coins have ever fallen into his lap. Please remember me kindly to Mrs Newbolt. Always yours W. Rothenstein

From William Rothenstein to Henry Newbolt Text MS Private collection; Unpublished

[letterhead:] 26, Church Row July 20 [19]051 My dear Newbolt. Conrad wrote & asked me to lend him a sum of the kind a few weeks ago, and as I had doctors’-nurses’ bills I told him I could not do it.2 I am perfectly willing to sign a cheque for him – I gather Pinker is in America. I knew he was writing what he would forget promptly when he told you that apart from his debts he was perfectly able to look after himself. But let us send him £15 by all means. I was wrong to approach anyone in the first instance, & if I had known what I know now I should never of course have done it. To me it is ignominious that a man of Conrad’s genius should have to stoop so often. I think we can only look On 19 July Conrad had written to Newbolt, asking if he could “borrow” £15 from the fund (CL3 275–76). 2 This letter of “a few weeks” earlier does not seem to have survived. 1

37

the other way when he does stoop, & I don’t think any thing is gained in his case by our refusal. I hope your holiday was a pleasant one. Please remember me very kindly to Mrs Newbolt. Yours always W. Rothenstein

From William Rothenstein to Henry Newbolt Text MS Private collection; Unpublished

[26, Church Row] July 20 [19]05 Herewith cheque – many Thanks for writing. Perhaps you & Mrs Newbolt & her friend will come & have tea one afternoon? Yours always W. R.

From Henry Newbolt to Conrad Text MS Private collection; Unpublished

[23, Earl’s Terrace] 21 vii [19]05 Dear Mr Conrad I enclose a cheque for the £15 for which you ask. I am sorry that you sh[oul]d have been obliged to draw upon us so soon, but I understand that Pinker is in America, which no doubt raises difficulties for you. Otherwise I hope you are well and flourishing. Do not hesitate to put to me any questions you wish about Nelson or Trafalgar.1 What little I know is at your service. Yours sincerely H. N.2

1 Conrad was about to draft a paper on Nelson for the centenary of Trafalgar, to be published as “Palmam qui meruit ferat, 1805–1905” in the Standard (October 1905). 2 Conrad replied on 22 July, asking for further advice on works about Lord Nelson (CL3 277).

38

From William Rothenstein to Henry Newbolt Text Private collection; Unpublished

[letterhead:] 26, Church Row Sept 7 [19]05 My dear Newbolt. Conrad writes to know whether he may have £15.1 I have not answered his letter yet, but suppose that you will have no objection to signing a cheque. I hope you & Mrs Newbolt have had a pleasant holiday. Kindest regards W. R.

From William Rothenstein to Henry Newbolt Text MS Private collection; Unpublished

[letterhead:] The Coppice, Bowden, Cheshire. Nov 28 [19]05 My dear Newbolt. Conrad has been up to town, & the day after I saw him, his boy developed scarlet fever. He really is unfortunate, & his nerves get sorely tempted. He writes & ask[s] me to “sound Newbolt whether the balance of the money could be paid to me in monthly instalments of £20 or if that’s too much of £15, beginning say on Dec 2. It would be a great convenience.”2 Will you write me to Church Row to say what you feel about this. […] Kindest regards from yours always W. Rothenstein3

From Henry Newbolt to William Rothenstein Text MS Harvard; Unpublished

[letterhead:] 23, Earl’s Terrace 30 Nov 1905 Conrad’s letter does not seem to have survived. As Conrad had written on 22 November (CL3 296). 3 With a postscript added by Newbolt: “Replied reviewing the situation & agreeing to pay £15 a month. H. N.” 1 2

39

My dear Rothenstein We have only £109.10 left and I don’t see any object in hoarding it: nor do I feel that we should do anything but harm of [sic] forcing Conrad to apply afresh for each small payment. So I think we may as well agree to pay him £15 a month as long as it lasts. Of course we might take the other line of holding the £100 in reserve for crises; but this scarlet fever is a crisis; and altogether our business was to see that C[onrad] had a fair chance of starting again after a rest in comparatively smooth waters. We have done our best to secure this: by the time our fund is exhausted he will have had a year free from anxiety – so far as we c[oul]d free him – and will start again (I hope) with fewer debts. I enclose cheque for you to sign and forward. […] With kind regards Henry Newbolt.

From William Rothenstein to Henry Newbolt Text Private collection; Unpublished

[letterhead:] 26, Church Row Dec 3 [19]05 My dear Newbolt – thanks for your note & cheque, which I sent to Conrad. He writes that the boy has had complications & that his kidneys are affected, & that although they hope he will pull through it all right, it is likely to be a long business.1 Of course all this is really hard on him, – I suggest, off my own bat, that we might at this juncture give him an extra £20 say to help him tide over this business. What do you think? I think it would not be an unreasonable thing to do – he has not suggested it, but I don’t doubt he would be glad enough to get it. Always sincerely yours W. Rothenstein2

1 As Conrad had communicated on 2 December (CL3 298) in the course of thanking Rothenstein for the cheque. 2 With a postscript added by Newbolt: “6. xii. 05. Agreed, but queried best time for sending cheque.”

40

From Henry Newbolt to William Rothenstein Text MS Harvard; Unpublished

[letterhead:] Banstead Place, Banstead, Surrey. 5 Dec 1905 My dear Rothenstein I am away from home on a short visit, but am going back immediately. I am quite ready to fall in with your suggestion of an extra cheque for Conrad to help tide him over this trouble of his son’s illness, of which I am very sorry to hear. Do you think we ought to send the money at once, or would it be more welcome nearer Christmas – the expense in cases of this kind generally makes itself felt towards the end rather than the beginning? Yours sincerely Henry Newbolt.

From William Rothenstein to Henry Newbolt Text Private collection; Unpublished

[letterhead:] 26, Church Row Dec 16 [19]05 My dear Newbolt If you feel like sending a cheque to Conrad perhaps you will send it to me to sign this week – we leave Hampstead to go north from Friday to Tuesday. With many good wishes yours always sincerely W. Rothenstein

From William Rothenstein to Henry Newbolt Text Private collection; Unpublished

[letterhead:] 26, Church Row 3. 4 [19]06 My dear Newbolt. Many thanks for the cheque. Will you let me know by return how much money there is left – Conrad writes to ask the question.1 I am Conrad had made the enquiry on March 29 (CL3 325). A final cheque for £14.10s.7d, dated 6 April, was sent to him in Montpellier and acknowledged on 10 April (CL3 329). 1

41

going off to France at the end of the week for ten days, to look for a place for the summer. Kindest regards to Mrs Newbolt & Miss Coltman.1 Yours always W. R.

From William Rothenstein to Henry Newbolt Text MS Private collection; Unpublished

[letterhead:] 26, Church Row April 5 [19]06 My dear Newbolt. Many thanks for the cheque. I was a little alarmed when I read your letter that mine might have seemed to make light of your own invaluable help in getting Conrad the grant. I hope I did not suggest anything of the kind. I wrote feeling a little depressed, as the character of Conrad’s letter, after having had in all more than £700 during the last 20 months was rather similar to the ones I used to get from him before I set out to do what I could to help him. I felt that Conrad would somehow always be in a similar state financially; and seeing that life is so full of good things, & of more real tragedy than pecuniary ones, I felt a little hopeless about him; please do not for a moment think I undervalued all you have done to help him, & hope when new books appear he will reap a little more. […] Yours always W. R.2 1 Laura Isabella (“Ella”) Coltman (1853–1948), Margaret Newbolt’s cousin. Such was the close relationship between the cousins that Margaret had agreed to marry Newbolt only on condition that Ella did not feel abandoned. The latter soon became a permanent member of the household and – with Margaret’s approval – Newbolt’s lover: “Neither woman appeared jealous of the other, perhaps because their lover was careful to divide his favours equally” (Susan Chitty, Playing the Game: A Biography of Sir Henry Newbolt [London: Quartet Books, 1997], p. 91). 2 After the final grant payment, Conrad sent letters of thanks to Newbolt and Rothenstein (CL3 328–29); in September 1906, he presented a specially bound copy of The Mirror of the Sea to Balfour, with an elaborately worded dedication: “this copy of a work … is presented by the author in testimony of his feelings, genuine and profound which he finds difficult to put into such worthy words as would not suffer them to appear diminished in their warmth, character and nature” (CL3 359).

1907–1914 From Stephen Reynolds to J. B. Pinker Text Scoble 194

8 November 1907 […] The major part of the Poor Man’s House is written and re-written. I’ve been working very hard – much harder than I could have worked before and without feeling it much except liverishly. Conrad would see some of my stuff, so I sent him a few little MSS. I had by me, and he replied with a letter that … I think I should like you to see.1 I’m very proud of it. What a fascinating man he is: so ardent and at the same time giving one a sense of detached very calm wisdom behind. […]

From Stephen Reynolds to Conrad Text TS Texas; Unpublished

Western Town [Sidmouth, Devon] July 3/[19]08. 2 Dear Conrad You must be luxuriating in this hot weather; that is, if you haven’t the gout, and I hope you haven’t. It’s hot here with a tremendous heat, but I am getting up at such unearthly hours for the mackerel that I earn the right to go to bedroom in the afternoons. May I send you “Silly Saltie”3 to look at. I want your opinion, because I have tried very hard in it to avoid my worst faults and I can’t Conrad’s letter does not appear to have survived. Reynolds’s letter helps to date a “Wednesday” letter of Conrad’s hitherto assigned conjecturally to May 1908 (CL4 84). In fact, the Conrad letter in question is a point-by-point response to the letter above and thus is likely to have been written on the first Wednesday after receipt of Reynolds’s letter, that is, 8 July 1908. 3 This short story was eventually published in the first issue of an early “little magazine,” The Open Window, October 1910. 1 2

43

tell for the life of me whether I have succeeded, though I’m hopeful. And I am not certain whether the last page ought to be greatly cut, and to read:-“The vicar had no sense whatever of triumph. “Nosworthy went again to the Man of God and found hidden away in an old church collection bag at the back of the Man of God’s Dinner Table, a large number of threepenny bits. In the vicar’s opinion it was an idiot miser’s hoard, but Nosworthy always says that it was Silly Saltie’s offerings.” Please tell me what you think, if you have time. It’s not that this story is of any intrinsic importance; it’s a sort of trot match with the cussedness of words and form. I want to learn to get weirdness, to express the uncanny sides of human beings’ relation with each other and things without violence of method; and if you can’t help me . . . Well, I suppose I shan’t. Now I come to think of it Mrs Conrad must be having the worst of the hot weather. But she [is] standing it all right, I trust; and B[orys] and Jackolo too. Yesterday Bob and Margot and Semaphore and myself had a big photographing on the beach.1 No proofs yet, but you must have one of the best, if you will. Poor Margot has been crippled with rheumatism, but is now better, and I’m hoping to have her quite well by the autumn, for the Wilts guide is to be done this year,2 so I want her to tramp the downs with me. The Richards Urban Exodus book3 is off. He wouldn’t rise to my terms, and I told him what a good subject it is, and what a pity it was he did not trouble to come to the point when I asked him to do so, and should have been glad to accept almost any terms. At present, the Guide being to come, not much work, but a tremendous lot of strings to pull delicately: more fishing disputes and intrigues and indiscreet supporters, fishing, boating, boat painting, business literary and otherwise, trying to keep Bob fairly well and trying to keep down his, to me very nerve-racking and to him injurious, rows with his brother. One gets exhausted, though not harmfully, I think. But sometimes a horrible desolation seizes me and unless someone says or Reynolds lived and worked among the fishing community in Sidmouth, Devon, where he had been “adopted” into the family of Robert (“Bob”) W. Woolley (1865–1947), his wife Margot, their six children, and dog (“Semaphore”). 2 Born in Devizes, Wiltshire, Reynolds had already written an illustrated guide to the town and its environs (1906) and was now planning a guide to the county. 3 A projected work that he had offered to the publisher Grant Richards. 1

44

does something kind it’s rather bad. Still one’s bound to play in, simply because it’s easier to do so, being once started. One could not be out hooking at dawn without it all. “’Tis a turn out,” as Bob says, “but I bain’t sorry.” Two descriptive chapters (Mackerel hooking and herring drifting) from the Poor Man’s House are out in this month’s Albany.1 I think they are better than those of the first instalment. Have you looked at the Blake’s? What do you think of him? Chapman, the editor of Lane’s translation of Anatole France has sent me “Mother of Pearl.”2 Whatever the translation may be like, Chapman is an exceedingly nice fellow. Hueffer like[s] him too, I think. How Mrs Hueffer is I don’t know, for he has not written for some time. Is Rozumov [sic] finished? yours SR

From John Galsworthy to J. B. Pinker Text MS Texas; S. & K

[letterhead: 14 Addison Road, W.] July 24. [19]08. My dear Pinker Conrad asks me to ask you to write to him.3 He appears distressed, & seedy. He asks will you pay the current quarter’s rent due last month. He further says that after he has finished this book and got out of the house he is in “I will creep into a hole for the next 3 years, if I can only manage it. I am willing to let my expenditure be regulated – say up to £500 and another £100 for Borys. There is a very good school (with 1 The serialization of Reynolds’s A Poor Man’s House had begun in the Albany Review in May and finished in August. 2 Under the general editorship of Frederic Chapman (d. 1918), John Lane had begun to publish the “Library Edition” of The Works of Anatole France in translation. The reference here is to the translation of France’s L’Étui de nacre (1892), which had just appeared. 3 See Conrad’s letter to Galsworthy of the previous day (CL4 93–94). Galsworthy’s position as “in-between” man was necessitated by the fact that in July 1908 relations between Conrad and Pinker had deteriorated to such a point that they were not in communication, a breakdown foreshadowing their extended estrangement during 1910–12.

45

laboratories & workshops) kept by English Benedictine Fathers in Ramsgate, and the above amount would be ample for the boy. Those are the maxima providing he (you) settles me clear. But to drop me entirely because Raz[umov] is not up to date will of course finish me in a way and do him (you) no good.” You remember that I said I thought this a most unfortunate moment to make any change & curtail supplies, in both your interests. From what Conrad says about the house he is in I feel sure that it would be more paying in the long run to get him out of that this summer even at a sacrifice of rent.1 I would not press him while he is finishing his book, if I were you; and I would place him where he can live more cheaply. When this is done, I would make and keep to the arrangement he suggests. Though I am bound to say that I think he will find £500 + £100 for Borys a tight fit. I have told you, and I have told him what I think, and now I must retire from the position of “in between” man. In great haste, I am, Yours very sincerely John Galsworthy

From Elsie Hueffer to Conrad Text TS copy Berg; CL4 236–37 [Aldington] [mid-May 1909]2 Dear Conrad, Miss Cather3 – the literary editor for McClure[’s] Magazine – now over here for a short time – intends descending on each of us tomorrow. The Conrads wanted to leave Someries, near Luton, although the move was not to take place until February 1909. 2 During the period of worsening relations between Conrad and Ford, this brief note sparked a heated row between the two writers. For his part, Ford was endeavouring to introduce Willa Cather to new writers in England in the hope that her employer S. S. McClure would invest in the English Review. Conrad, on the other hand, resented this high-handed intrusion into his private life, refused to meet the American visitor, and was outraged when he learned that his answering note of refusal to Elsie had been enclosed in an apologetic letter to Willa Cather. For Conrad’s angry response to Ford of 20 May, see CL4 235–37. 3 Willa Cather (1873–1947) was at this time the author of a volume of verse and a collection of short stories; her first novel did not appear until 1912. 1

46

She apparently wants to get a story out of you, and Heaven only knows what out of me. She is arriving at Smeeth 10.45 in the morning and leaving in the afternoon. Will you let me know when you would rather see her? Ford arrived very late on Sunday, etc, etc, Elsie M.

From E. V. Lucas to Conrad Text MS Berg; Unpublished

[letterhead:] Kingston Manor, Lewes. June 20 [1909]1 My dear Conrad I wrote to [Norman] Douglas last week to tell him that Methuen does not think his book would repay him in publishing it without some subsidy from the author – a very unsatisfactory conclusion to things in my opinion.2 I am very sorry because I liked both the work & the author; but there it is. There has not yet been time for a reply from Capri. I was glad to see your hand again. I have seen the English Review from time to time and read your reminiscences with much pleasure; but the periodical as a whole does not seem quite to be well-loaded or welltrained or something. Belloc’s arraignment of dashes and dots did it a vast deal of harm, I fear; & it has been generally too foreign for its title. A great pity for it was wanted.3 I have recently entirely lost all power to write or even plan. I hope it will soon come back. Yours, EVL

1 Lucas is responding to Conrad’s letter to him of 14 June (CL4 243–44); Conrad replied to Lucas’s above letter on 23 June (CL4 247). 2 Since March 1909, Conrad had been pressing the claims of Norman Douglas’s Siren Land to Lucas, one of Methuen’s readers. When Methuen’s interest in the work cooled, Conrad was to advise Douglas to accept an offer from J. M. Dent, who brought it out in 1911. 3 In the margin, Conrad annotated the second paragraph: “This in answer to a par[agraph] in my letter to him disclaiming all connection other than a contributor’s with the E. R. J.C.”

47

Norman Douglas to Conrad Text MS VL; Unpublished [letterhead:] Villa Daphne Isola Capri Italy 12 July 1909 My dear Conrad, Thanks so much for your long letter just received – of course you are quite right about Pinker,1 as I perceived almost immediately too, and: the MS having come back from Methuen rather messed about: set to work getting it ready for him. All I have done is to cross out some archaeological disquisitions – this on the advice of Lucas who said that Methuen would probably want that done – and an entire chapter; the thing goes to him today. Of course, I read and re-read his letter to you a good many times and if I had not been addle-brained would doubtless have seen his printed address over the top. I came back from Ischia three days ago. Thanks likewise for your letter of the 2nd2 which I believe I never even answered – may you have your reward in Heaven. You don’t seem to be seeking it on earth! I suppose you have heard of McClure’s death?3 Your letter which is dated the 7th4 has only just reached this house five minutes ago; the postal service here is absolutely rotten. Well I can’t write any more just now, beyond thanking you once more for all your kindness and patience! Yours ever N. Douglas 1 Douglas had accepted Conrad’s plan to refuse the Methuen offer for Siren Land (see previous letter from E. V. Lucas) and place his manuscript in the hands of Pinker, who would circulate it among other publishers. Douglas’s letter re-dates the letter from Conrad to Pinker tentatively dated [30 June or 7 July 1909] to [30 June 1909]. 2 See CL4 252. 3 Prompted by Douglas’s news of “McClure,” Conrad wrote to Pinker, asking, “Is it true about McClure?” (CL4 261). Douglas was probably labouring under a misapprehension: the American publisher S. S. McClure and his brother Robert, with whom Conrad had dealings, died in 1949 and 1914 respectively, but the death of Alexander Kelly McClure, an American newspaper man who edited the Philadelphia Times, had been announced in early June (The Times, 9 June 1909: 13c). 4 This “strong letter” to Douglas, as Conrad characterizes it to Pinker on 19 July (CL4 260), does not survive.

48

From Lindsay Bashford to Conrad Text MS Yale; Unpublished

[letterhead:] The Daily Mail, London Sunday [early December 1909]1 Dear Mr Conrad Have you any articles or sketches that could do for the Daily Mail during the coming weeks of holiday? We should much like to have you as a contributor again. Yours faithfully Lindsay Bashford

From Dr Clifford Hackney to Conrad Text MS Berg; Unpublished

[letterhead:] Aldington, Nr. Hythe, Kent. Feby 3d. [19]10 I am of opinion that Mr Conrad is much too ill to attend to any sort of work or to undergo the slightest mental exertion.2 He will not be anything like well for another ten days. Clifford Hackney MRCS LRCP

From Jessie Conrad to J. B. Pinker Text MS Berg; Unpublished

[letterhead:] Aldington Feb. 3rd. 1910 Dear Mr Pinker Only two hours before Conrad was taken ill he absolutely forbade me to touch the M.S. which he had arranged after a great deal of trouble. This is probably the early-December letter from Bashford that Conrad mentioned to Pinker on 15 December, a letter that seems to have prompted him to begin “The Secret Sharer” (CL4 297–99). 2 Conrad delivered the manuscript of Under Western Eyes to Pinker in London on 27 January and quarrelled violently with his agent; he returned home on the 28th, and two days later suffered a complete physical and nervous breakdown. 1

49

I dare not mention any sort of business to him by the Doctor’s express orders, but I will try to speak to him in the matter, if he is any better, in a day or so. Sincerely Yours Jessie Conrad.

From Jessie Conrad to Alice and William Rothenstein Text MS Harvard; Unpublished

[letterhead:] Aldington Feb 6th. 1910 My dear Alice and Will The book is now finished and now Conrad has a complete nervous breakdown. Gout everywhere, throat tongue head. There are two swellings on the back of his head as big as my fist. Poor boy, he lives the novel, rambles all the time and insists the Dr and I are trying to put him into an asylum. He is not to be allowed the least mental exertion or to see anyone at present. He was a little better this morning though his temperature was higher than yesterday. I felt I must write to you dear people but this is the first time I could get to do it, and now I am supposed to be lying down. I haven’t been to bed since Sunday last. Don’t worry I will let you know in a few days and I hope for better news. I hope you are all well. With much love Always affectionately Your Jessie Conrad.

From John Galsworthy to J. B. Pinker Text MS Texas; S. & K

[letterhead:] 14 Addison Road, W.] Littlehampton Tuesday [19 July 1910]

50

My dear Pinker I have a letter from R[obert] Garnett concerning C[onrad,] you & the D[aily] M[ail.]1 You have the right to be annoyed until you hear the facts. I’ll just mention them, and tomorrow afternoon between 3.15. & 3.30 if you’ll be in I’ll come down & talk, since we come up from here in the morning. Some five or six weeks ago I think [Lindsay] Bashford of the D. M. made the unexpected proposal of a weekly article on books to Conrad (£5. or £5.5.0) per article. C wrote me fully & properly on the subject – would like to try it – didn’t know if he could do it – or whether it would take too much time – didn’t know whether you would object – would consider of course that it was subject to your commission & permission.2 I advised making the attempt, and seeing whether he could do it. I also said that I didn’t think you would mind if it were explained to you. After the appearance of his first article3 I asked C whether I should now tell you. He said that a letter of Bashford’s made it in his mind rather doubtful whether the arrangement was going on, also he would like to test himself further & suggested asking for your permission at the end of a month. Contrary to my own judgment I said no more – and now you are annoyed. The thing is this: If C can, & Bashford will keep up this arrangement here’s his household expenses, & a great load off his mind, at the expense of 1 to 1½ days’ work a week. I think, and I think most creative writers will agree with me, that he will do more creative work in the remaining 5½ days, than if he has out of pocket expenses always weighing on his mind from week to week. I’m sure he recognizes that if you like to stop it you can, but my dear Pinker I don’t think it will be wise for either of your sakes. In fact I’m sure it won’t. However, we’ll talk.

Galsworthy was once again playing the role of messenger and peacemaker between Conrad and Pinker during their estrangement, here having also to negotiate with another go-between, Robert Singleton Garnett (1866–1932), Edward’s elder brother, a solicitor, who looked after Conrad’s literary interests during his illness in 1910. 2 Conrad had sent Bashford’s letter to Galsworthy on 26 June (CL4 341–42). 3 Three days earlier, on 16 July. Conrad managed to write only four reviews, one of which was killed by an editor, before abandoning the scheme. 1

51

C. wrote that he had 70 p’s of typed story, and required but a few more to finish.1 He is in good health & spirits now, and I believe that your interests lie in not dashing this new vigour. Yours very sincerely John Galsworthy I’m anxious to hear how you are succeeding with C’s novel.2 C writes that he has also worked a little at “Chance.”

From John Galsworthy to Conrad Text Marrot 350

Wingstone. [Devon] Nov. 3, 1910. Dearest Conrad, It’s good of you to give such thought to my little reductio ad absurdum.3 I think you have poked a little fun at me, haven’t you, with that sentence? “But why it (the Truth-Conscience) should be scared away so swiftly by the most fatuous thing on earth – etc.,” which sounds as if you thought the scare was serious. No, the scare is only part of my involuted reductiones ad absurdum of those most fatuous things in the world. I confess I have assumed that the readers in Manchester will credit me with not believing that the artist is or should be a “windlestraw”4 – especially just after having been dosed with Justice;5 and as its ultimate place will be a volume of satiricals, I don’t think it will risk missing its point. No, on re-reading I see you twig all that, only you think it dangerous; but honestly I give the Public – that is, that section of it which will read this – credit for sufficient nous to see the point. 1 “A Smile of Fortune,” as Conrad had mentioned in his 13 July letter to Galsworthy (CL4 346–47). 2 Pinker was at work arranging the serial placement of Under Western Eyes. 3 Conrad had commented on “The Windlestraw” (later collected in The Inn of Tranquillity: Studies and Essays [1912]) in a letter of 1 November (CL4 384–85); he replied to the above letter on 8 November (CL4 387–88). 4 Galsworthy’s fable concerns a playwright who believes that he is answerable to no one – neither to the public, which he finds an impossible abstraction, nor to himself: he thus becomes a “windlestraw,” a thin stalk of grass blown erratically by the wind. 5 Galsworthy’s play had opened in London in the previous February.

52

“The feeling of elation” is intended for that of a gentleman puzzled by life who throws himself into a deep pool. Perhaps some word is wanted there to make that clearer. Qu’en dis tu? . . . Our love.– Always yours, J. G. Of course the Public is humanity. The sketch only deals with that idiotic newspaper use of the word. J. G It’s not my uncommon honesty, it’s my malice and instinct for a little mystery to disguise and subtilize that malice which makes me push the thing on beyond the point where “common honesty” would stop. The malice is honest and warranted; and mystery is a pickle or preservative, almost the only one, being divine. J. G.

From Methuen & Co. to J. B. Pinker Text TS Berg; Unpublished

[letterhead:] 36 Essex Street London W. C. 11th July 1911 Dear Pinker I see that Conrad proposes to call his novel “Under Western Eyes.” I know that he is rather sensitive, but I hope he may be induced to alter it. The title gives promise not so much of a novel, as a book of descriptive impressions. I expect that you may agree with me, and be willing to put this before Mr. Conrad.1 Yours sincerely A. M. S. Methuen

Conrad responded angrily to Methuen’s suggestion in a letter to Pinker of [13 July], although he grudgingly agreed that “if M[ethuen] likes to put A Novel in sub-title he may do so” (CL4 459), a sub-title that Methuen adopted. Wisely, Pinker appears not to have sent on Methuen’s next letter of the 17th asking if Conrad would consent “to omit the word ‘under’ in his title so that the title now runs ‘WESTERN EYES’” (TS Berg).

1

53

From Edward Garnett to J. B. Pinker Text MS Berg; Unpublished

[no address] 26 July 1911 Dear Pinker I am returning to you “Freya of the Seven Isles” with many thanks. The story is undoubtedly very fine. (I remember reading it years ago.)1 I don’t often agree with the enthusiasts for “a happy ending,” but I do feel a certain weakness in the manipulation of the tragedy at the close. If I write to JC on the matter I will suggest that he should have another look at the MS. I don’t suppose he would alter the end, but if he did so, I would put it before the Century Co again.2 Edward Garnett

From Laurence Irving to Conrad Text TS Berg; Unpublished

[letterhead:] Mr. Laurence Irving & Miss Mabel Hackney’s Co. October 18th 1911 Dear Mr Joseph Conrad, I happened to read a review of your new work “Under Western Eyes” and it at once occurred to me that it might make a most powerful drama. I have lately been playing in a version of Dostoieffsky’s “Crime and Punishment” (the dramatisation is my own)3 and it seems to me that your Razumoff might make a part quite as suitable to me as Raskolnikoff. I am now sending for the book and I wish to know whether you would take into consideration, letting me have the rights of dramatisation.

This brief note caused a temporary contretemps between Conrad and Garnett, with Conrad taking umbrage that Garnett, the newly appointed reader for Century Magazine, should have described the story as one written “years ago.” In his letter to Pinker of 9 August, Conrad accused Garnett of having made a “monstrous false statement,” and hoped that it did not lead Pinker to suspect that he was asking his agent to market old work (CL4 470–71). 2 The Century Magazine had rejected “Freya” earlier in 1911, before Garnett took up his position as its reader. 3 Irving’s adaptation, The Unwritten Law, had recently finished its run at the Garrick Theatre. 1

54

I have often hoped through Mr Sidney Pawling,1 that I should have the pleasure of meeting you personally, but unfortunately that pleasure has not yet been mine. I am more conversant than most people in England, with Russian conditions, as I spent three years in that country; in fact, I translated Maxim Gorki’s play “The Lower Depths.”2 Yours sincerely Laurence Irving.3

From John Quinn to Conrad Text TS carbon NYPL; Unpublished

[New York] November 15, 1911 Dear Mr. Conrad: I received your letter of September 25th4 in due course. I should have answered it sooner, but I found a lot of things demanding attention on my return. […] I have been reading “Under Western Eyes” as it came out in the Monthly Review. I got a copy of the English edition two or three weeks ago and took it with me on a trip to Virginia and I re-read the book as a whole. It is wonderfully well done and I think it is one of the best novels you have ever published. It is quite worthy to rank with the best of Tourgenev’s. It moves slowly at first but toward the end of the story moves with the rapidity of life. […] There is not a page or a paragraph that could be spared from your book. I think that a book that is as closely knit as this one of yours suffers a little from being first published in instalments. The impression is deeper and much more vivid when the book is read straight through. S(ydney) S(outhgate) Pawling (1862-1922), W. H. Heinemann’s partner, first met Conrad in 1896 and a year later negotiated with him to bring out The Nigger of the “Narcissus” and The Rescue. A lifelong friend and admirer, the trusty Pawling could be relied on for professional and financial support. He also oversaw the publication of the Heinemann Collected edition of Conrad’s works in 1921. 2 The play saw a production by the Stage Society in 1903. 3 Conrad replied immediately (as he informed Pinker), but his letter has not survived. Irving seems, however, to have quickly lost interest in the project. 4 See CL4 480–81. Conrad replied to this letter on 30 November (CL4 514–15). 1

55

Miss Tobin1 must be delighted with the dedication of it to her. I am delighted to hear of the volume of personal reminiscences which you are about to publish and am delighted at your promise to send me a signed copy and am looking forward to it with great interest. I wonder whether you would think it too much trouble sometime if you have a spare copy of the last number of the English Review that contained the reproduction of Rothenstein’s drawing of yourself to autograph the drawing at the bottom and send me that number of the Review. I should like to have the drawing framed and hang it with photographs of Meredith, William Morris and one or two others of my favourite authors. If you haven’t got a spare copy of the Review at hand, please don’t bother about this. […] I daresay that you are familiar with the writings of William James. I am sending you by bookpost a copy of a volume of his miscellaneous writings recently published here.2 Everything that James writes is interesting and suggestive. It occurred to me that you might be interested in reading some of the things in this volume. Again I want to say how delighted I am to have these manuscripts of yours.3 With kind regards, I am, Sincerely yours,

From Arthur Symons to John Quinn

Text MS Columbia; B. & M. 220 (transcription)

[letterhead:] Island Cottage, Wittersham, Kent 1 December 1911

Introduced to Conrad by Arthur Symons, Agnes Tobin (1864–1939), American poet and translator of Petrarch, enjoyed meeting celebrated writers and numbered among her friends Alice Meynell, Yeats, Pound, and Gide. The dedication to her of Under Western Eyes describes her as one “who brought to our door her genius for friendship from the uttermost shore of the West.” 2 The posthumous collection Memories and Shades (1911). 3 Quinn’s first purchase from Conrad, the manuscripts of An Outcast of the Islands and “Freya of the Seven Isles.” 1

56

[…] I have here the MSS. of my essay on Conrad 1 (which extends to 80 pages, excessively revised and rewritten) which has a history. […] I rubbed out the pencil marks, sent the thing to Conrad, who wrote to me an enormous letter,2 entirely approving (with all his foreign grace and using such words as gratitude) what I had written, advising me to admit two references to two American novelists (one Mark Twain). This I did. […] He, of course, is anxious for the publishing of the thing (which I have since revised) in some American magazine. […]

From John Quinn to Conrad Text TS carbon NYPL; Unpublished

[New York] January 19, 1913. My dear Conrad: I received yours of December 19th. […]3 I received the fragments of the MSS. of “Nostromo” (three batches); “Lord Jim” (two batches) and “Heart of Darkness” (one batch). I am obliged to you for having them sorted and put in properly labelled bands so that they may be put in cases and some day, if ever I get the leisure, I will go through them with the published books and try to make an index of where the fragments begin and end in the book. I am glad to know you received the £10 for these alright. Now as to the other three. I have thought over your kind offer for some little time. Frankly, I think £80 for “The Nigger” is high. I don’t think any dealer would pay that for it, and if it came into the auction room I don’t think it would bring over £50. Of course I don’t start buying your MSS with any such idea in view. Neither did I start to make a “corner” in them. So I have considered the matter with the suggestions set forth in your letter as one friend dealing with another. My commitments in a financial way have been rather heavy for pictures and art for the last year or so and I didn’t intend to put that much more in MSS., but as you were so generous in sending the fragments of “Nostromo” and “Lord Jim” and “Heart of Darkness” for £10, and as you have put Probably an early version of “Joseph Conrad,” Forum, 53 (May 1915), 579–92. Of August 1908 (CL4 99–101). 3 In fact, the Conrad letter to which Quinn refers was dated 8 December (CL5 144–47); Conrad replied to the above letter on 9 February (CL5 175–76). 1 2

57

in the corrected typewritten MS. of “Typhoon,” I have concluded (as friend with friend) to accept your offer, namely “To-morrow” (the play) £40 “The Nigger of the Narcissus” £80 “The Return” £15 Total £135 […] I have bought several of Gissing’s MSS. lately at from £25 to £30 each, and the other day I bought the MS. of Meredith’s poem “The Revolution,” which is the first poem in his volume called “Odes in Contribution to the Song of French History,” for £95. A month or so ago a dealer from Milwaukee sold me a D. G. Rossetti MS. for £140. You see I have been going in rather heavily for MSS. “The Nigger” is a powerful story. Yes, you can “stand on that book.” It is one of your very best. Indeed, “no one else could have done it”: that crew – every man of them lives; the black man and his big baritone voice; the storm; the quiet little captain; the hunger; the going out of the Nigger (“Be a man, Jimmy!”) and then the home-coming! Yes, you should be proud of it all. That finish is finer and bigger than the end of Hardy’s “Woodlanders” and is as good as any of the best of Hardy. Meredith would have praised the book and the “good end” of it all. It reads as it is, a sincere book. One never thinks, as with Kipling, “how clever that is.” And the passages, long and short, on the sea! The phrases make one think of Homer’s description of the sea. One loves these sailors – all but the thief – and one feels that the title given or taken by the American edition that I first read, “The Children of the Sea,” is the right phrase about those honest, brave men of the sea. […] With best wishes for a satisfactory and good year, I am Sincerely yours,

From J. M. Dent & Sons to Conrad Text TS Berg; CL5 177 (in part)

[letterhead] Aldine House, 10, 11, 12, 13 Bedford Street, London, W. C. 13 February 1913

58

Dear Mr. Conrad, I have been reading your book – “Chance” – in the hope that I might use it for a serial.1 I have not been able to read it through because the agent wanted the MS. back;2 but I have read over 200 pages of it to begin with, and then read the close. I wish I were publishing the book for it is full of great literature and makes most delightful reading; but it is alas impossible altogether for serial use. In the short time I have had I tried to plan how I might ask you to shape it for a serial; but it is hopeless. I cannot get any plan that that would help you, nor help me, and to attempt to use it for my poor paper would mean to overweight it altogether and do it mischief rather than good. I am more sorry than I can tell you. I should love to have one of your stories running through my paper; but there is no plot or story which anybody, reading week by week, could hang on to, though for my part I have revelled in it. I am going to try and borrow the MS. again if Pinker can do without it. May I say how wonderful it is? One seems to be reading almost at he same time Plato and Meredith, Conrad and Laurence Sterne – a most delightful combination, and infinitely sane. The very idea of the book is altogether so delightfully whimsical – (I use that word in the very best sense) – that I cannot help feeling it will be one of the most successful books among your literary friends that you have yet produced. I only wish it were mine, and most deeply regret that I cannot use it for my paper. Indeed, I fear it could not be used for any magazine unless you could cut out some of the essays & use them for that purpose. I hope our arrangement for the three volumes stands all right, and I am very keen indeed to get the books into my clutches.3 Trusting that your health is good and that all is well with you, Yours sincerely, JM Dent4 For Everyman, his new literary weekly edited by Charles Sarolea. Conrad had sent the typescript of Chance to Dent on 6 February (CL5 174). 3 Conrad was in the process of extricating himself from his commitment to the Methuen company in order to sign a new long-term contract with Dent; for the basis of Methuen’s complaints against Conrad and Pinker, see the letter from Methuen of 26 March 1913. 4 On the verso of this letter, Conrad jotted down for Pinker’s benefit a summary of the contents of his reply: “Answered. That regretted his decision which would delay my entering into execution of his contract, very possibly. That, as to 1 2

59

From J. M. Dent & Sons to Conrad Text TS Berg; CL5 178 (in part)

[letterhead] Aldine House 18 February 1913 Dear Mr. Conrad, I thank you very heartily for your kind letter. I shall hope to see Mr. Pinker in a day or two or so and arrange finally for the novels. I hope nothing will happen to stop my working for you. I wish to heaven I could in some way have used this story; it still lingers in my mind, haunting me; but the impression would have been entirely obliterated I am afraid if I had read it in chapters such as I could have put into my paper. I should like, if it were possible, to set you free sooner. I wonder how I can do it? Is there any way? Would it be any good, if such a thing were possible, for me to advance some money on account of these three books? I do not want to get you into any complications; but believing in you as an artist, I would like to do what I can.1 Heartily yours, JM Dent.

From Methuen & Co. to Conrad Text TS copy Yale; Unpublished

March 26th. 1913 Joseph Conrad Esq. Dear Sir, We have your letter of March 21st and we are very sorry that we cannot accept your point of view.2 We do not know if Mr Pinker has sent you the full copy of our letter of February 27th. When you read this we think you will agree that the facts are on our side. the contract, I had not heard from Mr Pinker yet.” The actual letter to Dent has not come to light. 1 Conrad replied on [c. 19 February] (CL5 178–79). 2 Conrad had attempted to defend his decision to allow another publisher, J. M. Dent, to publish ’Twixt Land and Sea in October 1912 by claiming that five months earlier Methuen had declined to take up an option on the volume of stories (CL5 195–96).

60

May we again call your attention to the fact that the agreement was sent long after the revise of the lengthened book1 was in your hands. We are sure that Mr Pinker will agree that our attitude is correct. We fear you are under a misapprehension about the volume of stories which was offered to us in 1911. You say that we declined that volume, but we feel that the following extracts from letters which passed between us and Mr Pinker will show you that you are wrong. On November 9th, 1911 we wrote to Mr Pinker saying that we should be glad to have Mr Conrad’s new novel of stories and would pay the terms which were paid for his last volume. On 18th April 19132 “Conrad is willing to agree to your proposal of the 9th for his volume of short stories with some modification. He thinks the royalty on the Colonial edition should be 4d. a copy instead of 3½d and he wants the advance payable on signature of the contract. If you agree to that will you let me have the draft.” N. B. Apparently a considerable time elapsed between our offer and Mr Pinker’s acceptance. On April 20th. Mr Webster wrote to Mr Pinker as follows:“Methuen who is away from home for a day or two, has asked me to reply to your letter of the 18th and to say that we are willing to pay 4d. on the Colonial edition of Conrad’s volume of stories, and that we will pay the advance on the delivery of the MS. Shall I send you a draft of the agreement?” A form of agreement was sent to Mr Pinker which he kept for some time and finally returned it without any remark. We heard later on that the book had been arranged with another publisher. May we say that we regret extremely these misunderstandings. We have always had the greatest regard for you personally and for your genius. It has been a matter of great regret to us that the books which you have given us under your agreement have not been commercially very successful. We were under the impression when we made the agreement that most[,] if not all of the books would be of the type which had made your fame, dealing with the sea. It seems to us clear that the public is in love with this type of story from you, and we mention this because we fear you may have been disappointed with the sale of “The Secret Agent” and “Under Western Eyes.” We are, dear Sir 1 2

That is, The Secret Agent. An error: the correct date is “1912.”

61

Yours faithfully Methuen & Co. Ltd.1

From Pathé Frères Cinema, Ltd to Conrad Text TS Berg; Unpublished

[letterhead:] Pathé Frères Cinema, Limited 103–109, Wardour Street, London, W. July 19th 19132 Dear Sir, This firm is proposing to select suitable novels and stories and adapt them for the purpose of reproduction on the cinematograph. As you will realise, this secures great publicity for a work, and statistics have shown in the case of works already filmed that a considerable fresh sale for it results. We should like to have the suitability of your works considered by our experts, but should have beforehand to discuss the matter of copyright with you. If you could therefore grant a personal interview to our Mr. J. Best for the purpose of going into the matter, or, if you prefer it, call here we shall be much obliged. We must respectfully add that we can only go into the matter with yourself direct and not through an agent. Our Mr. Best has been for many years with the well known publishers Messrs. Methuen and Mr. Heinemann, and we are sure you will find him congenial and equitable. With all compliments, We are, yours faithfully. Pathé Frères Cinema, Ltd. P.S. In replying please address the envelope to Mr. J. Best. Conrad replied in a long and angry letter of 28 March: “you can not be surprised to hear that after this the mere idea of a work of mine being published by your firm has become extremely distasteful to me” (CL5 201). Methuen responded to this letter on 2 April (Portrait, pp. 88–89). 2 This letter is the first of several making enquiries about securing the film rights to Conrad’s novels; the Berg collection alone holds later enquiries from Harris Merton Lyon (9 November 1915), Broadwest Films (21 June 1919), and A. P. Watt & Son (19 October 1923) (all TSS). 1

62

Fig. 2. Letter from Pathé Frères Cinema, Ltd, 19 July 1913.

63

From John Quinn to Conrad Text TS carbon NYPL; Unpublished

[New York] July 29, 1913 My dear Conrad: I was glad to receive yours of the 17th.1 I am delighted that your books on this side are moving forward as they ought to. I believe that the Huneker article in The Times has done you a lot of good.2 The Doubleday people don’t make handsome books and I don’t care for their binding or the general format of their books, but they know how to sell books and they sell them in large quantities. But I am delighted above all to know that your health has improved somewhat. Huneker came over here a couple of weeks ago, entre nous, to arrange for some articles. He returns in a couple of weeks. He told me of his call at your place and wondered why you didn’t live in the South. He said the South of France or Italy was the place for a man like you. He was afraid that the climate was bad for your rheumatism. I hope that my brief on free art didn’t bore you.3 I couldn’t do onefifths of the things I do if I didn’t have a well-organized office and a good stenographer. As it is, it is a matter of hours and minutes with me every day doing this, that and the other thing. Dictation of course spoils any possibility of style unless one goes very slowly, and most of my stuff is dictated as fast as I can talk. I am delighted to know that you are sending me the corrected typed copies of “Almayer’s Folly” and “Chance.” The price that you put of £5 on each seems reasonable, and I am asking my bookkeeper to send you London draft to your order for £15 for the two, which is £7 10s each.

See CL5 253–54. James G(ibbons) Huneker (1857–1921), American author and critic, had corresponded with Conrad in 1909 (see Portrait, p. 65) and interviewed him at Capel House in October 1912. His account, “A Visit to Joseph Conrad, the Mirror of the Sea” appeared in the New York Times Magazine Section, 17 November 1912, p. 4 (reprinted in Ray, ed., pp. 21–27). 3 Quinn had been campaigning against the 15% import duty levied on modern works of art (Reid, pp. 157–60). 1 2

64

Symons must be delighted to get his pension,1 but I hope he won’t spend it all on Mrs. S. Some day I am going to make a catalogue of your manuscripts and get all of the magazines and periodicals in which they first appeared. I think I can make up a fairly complete story from your various letters. When I get to it I may typewrite out the list and send it to you for correction and additions. So don’t be frightened. […] Now that you are getting along you ought to be able to get better prices for your stories from the magazines. But I dare say your agent will be able to advise you on that. But your rates for magazine stories now ought to be twice or three times what they where three or five years ago. With kind regards, I am Sincerely yours

From the Hon. Bertrand Russell to Lady Ottoline Morrell Text MS Texas; Knowles

[letterhead:] Trinity College, Cambridge. Wed evg. [10 September 1913] In the train. My Darling Here I am on my way back from Conrad. It was wonderful – I loved him & I think he liked me. He talked a great deal about his work & life & aims, & about other writers. At first we were both shy & awkward – he praised Wells and Rothenstein & [Israel] Zangwill and I began to despair. Then I asked him about Arnold Bennett, & found he despised him. Timidly I stood up for him, & he seemed interested. Then I got him on to Henry James, & he began to expand – said he likes his middle period better than the novels from the Golden Bowl onwards – attributes the falling off to the practice of dictating. Then we went for a little walk, & somehow grew very intimate. I plucked up courage to tell him what I find in his work – the boring down into things to get to the very bottom below the apparent facts. He seemed to feel I had understood him; then I stopped & we just looked into each other’s eyes for some time, & then he said he had grown to wish he could live on the surface and write News of the Civil List pension awarded to Arthur Symons had appeared in The New York Times on 3 July.

1

65

differently, that he had grown frightened. His eyes at the moment expressed the inward pain & terror that one feels him always fighting. Then he said he was weary of writing & felt he had done enough, but had to go on & say it again. Then he talked a lot about Poland, & showed me an album of family photographs of the 60’s – spoke about how dream-like all that seems, & how he sometimes feels he ought not to have had any children, because they have no roots or traditions or relations. He told me a great deal about his sea-faring time & about the Congo & Poland and all sorts of things. At first he was reserved even when he seemed frank, but when we were out walking his reserve vanished & he spoke his inmost thoughts. It is impossible to say how much I loved him. He spoke very nicely about you, & had been evidently very glad of your appreciation.1 He said he valued a woman’s appreciation, as he had thought his novels were not the kind women liked. I realized as he spoke that he had hardly known any cultivated or intelligent women. […] You said you owed him to me, but I should never have got to know him but for you. It was poor Lucy Donnelly2 who first got me to read him – she gave me Ld. Jim & The Nigger, which was the first I ever heard of him. He is wonderful. Like all deep things, seeing him made my love for you more living & strong – it lives in that world. […]

From The Authors’ Syndicate, Ltd to Conrad Text TS Berg; Unpublished

[letterhead:] The Authors’ Syndicate, Ltd. 3-7 Southampton Street, Strand, W. C. 27th January, 1914.3

She had visited Capel House during the previous month. Lucy Martin Donnelly (1870–1984), Professor of English at Bryn Mawr College from 1909, was a lifelong friend of Russell’s. 3 This and the following letter belong to a round of negotiations that had begun in December 1913 when, in response to an approach from The Authors’ Syndicate, Conrad had offered a brief synopsis of his work-in-progress, Victory (CL5 311–12). By the time of the letter of 31 January, it had become clear to Conrad and his agent that Victory was to be serialized in Munsey’s Magazine and that they could only offer a later, unspecified work. 1 2

66

Dear Mr. Conrad, I am very pleased to say, that I understand from a cable received from New York, that my buyers would be prepared to pay £1000 for the world serial rights for use at buyer’s option of a serial of yours, subject to approval of copy, or possibly detailed outline of the plot. This sum would be paid to you net without any deduction whatsoever, the buyers paying all my charges. I would point out that this would place you in a position to pay your regular agents their commission without being mulcted in any further expenses. If you wish it, we will of course submit any counter-proposal, but this must be subject to approval of either detailed outline or copy. It is, of course, perfectly open to you to submit another story to the one you have already outlined to me in your letter of the 10th December. I am, dear Mr. Conrad, Faithfully yours, J. W. Gilmer

From The Authors’ Syndicate, Ltd to Conrad Text TS Berg; Unpublished

[letterhead:] The Authors’ Syndicate, Ltd. 3-7, Southampton Street, Strand, W. C. 31st January, 1914. Dear Mr. Conrad, I have to-day a letter ex New York which carries matters a little further than the cable already reported to you. I understand that my buyers have been offered a serial of yours which is not available, but for another serial which would be available on approval of copy, or, possibly, detailed synopsis, they would be prepared to pay £1,100 for the world serial rights for use at their option. Believe me, Yours very truly, J. W. Gilmer

67

From Lloyds Bank, Ltd to Conrad Text MS Berg; Unpublished

[letterhead:] Lloyds Bank, Limited, Ashford, Kent. February 11. 1914 Dear Sir I notice that your overdraft has lately been steadily increasing, and now stands at £144. I must ask you to make arrangements either to put your account in funds or to give me security for what accommodation you may require. Please do not draw further till you have done so. Please note that I have used all the pension warrants you sent me.1 Yours faithfully H. T. B. Bennett Man[a]ger

From H. A. L. Fisher to Richard Curle Text MS Indiana; Unpublished

[letterhead:] Seinte Matte College of Manchester in Oxenford March 20. 1914 Dear Curle. I am delighted to hear of any one so distinguished in letters as your friend Conrad contemplating sending his son to Sheffield.2 I never can keep figures in my head but if Conrad will write to The Registrar[,] the University, Sheffield, he will receive from him all the printed literature which it is the custom to circulate with reference to the studies fees etc of the University. I am afraid that I shall not be able to come up to town this week, as I am very much occupied with Indian matters here but I am going up to Sheffield on Monday next (March 23) to stay at the Sheffield Club till our new house is ready and if Mr Conrad would care to come down any

Conrad sent this letter to Pinker, asking him to give the bank a guarantee of £200 (CL5 349–50). 2 Accompanied by his father and Richard Curle, Borys Conrad went to Sheffield in early July, when he took, and failed the University’s entrance examinations for the Faculty of Applied Science. Fisher entertained Conrad during his stay. 1

68

day next week, I shall be delighted to put him up at the Club and to show him round. I hope soon to have an opportunity of reading your new volume of stories.1 […] My love to Cordelia.2 Yours ever H Fisher

From the Hon. Bertrand Russell to Lady Ottoline Morrell Text MS McMaster; Knowles

[letterhead:] Trinity College, Cambridge. [22 July 1914] In the train My Darling Here I am on my way back from Conrad – he was as delightful as ever, & it was a great joy seeing him. The household was rather upset by the prospect of going to Poland, but it didn’t interfere with our talking. I asked him if he had known a man named Kurtz, & he said no, he had known a man named Klein who died in a similar way, but was a good fellow. The rest, I gathered, was made up from stories he heard, not from things seen. . . . A propos of going back to Poland, he says he remembers getting into the Vienna express there 40 years ago, as one passes into a dream; & the dream has gone on ever since.3 He talked at length about Forstice.4 His view is that I might leave the 1st and 3rd parts as they are but that the middle part, in Florence, should be expanded into a long book with conversations of the various characters singly. He says I must not attempt to embody the dialogue – I rebelled, but he was inexorable. I can’t bear to sacrifice the poet’s speech! He seemed to think that by a great deal of work I could make something of it, but not to be sure whether it was worth my while to give so much time to it. He seemed to think very well of the garden party at the beginning. And I am happy to say he liked the nun. […] Life is a Dream (1914). His sister (1879–1970), and Curle’s wife. 3 Conrad used a similar phrase in a letter to Galsworthy of 25 July 1914 (CL5 405). 4 The Perplexities of Paul Forstice, Russell’s only exercise in creative fiction. The work was soon laid aside and published only posthumously. 1 2

69

From Arthur Marwood to Edward Garnett Text MS Northwestern; Unpublished

[letterhead:] Water Farm, Stowting, Hythe, Kent. [mid-September 1914]1 Dear Garnett I was very glad to get your letter, which has reassured me. I must have been altogether wrong about the place they have gone to. But there are so few mountains in Poland that to put it in the Lysa Gora2 seemed inevitable. I fear it will be winter before they can get away, and I doubt if they have taken any warm clothes. No doubt sheepskins are to be got. Do you think it would be possible, through his paper, to get into communication with [Perceval] Gibbon, who is I believe in Petrograd, and may possibly be going nearer to the fighting, when, if ever, they let correspondents go forward. He might be of some use, one can’t tell. Yours A. P. M.

From John Galsworthy to J. B. Pinker Text MS Texas; S&K

Wingstone Manaton Devon Nov. 2. 1914. Private My dear Pinker

One of numerous letters that circulated among the Conrad circle at the news of the Conrads’ being stranded in Austrian Poland at the outbreak of the First World War in late July 1914. A short note of [late-September] from Marwood to Garnett (MS Northwestern) continues the theme: “Dear Garnett[,] I have heard from Pinker who has had a letter dated from Conrad, dated Sept 15th. They are all well, & he is trying to arrange to return home by way of Italy. If he has succeeded he may, I suppose, be home in about a fortnight from now. Yours A. P. M.” 2 The Łisa Góra, a range in the Świętokrzyskie Mountains, north-east of Cracow; in fact, the Conrads had travelled south to Zakopane in the Tatra Mountains. 1

70

I have heard from Heinemann. He is evidently still very sore about Conrad; and says: “If a collection of his books is to be made in a uniform edition, that uniform edition should, properly, be offered to me. I would then let bygones be bygones and give it every help I could; but I see absolutely no reason to facilitate any plan of his except it in some way includes restitution of the loss1 he caused me in a very unfair & ungentlemanly way. You will not want to be bothered with details, but if he in the least challenges the fairness of my attitude, I shall be pleased to lay my cause before you or any other fair-minded person. I have the greatest admiration for his talent, and delighted in publishing his work. Therefore, your feeling of national pride could be satisfied by the gathering of his work under my flag. If that banner does not suit him, my units cannot accept the orders of any other general.” This seems to denote a deadlock unless you find it possible to offer the edition to Heinemann.2 I feel that for me to make any further effort at the moment would be too much like groping in the dark. Best wishes Yours always John Galsworthy

1 Heinemann was out of pocket for £400 of unearned advances for The Rescuer, which Conrad had abandoned in 1899. 2 As occurred in March 1916, when, following negotiations, the Heinemann firm took charge of the British collected edition.

1915–1920 From H. A. L. Fisher to Richard Curle Text MS Indiana; Unpublished

[letterhead:] Speakers Court, Palace of Westminster. 1 Jan 1915 Dear Curle Young Conrad could enter for our courses though unmatriculated but I think that it would be best for him to go on with his matriculation course first before plunging definitely into engineering. A few more months of general education would do him no harm provided that he is with a good man. Should he fail again in September, the time will not half have [sic] been lost, if his teacher takes him over the ground intelligently. He will have gained in general intellectual discipline. The problem then is to find a good and careful teacher who will understand his whole nut of the business. I would advise that you should see Gabbitas & Thring,1 the general Agency for such work in London (address to be found in the Directory) and explain the circumstances – son of a distinguished father, rather backward in his books to be coached for the Matriculation Examination of the Govt Board of the Northern Universities for next September. I know of a good man one L. R. Harris 12 St Andrews Mews in Kensington who would be very good if he would undertake it. But I rather doubt whether he would be free. It might be worth trying him first. He would have read Conrad’s novels. I am going out of town till Monday next – Your friend Herbert Fisher2

1 The firm, established in the 1873 by John Gabbitas, did business under this name until the 1980s. Among those now well-known who at some time had sought teaching posts with the firm were H. G. Wells, Edward Elgar, Amy Johnson, Evelyn Waugh, W. H. Auden, and Sir John Betjeman. 2 Conrad thanked Fisher for his help on 28 January (CL5 438).

72

From John Quinn to Conrad Text TS carbon NYPL; Unpublished

[New York] May first, Nineteen hundred and fifteen. My dear Conrad: […] I am also much obliged for your promise to send me the “first state of the typed copy of ‘Victory.’”1 I have read “Victory” with great interest. I did not read it in Munsey’s. I found former President Roosevelt and his wife great admirers of your work. I gave Lady Gregory,2 who stopped with me for some weeks here when she was on a lecture tour and who sailed for Ireland a week or so ago, a copy to read on the boat going over. In a letter which I had from her from the steamer she writes: “I found ‘Victory’ wonderfully fine and a great love story – tragic and inevitable. I think it the best of Conrad’s [sic] I have read, next perhaps to Lord Jim. It moved and affected me very much – that grip of fate – of what I call in my lecture ‘the claws of the cat,’ ‘the woman in the skies who does all.’” “Victory” is one of your best stories and I am glad to see that it is going well here. Young Knopf,3 I think it was, told Mr. Watson4 of my office that they had sold 10,000 or 12,000 already and expected to sell about 40,000. Congratulations on that. I know that you are depressed about the war and must be, and it seems small even to talk about money. But I am glad to know that success has come to you even in this country at last. And the other day I saw that a man named Vance was going to put some of your things into moving pictures. I hope that your agent has seen that your rights were protected and that it was done by arrangement. If I were you I wouldn’t let your boy enlist at the age of seventeen. If it’s necessary later on, a year or so from now, that is another thing. There is nothing for an artist like you to do but to keep on with your work and do what you can to aid the relief funds and so on.

As Conrad had written on 18 April (CL5 468–69). Lady (Isabella) Augusta Gregory (née Persse, 1852–1932), playwright and translator, was a leading figure in the Irish Literary Revival. 3 Alfred A(braham) Knopf (1892–1984), an employee of Doubleday, Page, went on to form his own company in 1915. 4 J. T. Watson, a solicitor of Scots origin and Quinn’s book-keeper. 1 2

73

How this war will affect art and artists it is difficult to say. It depends on the point of view of the man. Those of the naturalistic school of writers for example will feel that it will lead to what they call greater veracity. Those of the idealistic school see the return of idealism. I am thinking of course a little more of painting than I am of writing. The advanced painters say it will be impossible to go back to the sweet, glossy pictures of the past, sugar-coated, academic stuff, and that this war will lead to greater and more intellectual art. […] Personally I think an artist should save his energies, shouldn’t allow his time to be mortgaged by others; in short should play his own game and should work not to please others or for posterity and not care a damn for posterity but should work to please himself, to satisfy his own conscience as an artist. If he does that and if he is a real artist he has got a better chance with posterity than a man who writes with his eye on the future. […] Don’t allow yourself to get too much depressed about the war. It’s the greatest calamity that has overtaken the world because war is more destructive now than it ever was in the past. The inventions of steam, railroads, great explosives, aeroplanes, submarines and great works for the manufacture of guns and explosives have all put it in the power of any one country that is a little more powerful than its neighbours to crush them all big and small. That is why militarism should be crushed. That is why there should be a limitation to armaments. That is why the German military power must be destroyed root and branch. It is really a battle of two civilizations, of opposing ideals […] It’s a horrible thing to think of the thousands of young men that are literally doomed to death. They must feel like men under sentence of death. All they can do is to think backwards. They have nothing to look forward to but possible and probable death. […] This takes with it a clasp of the hand and my kind regards to yourself and the Missus.1 Sincerely yours,

1

Conrad put off replying until 24 December (CL5 543–44).

74

From Elizabeth Jelliffe Macintire to Conrad Text MS Berg; Unpublished

[No address] Oct. 21, 1915 Dear Sir: Would you be willing to allow me the dramatic rights of Almayer’s Folly? I have made a version that puts Nina’s struggle into the foreground – thus presenting the single problem of the half caste. The play would be called “The White Mem.” I should be glad to submit a copy before offering the play to managers here, in America. My only claim to consideration lies in the fact that, the better to grasp the art of playmaking, I worked with Professor Baker1 of Harvard for a year. I should, of course, be glad to make any usual and appropriate business arrangement for the privilege of using the material. Notwithstanding the impertinence – in book-senses of the word – may I add that there is a veritable Conrad cult in America, which is steadily growing. I count the advice of a friend, some eight years ago, “to read Lord Jim – and then everything by the author which I could lay hands on” one of the most fortunate of those casual remarks which determine so much of our lives. With gratitude and with hope, Very sincerely yours, Elizabeth Jelliffe Macintire

From Jane Anderson to Deems Taylor Text H. & W.

[19 April 1916]2 […] A maid admitted us, a very smart maid with a billowing white collar and a timid smile.

Professor George Pierce Baker (1866–1935), theatre scholar at Harvard, supervised “47 Workshop,” a laboratory for aspiring playwrights; his most famous student was Eugene O’Neill. 2 Written on the same day that Jane Anderson visited Capel House. 1

75

We stood in a little hall, square ends paved with old bricks broken in at the corners. There were children’s topcoats on the pegs and some grey felt hats in a row. Then in the next room I heard a conversation and a hurried bustling. Then the door burst open and I saw a man’s head and shoulders rising above the furniture of a little dining-room. It was Conrad, only it was an older, more agitated Conrad than I had thought about. He seized both my hands, and looked at me; he considered Gordon,1 who was standing behind me. “Ah!” he said. “You haf come for the day.” He was glad! It was afterwards that I understood all of this, all of this precipitancy, this agitation, this unmistakeable nervous excitement. It seems that he has a fear of trespassers, a real fear of new faces and gestures. He had been afraid of this luncheon. While he took us across the dining-room to the living[-]room beyond he was talking – talking very fast and making tremendous motions with his hands and his shoulders. His voice is very clear and fine in tone, but there is an accent which I have never heard before. It is an accent which affects every word, and gives the most extraordinary rhythm to phrases. And his verbs are never right. If they are in the place where they should be – which is seldom – they are without tense; a new facet for the miracle. The room to which he took us was a low room, rather crowded with furniture. A big fire blazed in a narrow fireplace. By a little couch there was the woman they had all told me about, a big woman with very fine grey eyes and a quick, generous smile. She came slowly to meet us, walking with a cane. The black dress was unmistakeably foreign in cut and in texture, and she wore six gold bracelets on each wrist. Her arms were very white. I don’t know what she said, but I looked at her and she looked at me, and I loved her. And I’m not given, all in a minute, to loving folks exactly. Then I said how glad I was that I could come down. “It’s Conrad,” she said. “He’s afraid of new faces.” At which Joseph Conrad set himself to being hospitable – it was, all that he did, all that he said, inexplicably alien to England. It was not that he was foreign; it was simply that he was not English. He asked us if we would sit down, and Gordon Bruce (b. 1885), a war-time correspondent in Europe for the New York Herald and Jane Anderson’s collaborator on Flying, Submarining and Mine Sweeping (1916).

1

76

he made one of those great gestures which included the small room. “This,” he said, and pointed to the window where the desk stood, “is my study, my chair where I wrote ‘Victory’. And this” – he looked at the little black piano – is the music room. As for where you stand, it is Mrs. Conrad’s drawing-room. Our house is not a great house.” So we sat in the drawing-room, and Mrs. Conrad sat on the couch with her silver-topped cane beside her and her foot on a cus[h]ion. It seems that as soon as her heart will stand it, her foot is to be amputated. This is one of the great tragedies of the Conrad house. Although there is no mention of it, it was only by choice that she told me. Then the smart little peasant maid brought in a tray with hot bouillon for us and some crackers and new butter. Conrad was allowed some of this, despite the fact that his gout has been a bit worse this year. And while he was having some difficulties with his cup and his crackers I looked at him. His head is extraordinarily fine in the modelling, although the forehead is not high. There are certain planes above the eyes, however. It is the pose of his head, which is a little sunken into his shoulders, which gives the impression of strength. His mouth, although not clearly defined under the grey moustach[e], is full but sensitive. But it is his eyes which are the eyes of genius. They are dark, and the lids droop except in moments of intense excitement. They are dark brown, in which the pupil does not show. And there is in them a curious hypnotic quality. […] “We will talk,” he said suddenly, “but not of ze war.” Then he told the history of this war, and of other wars; told it with gestures, and his shoulders, and those extraordinary flashes in his eyes. He said that his faith in the French, and all of his hope for them, had been fulfilled; that the signs of decay were not decay. They were but the imperfections that marked fine fruit; that in England there was the goodness which is the foundation of strength. “But for Russia,” he said, “there can be no hope. I came to Russia many times. It is great but in numbers. It has grown, it has flowered. But it is rotten before it is ripe.” Then he said how, from all over the world, there had been requests for him to write about the war. But he said that he could not. The pain of it had come too close to him. His boy, who is just eighteen, is now at the front, commanding his company. It was very fine to hear how Conrad went with him to get his appointment. I saw this man, to whom there could be no greater injustice than transplanting him from his legitimate environment with its books and its broad windows to those grey and insufferable rooms of the foreign office where the business of

77

the nation is fulfilling its interminable daily round. I saw him before the grave powers of the dead in their brilliant decorations – saw his bold gestures and his timid smile. I saw there was in it, history of sorts. At any rate I am sure that the life of Conrad lies now with his two sons. Surely the one who is serving at the front must be of extraordinary caste, with the strength of his mother and the fire of Conrad himself. The little boy, who is nine, has fallen heir to his father’s brain, but I do not believe that Conrad has hopes they will go on with his work for him. We talked a bit about work. It seems that his faith was in Stephen Crane. He loved him. He grieves, now, over the talent that he took away with him, and complains that there should have been such waste. “Yes, there is writing, writing,” he said. There is Wells, H. G. He is writing of his theoretical men and his theoretical women. Human nature he does not know. It would be well if he did.” And there was the great miscellany of small men who are pouring out the flood of words and sowing them for bad harvests. “I despair,” he said, and made eloquent motions with his hands. […] Then Conrad talked to us about the sea. He said that he had been at one time a certain man who knew the sea and loved it; and that the man had become a thing with pens and pencils and paper, who lived in a place where there was a grey circle of trees shutting out the sky. And that beyond those trees there was no sea. I do not know what he said about it, but it was clear that it was, all of it, a mystery which he in no way understood. Then there was the long afternoon, and I went for a walk with the youngster and a remarkable friend of some fourteen years who is on holiday from school;1 and we picked primroses and brought them back done up in the friend’s handkerchief. Then there was the tea afterward, and while Conrad was away for a little bit, Jessie Conrad showed me some old photographs of a little boy who sat in a great carved chair and wore a Russian tunic with flowers embroidered in the hem of it. He was staring straight out ahead of him and looking at the world with rather large and astonished eyes. This was Conrad, aged five.2 Then, at the end of it all, Mrs. Conrad showed me certain things she made, clothes and such, with fine stitches in them and white embroidery such as fine ladies wore some fifty years ago. And I loved her for her great ignorance in such matters. And she told me how she had met 1 2

Norman Douglas’s son, “Robin” (Robert). The photograph is reproduced in Najder, following p. 346.

78

Conrad, and of a long honeymoon in a tramp cutter off the coast of Brittany, and of the first book which was sent off to a publisher because a friend who was without literary discernment said to send it there. And how, when it was forgotten, and Conrad was making plans to be off to sea again, a postcard came to say that it was accepted . . . a bit of postcard for Almayer’s Folly. And there was more, which I shall tell you; and I’m bringing back a photograph which will give you the three of them as I cannot do. And there’s also the book – the new one, with the inscription in blue writing on the first page. And maybe I’ll make you understand then. There! Jane

From John Quinn to Conrad Text TS carbon NYPL; Unpublished

[New York ] 1 May 1916 My dear Conrad: I received yours of April 12th.1 […] I mailed you the other day the April North American Review with you republished article on James.2 If you were to do the James article today I think it would be a little different and more complete. James was a big man. All the talk about the difficulty of reading him was rubbish. The whole James family was remarkable, the women as well as the men. William James, the brother, the psychologist and philosopher, was one of the finest minds this country ever produced. The two books that Henry published[,] “A Small Boy and Others” and “Notes of a Son and Brother[,]” a year or two ago are classics of autobiography. I have been disgusted and depressed by the horrible fiasco in Ireland.3 I knew practically all the leaders, Casement intimately; [James] Connolly, the labor chap who is reported killed, young [Patrick] Pearse, the head man of St. Enda’s school[,] the best Irish school in Ireland,

See CL5 578–79. Conrad’s article “Henry James: An Appreciation,” first published in the same journal in 1904, was reprinted on the occasion of James’s death in 1915, and later collected in Notes on Life and Letters (1921). 3 The Easter Uprising in Dublin in April. 1 2

79

young [Joseph] Plunkett, Professor John MacNeill and the others.1 I moved some big forces immediately in favour of leniency to Casement. The whole thing was sheer lunacy. Of all the idiotic asses that ever were these Sinn Feiners are the worst. Before the breaking out of the war I was in favour of Nationalist Ireland arming itself. The war changed everything. Now the asses will be deprived of their arms. If they had kept their organization and gradually increased their stock of arms and drilled, after the war they would have been in a position to take up their claims for a fuller measure of Home Rule with some show of force. It would be more difficult for England to put down a rebellion started because Ireland was divided or because she didn’t get real Home Rule in spite of the repeated promises, in the peace following the end of the war, than it is now. The thing could not have succeeded. From a military point of view it was complete and utter lunacy. It all goes back to the essential falsity of Irish life; listening to the big speeches, the worship of Robert Emmet, the refusal to face fact, preferring talk to acts and expecting miracles to happen. The war drags on. Germany wants peace. There will be no break with the United States, merely more evasive promises and more notes. I have no confidence whatever in Wilson.2 I know him. Fifteen or twenty years ago he was a professor in a girl’s college called Bryn Mawr near Philadelphia. He is shifty, evasive and a very bad writer; big words and nothing else, and not in any sense a thinker. He is a schoolmaster in politics, a pedagogue strutting in the garments of a statesman. I am disgusted with him and with the third rate cabinet he has around him, and I am hoping that he will be defeated in the autumn when the Presidential election comes. Would there be any chance of your coming over here next autumn? You could make the round trip in five or six weeks and you would enjoy it here. I hope you are running into good weather on your side. But above all I hope that the news from the boy will continue to be good news. Most of the Uprising’s leaders were executed in May. Despite a plea for leniency, Roger Casement (1864–1916; knighted 1911), a human rights activist and civil servant, was charged with high treason and hanged at Pentonville Prison on 3 August. 2 Prior to his two terms as American President from 1913 to 1920, (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) had been a prominent academic in the fields of law and political economy and President of Princeton University. 1

80

With kind regards to Mrs. Conrad and best wishes for both you both, I am Sincerely yours,1

From John Quinn to Conrad Text TS carbon NYPL; Reid 188

[New York] June 29, 1916 My dear Conrad: I received your letter of May 24th on June 6th. […] I was greatly interested in what you said about Casement. Confidentially, I made my plea for him in a direct communication with the Foreign Office sent through the British ambassador here. He won’t swing. I know a great many of the young Sinn Feiners, particularly Pearse, the two McDonoughs, Plunkett and Connolly. Of course the attempt to found a republic was a ridiculous, childish thing. But Maxwell’s2 shooting of them, with the tacit approval of Asquith3 and without any protest from Redmond,4 was one of the colossal blunders of the war. England had a perfectly spectacular, a perfectly dramatic opportunity to show that there was a new spirit there, and she threw it away. Casement is not a profound thinker, either on politics or anything else. He is all emotion and sentiment and temperament. I am perfectly certain that he never touched a penny of German money. I believe that he is a man of the utmost austerity and purity in his personal life. And the damned insinuations that came out of England that they had something on him in the way of degeneration of some kind, were too filthy and nauseating to think of.5 […]

Conrad replied on 24 May, giving Quinn a summary account of his relations with James and Casement (CL5 595–99). 2 General John Maxwell (1859–1929) had been posted to Dublin on 27 April to ensure the restoration of civil order. 3 Herbert Henry Asquith (1852–1928), British Prime Minister from 1908 to 1916. 4 John Redmond (1856–1918), leader of the Irish Home Rule Party. 5 Rumours that Casement was a homosexual and a pædophile, based on diaries whose authenticity, despite several enquiries, remains dubious. 1

81

I too thought that James was very unjust to you in that side glance on your work that appeared in the Times Literary Supplement.1 He was dealing with contemporary novelists and I thought it was wholly inadequate and it annoyed me. I hope that the news from your boy continues good. I am sure that he is beloved by his fellow officers and men. I will give your regards to Huneker when I see him. I have not seen him or his wife all winter. With kind regards to Mrs. Conrad and best wishes for the boy and for all of you, I am Sincerely yours,

From John Quinn to Conrad Text TS carbon NYPL; Unpublished

[New York] August 25, 1916 My dear Conrad: Yours of August 10th,2 which came to-day, crossed mine of August 2nd to you. First I am sorry to hear that Mrs. Conrad is feeling the strain. I know what it is. During the first months of the war I couldn’t have suffered more physically if I had been a Frenchman or a Belgian or a Pole. The only thing that saved me was that I had to work, foreign exchange, international exchange, complicated questions of law and fact […] I should indeed be glad to have you sign the typed copy of the “Shadow Line” to put with the MS of it if you will be good enough to remember it. I am sorry that Doubleday, Page got on their high horse. I do not remember what I wrote about the edition at all, but I do know that in my letter of August 2nd to you, I wrote that what had been done about it would not be lost.

James’s two-part article, “The Younger Generation,” had appeared in the TLS, 19 March 1914, 133–34, and 2 April 1914, 157–58, and was – Conrad had written to Quinn – “the only time a criticism affected me painfully” (CL5 595). 2 See CL5 632–33. Conrad replied to this letter in late January 1917 (CL6 19– 21). 1

82

Notwithstanding the postponement of the edition[,] if you still feel like taking up the question of the drawing with Augustus John, my offer about the drawing stands.1 Doubleday Page & Company sent me a sample of the edition de luxe volume a few days ago modified in accordance with my suggestions. It made a very fine volume. Now that the edition is to be postponed until after the war I think the paper might possible be improved upon after the war. The cost of paper is very high now, especially rag paper. I did not know that I wrote about the postponing of the edition in a “pessimistic tone.” For one thing the postponement ought to make the edition larger. Mr. Doubleday wanted to limit it to some seven hundred and odd copies as I wrote you. I think it ought to be an edition of at least a thousand. Now that it has been postponed I am going to try to persuade him to print five or ten sets on vellum. I will buy two or three of them and pay him the extra cost of the vellum. I know nothing about what Doubleday Page and Company have written to you or how they have expressed their disappointment or what not. I can’t stop to refer back to your letters to me but […] I gathered from your early letters that neither you nor Mr. Pinker had then determined not to publish until after the war. […] It is nobody’s business but yours. You are the one chiefly concerned and you are the one whose judgment should govern. And if I said anything in my letter that was pessimistic or contrary to this[,] I wrote without thinking, that is all. […] Doubleday is a nice chap, but he seems to be somewhat vague about things. He looks something of a dreamer. They have got a place down there2 with acres and acres of flowers about it. He spent more time showing me his prize peonies, etc. than [talking] about the book. In fact I had to bring up the question of books, for I went there to do the job and wanted to get at it. You must have been still irritated with Doubleday Page and Company when you alluded to Pinker and your making the matter as clear as your and his “inferior European intellects allowed.” It is a mistake my dear Conrad, to get the idea that people in America are as a rule know it alls, or think that they know it all. Whatever English papers may say, many people here 1 In his letter of 2 August (TS carbon Berg), Quinn informed Conrad that he had written to Augustus John (1878–1961) proposing that the artist make a portrait of Conrad, for which he would pay. Nothing seems to have come of this proposal. 2 The Country Life Press in Garden City, Long Island, was designed partly to resemble a college of one of the ancient universities.

83

that are really worth while are really too damned modest. They don’t know art. That I grant. But yet they rave about it. The artistic soil is not deep. It needs drainage in places and fertilizer in places, and lots of it. Artistic life is not organized as it is abroad, or rather there are not the coteries or groups of cultivated friends here that gather in London and Paris and other places on the continent. The country is nearly aways raw intellectually. There is too much of the “up-lift” in their books and periodicals. Thank God, the war has swept a good deal of that trash out of the window, just as it ought to have smothered your Norman Angells and Trevelyans and Bertrand Russells and Clive Bells,1 and so on. If America has a jackass like William J. Bryan,2 England has a demagogue like Lloyd George. If America has a man like Wilson who loves to play with words, so England has Balfour in her cabinet, though God forbid that I should compare Balfour’s intellect for one moment to that of Wilson, no more than I would think of comparing that of Napoleon to that of Von Kluck.3 However stupid Doubleday may be, there is nothing of the snob about him. But I hold no brief for him or them. I don’t know what they wrote. I only know that he seems to have your interests at heart and is honest. He is not likely to bust. You won’t have to sue him for an accounting. While he is making money for himself, he is making it for you. At the risk of your feeling that it is none of my damned business I will add that I think that your decision to postpone the edition de luxe until after the war is a wise one. […] If the doctor thinks it would be a good thing for your wife to come over with you, bringing your younger boy, just cable me the name of the ship you are coming on and I will meet you and, as they say here[,] “do 1 Norman Angell (1872–1967) was the author of A Study of Military Power in Nations to their Economic and Social Advantage (1910), in which he posited that economic interdependence between nations made war futile. Like Angell, Bertrand Russell was a pacifist and member of the No-Conscription Fellowship, an organization that encouraged men to refuse war service. Charles Trevelyan, MP (1870–1958), had resigned from Asquith’s government in protest against British involvement in the First World War; the Bloomsbury art critic and art historian Clive Bell (1881–1962), Virginia Woolf’s brother-in-law, was a conscientious objector. 2 The Secretary of State under Woodrow Wilson, Bryan had resigned in 1915 in disagreement with Wilson’s policy of moving the country into involvement in the First World War. 3 General Alexander von Kluck (1846–1934), Commander of the German First Army during the First World War.

84

the rest.” I think the change might be a good thing for you and your wife.1 This war will be a great experience for your boy. His generation will have something that men of my generation missed. You got from your struggles at sea something of what people get in war. War doesn’t make for art, and when people are at it, it is horrible and dull. But it does make men. That is the end of it. With good wishes to your wife and yourself, and with good hopes for the boy, I am, Sincerely yours,

From Ernest W. G. Twentyman to J. M. Dent & Sons Text LL2 187–88 [March 1917]2 […] I may mention that Mr. Conrad was mate of the Barque Highland Forest of Glasgow when and on which ship I was serving my apprenticeship.3 As I am now home for the duration of the war, from Fiji Islands (South Pacific), I would, however, before returning, very much like to meet Mr. Conrad, as, although in his Mirror of the Sea he does not give me too good a character as a boy,4 he was always exceedingly kind to us boys, a thing that is not easily forgotten by those who appreciate same as I do. […] I wish to get into touch with one that has shown me many a kindness, although perhaps not deserving it at the time; we, like most boys at the age when I was under Mr. Conrad, did not realize what kindness really meant. […]

Quinn had been pressing Conrad to visit New York since 1912. This letter to Conrad’s publisher is a sequel to that printed in Portrait, pp. 116– 17, in which Twentyman had made an earlier attempt via the Pall Mall Gazette to get in touch with the author. No reply from Conrad has come to light. 3 In 1887. 4 Mentioning Twentyman by name in The Mirror, Conrad remembered the “irrepressible spirits” of the ship’s apprentices, adding: “But not one of them seemed to possess the smallest spark of gratitude in his composition” (p. 32). 1 2

85

From Thomas F. Moxon to Conrad Text MS Yale; Unpublished

[letterhead:] Moxon and Company Limited, Eagle Street, Brisbane. Mar 13th 1917 Dear Mr Conrad I have just finished reading your “Personal Narrative,”1 and want to thank you for taking my mind off the War, for a few hours. I found much of interest in it. I think one of your examiners must have been Capt. Sterry2 who passed me for the 1st mate at Tower Hill in 1887. He was a kindly old man, and the bulk of my examinations consisted of a pleasant half hour’s conversation. I see (or conclude) that you personally sailed in the ancient relic the Judea of London, “Do or die.” Some time after reading “Youth” I was interested in the export of coal from Queensland, and consequently in the spontaneous combustion of coal cargoes. Amongst the literature I absorbed at that period I found the enclosed, and behold the history of the Judea’s voyage, in condensed form. I was interested in your few descriptive words of Stephen Crane. I only knew him from his book “Wrack,”3 which is the most powerfully written thing of its kind I have met. I feel that I now have a nodding acquaintance with that Nicholas B. who ate dog, and I can picture you taking that momentous walk on the Furca Pass because I know the locality. So Almayer really existed. I have met his type often enough in the East. With kind regards Yours sincerely, Thos. F. Moxon

That is, A Personal Record (1912). Captain Sterry does seem to have officiated at Conrad’s second examination for a master’s certificate in November 1886. 3 No such work by Crane has been traced; perhaps Moxon had in mind Frank T. Bullen’s Sea-Wrack (1903). 1 2

86

Enclosed photograph may interest you. It is of a painting of the Loch Etive which I have[,] the detail of which is very true and exact.1

From W. G. St Clair to Conrad Text TS Yale; Unpublished

Sports Club, St James’s Square, S.W. 1 5 April 5th, 1917 Dear Mr Conrad, I thank you very much for your kind letter of the 31st,2 which I would have answered before now save that I wanted to forward to you a little book, that I could not at first lay my hands on. It has been retrieved, skulking behind another, and now comes to you by this post. It covers ground in part familiar to you, and may arouse in your mind some half-forgotten impressions of the Archipelago. It was more than good of you to have taken the trouble to write to me a letter so long and so interesting. Of course I never for a moment meant that my mention of old Bradbury implied any imagining that so matter-of-fact an old chap would call for inclusion amongst your dramatis personae. There was another old figure in that office, Reutens, the Chief Clerk, who died years ago. And perhaps you remember the head serang of the Master Attendant’s launches, Dolah, whom McCallum, then Colonial Engineer, used to term “a da---d old pirate.” Brooksbank was a Tanjong Pagar identity for many years, and he and Captain John Blair, the Manager, prowled about together along the wharves, the latter invariably under a long-poled state payong,3 carried behind by an obsequious attendant. I saw in the Times the other day the announcement of the death of Capt. Ellis’s successor at the Master Attendant’s office – Commander C. Q. G. Craufurd R. N.,4 whose Conrad’s reply to this letter does not appear to have survived. Conrad’s letter of 31 March (CL6 61) responded to a letter that St Clair had sent to the writer via his publisher, J. M. Dent; Conrad replied to this letter on 22 June (CL6 105). 3 A ceremonial umbrella used by people of high rank in South-East Asian countries. 4 The announcement of Crauford’s death, at age 65, on 10 March appeared in The Times, 20 March 1917, 1. 1 2

87

grand-uncle was Craufurd of Wellington’s Light Division in the Peninsula. The harbour is changed from what you knew it to be. And a long mole of granite blocks from Pulo Obin,1 in the Selat Johore, lies parallel to the shore, cutting the anchorage for small steamers in two, just as a herring’s bony spine divides the creature into two sections. There is talk of gradual silting and the dredger has generally work to do there. The mole itself has become chiefly of use (it is devoid of ornament) as a breeding place for innumerable sea snakes. We fought the mole, but I fancy the contractors had friends at the Colonial Office and as the Colony at that time had money to spend, wharf improvements (good and necessary) and the mole (very questionable) swallowed up the appropriations. The new King’s Dock, which is just where old Captain Wishart’s house used to be at Keppel Harbour, is certainly a fine work of real Imperial value, and the biggest, so far, on the Pacific. When one lives in an Eastern town as long as I did, the changes were great, – “here we have no abiding place”2 – and men go and come; and newcomers are so many that the older hands soon cease to be mentioned, perhaps even by their surviving contemporaries. Perhaps you and I may have passed each other in the five-foot way in Battery Road without knowing each other.3 And the loss was mine. Old Emmerson’s tiffin rooms are a thing of the past. The block of which they were a part from the Post Office front to Flint Street at the back has been entirely rebuilt, a four-story thing, with great glass windows, owned by those ubiquitous purveyors, Whiteaway Laidlaw and Co. A new Master Attendant’s office has been built on what used to be the sea front, and the old building you knew is also utilised partly for that department and partly for the Post Office. The new building covers the old site where the Volunteer Artillery drilled with their 7-inch gun, and the Volunteer Drill Hall has been taken down and re-erected on the newer reclamation on the sea front past the Raffles Hotel. It is most kind of you to write about the Free Press as you have done. Before I left Singapore, after twenty-nine years control of the paper, Mr Davies, one of my assistants, told me that he reckoned that I Usually, Pulo Ubin. Cf. “For we have not here an abiding city,” Hebrews 13:14. 3 As editor of the Singapore Free Press from 1887 to 1916, St Clair would have been in the city during Conrad’s last visits to Singapore in the period 1887–88. 1 2

88

had written over 20,000 columns of leading article. And of course there were uncountable columns of enormities that did not attain the dignity of being leaded out. I cannot manage to continue – I indeed otherwise would ramble on indefinitely – but that I have a Singapore mail to catch, and my wife is coming back specially to see that I do not lose it after doing her shopping in town. I take the liberty of also sending you a slip containing a far too kind letter, partly valedictory and partly as Salamat berlayer,1 signed by all the European staffs of the newspapers in the Malay Peninsula. It is strange that I should have overlapped about 17 editors and Acting Editors of the Straits Times and just about the same number of the Pinang Gazette. [Hugh] Clifford I have known well all the time since he came as a singkeh from Perak to act as the first British agent at Pekan. I was absent seven months in 1892 during the Pahang rebellion and was placed by Sir Cecil Clementi Smith,2 at Col Walker’s desire, as in command of the Raub and Tras districts. Clifford was with Col Walker, as the Government political officer with that part of the Perak Sikhs that worked about through northern Pahang. Funny that an Editor should have seven months of field service as a holiday from his office. To-day is a real spring day and I have hopes of getting out of doors perhaps before the week ends. I shall hope to have the pleasure of meeting you some day before very long. I need not say that if at any time, for your literary work, you want to verify any references accessible in Singapore, I shall endeavour to do that for you. Yours faithfully W. G. St Clair

From John Quinn to Conrad Text TS carbon NYPL; Unpublished

[New York] April 16, 1917 My dear Conrad: Thanks for your note.3 The best news in it was that you are well, which I know means that Borys is well.

“A final thank-you.” (1840–1916), the Governor of Singapore from 1887 to 1893. 3 Of 19 March (CL6 49). 1 2

89

The next best news is the publication of the “Shadow Line.” Thank you for remembering me with an autographed copy. I think it is fairly safe for you to send along the autographed copy now. They are not sinking any big liners at this time. But use your own judgment. If this autographed copy goes down, I will have to ask you to autograph another one. I picked up a copy of “Land and Water” last night and, to my surprise, came across the name of Joseph Conrad, and I read the story, of which I have the manuscript, “Tomassov.”1 The type of L. and W. is poor, but I read the whole thing from beginning to end at one sitting, getting to bed about 1:30 this morning. It is a fine thing. I am inclined to think it your best short story. I did not read the “Shadow Line” in the English Review. I read it in the Metropolitan Magazine, very fearfully cut down. I’ll reread it in the book with the greatest pleasure. By the way, Mrs. Conrad was to set aside for me the typewritten corrected copy of “Victory.” I assume that she has done that. That certainly should follow your suggestion and be kept there until the submarine war subsides. If you have a typewritten copy with any corrections of the “Shadow Line” as well as of “Tomassov,” I should like very much to have them also. […] The two most cheering days I have had in many, many sad months are the day of the Russian revolution and the day this country went into war with Germany.2 We have sort of backed into war, but if we could only have a few arguments speedily delivered, the same as the Zeppelin raids and the raids of the German cruisers on the British coast, it would help things along a bit. The best sort of argument would be the submarine argument. The natural place for the argument to be directed with the greatest intensity would be at Washington, D.C., up the Potomac, and the chief argument factory in Washington is the Capitol. As a patriotic American, a well-wisher for the Allied cause, nothing would please me better than such a direct argument as that. We owe our safety this minute to the British fleet. Our navy is infinitely inferior to that of Germany’s. But for the British fleet, the German navy could come over here and lay New York in ruins in three

1 2

Published under its revised title “The Warrior’s Soul” in the March issue. The US had declared war on the German Empire on 6 April.

90

hours. That is the statement to me a few months ago of Admiral Fiske1 of the United States Navy, the best naval expert we have. One of my chief fears for the Allies has been that they could not carry the financial burdens to the end of the war. That fear is now gone. The war will be the salvation of this country, if it keeps up long enough. The great peril we were in was that the war should stop before we got in. That fear is now past. But this country should do more than lend money or send supplies. It needs a fleet of 500 torpedo boat destroyers; a large fleet, two or three hundred at least, of the great up to date submarines. […] I read in the paper yesterday that a small group of socialists in Russia, headed by two or three Jews, were in favour of an immediate peace with Germany. If I were Mil[i]ukoff or Prince Lvov2 I would have every damn one of those socialists slowly strangled. Shooting would be too good for them. That is a case where instant severity is mercy in the long run, and to hang half a dozen such traitors now would save hundreds of lives later on. I am glad to know that you are over your gout. You ought not to have any gout. That is a matter of diet, drinking sufficient water, and exercise.3 With kind regards to your wife, I am Faithfully yours,

From John Quinn to Wilson Follett Text TS carbon NYPL; Unpublished

[New York] August 25, 1917.

During a distinguished naval career, Rear Admiral Bradley Allen Fiske (1854– 1942) commanded three different divisions of the American Atlantic fleet and, in 1913, became Chief of Naval Operations. 2 When the Tsar abdicated in February 1917, Georgy Yevgenyvich, Prince Lvov (1861–1925) formed a Provisional Government, with Pavel Nikolayevich Miliukov (1859–1943) as his Foreign Minister. Under pressure from the Bolsheviks and Socialists, Miliukov resigned in May and Lvov in July. 3 Conrad replied on 6 May (CL6 86–87), begging to “be excused from joining in the extacies about the Russian revolution.” 1

91

Dear Mr. Follett: I have not forgotten your very interesting lecture on Conrad.1 I hope that you don’t think that I swung the big stick too vigorously.2 I was tempted to say the few words I did say because of the mouldy appearance of some of the women and the stupid looks of some of the men, and I wanted to say something to shock them. I wanted to hit them a kick, intellectually speaking, as an Irishman would say. In a letter that I had from Conrad recently he asked me when I saw you to give you warm greetings from him. He said: “His little book is one of those things one does not forget.”3 He also spoke of having seen some time ago a study of Galsworthy by you in a magazine. He didn’t mention the magazine. I am so driven these days that I have overlooked this, and if this letter reaches you I shall be glad if you will let me know in what magazine that study appeared. I hope it won’t be too much trouble to drop me a line to that effect. I hope your book on Conrad with Doubleday, Page & Company is coming on. Yours very truly,

From Wilson Follett to John Quinn Text MS NYPL; Unpublished

[letterhead:] Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island. 42 Hazard Avenue 5 September, 1917 Dear Mr. Quinn: Let me disclaim at once anything approaching disturbance over your most enjoyable remarks to my poor bewildered audience – at least so far With Quinn in the chair, Follett’s lecture on “Joseph Conrad: His Complete Transmutation of Experience through the Creative Imagination” was held at Chickering Hall, New York, on 29 May. 2 Quinn had made fun of several contemporary English writers, especially H. G. Wells (Quinn to Conrad, 18 July, TS carbon NYPL). 3 Conrad had expressed his admiration for Follett’s Joseph Conrad: A Short Study (New York, Doubleday, Page 1915) in his letter to Quinn of 8 August (CL6 111); to F. N. Doubleday, he had been even more hyperbolic: “Nothing ever written about me had come anywhere near it, in tone, in discernment, in comprehension” (CL5 575). 1

92

as your remarks touched what I had been trying to express. It seemed to me that, essentially, you were agreeing with my own opinions, while giving them a different accent. Whether the audience thought so too is another matter, and not one to trouble me either way. I greatly enjoyed the ease and dispatch with which you got yourself understood. . . You probably won’t mind my confessing that I thought you a little rough on Davidson (or is it “Davison”? I never can remember), who impressed me as having admirably hit off one limited and special side of Conrad with a vigorous sincerity. This impression of mine is worth, technically, nothing; I express it as an impression only, and because I’m not converted from it yet. I thank you ever so much for the word from Conrad. The article he mentioned was one of a series which Mrs. Follett and I have been publishing in The Atlantic at irregular intervals since June, 1916. The one on Galsworthy was in the issue for December, 1916; there was one on Conrad,1 which might conceivably interest you, in the February. Henry Holt & Company publish a volume of those articles plus some others this fall: so that your very kind blend of interest, curiosity, and sense of duty can be consummated without the trouble of looking up back numbers of a magazine. The long book on Conrad, about which you ask, is put over until spring2 – which means, I hope, that it will be better. . . . If ever one of your letters finds room for a word to the great man from me, tell him I live in the hope of writing something about him which I can really want him to see. This much I can venture because he has written so kindly about that poor little mangled misprinted book of mine. Sincerely yours, Wilson Follett.

1 Helen Thomas Follett (1884?-1970) and Wilson Follett, “Joseph Conrad,” Atlantic Monthly, 119 (February 1917), 233–43. These articles were collected in their Some Modern Novelists: Appreciations and Estimates (New York: Henry Holt, 1918). 2 Nothing ever came of this project.

93

From T. Fisher Unwin to Conrad Text TS Berg; Unpublished

[letterhead:] T. Fisher Unwin Ltd., 1 Adelphi Terrace, London, W. C. April ninth 1918 Dear Mr Conrad, I have to acknowledge your letter of the 8th received this morning.1 I certainly thought my letter was sufficiently definite, and placed my position for your agent. However, I have now received a note from him of even date in which he proposes a high royalty on what is now an old book. I may say at once that it is quite impossible for me to consider or pay such a royalty. It is too late for the agent to make such a suggestion. Your letter made me turn to the history of the volumes we have published for you. We have since followed with two other books of which you are aware.2 Then, apparently, you placed your work in the hands of an agent. From that date your agent has never given us the opportunity of publishing for you, though we have addressed him on this subject as well as yourself, again and again. If we had been allowed to continue your publications, even to the extent of an occasional book, it would have been helpful and arrangements might have been based on them for future publications: but the opportunity was never given to us. Now that my neighbour[,] Mr. Eveleigh Nash,3 is out of business, I can frankly say that your volume of Reminiscences might well have been offered to us: and from what I know of the arrangements made, a much more advantageous proposal would have been offered by this firm. As you are aware, we have again and again asked to republish that book, but our efforts and proposals have not been listened to. That volume, as you must know, would have been a useful introduction to ALMAYER’S FOLLY. Certainly after 22 years, as you remark, it would have been pleasant to come to an arrangement in connection, not only with ALMAYER’S FOLLY, but with the other two volumes. Responding to Unwin’s impatient note of 6 April (TS Berg), Conrad’s letter of 8 April (CL6 200) had informed his first publisher that he would write a preface for a new edition of Almayer’s Folly only if he were to receive increased royalties on the book. This had been a long-standing sore point, Conrad having sold the copyright outright to Unwin. 2 An Outcast of the Islands (1896) and Tales of Unrest (1899). 3 The original British publisher of Conrad’s autobiographical reminiscences in 1912. 1

94

It is true, I believe, we have the arrangements now for a future novel, but with regard to the three old books when we go to press with the one or the other, we will again advise you and offer you a definite fee for introductions, if you care to reconsider the question. I may remark that you and your agent are much mistaken with regard to the profits of the publication of the three books. Certainly you have had as much profits from them as your old publisher. With kind regards, faithfully yours T. Fisher Unwin.1

From Arnold Bennett to Conrad Text MS Yale; Unpublished

[letterhead:] 80 Piccadilly, W. 1. 5-7-[19]18 My dear Joseph Conrad I want to introduce to you H. S. Canby,2 who professeth at Yale University. He has a keen desire to meet you, & I adjudge that if possible his passion ought to be gratified. If he came down to you for a few hours you could gratify it, & incidentally tell him more about Higuerota.3 Best wishes Always yours Arnold Bennett

From Harry E. Maule to Conrad Text TS Berg; Unpublished

[letterhead:] Doubleday Page & Co., Garden City, N. Y. November 6, 1918. On sending the letter to Pinker, Conrad scribbled the comment, “Here’s the snake’s letter.” 2 Henry S(eidel) Canby (1878–1961), economist and later editor of the Saturday Review of Literature. His meeting with Conrad does not seem to have occurred until 1923, when the two met fleetingly in New York City (CL8 338–39). 3 Bennett’s title for Nostromo. 1

95

Dear Mr Conrad: Like all the rest of us here at the Country Life Press who have such genuine enthusiasm for the gracious task of placing your books before an American public[,] I always look forward to a new book by you with the anticipation of a new experience in life – and it is always fulfilled. I have just finished reading “The Arrow of Gold” and would like to send you this little note of appreciation and thanks for a story which I feel just now to be one of the greatest of your achievements. It is so different from any of the others, “Chance,” “Victory,” “Lord Jim” and yet, once in a while – perhaps, because of the character of Dominic – I had a little feeling of “Nostromo.” But I liked it much better than the South American story, for its directness and its warm humanity. One feels a very keen sympathy for young M. George and Dona Rita as their romance unfolds. Of course, it takes blind ignorance to prophesy what the public will like. It is much easier to guess what the critics will think, and I have an idea that they will see in “The Arrow of Gold” – such a wonderful title – a truly classic romance, and I venture that the public will too. Not only your own loyal following in this country, who would seize any book of yours no matter what the conditions, but a larger and more diversified crowd will read and enjoy “The Arrow of Gold,” because of its wider, more general human appeal. Dona Rita, M. George, Blunt, Therese, Ortega and the rest are characters that will remain with me while many, many other books filter through my mind and are forgotten. The all-pervading charm, the wilfulness and the wistfulness of Dona Rita make a truly unforgettable character – perhaps the most striking and fascinating woman character in all your books. She most certainly is to me, at least. These are halting words, but nevertheless perhaps they may convey to you from me of whom you have never heard, but who claims to [be] one of the original “Conrad fans” away back from the days of the “Almayer’s Folly” and “An Outcast of the Islands,” something of the enthusiasm with which we here at Garden City are handling your work. Yours very faithfully, DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY H. E. Maule Editorial Department1 Conrad replied immediately to this letter (CL6 315), although his response does not appear to have survived. 1

96

From G. Jean-Aubry to Conrad Text TS Yale; Unpublished

[letterhead:] 19 Queen Anne’s Gate SW1 16 décembre 19181 Mon cher Maître À moins de circonstances imprévues, auquel cas, je vous enverrais un télégram vendredi, j’irai vers Capel House samedi prochain par le 4.30 train. J’ai déjeuné aujourd’hui chez le comte Sobanski2 où naturellement l’on a parlé de vous: il y’avait là Hilaire Belloc,3 ce qui m’a permis de répatrer vis à vis de “Land and Water” et surtout de vous, ma maladresse antérieure.4 Mes hommages à Madame Conrad; mes amities à Borys et John. Et croyez moi bien affectueusement à vous G. Jean-Aubry Translation 16 December 1918 My dear Master Barring unforeseen circumstances, in which case I would send you a telegram on Friday, I shall travel down to Capel House on Saturday next by the 4.30 train. Today I dined at Count Sobanski’s where naturally the conversation involved you; he had Hilaire Belloc there, which allowed me to make up for my earlier blunder in relation to Land and Water and especially to you. My respects to Mrs Conrad; my best wishes to Borys and John. And believe me very affectionately yours G. Jean-Aubry

In response to Conrad’s letter of 14 December (CL6 330). Władysław Sobański. 3 One of the editors of Land and Water and its chief correspondent on military affairs. 4 Jean-Aubry had earlier embarrassed Conrad by offering – without the author’s knowledge – to write a note in Land and Water to accompany the forthcoming serialization of The Rescue (see CL6 314). 1 2

97

From John Galsworthy to Conrad Text: MS Brandeis; Stape (2)

[letterhead:] Grove Lodge, Hampstead, N. W. Jan 30 1919. My dearest Conrad I had your dear letter1 just as I was sitting down to write you a line of farewell. We hope to be back at the end of April. I don’t look forward; but I think it will do Ada good. It did last time. We shall think of you both, and fervently hope dear Jessie will at last get permanent relief. I’ve been so rushed that I haven’t even had time to inscribe you a copy of “Another Sheaf” which came out last week. I will when I come back. I’ve resigned “Reveille” after a difference with the Authorities about censorship, & it will be discontinued.2 I hear you are working on “The Rescue” still. Good luck to it & to all you do; and our dearest love to you both & to the boys. Always my dear fellow your most affectionate J. G.

From Henry Dana to Conrad Text TS Berg; Unpublished

[letterhead:] Globe Theatre Shaftesbury Avenue, W. 1. 24th February, 1919. Dear Mr. Conrad, I hope you may be glad to hear that Mr. Prinsep and Miss Marie Lohr3 have decided that your play “Victory” shall be their next producNo letter of January 1919 from Conrad to Galsworthy has come to light. Galsworthy had taken up editorship of Reveille: Devoted to the Disabled Soldier & Sailor (a Ministry of Pensions publication) in April 1918 3 (Henry) Anthony Leyland Val Prinsep (1888–1942) managed the Globe with his wife, the actress Marie Löhr (1890–1975), who also played the role of Lena in the Globe production of Victory, which opened on 26 March. 1 2

98

tion at this theatre, which I trust may be given in about a month’s time from now. It would be of great benefit to have a conference with you and to gather your ideas and wishes. Perhaps you would be good enough, in view of this, to let us know when it would be convenient to you to be in Town, when I am sure my Management would be pleased to keep any appointment at your convenience, but please let it be at the earliest possible moment. Yours truly, Henry Dana1

From Emilio Cecchi to Conrad Text MS Berg; Curreli 6–8 and facsimile 24 Gordon Street London W. C. 1 26. III. 1919 Dear Sir, I take the liberty of writing to you, in order to put before you the following facts. We have started in Italy a very choice literary review, “La Ronda,” which is issued mont[h]ly in Rome, and which represents the best of young literature in Italy. I am on the editorial Com[m]ittee and I have secured the collaboration of some distinguished English writers. In the first number there is a delightful essay by Mr. Belloc; for the second number we shall have an article by Mr. Chesterton. Ch[arles] Ricketts is writing notes about art. It would be impossible to give a true representation of English prose to day, without something of yours. Could you give to us some new short stories? Or could you allow us to give in the appendix one of your longer novels already published? I can assure you that the translation will be the most careful that is possible. With your reply, will you be good enough to tell me what would be your conditions, with regard to payment?2 The first number will be sent to you directly from Italy and you will then be able to judge the kind of work we are doing. We should be very Conrad replied on 26 February (CL6 371–72). Conrad’s reply, offering Cecchi “The Tale” (1916), does not seem to have survived. 1 2

99

proud to have your consent to this proposal, and should be happy to put your work, for the first time, in its real value, before the Italian public. I am Sir yours truly Emilio Cecchi

From W. H. Chesson to the Editor of To-day Text To-day; Mursia

Kew Gardens [June 1919] Sir, – My attention has been called to a statement by you in To-day (page 45 of the April number) from which the reader would infer that the first favourable report written in Mr. Fisher Unwin’s publishing house on Mr. Joseph Conrad’s first published novel, “Almayer’s Folly,” was from the pen of Mr. Edward Garnett.1 As a matter of fact the first favourable report was written by me. My hand recorded the receipt by Mr. Unwin of this romance on 5 July 1894, and when the author gently pressed for a decision it was I who decided that his work was too good to be surrendered to him, but must be submitted to Mr. Garnett. Unwin was on the Continent at the time, and remembers reading my report and agreeing thereupon to the acceptance of “Almayer’s Folly.”2 Needless to say, I have not the slightest inclination to pick one leaf of laurel from Mr. Garnett’s brows. He wrote, with admirable emphasis, “Hold on to this,” after reading “Almayer’s Folly,” and his opinion was the pure product of his own faculty of appreciation. Moreover, I owe to him the first praise accorded to my first book, which he did me the honour to read in manuscript.3 Perhaps I may add that the purely stylistic and academic merits of Mr. Conrad’s work were even in 1894 too obvious to make the “discovery” of him by a literary critic much more than an evidence of reasonable attention to his business. […] W. H. Chesson 1 In the April number, Holbrook Jackson had written: “To Mr. Edward Garnett, then a reader for Mr. Fisher Unwin, is due the thanks of all lovers of good books, for it was he who recommended Conrad’s first novel for publication” (“Joseph Conrad,” p. 45). 2 Unwin accepted the novel for publication on 3 October. 3 Name This Child: A Story of Two (London: Unwin, 1894).

100

From John Quinn to Conrad Text TS carbon NYPL; Unpublished

[New York] June 19, 1919 Personal My dear Conrad: I have just dictated a business-cum Doubleday Page & Company letter to you. This is personal.1 I received on May 19th your letter of May 3rd. It was perfectly all right, of course, about the dedication to Curle, as I wrote, which for every reason rightly remained with him.2 […] Re the MS. of “The Arrow of Gold.” Clement Shorter was in New York recently and is still in this country, with Massingham, the editor of the “Nation.” Shorter and Massingham3 dined at my apartment one night a month or so ago, Massingham to discuss American and Irish politics with me, as to which I disagreed with him in toto, and Shorter to talk literature and gossip, as is Shorter’s habit. I had three American friends in to dinner with them. While Massingham and the others were discussing politics Shorter nosed around my apartment, looking at books and diving into closets and cases, but paying no attention to pictures or sculptures, which seemed natural for he knows nothing about art. He wanted particularly to see my manuscripts and said that he had heard that I had many MSS. of yours. While he was looking at the MSS. generally and at yours in particular, he asked me if I had all of your MSS. and I said that I had. Then he said: “You know, of course, that Conrad

Conrad responded to the “business” letter on 31 July (CL6 451–54), though he delayed replying to Quinn’s awkward “personal” letter until 29 September (CL6 495–98). 2 In April 1919, Conrad had informed Quinn that he wished to dedicate The Arrow of Gold to him, but at the last moment changed his mind in favour of Richard Curle, promising Quinn that his forthcoming “Napoleonic novel” would carry his name (CL6 406–07, 412). 3 Clement K(ing) Shorter (1859–1926), editor of the Illustrated London News during the 1890s, went on to found Tatler and Sphere. Between 1917 and 1919, he brought out a series of shorter Conrad works in limited edition pamphlets. H(enry) W(illiam) Massingham (1860–1924) was editor of the Nation from 1907 to 1923. 1

101

sold the manuscript of the “Arrow of Gold” to Thomas J. Wise.1 I saw it in Wise’s possession. Wise paid Conrad £100 for it.” I replied that I hadn’t heard of it and that I thought £100 was a fair price for it. Shorter said: “But why haven’t you got it?” And I said: “I don’t know; perhaps Conrad thought I had enough of his MSS.” […] As for the MS. of the “Arrow,” it is all right for you to have disposed of it to Wise, unless Shorter’s statement was pure fiction, which it may have been. I think, as I said to Shorter, that £100 was a fair price for it. If you had notified me of Wise’s offer and its amount, I should have been willing to pay that much for the MS. […] I recognise that the value of your MSS. has gone up much since you and I began to write about MSS. in the year 1909,2 or shortly thereafter, for Joseph Conrad and his fame have gone up much in the world since that time, I am very glad to say. I have absolutely no feeling about it and thought I would let you know what Shorter told me. […] I enjoyed your article in the “Fortnightly Review” on Poland3 very much. I suggested to Paderewsky’s4 son-in-law, who has been acting as Polish Consul here in New York, that it should be published in fifty or a hundred copies, but while he said he enjoyed it and while it had a beautiful style, it did not put the Polish case in simple enough language for the American people. […] With kind regards, my dear Conrad, and best wishes to Mrs. Conrad, of whom I hope I shall hear better news when you next write, I am Sincerely yours,

1 Despite having given Quinn first option on the purchase of the corrected typescript of The Arrow of Gold, Conrad had reneged on his word and sold it to Thomas J. Wise in December 1918, telling Wise, “I am afraid Quinn will want to take my scalp when he hears of our transactions” (CL6 324). 2 In fact, 1911. 3 “The Crime of Partition” had been published in the May issue; it was collected in Notes on Life and Letters (1921). 4 Ignacy (Jan) Paderewski (1860–1941), the celebrated Polish pianist and composer, was at this time Prime Minister of the newly independent Poland and represented his country at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919.

102

From Alex Robinson to Conrad Text MS Indiana; Unpublished

8 Wynndale Road South Woodford E 18 29th July 1919 Dear Mr Conrad I was deeply interested in your book “The Mirror of the Sea” and as the “Loch Etive” was also my home for some years while I was serving my apprenticeship I am sending you some photographs and copy of some newspaper cuttings that may probably interest you. Yours very sincerely Alex Robinson 1 P. S. The Loch Carron was another ship I was in.

From Louis Gillet to Conrad Text MS Yale; Unpublished

[letterhead:] Châalis Ermenonville, Oise. 5 novembre 1919 Monsieur, Comment vous dire combien je suis touché de votre charmante et généreuse lettre?2 Je n’ose prendre à la lettre vos louanges, mais s’il est vrai que mon petit article a pu vous faire plaisir, ce serait un grand bonheur pour moi de vous avoir rendu un peu de celui que vos livres m’ont causé depuis si longtemps. Je vois que l’on commence à la traduire en France, où ils ont tant de raisons de plaire, et ce sera un lien de plus entre nos deux pays. Pour moi, qui suis chargé de la lourde succession d’un de vos compatriotes, mon cher ami T de Wyzewa,3 je regarde Conrad replied at length on 15 August (CL6 466–67), thanking Robinson for the cuttings (from a Peterhead newspaper) and photographs. 2 Of 25 October (CL6 510–11), warmly thanking him for his review of The Arrow of Gold in “Le Nouveau Roman de Joseph Conrad,” Revue des Deux Mondes, 1 October 1919, 676–85. 3 Téodor de Wyzewa (1863–1917), of Polish origin, was a leading exponent of the Symbolist movement in France and contributed numerous articles on European literature to the Revue. 1

103

comme une bonne fortune d’avoir inauguré mes fonctions à la Revue des Deux Mondes en parlant d’un artiste tel que vous. Je n’ose vous écrire dans mon mauvais anglais. Me permettrez-vous en revanche, et en remerciement de vos bontés, de vous addresser humblement un petit volume1 où je serais heureux que vous jetez les yeux? C’est une grande présomption, mais votre bonne grâce m’encourage. Veuillez agréer, en attendant, Monsieur, l’hommage de mes sentiments d’admiration & respecteuse. Louis Gillet. Translation 5 November 1919 Sir, How can I tell you how touched I am by your charming and generous letter? I dare not take your praise literally, but if it is true that my brief article has succeeded in giving you pleasure, it would be a great joy to me to have returned a little of the pleasure that your books have so long given me. I see that people are beginning to translate your works in France, where they have so many reasons to succeed, and that will be a further bond between our two countries. As for me, who am charged with the heavy burden of succeeding one of your compatriots, my dear friend T de Wyzewa, I count it a good fortune to have begun my duties on the Revue des Deux Mondes in speaking of an artist such as yourself. I dare not write in my poor English. Would you allow me in return, and in thanks for your kindnesses, humbly to send you a small volume, upon which I would be happy for you to cast an eye? It is a large presumption, but your kind favour encourages me. In the meantime, Sir, I am faithfully and respectfully yours, Louis Gillet.

His most recent work was Louis de Clermont-Tonnerre, Commandant de Zouaves, 1877–1918 (Un type d’officier français) (1919).

1

104

From T. E. Lawrence to F. N. Doubleday Text DG 300–02 March 20, 1920 […] You know, publishing Conrad must be a rare pleasure. He’s absolutely the most haunting thing in prose that ever was: I wish I knew how every paragraph he writes (do you notice they are all paragraphs: he seldom writes a single sentence?) goes on sounding in waves, like the note of a tenor bell, after it stops. It’s not built on the rhythm of ordinary prose, but on something existing only in his head, and as he can never say what it is he wants to say, all his things end in a kind of hunger, a suggestion of something he can’t say or do or think. So his books always look bigger than they are. He’s as much a giant of the subjective as Kipling is of the objective. Do they hate one another? […]

From John Galsworthy to Conrad Text MS Brandeis; Stape (2)

[letterhead: Grove Lodge] April 21. 1920. My dearest Conrad Your letter1 greatly cheered and delighted me this morning. We are happy to think you have dear Jessie back at home and do hope things go well with her. Poor dears you’ve had your share of purgatory in this vale of ill health. Campbell McClure2 came & sounded Ada the day before yesterday and is convinced that she had not merely bronchitis but pneumonia in Spain, though the Spanish doctor was positive there was nothing but bronchial trouble. Anyway the lung is not yet clear, and she is not to go out except in bright sunshine in our garden, of which there seems at present about as much likelihood as of blue-moonlight. He is giving her collosol iodine. Have you any experience of it? You are so generous to my work. I wish indeed I could believe it [sic] all you say in your kind & good letter. Of 20 April, telling him of Jessie’s return from the nursing-home (CL7 80–81). J(ames) Campbell McClure of Glasgow (d. 1934) was the author of A Handbook of Fevers (1914). His London practice was in Harley Street, and he was later associated with the French Hospital and the Hospital for Consumption.

1 2

105

What news of the “Secret Agent”? I suppose I musn’t see it. My first night tonight.1 Ada being absent I take little or no interest. Anyway I’ll get a slating & a slump. Ada’s dearest love to you both & mine, & our love to the boys. Bless you all. Your affectionate J. G.

From John Galsworthy to Conrad Text MS Brandeis; Stape (2)

[letterhead: Grove Lodge] May 4. 1920. Dearest Conrad If you have finished with the MS of “In Chancery” may I have it back.2 How is poor Jessie? Ada improves slowly. And you? How goes it? Our dearest love Your always affectionate J. G. “The Skin-Game” seems to be a success. At all events the booking is good so far.

From The British Museum to Conrad Text Printed letter BL; Baxter

18 May 19203 The Director of the British Museum begs to inform Mr: Joseph Conrad that a Reading Ticket will be delivered to him on presenting this note to 1 The Skin Game opened at St Martin’s Theatre on 21 April, running until 29 January 1921. 2 Conrad replied on the following day (CL7 90). 3 In response to Conrad’s letter of application of 17 May (CL9 225–26). He first used his reader’s ticket on 7 June.

106

the Clerk in the Reading-room, between the hours of nine and four, within Six months from the above date. N.B. – Persons under twentyone years of age are not admissible.

From Kate Gordon Quill to Conrad

Text TS carbon Private collection; Unpublished

[1204 Russel[l] Street, Nashville, Tennessee]1 [late July 1920] My dear Mr. Conrad: You have brought to me so vividly “the vibration of life in the great world of waters, and that something sentient that seems to dwell in ships” that I am sending to you this bit of verse by a young American poet,2 which, while it has not the accent of great poetry, may have for you a momentary appeal. Having never before being guilty of a presumption of this sort I find myself unable to formulate an apology for this intrusion. If indeed the reverence I have for those twenty two volumes which are the most treasured of my bookshelves – an appreciation as profound as I am capable of estimating [in] that last word of wisdom and of life contained there – must be conveyed to you as a sort of breach of decorum. I fancy that this will never reach you. I have a childish notion of you approached by secretaries and secretaries through door after door – secluded in one of those vast rooms of Stein’s – totally inaccessible. This impulse has so great a surface show of cheapness and vulgarity, and the poetry so little of great merit, that perhaps I shall not be sorry. A page of your “A Personal Record” shall be the warrant for my welcome – “one of those friends whom a word here, a line there … has drawn from the great multitude … even as a fish is drawn from the depths of the sea.” Sincerely yours, Kate Gordon Quill.

Address from envelope, preserved with the letter. Conrad’s reply of 9 August (CL9 229–30) identifies the poet as David Morton. The unspecified poem by Kentucky-born Morton (1886–1957) sent to Conrad was probably one of the sea-pieces included Ships in Harbor, and Other Poems (1920). 1 2

107

From H. G. Wells to the English Review Text ER; MacShane, 128–29 [Easton Glebe,] Dunmow [July 1920]1 Sir, – I have long had an uneasy feeling about my old neighbour in Kent, Mr. Ford Madox Hueffer. I knew that he was capable of imaginative reminiscences, and that in a small way he had been busy with my name. Fantastic biographical details have drifted round to me. […] This childish falsehood about my lecturing him, or anyone, on how to write a novel, is particularly incredible. “How to do it” was the one topic upon which I never offered a contribution to my Kentish and Sussex neighbours. Only once did I lecture this drawling, blonde young man, as he was then, upon any literary matter. At our first meeting, he informed me that he had persuaded Mr. Joseph Conrad to collaborate with him. I tried to convey to him, as considerately as possible, what a very peculiar and untouchable thing was the Conrad prose fabric, and what a very mischievous enterprise he contemplated. That dead, witless book, “The Inheritors,” justifies my warnings. That and a second book, of which I forget the title2 – it was an entirely stagnant “adventure” story, festering with fine language – were an abominable waste of Conrad’s time and energy. For the rest, my conversations upon things literary with Mr. Hueffer were defensive. These endless chatterings about “how it is done,” about the New Form of the Novel, about who was “greater” then who, about the possibilities of forming a “Group” or starting a “Movement” are things to be avoided at any cost. […] Literature is not jewellery, it has quite other aims than perfection, and the more one thinks of “how it is done” the less one gets it done. These critical indulgences lead along a fatal path, away from every natural interest towards a preposterous emptiness of technical effort, a monstrous egotism of artistry, of which the later work of Henry James is the monumental warning. […] Yours very sincerely, H. G. Wells Printed under the title “A Footnote to Hueffer,” Wells’s letter was intended as a riposte to the view given of him in Ford’s Thus to Revisit, which was being serialized in the English Review. Ford responded in a private letter to Wells of 1 August (Letters of Ford Madox Ford, ed., Richard Ludwig [Princeton University Press: 1965], p. 150). 2 Romance (1903). 1

1921–1924 From Philippe Neel to Conrad

Text MS Private collection; Putnam (transcription)

[letterhead:] 58, Rue de Maubeuge, Paris Le 14 Février 1921 Cher Monsieur, Je vous ai écrit, lors de la parution des Yeux d’Occident,1 en même temps que je vous envoyais un exemplaire de ma traduction. Ma letter, envoyée sans doute à une fausse adresse m’est revenue avec la mention: “Gone.” Je n’ai pas revu le livre; j’espère que vous l’avez reçu. Je vous disais, dans ma letter, ma profonde admiration, mon enthousiasme pour votre œuvre, et la joie que j’avais trouvée – au cours d’heures douleureuses de la guerre, – à m’occuper de Razumov et de Mlle Haldin. Depuis, j’ai traduit votre prestigieux Nostromo, me suis baigné dans sa poussière dorée, grisé de son atmosphère palpitante et subtile, pleine des senteurs de la mer lointaine, hautaine et sereine aussi comme la cime de l’ Héguerota. . . .Vouz devez être blasé sur les letters d’admirateurs; je n’exagère pas et vous dis seulement toute la volupté que j’ai trouvée à vibre avec vos personnages. . . . J’avais su par André Gide que vous aviez bien voulu lui exprimer votre satisfaction de ma modeste version; nul éloge ne pouvait m’aller plus au cœur, et lorsqu’il m’a montré – hier – votre lettre,2 j’ai éprouvé une fierté joyeuse. . . . Cette traduction des Western Eyes était ma première tentative; votre approbation m’est infiniment précieuse. . . . J’espère que ma version de Nostromo vous plaira davantage encore. . . . Et voici que Gide me proposait – sous quelques réserves – de nouveaux volumes de vous: le prestigieux Lord Jim3 tout d’abord – ce serait pour moi une joie profonde que de pouvoir de nouveau inscrire mon nom au dessous du vôtre; au cas où Lord Jim ne serait pas rendu à Gide, voulez-vous me réserver quelques-unes de vos œuvres à venir pour lesquelles vous n’auriez pas de titulaire; je sais que Gide en serait heureux. . . . Published by Gallimard in 1920. He had praised Neel’s translation in his letter to Gide (who oversaw the French translations of Conrad’s works) of 30 November 1920 (CL7 211–12). 3 Gallimard published Neel’s translation in 1922. 1 2

109

Mais je me laisse entraîner; je voulais dire seulement mon admiration, et ma gratitude pour ce que vous avez dit à Gide de mon humble tâche, et vous prier de me croire votre très respectueusement dévoué. Philippe Neel Translation 14 February 1921 Dear Sir, I wrote to you when Western Eyes appeared and at the same time sent you a copy of my translation. My letter must have been misaddressed, and it was returned to me marked: “Gone.” The book has not been returned to me; I hope it reached you. In my letter, I expressed my deep admiration and enthusiasm for your work and the joy I experienced – during the distressing days of the war – busying myself with Razumov and Miss Haldin. Since then, I have translated your prestigious Nostromo, steeping myself in its gilded dust, intoxicated by its exciting and subtle atmosphere, charged with odours of a far-off sea, haughty and serene also like the peaks of Higuerota . . . You must be blasé at the letters of admirers: I exaggerate nothing and write only to express the delight I felt living alongside your characters. . . I heard from André Gide that you had expressed your satisfaction at my modest effort; no praise could have touched my heart more directly and when he showed me your letter – yesterday – I was filled with joy and pride. . . . That translation of Western Eyes was my first attempt; your approval was infinitely touching. . . . I hope that my version of Nostromo will please you even more. . . . Gide has just recently – with certain reservations – proposed other translations to me: your prestigious Lord Jim above all – it would be a profound honour once again to place my name under yours. In case Gide claims Lord Jim for himself, would you be so kind as to reserve another of your future works for which no one has been assigned; I know Gide would approve. . . . But here I am rambling on. I only wished to express my admiration and gratitude for what you wrote to Gide about my humble endeavour and to beg you to believe me your respectfully devoted Philippe Neel

110

From Louise Burleigh to Conrad Text MS Berg; Unpublished

718 West Grace Street, Richmond, Virginia. April 1, 1921. Dear Mr. Conrad:John Powell1 has promised to send you a letter which will duplicate in part this one; but he is so busy and has to travel so many weary miles every week, that I fear his writing may be postponed until too late for me to have your reply in time for my purposes. For I want to ask your permission to produce your one act play “One Day More” here in Richmond. My writing is also impelled by an eager desire to express to you personally something of the pleasure I had in reading the play. John read it to me on Christmas morning, and I listened with awe and delight. He was reading it [for] the first time –– with emotion equal to mine. Since that day I have longed to speak to you about it, and ached to produce it. Therefore I am grateful to fate for letting me approach you. It may be well to explain that I am directing The Little Theatre Players, an organization of some three hundred Richmond people, lovers of art, who stage their own plays. Our progress this year has been greatly retarded by lack of proper facilities, and of course we are most impecunious; but in the late Spring we are to have a building of our own. It is my dear wish to use “One Day More” as the corner stone of our opening programme. And we would be very much gratified if we could feel that we had your personal sanction. Sincerely yours, Louise Burleigh.2

The American composer and classical pianist, Powell (1882–1963) had been introduced to Conrad by Warrington Dawson in late 1912 and later visited the Conrads on several occasions. He married Louise Burleigh in 1928. 2 Conrad’s reply to this letter does not appear to have survived. In early 1923, Burleigh again wrote, telling Conrad of the forthcoming production of One Day More in Richmond; he replied on 25 January 1923 (CL8 14–15). 1

111

From John Galsworthy to Conrad Text MS Brandeis; Stape (2)

[letterhead:] Grove Lodge May 20. 1921. Dearest Conrad I think you have received – though perhaps not read – a communication from a friend of ours a Mr T H Howe1 of the American book Company Cinncinnati, asking you to sit to Mr Theodore SpicerSimson (the English sculptor)2 for a medallion (en profile). Well, my dear fellow, for all our sakes do sit to him. He’s quite a marvel. He’s just done me in three short sittings, to the utter satisfaction of all who’ve seen it including Ada. He’s got Shaw to the life in one sitting – and his Meredith is extraordinarily good. He is to do Hardy. You get a free copy of an edition of twenty five which go to museums or book lovers; & then the original is destroyed. He would come down to do you & would probably only take two or three sittings. His work is really extraordinary, & you ought to let him. I hope you are faring well. Bless you – our love to you all. Yours affectly J. G.3 Mr Spicer-Simson’s address is 55a. Sloane Square London S.W.

From A. T. Saunders to The Nautical Magazine Text NM; Sherry 322

June 1921. Sir, In your issue of February, 1921, is “A Seaman’s Tribute” to Joseph Conrad (Korzeniowski), by F. G. Cooper,1 which I read with interest, for

1 William Thomas Hildrup Howe (1874–1939), also a noted collector of rare manuscripts and glass, had first been in touch with Conrad in February 1917. 2 Theodore Spicer-Simson (1871–1959) was French-born, but an American. 3 A swollen hand prevented Conrad from replying until 4 June (CL7 295).

112

not only do I intensely admire and delight in Conrad’s writings, but I well knew three ships in which he sailed, “Loch Etive,” “Torrens” and the iron barque “Otago,” 345 tons, built at Glasgow, November, 1869, by Stephen, her first voyage being from Glasgow to Adelaide, where she arrived 31/10/1869. I was in the office of the “Otago’s” Port Adelaide agents then; her captain, Angus Cameron, joined the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand and died about five years ago, having been local maritime superintendent for years. I knew the “Otago” ever after this, and for twenty-five years knew Captain John Snadden who died in the Gulf of Siam on board the “Otago,” from heart disease, 8th December, 1887, and whom Captain Joseph Conrad Korzeniowski succeeded. Several friendly letters have passed between Joseph Conrad and myself re the “Otago” and his command of her,2 and I write this letter in justice to my old friend Captain Snadden and to Joseph Conrad. Clearly Captain Snadden and Conrad never met, therefore Captain Conrad depended on what the officers of the “Otago” told him and what they said was untrue. The account of Captain Snadden in the “Shadowline” [sic] is absurd,3 but I do not blame Joseph Conrad for it. Captain Snadden was not an uncommunicative man; he was rather loquacious and never kept his ship loafing at sea. He had been employed by the owners of the “Otago,” Henry Simpson & Son, Adelaide (to whom Joseph Conrad sent his kind regards through me,4 but the firm was defunct and its members dead) for over twenty years.5 I sent Captain Conrad’s good wishes to the widow of the owner of the “Otago” and she replied: “Your letter giving Joseph Conrad’s message and address reached me yesterday – Thank you very much for it – We all remember with pleasure Capt Korzen[i]owski’s visits to us at Conrad had also read sections of Cooper’s four-part “Tribute” sent to him by the author (see CL7 241, 243). 2 Two letters of 1917 from Conrad to Saunders survive (CL6 18, 99). 3 Saunders had evidently made this charge directly to Conrad, who replied in his second letter of 14 June: “I need not point out that I had to make material from my own life’s incidents arranged, combined, coloured for artistic purposes. … After all I am a writer of fiction; and it is not what actually happened, but the manner of presenting it that settles the literary and even the moral value of my work.” 4 As he had done in his first letter of 26 January. 5 Captain Simpson (1815–84) had arrived in South Australia in 1836, and established the firm which bore his name. 1

113

Woodville.1 The boys used to enjoy them as much as my husband and I did.” Yours etc., A. T. Saunders

From John Galsworthy to Conrad Text MS Brandeis; Stape (2)

[letterhead:] Grove Lodge June 6. 1921 Dearest Conrad Warmest thanks for your letter & good wishes.2 The times are awful, and one can hardly expect any play to “stand-up” – as they call it. My dear fellow, I hope you don’t mind, but McKinnel3 wanted me to read “The Secret Agent,” which with some misgiving I did. The first act develops the story with mastery – though I think for the stage it wants just a little cutting. The second act’s two scenes of dialogue are very interesting as character study – though a little leisurely in a way from the point of view of action developing. The third act, I frankly think, would be better dispensed with. The Michaelis theme comes really to nothing, and all that the Assistant Secretary tells Lady Mabel is not essential to the action. The fourth act is the act, and with third Act in we are too long in arriving at it. The fourth act ought to be terrific. I don’t suppose my judgment will have any weight with you, but I feel that the swifter you are in the early parts of the play, the more this act will achieve its full effect. It was vastly interesting to me to see how you had done the conversion. About the medallion. Mr Spicer Simson has just been here, finishing the medallion which I commissioned him to do of Ada, & which is a most beautiful thing. He says he is going to arrange for either the National Portrait Gallery, or The British Museum (both of which are anxious to have the originals) to have the originals. A suburb of Adelaide. Of 4 June, congratulating Galsworthy on his latest play, A Family Man (CL7 295); Conrad replied to this letter on 8 June (CL7 296–99). 3 Norman McKinnel (1870–1932), a Scots-born actor, director, and manager, had taken an option on The Secret Agent but in the end let it lapse. 1 2

114

His first sitting of Hudson is amazingly successful. I really think you ought to be done. You get, of course, your bronze; and if the original goes to the National Portrait Gallery or the British Museum, there is no wanton destruction. We are off to Wingstone tomorrow. Sorry you have gout, dear man. I saw Hugh Walpole today looking frightfully fit. Our dearest love to you all J. G.

From John Galsworthy to Conrad Text MS Brandeis; Stape (2)

[letterhead:] Wingstone, Manaton, Nr Moretonhampstead, Devon. June 12. 19211 Dearest Conrad I shall love to have the first Edition of Life & Letters. As to the article on the M of P. it was a very good article; but I quite understand its slipping your memory, nor in a way do I see why you should put it in, being on a particular book. It would never have occurred to me to expect it to be in.2 I’m awfully glad you’re going to be done by Spicer-Simson.3 You’ll find him a very pleasant fellow, & you will I believe be astounded by the speed and instincts of his work. As to the play: Well, I don’t think it was worthwhile to try and do in the play what you had done superlatively in the novel. To write a “Conradian play” you should have taken a fresh subject. That being so[,] I felt you should have concentrated on the main action rather than on the secret agent which is hardly a stage subject. However much you had done this it would not have been a Grand Guignol, because of Madame Verloc’s psychology. The more you conIn reply to Conrad’s letter of 8 June (CL7 296–99). Conrad replied to this letter on 8 July (CL7 313). 2 In his 8 June letter, Conrad had apologized for the inadvertent omission from Notes on Life and Letters (published the previous February) of his 1906 review of Galsworthy’s The Man of Property. The review was eventually collected in the posthumous volume, Last Essays (1926). 3 Spicer-Simson visited Oswalds to undertake the sculpture on 7 and 14 July. 1

115

centrated on the action, too, the more actor proof you would have been and that is indeed (as you suspect) a consideration. Best wishes to you and it anyway; and our best love to you all. J. G.

From Alice H. James to Conrad Text MS Private collection; Unpublished

[letterhead:] 944 Chestnut Street,San Francisco, California July 13 1921 My dear Mr Conrad, I am the sister in law of Henry James and words of yours have moved me to the need of speech. One must give thanks for so good a gift as you send us when on page 6 of “Books” you say: “But the fair truth of human delicacy can be found in Mr. Henry James’s novels.”1 How wonderful of you to say the intimate, perfect word of that patient, much misconceived writer. It is so apt, so real that I sit almost bewildered that it should never have been said – and that at last it should have been uttered at all! There have been many kind and affectionate words from many pens but “the fair truth of human delicacy” is a delivery of the spirit itself. It was his deepest interest, the passion of a very lonely man. And I am grateful, so you will forgive me if this seems all intrusive – for I can speak for my children as well. Pray believe that our appreciation of your book is not limited to the lines I have quoted. Our sons have long loved your books and know them better than I do. Billy, the second son[,] cherishes the memory of meeting you once at Lamb House.2 Once more with my warm thanks I am Yours sincerely Alice H. James.

Alice James would have read the 1905 essay in Notes on Life and Letters, published in America during the preceding April. 2 Her son William (b. 1882), later remembered visits by Conrad and Ford while staying at his uncle’s home. On their group walks, James and Conrad would lead the party, with William and Ford following behind. “Occasionally a word or two would drift back and what I always heard was – French!” (Leon Edel, Henry James: The Master, 1901–1916 [London: Hart-Davis, 1972], p. 46). 1

116

My name is Mrs William James of Irving St. Cambridge to which place I am on the point of returning, but this outpouring of mine asks for no answer, dear Mr Conrad, only a measure of tolerance.1

From John Galsworthy to Conrad Text MS Brandeis; Stape (2)

[letterhead:] Grove Lodge Oct 30. 1921. Dearest Conrad I heard good news yesterday of Jessie from Frederick Watson;2 and I hope you are free from gout again. When, I wonder, shall we see you. We are back here now. You will perhaps stare at the enclosed, but I would be truly grateful if you would pay a guinea a year and become a member of this P.E.N. Club. If we are to start foreign centres, which is the intention[,] we must have names like yours known everywhere. We have over 60 members including Walpole, Drinkwater, Ervine, May Sinclair[,] Beresford & so on;3 but it’s the world-wide reputation that’s wanted. The idea is really good, I think, and wanted; how far it will succeed in promoting goodwill depends on how far the great in letters will support it. I’m not so barbarous as to expect you to come to a dinner; but I would be happy in your support, my dearest fellow. Our dear love to you all Always yours J. G.4

On the letter’s first page, Miss Hallowes jotted “19/8/21 J.C.”, presumably the date of Conrad’s reply (unlocated). 2 A professional writer, Watson (1885–1935) was the son-in-law of Sir Robert Jones, Jessie Conrad’s surgeon. 3 The existing members included the poet John Drinkwater (1882–1937); the Irish dramatist St John Greer Ervine (1883–1971); and the novelists May Sinclair (1863–1946; née Mary Amelia St Clair Sinclair) and J(ohn) D(avys) Beresford (1873–1947). 4 Conrad replied on 1 November (CL7 363–64), agreeing to become a member of the P.E.N. Club (International Association of Poets, Playwrights, Editors, Essayists, and Novelists), which had been founded in October, with Galsworthy as its President (Marrot, pp. 511–12). 1

117

From William Marston Seabury to Conrad Text TS Berg; Unpublished

[letterhead:] 120 Broadway, New York November 23, 1921. My dear Mr. Conrad: I am obliged to you for your letter of November 2nd,1 which reached me in the mail with a letter from Mr. Pinker. I have read both with interest and will take up the matter and endeavor to prepare for submission to Mr. Pinker in your behalf some proposition which may prove of interest to you. I feel that I should add, however, that conditions in the motion picture industry in this country at this time are very much depressed and that it is rather extremely difficult to interest anyone in new productions. I am, however, very much in hopes that this condition is only temporary and that we may yet be able to work out a satisfactory arrangement along the lines of my letter to Major Gordon Gardiner of August 17, 1921. Hoping that I may be successful in this respect, I am, Sincerely yours, W. M. Seabury

From John Galsworthy to Conrad Text MS Brandeis; Stape (2)

[letterhead:] Grove Lodge Feb. 3. 1922 Dearest Conrad It’s long since we saw you both. Could we drive down on Thursday to lunch, or would it worry you? I was concerned to see in today’s paper that you were not well. I’m very deep in rehearsals,1 but a day in the car would be a rest.

This is almost certainly the letter to “our American-new friend” that Conrad had sent to Pinker on 31 October for him to approve and send off (CL8 361), but which has not survived. Seeking a producer for their “film play,” Gaspar the Strong Man, writer and agent had evidently made contact with Seabury, an influential figure in American cinema, through Conrad’s friend Theodore James Gordon Gardiner (1874–1937), an ex-major in the Border Regiment, at this time working as an arbitrator of industrial disputes and as secretary of the National Club, London.

1

118

Our love to you both. Your affte J. G.

From John Galsworthy to Conrad Text MS Brandeis; Stape (2)

[letterhead:] Grove Lodge Feb 10. 1922 Dearest Conrad I wired an answer to Jessie’s “Many thanks progressing all right much love.” But the idiotic post office here sent it back saying they couldn’t find Bishopsbourne; so I tried Bridge which was on the back of the reply paid form. Now I see from your letter2 that Bishopsbourne was right – so goodness knows whether you have got it. Ada is still in bed, but her temperature is normal again. I have been up today, but rather expect to be in bed tomorrow again, because as usual the beastly cold is going to my chest. However, we keep each other pleasant company. How dreadful the news of Pinker’s death is! Really shocking for one so full of health & life to be snuffed out like that. I feel very sad.3 Very sorry to hear such poor news of you. We will let you know our news. Best love to you both J. G.

From Philippe Neel to Conrad

Text MS Private collection; Putnam (transcription)

[letterhead:] 58 Rue de Maubeuge, Paris Le 15 Mars [19]22 Cher Monsieur,

Of Justice (1910) which was being revived at the Court Theatre from 7 to 25 February. 2 Of 9 February to Ada Galsworthy (CL7 415). 3 J. B. Pinker, literary agent to both Conrad and Galsworthy, had died in New York on 8 February. 1

119

J’achève en ce moment la révision du manuscrit de votre “Victory” que Madame Rivière avait traduit et que Gide m’a prié de revoir.1 L’ouvrage va paraître prochainement dans “Le Temps” et sera sans doute publié à la N[ouvelle] R[evue] F[rançaise] vers la fin de l’année. Nous sommes un peu indécis en ce qui concerne le titre. Ce mot de “Victory” traduit en français donne un titre médiocre; Victoire, cela sonne mal, et cela rappelle trop le nom des servantes d’Octave Feuillet!2 J’en ai parlé à Gide ce matin, qui est de mon avis, et nous aimerions trouver un autre titre français si vous n’y voyez pas d’inconvénient, en maintenant bien entendu en sous titre votre mot de “Victory” pour expliquer la préface: Que penseriez-vous – si vous y consentiez de ces titres: Un drame dans les îles Ou mieux peut-être: Dans les Iles, tout cort, ou encore: Un aventurier. J’ai soumis ce matin ces titres à Gide, qui les approuve, mais nous ne voulons rien faire sans votre assentiment. Je m’excuse de vous déranger, mais je serais très heureux d’avoir votre avis au plus tôt, la publication devant commencer en feuilleton dans une quinzaine.3 . . . J’ai été heureux de savoir que vous aviez été content des “Yeux d’Occident.” J’espère vous envoyer cet été “Lord Jim” que j’ai travaillé avec amour et enthousiasme. Je ne voudrais pas vous paraître immodeste, mais il me semble que – sans m’attacher toujours à votre forme littérale – j’ai bien saisi l’esprit de votre œuvre. Mon bagage de traducteur commence à être assez volumineux: aucune de mes versions ne m’a encore donné la satisfaction de Lord Jim. J’espère que vous en serez satisfait, ainsi que de Nostromo, que j’ai achevé l’an dernier. Isabelle Rivière (née Fournier, d. 1971), wife of the critic Jacques Rivière, had finished the translation of Victory in 1916, but, following disagreements with Gide, her translation was withdrawn in 1917. The episode is discussed in J. H. Stape’s “The Art of Fidelity: Conrad, Gide, and the Translation of Victory,” Journal of Modern Literature, 17.1 (1990), 155–65. 2 Octave Feuillet (1821–90), French “society” novelist and playwright. 3 Conrad responded on 18 March, proposing La Victoire as a possible title (CL7 432–34). 1

120

Peut-être traduirai-je encore “Chance,”1 qui reste le seul de vos ouvrages sans titulaire. Et j’espère que vous voudrez bien me réserver certaines de vos œuvres à venir: Gide, je le sais, n’y verra pas d’inconvénient. Encore une fois, pardonnez-moi, cher Monsieur, de prendre un peu de votre temps, et croyez à l’expression de mes sentiments très sincères et de mon admiration passionnée. Ph. Neel Translation 15 March [19]22 Dear Sir, I have just finished correcting the manuscript of your “Victory” that Madame Rivière had translated and that Gide asked me to revise. The work will soon begin appearing in Le Temps and will no doubt be published by the N. R. F. toward the end of the year. We are somewhat undecided as to the title. The word “Victory” translated into French leaves us with a mediocre title; Victory sounds bad and it reminds one too much of the names of Octave Feuillet’s servants! I spoke with Gide about it this morning, and he shares my opinion, so we would like to find another French title if you do not object, still keeping as a sub-title your word “Victory” to explain the preface: What would you think – if you consent to these titles: A Drama of the Islands or perhaps better: In the Islands by itself, or better yet: An Adventurer. I proposed these titles to Gide this morning and he approved, but we do not want to do anything without your consent. I am sorry to

Neel’s translation of Chance would not appear until 1933, and only after a disagreement between Neel and Jean-Aubry, upon which Gide had to adjudicate; see Walter Putnam, “The Ill-fated French Translation of Chance: Philippe Neel, G. Jean-Aubry, André Gide,” The Conradian, 26.1 (2001), 65–84.

1

121

bother you, but I should be very grateful for a quick response since the serial publication begins in two weeks. . . . I was very happy to hear that you were pleased with Western Eyes. I hope to send you Lord Jim this summer, that labour of love and enthusiasm. I would not like to sound immodest but I believe – without always sticking to your literal form – that I have seized the spirit of your work. My baggage as a translator is starting to weigh heavy: no translation has yet given me the satisfaction of Lord Jim. I hope that you will be satisfied with it, as with Nostromo that I finished last year. I might till translate Chance, the only one of your novels not yet assigned. And I hope that you will reserve some of your future works for me: I know Gide would not object. Once again, excuse me, dear Sir, for taking up a bit of your time, and believe in the expression of my greatest sincerity and passionate admiration. Ph. Neel

From Lt-Colonel Matthew Bell to Conrad Text MS Berg; Unpublished

[letterhead:] Bourne Estate Office, Bishopsbourne, Canterbury. 27th March 1922 My dear Mr Conrad Many thanks for your letter of 24th March1 and for kindly having seen the executors about the matter I wrote you about. It is a little difficult to fix a sum in such a case but I will do my best. I find that Ralph Pinker was here about 16 months,2 and I conclude that if he had gone to any big farm as agent he would have had to pay about £100 a year. I have tried to work out what each each head man should get and bring it to a total of about £65 as a minimum, anything above that sum I would leave to the discretion of the executors. I hope they won’t think Neither Conrad’s letter of the 24th nor his reply to the above missive has come to light (although on the first page of Bell’s letter Conrad jotted, “with letter £75 Col Bell”). 2 Conrad had been instrumental in securing Ralph Pinker a training post on Colonel Bell’s Bourne Park estate (CL7 139–40), where he started work on the study of agriculture in November 1920. Like his brother Eric, Ralph in due course joined the family firm. 1

122

that too much, as you know I am trying to be quite fair in this matter, and of course I reap no benefit myself. I have instructed my bricklayer and head carpenter to have a look at the Oswalds sewage arrangements, and will report to you what they think. I had hoped to do so today, but they are rather pushed over some work they are doing, so didn’t manage to get there today. I have seen the Doctor going down to Bishopsbourne once or twice lately. I do hope that doesn’t mean that Mrs Conrad is not so well again. With kindest regards to you both. Yours v. sincerely M. G. E. Bell.

From Allan Wade to Conrad Text MS Berg; Unpublished

[letterhead:] The Kingsway Theatre, Great Queen Street, W. C. 2. St Ann’s Cottage The Vale of Heath Hampstead. N. W April 7th 1922. My dear Conrad I was so glad to receive your long letter1 & to know that my criticisms of “The Secret Agent” had interested you. I hope I made it clear that I wasn’t suggesting for a moment that you should make any alterations – I was only indicating the places where I felt the play showed, just a little, that it had been taken from a novel. I don’t suppose it is ever quite possible to remove all traces of such a transformation; but you have without any doubt succeeded marvellously in giving the theme its dramatic treatment without loss of quality. I sympathise very much with your feeling that now any change in the play ought not to be made. In all my work in the theatre I have a very strong bias in favour of the author, as against and above anybody else. He knows what he wants & it is the business of actors & producers & scene designers to get it for him or at any rate as much as they are capable of getting.

Of 4 April (CL6 445–47). Conrad replied to this letter on 9 April (CL6 450– 52). 1

123

On Sunday I promise myself another reading of the play, and I have no doubt that I shall find it even more of a pleasure than when I was reading it with the thought “what sort of a play is this going to make?” at the back of my head. You are quite right in saying that the public wouldn’t bother its head about the time question in Act I. For one thing they will be too interested in what is happening to think about it – & then, as you say, on the stage people can be made to accept almost anything. I admire Mrs Conrad’s heroism (and much appreciate her confidence in me) in sending her copy of the printed play. But if I didn’t like lending our own precious copy, still less would I take the risk of letting her’s go out of my hands. So the thought came to me to ring up Pinker & ask if he had a MS. copy to lend me, & he has sent one along this afternoon, which I shall let my friend Campbell1 have to read & show his partner. He (Campbell) has just had to go over to Paris for a day or so, but comes back this week. The Polish play2 has been read eagerly by my wife & myself – she at her leisure before the fire, I in odd moments in the tube & in bed after midnight. Her criticism was that she thought the first & third acts very good comedy, the second a little inferior. My own feeling is that this doesn’t matter, Act II being a necessary development-act & quite good enough to carry. I thought the end perhaps a little too farcical & out of key with the excellent comedy of the rest. May I say, by the way, how excellent your dialogue is, both in “The Secret Agent” & this translation. I mean that it is always “speech” and never at all bookish. I have read so many plays by writers whose main work has been the writing of novels, & so few of them have shown this very important characteristic. About the chances of the translation – I rather doubt if England is at present sufficiently enterprising to try this on the commercial stage, unless it should happen that the part of Herup should appeal to some actor-manager as a good part for himself – (Den[n]is Eadie3 could play it well if he would, but I believe he is rather hampered by a very commercial-minded partner), but I should rather like to show this also to James Lawrence Campbell, a theatrical agent. The Book of Job, Conrad’s translation of Księga Hioba, a play originally written in Polish by Bruno Winawer (published in Warsaw, 1921). In the end, the play was never performed outside Poland. 3 An actor-manager, Eadie (1869–1928) was lessee of the Haymarket and Royalty Theatres. 1 2

124

Campbell if I may, as he has an American over here now who is on the look out for plays with which to experiment at matinées in New York, with the idea of putting them into the evening programme if they are successful. America, from what I hear, is much more alert to the possibility of making experiments. For England, I should rather like to try to persuade the Stage Society to consider the play next season. A recent production of theirs by an Italian dramatist, Luigi Pirandello,1 has been taken, as a result of the performance, by the aforesaid American & there are even nibbles for some matinées in England. Will you be agreeable, my dear Conrad, to my exploring these possibilities? Yours ever Allan Wade.

From John Quinn to Conrad Text TS carbon NYPL; Unpublished

[New York] 17 July 1922 My dear Conrad: I have several times planned and hoped to have time to write to you to thank you for your thoughtful generosity in sending me a copy of your dramatization of your Secret Agent, autographed and with your “regards and best wishes.” […] Some cloud has seemed to come between you and me during this last year or two, but what caused it has been obscure – a minor mystery to me. Whatever was in your mind, there was never anything, I hope, in any word of mine, and in my mind, that was either ungenerous or unfair to you. A long time ago you wrote of dedicating a book to me. Let me say in the fullest sincerity that I now do not want you to have the slightest feeling that you are in any degree committed, by what you once wrote, to any such thing; nor do I expect it. You will, I feel sure, credit me with complete sincerity and any lack of any feeling on that score. I cannot put it more strongly than that.2 […] Sincerely yours, His Six Characters in Search of an Author had been produced by the Stage Society in February 1922. 2 Conrad delayed replying until 27 October (CL7 557–58). 1

125

From Philippe Neel to Conrad

Text MS Private collection; Putnam (transcription)

[letterhead:] 58 Rue de Maubeuge, Paris Le 22 Octobre [1922] Cher Monsieur, J’espère que vous avez reçu l’exemplaire de Lord Jim que je vous ai fait tenir: je souhaite que ma traduction vous plaise; vous savez que je l’ai écrite avec amour, elle est en général appréciée, mais toutes les approbations me laisseraient froid si je n’avais la vôtre. Vous trouverez çà et là, dans mon texte, quelques légères divergences littérales d’avec le vôtre; j’ai parfois un peu sacrifié à l’euphonie et au rhytme [sic], pour établir une prose qui possède un peu de la richesse, de la gloire, de la magique splendour de la vôtre. . . . Vous savez que j’ai, depuis longtemps déjà, achevé une traduction de Nostromo. Chaumeix1 me la demande pour la Revue de Paris; mais il ne peut publier que 6.000 lignes environ, soit approximativement la moitié de votre gros volume. Il m’a donc prié de faire des coupures dans le texte: je n’ai pas voulu les pratiquer sans avoir votre assentiment; préferézvous – si vous y consentez – que je coupe çà et là des phrases, ou que donnant des chapitres entiers, je résume en quelques lignes, les moins importants? La première méthode conviendrait mieux, je crois, aux lecteurs, mais constitue un travail délicat. Voulez-vous me dire votre avis? Il est bien entendu qu’il ne s’agit là que d’une publication en revue (qui serait assez souhaitable) et que votre prodigieux Nostromo paraîtra intégralement à la N. R. F. Je vais faire prochainement une conférence sur votre œuvre: je me réjouis de sentir que le public français commence à se passionner pour vos livres, et ce m’est une grande faveur que de pouvoir lui en faciliter la révélation. Veuillez croire, cher Monsieur, à l’expression de mes sentiments très dévoués. Ph. Neel J’ai reçu récemment plusiers lettres enthousiastes au sujet d’Une Victoire. Je crois que la N. R. F. va le publier dans le courant de l’an prochain.2 André Chaumeix (1874–1955) was a journalist, critic, and editor of several Parisian journals, including the Revue de Paris and Revue des deux Mondes. 2 Conrad replied on 24 October (CL7 550–52). 1

126

Translation 22 October [1922] Dear Sir, I do hope you have received the copy of Lord Jim that I sent; I also hope that my translation pleased you; you know that it was a labour of love and, while it is generally well thought of, all other approval would be worthless without yours. You will notice in places some slight literal divergences between your text and mine; I sometimes had to make sacrifices to euphony and rhythm in order to achieve prose that possesses some of your richness, glory, and magical splendour. . . . You know that I completed a translation of Nostromo some time ago. Chaumeix has requested it for the Revue de Paris, but he can only print about 6,000 lines or approximately half of your long novel. He therefore asked me if I would make cuts in the text: I didn’t want to do anything like this without your consent. Would you prefer – if you so agree – for me to cut phrases here and there or give whole chapters, summing up in a few lines those of lesser importance? The first approach would suit readers better, I believe, but it is a delicate matter. What do you think? We understand, of course, that this is only a serial publication (which would be quite a step) and that the complete text of you magnificent Nostromo will appear with the N. R. F. I plan soon to give a public lecture on your work: I am pleased that French readers are becoming interested in your books, and I am quite proud to be able to aid them in their discovery. Pray accept this expression of my very sincere devotion. Ph. Neel I have recently received several enthusiastic letters about Victory. I believe the N. R. F. plans on publishing it sometime next year.

From Philippe Neel to Conrad

Text MS Private collection; Putnam (transcription)

[letterhead:] 58 Rue de Maubeuge, Paris Le 29 Octobre 1922 Cher Monsieur, Je vous remercie de votre bonne lettre: votre approbation de ma version de Lord Jim m’est le plus précieux des encouragements; j’espère

127

que vous serez aussi satisfait des autres œuvres de vous que j’ai traduites: The Set of Six, Chance, Une Victoire, Nostromo. Pour ce dernier, qui me paraît avec Jim le plus formidable de vos livres, je retiens une suggestion que vous me laissiez entrevoir dans votre lettre. “Si je n’étais pas enrhumé” disiez-vous, et “si je n’avais pas une pièce en répétition, je ferais une fugue à Paris, pour vous aider dans cette besogne de rognage et de raccourcissement.” Mais vous ne tousserez pas toujours, et votre pièce finira par passer. . . . Alors l’heure pourrait sonner pour vous de venir à Paris! Je serais si heureux de vous voir et de travailler avec vous! Chaumeix n’est pas très pressé et ne compte pas publier Nostromo avant Juin prochain; vous voyez que cela nous donne du temps; voulez-vous me dire d’un mot si j’aurais chance de vous voir, d’ici trois ou quatre mois, mettre à exécution ce semblant de projet? J’ai fait jeudi la conférence dont je vous avais parlé, sur “Joseph Conrad, écrivain du Monde.” Mon public, assez humble, était surtout composé d’instituteurs. Mais j’ai eu une joie à sentir mes auditeurs vibrer, sinon à l’audition de ma prose, au moins à la lecture de plusieurs pages tirées du Typhon, du Miroir de la Mer, de Nostromo, de Jim, des Yeux d’Occident. Et je sais qu’à Troyes, il y aura, à l’avenir, une pépinière de lecteurs de vos œuvres. Vous me parlez du “Rover”; je ne l’ai pas lu encore, et ne l’ai même jamais vu à Paris; c’est avec Romance le seul de vos livres que je ne connaisse pas encore. . . . Si Aubry venait à Paris un de ces jours (il m’avait dit, me semble-t-il, devoir le faire), il pourrait m’en apporter un exemplaire. La Revue de la N. R. F. publiera l’été prochain “The Brute” que j’ai donné l’autre jour à Rivière.1 C’est parmi vos novellas une de celles que j’aime le plus. J’espère faire prendre dans des revues ou journaux, avant la publication en volume, les cinq autres nouvelles, aujourd’hui achevées. Excusez-moi, cher Monsieur, de vous conter maints détails oiseux: il me semble être un peu avec vous, en vous écrivant, et j’ai vécu si longtemps à votre contact, dans vos livres, que ce m’est une joie de me sentir proche de vous. Ne voudrez-vous pas me promettre de venir m’aider pour raccourcir Nostromo. Très respectueusement à vous Ph. Neel

Jacques Rivière (1886–1925), French writer and critic, was from 1919 editor of the Nouvelle Revue Française.

1

128

(N’oubliez pas que je suis médecin et même “considered pretty good” dans ma profession. Si vous toussez encore, je pourrai peut-être vous soulager!) Translation 29 October 1922 Dear Sir, Thank you for your good letter; your approval of my version of Lord Jim is the most precious encouragement; I hope that you will be equally satisfied with my other translations of your works: The Set of Six, Chance, Victory, Nostromo. For this latter, which I hold with Jim to be your greatest novel, I retain a suggestion contained in your letter. “If I didn’t have a cold,” you said, and “if I didn’t have my play in rehearsal, I would sneak away to Paris to help you with this business of trimming and shortening.” But you cannot cough forever and your play will be over one day . . . . So you might then find time to come to Paris! I would be delighted to meet you and to work with you! Chaumeix is not in a hurry and will probably not publish Nostromo before next June; as you can see, that leaves us time; tell me, please, if I will have the good fortune of seeing you carry out this plan in the next three or four months. Last Thursday, I gave the lecture I mentioned on “Joseph Conrad, World Author.” My audience was rather modest, mainly made up of teachers. But I had the great joy of feeling them vibrate, if not at my prose, at the reading of several pages drawn from Typhoon, the Mirror of the Sea, Nostromo, Jim, and Western Eyes. And I know that at Troyes, there will always be for the future a circle of readers of your work. You speak to me about “The Rover” which I have not read and which I have never even seen in Paris; it is, with Romance, the only one of your books that I do not yet know. . . . If Aubry comes to Paris anytime soon (I believe he said he had planned to), he could bring me a copy. The Revue de la N. R. F. will publish “The Brute” next summer; I submitted it to Rivière the other day. It is one of my favourite of your stories. I hope to place the other five stories that I have finished in magazines or newspapers before the publication in a collected volume. I am sorry, dear Sir, to rattle on with such trivial details: it feels to me like I am a bit closer to you when I write since I have spent so much time in your presence through your books that I feel a great sense of joy at being with you. Don’t you want to promise that you will come and help me shorten Nostromo.

129

Respectfully yours, Ph. Neel (Don’t forget that I am a doctor and even “considered pretty good” in the profession. If you are still coughing, I might be able to give you some relief!)

From Arnold Bennett to Eric S. Pinker Text TS UCL; Hepburn I, 317

12B George Street 8th November 1922 My dear Eric, I very much differ from the general verdict on The Secret Agent. I think that Act I and the first two scenes of Act II are superb. To my mind the third scene of Act II is comparatively weak, and the author has not been well served by his interpreters here. Act III is not equal to Act I, but it is very good, except that the last scene is a great deal too long. The scene between husband and wife before she kills him is simply magnificent. The play is extremely interesting, dramatically, as well as in all the details of psychology. It holds you completely. If it holds you completely the construction must be fundamentally good. Here and there – especially in the last act – I think the construction is a bit clumsy, but the occasional clumsiness is a trifle. The entire newspaper press has talked mere bosh about the construction. It would. The play is certainly the best I have seen for a very, very long time, and by a long way the best. It is highly distinguished. Twenty years will pass before such a play can possibly hope to have a success in London. London is fed on pap, and dishonest pap at that. I should think that on the continent the thing ought to have a very considerable success. It is, artistically, a most disturbing play, for the reason that it shows up, in a way that nothing but a first-rate work of art can do, the superlative fatuity, futility, infantility, and falsity of even the respectable better-than-average English plays that we talk seriously about in this here city. Yours sincerely, Arnold Bennett1

Eric Pinker forwarded this letter to Conrad, who replied to Bennett on 11 November 1922 (CL7 581–82).

1

130

From John Galsworthy to Conrad Text MS Brandeis; Stape (2)

[letterhead:] Grove Lodge Nov 26. 1922. Dearest Conrad I’ve long been meaning to write & thank you for your letter,1 but my laziness increases with my years, & so does the tale of my correspondence. I hear that your novel is soon coming – I hope that’s true.2 I began one a few days ago, but it’ll be very long, I fear, before it’s finished. London is very dark & dreary, except for a bright day here & there. We plan to escape to Biskra in January; but at this time of year plans don’t stand much chance against germs. Ada sends her love to you both – from bed, a cold not bad at present. I went to Brussels & Holland with Rudo3 not long ago, & we saw all the pictures there were with much profit. I hope Jessie is better again. John must be getting quite big & elderly. I lunched with Edward [Garnett] not long ago – he has had a bad leg from varicose vein, but looked well otherwise. My love to you all. J. G. The death of Hudson removes the most unique personality of our time.4 J. G.

Possibly in response to Conrad’s letter of [7 November] (CL7 568–69), although an intervening letter from Conrad may be missing. Again, Conrad’s reply to Galsworthy may be lost or unlocated, since the next extant letter to Galsworthy of 12 December (CL7 612–13) is unrelated to the issues raised above. 2 Presumably a reference to The Rover; Galsworthy was beginning The White Monkey. 3 Rudolf Helmut Sauter (1895–1977), Galsworthy’s nephew, was an illustrator. 4 W. H. Hudson had died on 18 August. 1

131

From George T. Keating to Conrad Text TS copy Berg;1 Unpublished

[Early December 1922] My dear Mr. Conrad:On the afternoon of the 6th inst. I had the pleasure of hearing Mr. Hugh Walpole lecture on the art of Joseph Conrad. His was a pleasing personality and to look upon him was like feeling a breath of air from fresh green English fields.2 I must confess that he failed to tell me anything new about Conrad. He probably interested a good many in the audience who perhaps have not read as widely of your works as I have, and therefore the lecture was worth while and further, while it was not instructive it was indeed very interesting. However, he was talking about a great friend of mine and this in itself was worth the trip to the theatre. Of the literature that has been written on or about you, I think that the essays in Mencken’s “Book of Prefaces”3 easily are the best. I know that you don’t entirely agree with Mencken’s diagnosis of your motives and general psychology4 but I know that you agree with me that he is very enthusiastic and entirely in earnest in what he writes. I am enclosing herewith an article taken from this month’s “Smart Set” by our friend Mencken,5 which you will probably find entertaining. Through his very enthusiasm and gusto he has undoubtedly made hundreds in this country read your works who otherwise probably know you only as a name. Mr. Walpole stressed the point, and wisely too, that notwithstanding and admitting that some of your novels are very different in form from the accepted tradition of the English novel, at least up to the present This TS copy is an abbreviated version of Keating’s letter that Conrad had had prepared for Eric S. Pinker. It is lightly annotated in Conrad’s hand in the margins and begins with the prefatory note:

1

This is from G. T. Keating with whom I’ve corresponded for 3– 4 years. I don’t know what his business is. He must be a wealthy man as I had to ask him to stop sending me presents of expensive cigars, magnificently bound books[,] costly paperknives and so on. An enthusiast too but not a lunatic. Against this description Conrad added two apostrophes. H. L. Mencken’s work had been published in 1917. 4 Conrad added: “(I don’t).” 5 “Conrad Revisited,” Smart Set, 69.4 (December 1922), 141–44. 2 3

132

time, allowing that they are more difficult, perhaps, to casually read, the effort is so worth while and the reward so great that he urged his audience to do so forthwith and read everything that you have written. That is what I have been telling my friends for many years, and with, on the whole, considerable success. To illustrate, I send you herewith a letter recently received from one of our friends,1 who contended until a few months ago that she simply could not read Conrad. To excite her interest I read aloud some of the passages from “Youth” and then the ending of “The Planter of Malata” – the wonderfully imagined scene of Renouard swimming to his eternal peace and shadowy ideal, then the wonderful essay, the “Preface to the Nigger of the Narcissus.” I imagine my reading was probably poor for she was apparently not much impressed, but somehow my enthusiasm must have been contagious because she did start by reading the “Arrow of Gold.” She now probably regrets there are only eighteen volumes to be read for the first time. As you may know, Walpole believes that “The Secret Sharer” is your greatest short story and “Nostromo” your most satisfying novel. Notwithstanding the mighty struggle you went through to create “Nostromo,” which is truly a wonderful work, “Lord Jim” is easily my choice of your longer works and “Youth,” at least in my opinion, your greatest short story. I consider the “End of the Tether,” “Heart of Darkness,” “The Planter of Malata,” and Tomorrow,” all greater than the “Secret Sharer,” – but what difference does it make? I would not mention the fact excepting that it was contained in the Walpole lecture. You may be interested to know that he compared your short stories, and entirely favorably, with Guy de Maupassant, and as I understand it you also are an admirer of the French master. I was mighty glad he had the courage and good sense to say that in his opinion the figure of Singleton holding on to the rudder of the Narcissus all night through the storm was fully as heroic and realistic as one of Mr. [****]’s hero[e]s sneaking out of the sinister looking house at three o’clock in the morning. Of course, this was irony but the point was well taken, and the check would have to sooner or later be drawn on modern realistic literature.2

1 2

Conrad added: “Letter sent back to K[eating]. Writer is a convert.” Conrad replied at length on 14 December (CL7 614–17).

133

From John Galsworthy to Conrad Text MS Brandeis; Stape (2)

Beach Hotel Littlehampton Sussex Ap 8. 1923 Dearest Conrad I am vastly disgusted to have missed you the other day, but very glad that Ada saw you. It was particularly charming of you to give her that inscribed copy of “Bel Ami”;1 she treasures it. So you are off to America on the 26th, is it – Saxonia?2 I believe it will do you a lot of good, and that you’ll enjoy it in spite of certain obvious drawbacks. I hear good accounts from Eric Pinker of your work & affairs generally. Jessie’s book is a [sic] most valuable.3 We shall make our cook much learn & digest. It’s a mine of learning & wisdom. I hope all is well with the boys. Ada is better & enjoying it here, so far. Our love to you all. Yours affectly J. G.4

From Jessie Conrad to Conrad Text MS Yale; JCLW 67–68

[letterhead:] Oswalds April 23rd 1923. My dear boy, I hope the wires reached you safely in Moville. Sir Robert Jones was as nice as ever and I was awfully lucky to see him as he is desperately busy and goes to Holland next month and to Canada for three days in June. In July he will be home and as he said ready for anything. He is going to try to get down here to see me in about a month. 1 Maupassant’s 1885 novel was a particularly apt gift, since Conrad had written a preface to Ada Galsworthy’s translation of Maupassant stories in Yvette and Other Stories (1904). 2 Conrad sailed from Glasgow on the Tuscania on 21 April. 3 A Handbook of Cookery for a Small House (1923). 4 Conrad replied on 14 April (CL8 81–82).

134

You will have had Dr Reid’s1 wire telling you that they are going to try two different forms of electricity, and have good hopes of giving relief. My impressions were once again quite correct. The muscle has adhered to the painful surface of the bones causing the increase of pain and the added loss of power in moving the limb. He hopes to break down the adhesion and strengthen the muscle by the new treatment. He asked me if I thought the greater difficulty in walking was due to the pain or loss of power in the muscle. I said to both, to which he quite agreed. On no account must I keep still as inactivity would result in utter loss of power to move in a very short time. The new treatment starts today and I will be able perhaps to tell you something in Thursday’s letter. We had a very satisfactory run down and arrived at 7 p.m. There was no post worth considering. One or two requests for your signature to books[,] one or two requests for autographs. I have answered all and have sent John’s account to the office. I had a letter from Borys on Saturday[;] he was not then sure of his fate as regards the invention. There have been some very good notices in the Tatler and one or two other papers of the little book.2 There was also an offer to me from a big London Magazine to take over the whole cookery side of the Magazine and to write two articles a month.3 As the offer was made through Curtis Brown4 I don’t suppose it would hold good. Anyhow I sent the letter to the office. It shows the book is attracting some notice on its own merits anyhow, doesn’t it. I am posting you the book you wanted also the photograph. The Rustons5 came yesterday and were as nice as ever. I hope you remembered to write me a line from Moville. I am with you in spirit all the time. I hear each beat of the engines and picture you to myself very vividly. I do hope dear boy that you are feeling fairly well and that you are not too worried with anything. I shall keep this open till the post is in this afternoon. It is bitterly cold and yesterday was dreadfully wet. John is very good and I shall miss him terribly.6 It is post time and nothing so far to send you. I expect you will 1 (Edward Douglas) Whitehead Reid (1883–1930), a senior surgeon and radiologist at the Kent and Canterbury Hospital. 2 Jessie’s handbook of cookery. 3 The offer had come from the editor of Home Magazine (Jessie Conrad to W. C. Wicken, 24 April 1923, MS Berg). 4 The London literary agency founded in 1899. 5 Richard Curle’s sister, Muriel Amy, had married Joseph Seward Ruston in 1909. 6 He was about to return to Tonbridge School after the Easter vacation.

135

be anxious for news when you arrive. I have written to Keating, Adams1 and all the people to whom a letter was due. All our love to you and remembrances to Mr and Mrs Doubleday. Your loving wife Jessie.2

From Jessie Conrad to Conrad Text MS Yale; JCLW 71–72 [letterhead:] Oswalds April 26th 1923 My dear boy, You are nearing the end of your trip now. I wonder if the week will have seemed long to you. I hope you are sleeping well and getting a real rest. Everything is now ready for dear old John tomorrow. I shall miss him desperately; to have you all away has never happened before. You can picture me every morning sitting up in bed writing letters. I am answering each letter as it comes so as not to be overwhelmed by them. There have been several modest requests that if folks brought over in their car their collection of first editions you should add to their value by signing them. It has been bitterly cold ever since we got home and for the most time wet. I wrote to Ridgeway3 and sent the cheque for John’s pocket money. I am going to write to Jean Aubry and Jack [Galsworthy;] then I think I can rest for a bit. I have put your Times Supplement up safe for you. Two more of Dick’s Stevenson volumes came and I sent them on. There were also two more Hudsons which I have put in the study. I went over to Cranbrook4 on Tuesday and found them all well. I am sending John off from Canterbury as the weather is bad and the treatment rather painful. I do hope it will have the desired effect of breaking Elbridge L(apham) Adams (1866–1934), a New York City lawyer, whose acquaintance with Conrad dated from 1916. 2 For Conrad’s letters from America to his wife, see CL8 85–87, 87–88, 90–91, 93–94, 95–96, 100, 102–03, 104. 3 Revd Neville Vibart Ridgeway (1883–1973), a master at Tonbridge School and John Conrad’s house-master. He was married to a sister of Conrad’s old friend Ted Sanderson. 4 A village near Sittingbourne, Kent, where Jessie’s mother and sister Eleanor lived. 1

136

down the adhesions. It is curious how insensible it is except at the two ends of the adhesions. It was time to do something but “Bobbie” says he has never had such a persistent case before. I am to write to him to catch him before he leaves for Holland early next month. I have not yet heard from Borys as to whether his piston was accepted. I expect he has written to you himself. I shall look for a letter from you sometime within the next ten days, and will write again on Monday. I think there is no more to say at the moment. With all our love to you. Yours lovingly Jessie. Vinten1 takes his responsibility very seriously and is very attentive.

From Jessie Conrad to Conrad Text MS Yale; JCLW

[letterhead:] Oswalds May 10th 1923 My dear boy, I hope I get a letter soon[;] it seems such a long time since I had news from you. We are having such very wet weather just now and that seems to make us more dull and lonely than ever. Rosamund has just left[;] she looked very blooming. The park has been invaded by a line of motor “busses” some bean feasters. Poor things they did look dismal. I have not seen anything of the Bells but Mrs Bell told John that she was coming to see me. There is a little change in the knee[:] it is not less painful but Dr Reid says that any change is encouraging but that Bobbie agreed with him that it would be a long time. Dick suggested coming this week end but although I have written twice to him to know when he thought of coming I have not heard. Poor old Hodgis2 is a little better but it is very distressing to hear him crying every time he moves. There was very little post this morning. I keep all letters answered as much as I can. The Colvins have both been under the weather again but the last news was a little better. We have nearly finished Spring cleaning and the 1 2

Charles Vinten, the Conrads’ chauffeur. The family dog.

137

house looks fresher and much lighter somehow. Borys writes cheerfully but has not yet heard anything definite about his piston or lamp. John seems very fit and in good form. I will write again on Monday. I hope your letter arrives soon. With love from us both. Your loving wife, Jessie Conrad.

From Russell Doubleday to Julian Street Text TS Williams; Unpublished

[letterhead:] Doubleday, Page & Co. The Country Life Press, Garden City, N.Y. May 15, 1923 Dear Julian: Conrad is going to New England with my brother and will not be back until about the 25th. Would you care to come and have luncheon here at Country Life Press and meet him, sometime between May 25th and June 1st? You and Edna Ferber1 will be the only people outside of our own little group. Here’s hoping you are well and happy. Yours, Russell. P.S. – Effendi has just let me see the letter you wrote to Conrad dated April 6th. As you know, he has not been able to attend any public functions. He is a very frail man and he is also a very shy man, so he would not be able to go to Princeton. He would not be physically able nor could he do it without much embarrassment for him, for he has refused so many other invitations. If you will be willing to make the journey to Garden City and come and see him here, I think you would enjoy it. He is a charming man and has the simplicity that often goes with greatness. I had the pleasure of meeting him at luncheon at Effendi’s the other day and I have seldom met a finer man. R. D.2 The Wisconsin-born writer (1885–1968), who won the Pulitzer Prize for So Big (1924). 2 Appended to this letter is a handwritten description by Street of the Garden City luncheon-party for Conrad that he attended on 28 May: 1

138

From Jessie Conrad to Conrad Text MS Yale; JCLW 99–100

[letterhead:] Oswalds May 17th 1923 My dear boy. I am looking forward with great impatience to your next letter. I am so anxious to know how your lecture went off.1 Of course I shall be very delighted to see the lady and her daughter.2 I only hope we may soon have a little dry weather. It has been so dreadfully wet and dark here. Yesterday we had to have a light at 4. in the afternoon for over an hour. It seems a dreadful long time since you went away. The house looks so nice now that everything has been cleaned and polished ready for Monday, May 28/23. Went to Garden City by 11 am train – the usual train – and lunched there. There were eight of us – Mrs Frank Doubleday, Russell D.[,] Edna Ferber, a Mr Fuller of Old Corner Bookstore, Boston, a lady who is an expert proofreader, and reads Conrad’s book, read Stevenson’s set for D. P. & Co., and myself, plus Conrad & Muirhead Bone, the British (Scottish) etcher. Eight in all. Conrad slender with a remarkable head, like his pictures. A brilliant brown eye, almost black, with a drooping lid. Now and then when the lid droops too much, he opens eyes wide. He is lean and slight – thin gray beard but eyebrows very black. Walked with cane, not too steadily (rheumatism, they say), and once at table I saw him wince as if with a sudden pain. He carries a monacle on string, but didn’t put it in his eye while I was there. Wears tall stiff collar, uncomfortable looking. Speaks with marked accent – Polish I suppose, – overlaid in a curious way with British accent. He told me he had only been back to Poland 3 times since he left; that his only family ties there were with two old women. He thought of diplomatic service, when a young man, but how – in Poland? Has lived in three places in Kent, but I take it in same neighbourhood. Has 2 sons, who feel entirely British – as he himself does. He is shy, but sweet and friendly; talks a good deal, and hard to understand. J[ulian] S[treet]. At the home of Mrs Curtiss James in New York. Conrad’s letter of 6 May had mentioned the imminent arrival from America of Mrs May Safford and her daughter Cornessia (CL8 90). 1 2

139

your return. The copies of the “Secret Agent”1 arrived yesterday and four of the collected Hudson since you left. John sent me your letter yesterday to see. I have written to Karola2 this morning also to Mrs Doubleday. I am sending you two of the photographs Elliott & Fry3 took. If you think them good enough you might want to give one to your hostess. I rather like them myself. Dr Fox4 was here on Tuesday just as bright and cheery as ever. The old knee is very naughty and there is still a lot of pain in it. Still the muscle is a little less taut so that is an improvement anyhow. Borys wrote yesterday saying that his patent was still on trial and that he did not expect any definite results for a month or more. He is writing to you himself. I think I would like to meet you in London if all goes well. Lady Northcote5 has written asking me to lunch with her in town early in June. The Colvins are pretty well. I have not heard from Nellie Hope 6 lately. I had a letter from Constance Garnett this morning. I have not yet heard from Eric. Much love dear boy till next letter. Your loving wife Jessie.

The text of the stage version had just been published by the T. Werner Laurie firm. 2 One of two daughters of a distant Polish relative of Conrad’s, Karola Zagórska (1885–1955) was a professional singer who sometimes lived in Italy, and later in the United States where she sang in opera. She had visited the Conrads in 1916 and 1920. 3 Formed in 1863 and active until 1963, Messrs Elliott and Fry of 55 Baker Street, London, specialized in studio portraiture. 4 Campbell Tilbury Fox (1880–1949), a medical officer at Ashford Cottage Hospital. 5 Alice, Baroness Northcote (1853–1934) was the widow of Henry Stafford, Baron Northcote, who had been an MP for Exeter, Governor of Bombay, and Governor General of Australia. In 1919, she was made a DBE (Dame of the British Empire) for her services to hospitals. 6 Ellen Hope (nee Meyer, 1854–1941), the wife of Conrad’s old friend G. F. W. Hope and a good friend and neighbour of the Conrads during their residence in Stanford-le-Hope (Essex). 1

140

From F. Scott Fitzgerald to the Literary Editor of the Chicago DailyTribune Text Tribune

[19 May 1923]1 Butcher:2

Dear Miss I’d rather have written Conrad’s “Nostromo” than any other novel. First, because I think it is the greatest novel since “Vanity Fair” (possibly excluding “Madame Bovary”), but chiefly because “Nostromo”, the man, intrigues me so much. Now the Nostromo who exists in life and always has existed, whether as a Roman centurion or as a modern top sergeant, has often crept into fiction, but until Conrad there was no one to ponder over him. He was dismissed superficially and abruptly even by those who most admired his efficient handling of the proletariat either in crowds or as individuals. Kipling realized that this figure, with his almost autocratic disdain of weakness, is one of the most powerful props of the capitalistic system, and under various names he occurs in many of Kipling’s stories of Indian life – but always as a sort of glorified servant. The literary attitude toward him has been that of an officer sitting in his club with a highball during drill. “Well, I’ve got nothing to worry about. Sergt. O’Hare has the troop and –” this with a patronizing condescension – “I believe he knows just about as much about handling them as I do.” Now Conrad didn’t stop there. He took this man of the people and imagined him with such a completeness that there is no use of any one else pondering over him for some time. He is one of the most important types in our civilization. In particular he’s one that always made a haunting and irresistible appeal to me. So I would rather have dragged his soul from behind his astounding and inarticulate presence than written any other novel in the world. Sincerely, F. Scott Fitzgerald

A contribution to a regular series of “Confessions,” Fitzgerald’s letter was a response to the question of “what book he would rather have written than any other” (see Fig. 3.). 2 Fanny Butcher (1888–1987), was literary editor and columnist for the Chicago Daily Tribune for over forty years; she also owned the Fanny Butcher Book Store, one of Chicago’s literary salons. 1

141

Fig. 3. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “Confessions,” Chicago Daily Tribune, 19 May 1923.

142

Jessie Conrad to Conrad Text MS Yale; JCLW 107–08 [letterhead:] Oswalds May 21st 1923. My dear Boy. Your welcome wire has just arrived. I was very relieved to have it. I had letters from both boys this morning. The weather is still very stormy and both Audrey1 and I have had persistent headaches for the last three days. Joseph Retinger is coming to lunch on Wednesday. I have put him off as long as I could but he says he is going to Poland in a few days so I let him come. Dick is coming next week I think and perhaps Gordon [Gardiner] as well. There has not been much post for the last few days and nothing to report as to visitors. Mrs Watson of Winter’s Farm house called on Saturday. She is a paying guest at Bourne Park. She was very friendly and brought messages from the Bells. He has not heard of a tenant yet.2 The poor old dog is still crawling about on three legs and I have sent again to the vet. I can’t bear to see him about like it [sic]. You seem to be having a royal time and I hope not getting too tired. The change is bound to do you a lot of good. There is very little change in the knee and still a lot of pain and discomfort. I haven’t had Eric’s letter yet but in the short note he sent me from the office on Friday he said he left you very well.3 Reid is just coming and the post goes out at two, so I must close this. John says he writes to you every Sunday and Borys had written addressed to Garden City. Remember me very kindly to Mr & Mrs Doubleday and anyone I know. Always your loving wife and Mother Jessie

Audrey Seal, Jessie’s nurse/companion. The Conrads were contemplating moving from Oswalds. 3 Eric Pinker had just returned from a visit to New York. 1 2

143

From Jessie Conrad to Florence and F. N. Doubleday Text MS Princeton; Unpublished

[letterhead:] Oswalds June 25th 1923. My dear Florence and Effendi, I am sorry not to have better news of Joseph to send you. He has gout in his right hand now and has been in bed ever since you left with the exception of one day. I quite expected it as I know every little shock or upset always brings it about. It is very disappointing[;] he looked so well when you delivered him.1 We are anxious too as Borys is ill in Manchester. I feel I want to go to him and yet I am so very helpless I doubt if I would be much good when I got there. J. C. flatly refuses to see the wife and I am very much afraid this state of things may continue some time.2 It is a strange thing how close comedy is to tragedy. John wrote this morning saying he found himself hopelessly in love with the nursery governess at his school house. He thinks perhaps I had better not tell his father just yet as he hasn’t had time to get over Borys’ marriage and he might be upset again to know he wanted to engage himself. We have decided to remain here another year at least. It is a certain relief to have something settled but I am horribly worried. Please thank Effendi ever so much for the two sets of J. C.’s books, also for the extra copies of my modest little effort. We have had two warm fine days and today it is wet and cold again. I hope you have had a fine passage over and that you will not find the heat too much when you get back. We look back on your brief visit to us with very warm enjoyment and shall hope to see you again soon. Both our medical friends send their kind regards to you both, and with love from Joseph and myself. Always affectionately Jessie Conrad

The Doubledays had accompanied Conrad on his voyage home from America and visited at Oswalds. They had recently left, arriving in New York on 27 June. 2 Borys had kept secret his marriage to (Madeleine Eliza) Joan King (1894–1981) on 2 September 1922. Jessie had learned about it in April 1923, but Conrad was not told until after his return from America in the following month. 1

144

From John Galsworthy to Conrad Text MS Brandeis; Stape (2)

Hotel Cristallo, Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy June 27. 1923 Dearest Conrad We heard you were back shortly before we started for this adorable old place. I hope you are all right and have enjoyed the time away. America is an experience, whether one likes it or not. Personally, I like it; but I like it best when one can get right away west; and that I’m afraid you couldn’t do. I see that the Doubledays have been over & gone back. We should awfully like to see you and hear your tales. Perhaps we may between July 24 when we get back, and July 27 when we leave again for Wingstone. Ada is very much better, and getting her walking legs. I hope in a week we may go our usual long tramps. The air and the flowers are lovely. I am pegging away at a novel. When does yours come out in book form?1 Ada joins me in love to you both. Always yours J. G.

From John Galsworthy to Conrad Text MS Brandeis; Stape (2)

Hotel Cristallo, Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy July 14. 1923. Dearest Conrad Very glad to get a line from you,2 & gather that you are on the mend. I’m afraid there’s no chance of getting down to you between the 24th & 27th – time’s so full up. I expect you will soon get into the stride of the novel again.3 Ada continuing to flourish I’m thankful to say. Our dear love to you both. J. G. Galsworthy was still composing The White Monkey, Conrad awaiting publication of The Rover, which was to appear in December. 2 No letter from Conrad is known to survive. 3 The slowly evolving Suspense. 1

145

From Sir Robert Jones to Conrad Text Watson 315 (in part) [mid-July 1923–July 1924] My Dear Friend, Thank you for thinking of me from your sick-bed. I have been so grieved to hear of your constant affliction. Poor Hilda has lost a very lovable little child, who was everything to her.1 One asks oneself what is the meaning of life? Why this intolerable pain? What is death, and where do our dear ones go? The only palliative is work, for it alone brings forgetfulness. […]

From John Galsworthy to Conrad Text MS Brandeis; Stape (2)

[letterhead: Grove Lodge] Oct 11. 1923. Dearest Conrad The first two volumes of my Limited will be reaching you today; the other volumes of the twenty one follow two per month.2 It is a strain on book cases I fear, but I could not resist inflicting them. I am nearly recovered. Ada is no better; indeed she now recoils from a long journey. It’s the worst kind of luck. We hope you are both better. Our dear love J. G.3

His daughter Hilda (1888–1954), married to Frederick Watson, had three daughters. When Conrad wrote to one of them, Lorna (1912–97), on 15 July 1923 (CL8 133–34), her sisters were still living. One of them must have died during the following year. 2 The Works of John Galsworthy, The Manaton Edition, 30 vols. (London: Heinemann, 1923–26). 3 Conrad replied on 14 October (CL8 195–96). 1

146

From Ford Madox Ford to Conrad Text TS Yale; Unpublished

THE TRANSATLANTIC REVIEW, 65 BOULEVARD ARAGO PARIS XIII 13/X/[19]23 My dear Conrad; I wrote the foregoing some days ago1 and then put it by to reflect upon it, for I was afraid it might bother you with considerations of time and length. Now I feel certain that, if you wanted to do it at all, it would. So I make the request in altered terms: Would you let me print the passage from your letter in my first number and let me have something short for my second – of whatever kind you find easiest to write[.] It might make it more easy still if I put the financial side of the proposal at this: I would pay you fifty pounds – or 3, 750 francs whichever were the larger – for anything you wrote up to two thousand words, even if it were only five hundred; or a hundred pounds – or seven thousand five hundred francs – for anything you wrote over two thousand words even if it were no more than two thousand five hundred.2 I put it in this way merely to avoid causing you to be hampered by any thought of length, one way or the other. The date for the second number would be the 8th December (for m.s.) and I would pay you on receipt of manuscript, or when you let me know that the m.s. is ready, or before. I write in this purely business style because I am so brain-weary with fighting my proprietors over unimportant details that, if I tried to write in terms of friendship[,] I should burst into tears and have to stop. I may as well add that Thomas Hardy has promised me a poem as well as all sorts of French writers, so it won’t be a hole and corner affair. Indeed, to judge from the Paris advertisements alone it might well turn out a financial success. I have never known a magazine to get so many before publication. It won’t affect me much as I can’t in decency make a An undated letter enclosed with the above letter and printed in Portrait (pp. 221–22). The Portrait’s conjectural dating of this enclosure should be revised from “[late October 1923]” to “[early October 1923].” 2 Ford was seeking to persuade Conrad to wite a short article on the origins of A Personal Record. 1

147

profit out of it, but it would be queer to be connected with a commercial success. Of course your contribution would help it immensely. Yours always Ford M. Ford 1

From Harald Leofurn Clarke to Conrad Text LL1 156

[November 1923]2 […] From the reading of the chapter “Poland Revisited”3 I gather that you have a son; it this is so, may I say something in this letter to him. I dislike flattery in any form, but I would like him to realize what a marvellous personality you have. I have loved you more than any man I ever knew except my own father and I revere the memory that was made upon the most irresponsible of human beings, the schoolboy, because I had only just left school when I had the honour of being your boy.4 I remember so distinctly the trouble you took in the silent watches of a tropical night to teach me the different ropes. This was thirty years or more ago. […]

From John Galsworthy to Conrad Text MS Brandeis; Stape (2)

[letterhead:] Grove Lodge Nov 1. 1923 Dearest Conrad I have delayed writing so as to be able to give you definite news. Ada has been much better these last ten days, & we are sailing on the SS

Conrad replied on the 23 October (CL8 205–06). According to Jean-Aubry (LL2 359), Clarke wrote two letters to Conrad, one on 11 November 1922 (to which Conrad replied on 2 January 1923[CL8 4]), and another in November 1923; the extract here is evidently from the second letter. 3 The 1915 essay is collected in Notes on Life and Letters (1921). 4 Clarke was aged seventeen when he joined the Torrens in 1891 as an apprentice and met Conrad. 1 2

148

Arendale tomorrow for Madeira, & thence on the 12th to Teneriffe where our address will be Grand Hotel Taoro Puerto Cruz Teneriffe. We shall stay till February & make our way back by way of Lisbon[,] Cintra & perhaps Biarritz in the Spring. I am quite all right. Send us of your news now and again my dear fellow. I hope the novel goes well. I want another 100 pages of mine.1 Our blessings on you both, and much love Yours always J. G.

From Madge to Conrad Text MS Yale; Unpublished

[letterhead] Sunrise, Paddock Wood, Kent [December 1923?] To Joseph Conrad – I hate you – Why did you kill poor Peyrol. I have cried and cried. He is lovely and you are hateful to have killed him – Madge2

From Ford Madox Ford to Conrad Text TS Yale; Unpublished

[letterhead:] 56 BOULEVARD ARAGO PARIS XIII 18/1/24 My dear Conrad,

Conrad was working on Suspense, Galsworthy on The White Monkey. Like members of Dickens’s audience, the Conrad reader – in this case, unidentified – can also be driven to rebuke the author for not having allowed his main character to escape death.

1 2

149

By a most extraordinary fatality the Rover was put away along with some review copies of books that had come in and I only noticed it just this minute when we were moving the office. I’ll read it immediately. Thank you very much for sending it. Yours FM Ford.

From Lady Brooke, Dowager Ranee of Sarawak to Richard Curle Text MS Indiana; Unpublished

[letterhead:] Ascot Hill, Ascot, Berks. 13. 2. [19]24 […] I don’t want to make use of you, I hate that sort of thing if people want to make use of me, but, one day, should Conrad1 come to London, if you could smuggle me somewhere, just to shake hands with him, and say thank you, that would be quite enough. I promise not to put searching questions as to the [****] of the wind when he wrote Typhoon, neither would I worry him regarding the family tree of Lord Jim. Nor would I insist on knowing the amount of liquor Almayer consumed in a day. I should only have recorded on my tombstone – I have met Conrad! Deo Gratias. R.I.P! – Subtle and Profound! – […]2

From Ford Madox Ford to Conrad Text MS Yale; Unpublished

[letterhead:] the transatlantic review 29, Quai d’Anjou, Paris (4e) The word is encircled by sunrays. A meeting was arranged at the Curzon Hotel for 29 February but had to be cancelled when Lady Brooke fell ill (Lady Brooke to Curle, [27 February 1924], MS Indiana).

1 2

150

Editorial file 14/2/[19]24 Dear Conrad, I have received a letter from Pinker which puts me in a great quandary. I am quite determined not to have anything to do with Pinker in future: he having treated me with gross insolence:1 also I have made an agreement with Duckworth that all my work sh[oul]d be dealt with in America and Eng[land] by him (except of course collaborations, as to wh[ich] we quite agreed that the collaborated work of ours should not be tied by either of our separate agreements, this being an absolutely formal agreement between us.) Pinker therefore has no more right to cite y[ou]r agreement with Doubledays against me than I have to cite mine with Duckworth against him. Duckworth however did approach me of himself about the Nature of a Crime. Such should give him priority over Pinker. Also I like Holt who will really make special efforts with the book: moreover he will pay us in full and at once – whereas Pinker will charge a commission & sit on the money for ever. Of course I will be guided by what your wishes are, but I should be exceedingly obliged to you if you w[oul]d let the matter go through as I arranged it. Yrs, always in frantic haste Ford MF.2

Ford had had a strained meeting with Eric S. Pinker in London on 4 February. After the meeting, Pinker wired Conrad: “Ford just left visiting you today very much on his dignity. Considers himself insulted by publication of book in England and America without full advertisement. His collaboration says he was promised Inheritors at anyrate should not be reissued. I told him I did not know this [and] thought his consent had already been obtained apologized for any unwitting slight and asked what he wanted done he refused to reply until he had seen you[.] I refrained from pointing out that all our proceedings have been to Fords financial advantage but suggested that if you approved Inheritors republication he need not worry. Think gentle handling advisable but knowing Ford cannot help suspicion that he meditates a squeeze which of course we cannot allow suggest you may find card to play in connection with Nature of Crime permission to republish which can be revoked. Pinker” (Berg). 2 On 17 February, Conrad sent his reply to Ford (dated 18 February) via Eric S. Pinker, with a covering letter headed “most secret” and warning Pinker that Ford “seems to be suffering from the idea that everybody in the world has insulted him. One would think it a mania if one did not suspect that there is a purpose in it” (CL8 314). 1

151

From Ford Madox Ford to Conrad Text TS Yale; Unpublished

[letterhead:] 65 BOULEVARD ARAGO (13ÈME) 22/2/[19]24 Dear Conrad, Very well; I will resign myself if the matter is to become a bother to you.1 Leaving Holt is going however to cause me a great deal of inconvenience and indeed loss, as the printing of the edition de luxe by the Three Mountains Press would have been very profitable. Do not, however, please imagine that I am unreasonable over this affair of Dent and Doubleday Page and Pinker. There can be few writers who have bothered less over their careers than I – and indeed you yourself once wrote me a formal letter saying that I was bitching my career by something or other: I think by letting someone produce a stage version of the Fifth Queen.2 But in this particular matter I have had more than a little to put up with. It began with between thirty and forty letters from private readers and journalists in America asking if I were really part author of Romance and the Inheritors because Doubleday Page were circularising and advertising the books without my name. I wrote Doubleday a quite amiable letter suggesting that this was disagreeable to me and asking them to make a change. I also saw J. B. Pinker who was just going to America and asked him to put the matter right. He gave me an assurance that there should be no more editions of either Romance or the Inheritors, without my being informed of it – for till I got the letters in question I had no idea that Doubledays were issuing them in your collected edition[.] And you must remember that the perfectly formal agreement between yourself and me was that the collaborations were not to be included in any agreement for the collected works of either of us. Obviously if you had told me that you wanted to include them I should have agreed – for you know that my admiration for your work has always been so great that if you had wanted to I would have let you include all my works in your collected editions or anything else that should have been of use to you. But I had no signification of your wishes from you and, as I said[,] did not know that Doubledays were publishing In response to Conrad’s letter of 18 February. Conrad had written to Ford about a failed stage version of The Fifth Queen Crowned (1908) in a letter of 9 March 1909: “you are a prodigal of your toil and your talent … one would like to see your largesse used respectfully” (CL4 202).

1 2

152

the collected edition till I got those letters. I have also had a great deal of unpleasantness with Pinker over some accounts which I never succeeded in extracting from him. When I, then, saw Pinker he gave me a perfectly solemn undertaking that no more editions of Romance or the Inheritors should be issued without my seeing the catalogues, bindings and wrappers – and indeed, without my sanction. He also assured me that you were not bound to Doubleday Page for the books but that it was merely a matter of arrangement; that the arrangement had been made at a time when he did not know my address. (There are of course more things underneath all this than meet the eye, Pinker acting for many more clients than one.) On his making these undertakings and promising the accounts that I wanted we parted quite friendlily and then I heard of his death[.] And the next thing I heard about it was that the Spectator sent me a catalogue of Dent’s new edition which appeared to be a reprint of Doubleday Page’s[.] I wrote to Dent last November; they answered that it was a mistake and that they were re-issuing the books with new wrappers and re-printing the catalogues. But when I was in London I discovered that they had done nothing at all. I then saw young Pinker who irritated me extremely by his quite airy assurances that he knew nothing about the matter at all. He told me that he proposed to handle the Nature of a Crime; I told him that he should do nothing of the sort until he had my authorisation. I told him that perfectly explicitly and he agreed. The next thing I heard was a letter from him saying that he had made an offer to Doubleday Page! In the meantime Doubleday Page have taken no notice at all of two letters that I have written them. This reads rather like the tangled tale of a lunatic, but I think you will agree that I have some right, considering the cumulative nature of this extreme insolence, to express some irritation. But, as I say, let it slide if it becomes troublesome to yourself, and let Pinker handle it as for you. As long as I do not have to correspond with him I shall probably forget his existence. I am, in any case, nearly maddened by French Company law; their regulations are incredible; they threaten me with prosecutions once a week because my business people cannot understand them, my business people being anyhow no good at all and they have had all the capital of the review locked up since the beginning of December whilst the notaires comply with formalities that have no sense at all, so I have had to run the whole thing since then out of my own pocket – which made

153

me all the more anxious to take Holt’s offer of immediate payment, especially with the exchange what it is and likely to go against the pound. That however is my funeral. I have been in bed for a couple of days with my usual lung trouble, but am better again today, though not out yet[.] I hope you are well. Yours, FMF.1

From Muirhead Bone to Conrad Text MS Yale; Unpublished

Byways Steep, Petersfield. Hants Feb 26 [1924] My dear Joseph I have most stupidly caught influenza and cannot get to London this week, though I hope to be out of bed towards the week end. So I can’t have the pleasure I was looking forward to of seeing you in town while you are there. I am very sorry. I was delighted to hear that you are much better yourself. That is splendid! I wonder if you are still thinking of going to Biarritz? I am still hoping that Epstein bust of you will be fixed up soon,2 and I wanted to bring him along with me to visit you at your hotel, but now I can’t do it. So I wonder if you could ask him to see you while you are in town? His address is –– 23 Guilford St Russell Square And he is in the telephone book. I know he would be awfully pleased to meet you, and will be disappointed that I am not able to be up this week to take him to you. I mentioned your going to be in London to him, last week, and I said I would try to arrange a meeting. I am sure you will like him – he is really a very nice as well as a tremendously talented man! I should be grateful if you can arrange to meet him. Conrad replied on 2 March (CL8 320). The sittings for Epstein, arranged through Bone, took place at Oswalds in March.

1 2

154

I have been watching sunshine and then thick snow and then sunshine again from my bedroom window since I began this scribble! – See you catch no colds in this variable weather in London! My warmest regards to Jessie – I hope her doctor’s news of her is good. Yours ever affectionately Muirhead Bone

From Ford Madox Ford to Conrad Text TS Yale; Unpublished

[letterhead:] the transatlantic review 29, Quai d’Anjou, Paris (4e) 14th May 1924 Dear Conrad, Would you just take a look at the enclosed proofs1 and return them to me at your convenience? I have had them looked through in this office and have only found two printers’ errors. What about some sort of prefatory note? As the American edition is to go into your collected works you may prefer to write this. I’d certainly very much prefer not to as I am up to my eyes in work, but I think there ought to be at least some sort of bibliographical note. Yours always, FM Ford2

From Henry Furst to Conrad Text TS Berg; Curreli (2)

[letterhead:] Monastero di S. Scolastica Subiaco May 20, 1924 Dear Mr. Conrad, I thank you very much for your kind letter.3 In case your agent has not concluded any arrangement, I hope you will let me know, as I think I Of The Nature of a Crime. Conrad replied on 17 May, returning the corrected proofs with a brief “Foreword,” suggesting that Ford should write a separate foreword as their last act of collaboration. 3 Conrad’s reply to Furst’s first letter does not appear to have survived. 1 2

155

could without any great difficulty arrange for the complete publication of your works in Italian, in the same manner as in France. Modesty aside, I believe that very few people in Italy have as complete a knowledge as I have of both languages: without which a translation cannot be but a dead and futile thing. In any case, I hope you will remember that I am particularly anxious to translate “Youth”. A very important Italian firm of publishers1 has already expressed his interest, and it would be my intention, if you honour me with the task, of entrusting the direction of the series to a very prominent Italian critic of English literature, a fervent admirer of your work, whose high reputation would be more than sufficient to ensure the quality of the translations. Most of the translators would be chosen from the group of the “Ronda”, who, as you know, are considered to be among the best younger writers of Italian.2 If, after carefully considering the matter, you let me have, as I hope, a favourable answer within a few weeks, I believe an agreement could quickly be come to and the work started at once so that the first volume or volumes could appear in the autumn. I hope you will not neglect to weigh the advantage of having the translations directed by one who has studied both at Oxford and at Padua, who writes in both languages (for my knowledge of English, I need only refer you to my article on d’Annunzio, whose secretary I was throughout the Fiuman expedition,3 in the Nineteenth Century Review for February 1921: only the obnoxious title, “D’Annunzio and the City of Dreams”, is to be attributed to the editor and not to me.) I did not mean to suggest (as you perhaps seem to have inferred) that you are unknown in Italy. What I meant was that you are absolutely unknown to such readers as read only Italian, and they are not few. Many of those who read French of course know the five or six books that have appeared in the admirable French translation.

The firm of Alpes, which published Nostromo, Tales of Unrest, A Set of Six (under the title Gaspar Ruiz), and Victory before abandoning the project. 2 For Conrad’s earlier contact with La Ronda, see the letter from Emilio Cecchi of 26 March 1919. 3 D’Annuzio, and the troops under his command, had triumphantly entered Fiume in September 1919, his arrival even noted by the New York Times (1 October 1919, 1). 1

156

I was also for three years the secretary of Gordon Craig,1 who, I am sure, would assure you of my capacities if you wrote to him. (Villa Raggio, Sant’Ambrogio, Rapallo). Believe me, Yours Faithfully, Henry Furst2

From Ford Madox Ford to Conrad Text TS Yale; Mizener 337 (in part)

[letterhead:] the transatlantic review 29, Quai d’Anjou, Paris (4e) 21/5/[19]24 Private. Dear Conrad, Very well: here is an addition to your preface.3 Holt, by the bye, was very anxious to include as an appendix the analysed version of passages from Romance that I published in No ii of this periodical. I thought it rather a good idea myself as it is the sort of thing that the American public is rather mad about. Do you see any objection? On the whole matter of my contributing to this edition you ought, I think[,] to be advised of this: Mesdames Elsie and Violet Hueffer are about to burst into new and even more violent litigation as to their right to use my abandoned patronymic.4 As, in the course of this a good deal of mud is certain to be showered over me I do not know whether you ought to associate your name so intimately with mine as these joint prefaces would seem to connote, so that I should be perfectly ready to have you drop out my contribution, but not yours. I had this in mind when I last wrote about the question of my contributing a half-preface, (Edward Henry) Gordon Craig (1872–1966), the son of the actress Ellen Terry, was an actor, stage-designer, producer, and writer; he founded the Gordon Craig School for the Art of the Theatre in Florence. 2 Conrad probably left Eric Pinker to compose a reply to this letter (CL8 378). 3 Ford included three typescript pages as his contribution to the joint preface for The Nature of a Crime. 4 Ford’s estranged wife Elsie had been angered by Violet Hunt’s having signed herself “Violet Hunt Hueffer” in a recent letter to the Weekly Westminster (Mizener, p. 337). 1

157

but a certain coyness about referring to my private affairs made me conceal the real reason for my reluctance. I’d like by the bye to make the one comment that, though I’m determined never to utter anything in the nature of an apology for my existence, and still more never to indulge in anything like polemics, when I look back on my life I can see nothing to regret except mistaken – or miscalculated, generosities. These are of course as flagitious as crimes or any other form of dishonour. They are however not so depressing to one’s vitality. I shall give up the editing of this thing after next number in which case it will probably stop as I cannot find anyone ready to take up these labours. It is rather like being the dung-beetle that I saw on a slope leading up to the Genoese castle behind Gatti di Vivario in Corsica. It rolled its pellet of goat’s dropping nearly up to the castle gate, then rolled down the whole slope and then went up again. I do not know whether it ever got to the top. Yours always FMF. Do let me know how Jessie goes on.1

From J. St Loe Strachey to Conrad Text TS carbon HL; Stape (1) (transcription)

28th May, 1924.2 Private. My dear Mr. Conrad, You are characteristically generous and unfussy about your letter. I have placed the essential words as the text of my article, and I can only say that I wish sincerely that it had been worthier of them. It is quite sound and sensible, but for some reason or other [I] could not make it as good as I should have liked. However, I know you will be an indulgent critic.

Conrad responded on 22 May (CL8 361). In response to Conrad’s letter of 27 May (CL8 366), in which he had given Strachey permission to adapt an extract from his letter of 24 May (CL8 362–63) in the text of his article, “Topics of the Day. Is Europe Dead?”, Spectator, 31 May 1924, 898. 1 2

158

I think it may amuse you to look at a review by me in this week’s Spectator. The book on the Fabulous Forties gives an amazing picture of the America of eighty years ago.1 Yours very sincerely,

From Ford Madox Ford to Conrad Text MS Yale; Saunders II, 158

[letterhead: Paquebot “Paris”] à bord le 31/5 19242 Dear Conrad: I have been so dreadfully rushed all this week that my memory has completely gone. I know there is something I ought to write to you about – in answer to some letter I think,3 but I have been searching my mind for an hour & can’t remember what it is &, as we are nearing Plymouth I let it go at that – forgive. I am going through the Fr[ench] translation of Romance on board: It seems to be pretty good. The captain has promised to depute one of his officers to go through the nautical phrases, so they may come right. – Will you, in any case look at the proofs? or not? I’ve also got the proofs of the Good Soldier to get thro’ before I return but I shall come back by a slow boat. By the bye: at a shareholders meeting of the T[ransatlantic] R[eview] last week I was unanimously requested not to resign the editorship, so I shall not. It will be run while I’m away by young Hemingway who’s the best boy that I know – with tastes astonishingly like my own. . . . I started writing this morning at 5.30 & had written 2,000 words by 9.0.: so I’ve still some vigour left – or I had this morning. No – I can’t remember what it was. We are just running into Plymouth. Yrs always F. M. F.

1 A review of Meade Minnigerode’s The Fabulous ’Forties, 1840–1850 (London: Putnam, 1924), Spectator, 31 May 1924, 881–82. 2 This letter (Ford’s last to Conrad) was composed on a voyage from Cherbourg to New York, where he hoped to raise funds for the transatlantic review. 3 Conrad’s previous (and final) letter to Ford had been written on the 24th.

159

Let me know how Jessie fares. My address will be the Columbia University Club, New York till the 21st. Why – in a perfect hurricane of rain should a hand forward on the deck be spraying the deck & the paintwork from a hose?

From Stefan Pomarański to Conrad Text MS copy Yale; Unpublished

Warsaw Marszalkowska 52 22 vi 1924 Dear Sir, Before the war I succeeded in purchasing a manuscript containing some youthful poems by your father Apollon Nalencza Korzeniowski.1 I was at that time very young and did not know yet what to do with this acquisition. I yielded simply to the ordinary mania of a collector. I did not realize then the value of the verses, nor did I know exactly who the author was, still less that in a distant land there lived Apollon Korzienowski’s son[,] a famour English author. When I heard later about you, as a great writer whom Fate had thrown in strange ways into a foreign land, in the service of strangers, gaining work & distinction from foreigners, I was overcome by a strange and indefinable feeling. I resolved to send you this M.S., to say the truth as a reminder from your Fatherland, for which your father spent his life & made the highest sacrifices. But I did not know your address, nor did I know how to get it; then the war broke out, I found myself among the ranks of the fighters & I forgot about the MS. and you. It was only in 1919 that in looking over my books & papers I came again on this collection of verses. At that time I was a university student. I knew more & knew the source of knowledge. I intended to work up a biography of your father & to publish his unknown works. But after a time I abandoned this idea (I am an historian, not a historian of literature) & I gave the MS. for the use of my friend Apolinary Krupinski[,] a most promising historian of literature & a pupil of Prof. Ignacy Chrzynowski of Cracow. Mr Krupinski had eagerly begun to collect biographical material for the writing of a He had sent a manuscript of Korzeniowski’s poem “Zgliszcza” [The Cinders] and some other relics.

1

160

monographical sketch. Unfortunately the Russian invasion followed, Krupinski though weak & delicate went to fight for Poland & fell in the battle near Bialystok in Sept. 1920. I took the M.S. from his posthumous papers & then I returned to my first idea of sending it to you as the person having the nearest right to possession. I have copied the whole collection & will send the original within the next few days to England. I don’t know how you will receive my present. I don’t know you & judging from the stories by you which I have read with the utmost delight in Polish you seem very foreign to me. But these poems are written by your father’s hand, & filial feelings are everywhere the same. And so I think I shall give you pleasure with my present. But I have one request to make of you. I should like the collection to return to Poland some day, to one of the Polish libraries[,] best perhaps to the Jagiellonian Library in Cracow. Obviously when it ceases to be a sacred family memory. For us in Poland it will always be a sacred historical memory. Stephen Pomerański1

From R. B. Cunninghame Graham to Richard Curle Text TS copy Indiana; Unpublished

July 23/1924 Dear Mr Curle. I return the “History of Mr Conrad’s books,”2 with many thanks. It is excellently done & very informing . . . for those who care to know on what pegs, the stories were hung. Personally that leaves me entirely cold, but then I think I was born without much of the curiosity that you say is inherent in man. I wish you had noticed one of his most charming Tales, “Laughing Anne.” I am sure you must know it. “Nostromo” as you say is a splendid book. I have always admired it. I think you are right in saying Conrad’s books will not “age” for they treat of elementary human nature, that is the great difference, I think, between Shakespeare’s and Ben Jonson’s plays, & to compare small men to giants, with Shaw’s plays. Ben Jonson, & of course, Shaw, write of what the Elizabethans called “humours” ie passing types & fashions & Conrad replied on 28 June (CL8 393–94). Curle’s article was first published in the Times Literary Supplement, 30 August 1923, 570. 1 2

161

matters. Shakespeare wrote on the essential springs of human actions & so do both Conrad and Hudson. With many thanks for letting me see the MS. Yrs very sincerely

From J. St Loe Strachey to Conrad Text TS carbon HL; Stape (1) (transcription)

29th July, 1924. Dear Mr. Conrad, May I make a request, which perhaps I ought not to make to you on so slight an acquaintance, yet which somehow I feel I may make in Friendship’s name. It is that you will do me the honour of looking at a set of early proofs of my new book “THE RIVER OF LIFE.” You were very kind about “THE ADVENTURE OF LIVING”;1 but I hope you will agree with me that it is a far better book. Certainly it is a book which I took great joy in writing. Indeed, I never enjoyed writing anything in my life so much. If you will look at the title-page you will see three wonderful lines out of Shakespeare, which I did not find till the book was finished, but which forms an exact key to it. I am afraid you will think the style not careful enough, – that is, too impulsive, and so lacking in distinctiveness; but I throw myself at your mercy. Yours very sincerely,

Jessie Conrad to Dolly and Harold Moor Text MS Woods; S. & C.

[letterhead:] Oswalds, Bishopsbourne, Kent. September 17th 1924. My dear Dolly and Harold, I was of course certain of your love and sympathy but we were all a little anxious as to your health. I had only been home from the Nursing Through F. N. Doubleday, Strachey had heard of Conrad’s admiration for The Adventure of Living: A Subjective Autobiography (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1922) and first wrote to him on 13 June 1923. The River of Life was published by Hodder and Stoughton in late 1924. For three earlier letters from Strachey to Conrad, see Portrait, pp. 210, 212, 240.

1

162

Home a week. I don’t know why I was so anxious to get home but I had a terrible idea that somehow I ought to get home. When I asked the doctor if I could go, I never expected him to agree. His idea was that I was then (as now) sleeping so badly that perhaps I would rest better at home. I am so thankful I was home also that both boys were here for the Bank Holiday. It is difficult my dears to tell you everything. Conrad wasn’t very well when I returned, he had been seriously ill for the first fortnight that I was in the home but the last three weeks he had been every day to see me. For the last three years he has been ageing rapidly and I could never keep him warm. As you know he was always very difficult to manage. I am trying to tell you things as they happened. I was brought home in the Ambulance, as I said[,] a week before, and carried upstairs to my room. He didn’t seem too well but was glad to have me home. On the Tuesday he had a bad attack of indigestion and Dr Fox put him on a strict diet. This he disregarded utterly and eat [sic] what he fancied. On Saturday he eat [sic] a good breakfast (not a diet one) and then set out in the car with a friend1 to close the arrangements for a new house. He didn’t feel well in the car and came home and went to bed. Dr Fox saw him about twelve and said there was no cause to worry, he [Conrad] was very nervous and jumpy but he left some medicine and was to come in again on Sunday. From that time Conrad never rested a moment and he got more and more restless as the day wore on. The boys with Joan and Philip2 arrived soon after seven, and Conrad said he wanted the doctor again. Both Fox and Dr Reid were out and a stranger came and was an hour with him. He told him that there was no cause for any worry but that he must try to calm himself. This he could not do, and we had a dreadful night. We had just sent again for the doctor when he died. He had not been left alone for the last twenty four hours, and his man3 only left him a moment: I was in the next room and I heard him call out, “Here you” (as he always did) and a sort of sliding fall. He had slipped from his chair dead. I was in the next room and unable to get to him because my crutches were the other side of the room. I guessed somehow what had happ[en]ed but I waited as the boys begged me to do till Dr Reid came. Then the doctor and Foot[e] lifted him onto the bed and he came to tell me. Richard Curle. Borys and John Conrad, the former with his wife and infant son Philip. 3 Arthur Foote, butler/valet at Oswalds. 1 2

163

As you may suppose no injection had any effect. Dr Reid waited for Dr Fox and being Sunday everything was so difficult. Somehow, one of the doctors managed to bring the undertaker to me[,] also the Priest. Dr Reid met the train as two or three people were coming to lunch here. He lunched them and arranged everything possible for me. They did not bring the coffin till Tuesday morning. I was carried downstairs that morning and I haven’t been up since. Dolly it was a wonderful funeral. I watched it through the Park as long as I could see it. A Police cyclist met them and cleared the road as far as Bridge, afterwards the Canterbury town Police took charge. I will send you some of the photographs taken by the Graphic when I get them back. I am keeping the grave garden up in the Polish colours, red and white, all the year round. I had once 100 telegrams and there were three times as many letters. Yet to me it isn’t real or true. Borys fetched Mother and Nell the day he died and they were here five weeks. Next week we leave here for good and go to Canterbury till the business is settled. The limb has still to be tapped but it is getting on and soon I will be able to use two sticks instead of crutches. When you write next[,] address your letter to me 4, Ethelbert Road Canterbury. Both boys are very well and Borys’ wife and baby in good form. Mother begins to look older but Nell is simply wonderful with her. “Trot along Jenny” isn’t exactly a sheep. Florrie looks very well and the two boys were here for the funeral. Ethel looks a trifle wild and fanatical.1 The enclosed snap is the last one that was taken last June. You will see that Conrad was very much thinner and older than when you saw him. I shall keep some photographs of this house for you when I get them. Our luck in it has been bad and even now I wonder if I shall get away without any further ill fortune. One effect of all this is to make me horribly jumpy and on the look out for more trouble. When you come home I will show you some wonderful cuttings. My love to you both. Always your affectionate sister Jessie Conrad.

1

Jessie Conrad’s sisters, Eleanor (1885–1964) and Florence (1871–1943).

164

From Sir Robert Jones to Richard Curle Text MS Indiana; Unpublished

[letterhead:] 11, Belvidere Road, Princes Park, Liverpool. Sunday [August? 1924] Dear Mr Curle. It is indeed nice of you to send me your appreciation of Conrad.1 It is full of sympathy and understanding. I had received a day or two previously another very beautiful pamphlet of Cunningham[e] Graham.2 Conrad will be very affectionately enshrined in the hearts of his friends. I count it a great privilege to have known him. I was interested to read that Conrad did love the sea. If you remember in the “Mirror of the Sea” appears a paragraph “But some of us regarding the ocean with understanding and affection” &c.3 Kind remembrances Robert Jones

Sir Hugh Clifford to Richard Curle Text MS Indiana; Unpublished

[letterhead:] 46 Chelsea Park Gardens, London S.W. 3 Aug 25th, 1924. My dear Curle, Thank you very much indeed for sending me a copy of your very touching description of the last hours of our dear friend. Every word that you have written about him has a double truth & meaning to one who knew & loved him as I did. I am glad that you are going to have this change in Morocco. I hear that poor Jessie is at the Curzon Hotel in a few days, & I shall try to run A privately-printed pamphlet, Joseph Conrad’s Last Day. “Inveni Portum: Joseph Conrad.” 3 The paragraph reads: “It seems to me that no man born and truthful to himself could declare that he ever saw the sea looking young as the earth looks young in spring. But some of us, regarding the ocean with understanding and affection, have seen it looking old, as if the immemorial ages had been stirred up from the undisturbed bottom of ooze. For it is a gale of wind that makes the sea look old” (The Mirror of the Sea, pp. 70–71). 1 2

165

in to see her. I am sailing for West Africa on Wednesday, however, & am in a great state of rush, the more so as my appointment to the Governership of Ceylon – wh[ich] I shall take up in the Spring of next year – was only announced yesterday. Sincerely yours, Hugh Clifford.

Edward Garnett to Richard Curle Text MS Indiana; Unpublished

19. Pond Place Chelsea SW. 3. 26. Aug. [19]24. Dear Curle. I congratulate you on the paper “Joseph Conrad’s Last Day.” It’s intimate & penetrating, & is not only a valuable record in itself but it conveys a most sympathetic analysis of the workings of Conrad’s mind. The personal affection that inspires it puts us in warm touch with Conrad’s genius & personality. I don’t think you’ll do anything more spontaneous & living than that: & you must certainly print it in that volume of collected Recollections by various hands which you spoke of.1 I shall put my “Letters from Conrad” in order presently. I’ve exactly what I’ve got. There are great gaps in the years, periods when we corresponded little: but the Struggle period – ie – the first three or four years – is very detailed & they contain, I believe[,] the only record in existence of his outlook & development – 1895–98. I am waiting to hear from Jessie whether I am to go down for the day on Thursday. I shall get “The Fortnightly” at once.2 Let me know when you are back, & we can meet & have another talk over affairs. Yours Edward Garnett Many thanks for “Legends.”3 I am glad to have it. Nothing ever came of this idea. Curle had presumably drawn Garnett’s attention to Jean-Aubry’s tribute to Conrad in the September issue just about to appear. 3 The essay left unfinished by Conrad after his death. Curle arranged for its publication in The Daily Mail, where it appeared on 15 August with a prefatory note by himself. 1 2

Post-1924 From William McFee to the Editor of Bookman (New York) Text Bookman (New York); MacShane 145–46

June 1925 Dear Mr. Farrar: I’ve been about lately and had work to do so I have had no opportunity to tell you how glad I was to see Mrs. Conrad’s letter1 reprinted in the Bookman. I had heard of it but had not seen it, so I was hampered and bothered by a lack of first hand knowledge. Because I had read F. M. Ford’s book and thought, and still think, that it is a most fascinating and remarkable study. There has been so much comment upon the flare up on the part of the Conradists led by Mrs Conrad, but the comment has been singularly lacking in imagination. The theory that a writer’s wife is necessarily an infallible guide in matters concerning her husband’s literary activities and friendships is novel and amazing. Mrs. Conrad’s letter and her previous excursions into print lead one to suspect that had she not happened to be Conrad’s wife, she would never have read Conrad’s books. Her dislike of Mr. Ford has nothing to do with the case. Mr. Ford has written a brilliant study of Conrad. He promises at the outset that he is going to write a novel about Conrad. In doing this he has presented Conrad to us in an entirely satisfying and legitimate light. Because Ford has not had the luck or the cunning to secure an American public it is assumed that he is therefore of small beer and of no importance. There are many writers in England who are just as legitimately the objects of our interest as Arnold Bennett, [Hugh] Walpole, Arlen,2 and others, and these fortunate writers would be the first to tell you so. When Mrs. Conrad says that Ford’s book is detestable she is expressing her own opinion, but it has no value beyond that of any other lady. Jessie Conrad’s letter attacking Ford’s Joseph Conrad: A Personal Remembrance (1924) appeared in the Times Literary Supplement, 13 November 1924, 727; it is reprinted in Portrait, pp. 250–51. 2 Now mainly forgotten, Michael Arlen (1895–1956) was a popular British “society” novelist and a media celebrity in the 1920s; his novel The Green Hat (1924) was a bestseller in America. 1

167

Those devoted adherents of the Conrad cult are doing their hero a serious disservice in decrying Ford’s book. It is a greater tribute to the dead master than most of the stuff ground out now by people who allowed Conrad’s books to be pirated all over the place and were not even aware of his existence when he was not yet the vogue. I am surprised no one has seen the amusing side of Mrs. Conrad’s letter. I have personally known of married men who had affiliations and friendships unknown to their wives. I have known wives who were so prejudiced against men friends of their husbands that the husbands have soft pedalled those friendships. But I am more interested in the reactions of the public lately to the Ford-Conrad squabble because I think most people underestimate Romance, the book Ford and Conrad struggled with for so long. To me it is one of the best of the lot. It is not Conradian in the sense that Nostromo and Youth are Conradian, but it is one of the best of the lot. It is so magnificently built, it seems to stand the strain of years and constant rereading. It owes much to Ford, and I for one wish some of the other books had had some Ford in them – The Rescue and The Arrow of Gold, for instance. Mrs. Conrad said a plot was of no use to her husband, which is true in one sense. But it is a sense that can be easily carried beyond reason. To say that Conrad was independent of plots is to misunderstand the whole business of writing. In Conrad’s first book, written before he had met Ford, Almayer’s Folly, there is a very skilful and intricate plot structure. To say that Conrad could not use another man’s plot means nothing. No writer can use the other man’s plot as the other man hands it to him. But he can make it his own. As an example, I had a plot given me by another man. Indeed, he had made a story of it but it did not function. I took it. I agreed to use it. I stripped it to the bare bones. I even took the bones apart and reconstructed the skeleton. I provided new scenes, new characters, a fresh climax, and added several other improvements. But the idea came from the other man, and without his preliminary plot my story would never have been written. This is explaining great things by small, but we are all human, I suppose. What I want to protest about is the embalming of Conrad in a grand tomb. Ford shows us the living man. Let us keep him living. Already publishers are beginning to advertise new books by authors who (strange to say!) resemble Conrad. Let us keep him human. He was a great man, but – correct me if I am wrong – only a mortal man. William McFee

168

From Andrew de Ternant to the Editor of the New Statesman and Nation Text NSN; Ray, ed., 73

28 July 1928 Sir, All the recent biographers of Joseph Conrad have overlooked the fact that he was employed for about two months as a translator of Slavonic languages during the early ’nineties1 by a Translating Agency, a few doors away from Mudie’s Library, New Oxford Street, WC.2 I remember Conrad calling one day at the office of the long since defunct St Stephen’s Review, in the Adelphi, and informing the assistant editor, the late Mr Edgar Lee,3 that he had ceased calling for work at the Agency. Sometimes, Conrad said, his remuneration did not exceed ninepence per week. This was owing to the fact that most of the Slavonic firms doing business with English customers wrote in French or German. Conrad brought with him at the same time some translations of Polish short stories, which Mr Lee promised he would read. Mr Lee, however, afterwards told me he was compelled to return the Polish tales to Conrad, because all of them were much too revolutionary for a Conservative weekly journal like the St Stephen’s Review. Andrew de Ternant

From Paul Langlois to Savinien Mérédac Text Mérédac; Baines 95–97 (transcription) 2 February 1931 […] Je veux vous donner sur le Capitaine Korzeniowski des impressions qui vous intéresseront, je crois, car mes souvenirs de lui sont très précis. Je l’ai beaucoup vu pendant les six ou sept semaines qu’il a

1

Najder (p. 173) suggests that Conrad may have been employed at the agency in 1891. 2 The circulating library was located at 30–34 New Oxford Street at the corner of Museum Street in Bloomsbury. 3 Edgar Lee (1851–1908) was acting editor of St Stephen’s Review between 1883 and 1890; the journal ceased publication in 1892.

169

passées à Port-Louis et, étant son affréteur, j’ai eu avec lui des rapports presque quotidiens. D’une taille légèrment au-dessus de la moyenne, de traits énergiques et d’une extrême mobilité, passant très rapidement de la douceur à une nervosité confinant à la colère; de grands yeux noirs généralement mélancoliques et rêveurs, doux aussi en dehors des moments assez fréquents d’agacement; un menton volontaire, une bouche d’un joli dessin, gracieuse, que surmontait une moustache châtain foncé, épaisse et d’un joli tour, telle était cette physionomie agréable certes, mais surtout étrange dans son expression et que l’on oublie difficilement lorsqu’on l’a vue une fois ou deux. Ce qui, en dehors de la distinction de ses manières, frappait le plus dans le capitaine de l’Otago, c’était le contraste qu’il formait avec les autres patrons de navires dont, gros exportateur de sucre, je voyais une dizaine chaque jour au bureau du “père Krumpholtz” qui fut, pendant plus de trente ans, le seul courtier en frets du pays et dont le bureau, situé au rez-de-chaussée de l’immeuble du Mauritius Fire Insurance Cy., était entre dix heures du matin et une heure de l’après-midi, le rendezvous de tous les capitaines à la recherche d’un affrètement. Et si vous pensez qu’à cette époque, avant l’envahissement de la mer par les vapeurs, il y avait toujours dans le port, pendant la saison sucrière, une quinzaine de navires, vous pouvez vous faire une idée de la nombreuse compagnie qui emplissait chaque jour l’antichambre du “père Krumpholtz.” Or, ces patrons de navires, généralement vêtus de toile, coiffés de casques ou de chapeaux de paille, le visage et les mains brûlés par le soleil et l’eau salée, les ongles noirs du goudron dénonciateur du métier, le langage énergique et souvent grossier, n’étaient pas des modèles d’élégance et de raffinement. Au contraire de ses collègues le capitaine Korzeniowski était toujours vêtu comme un petit-maître. Je le vois encore (et justement à cause du contraste avec les autres marins, mon souvenir est précis) arrivant presque chaque jour à mon bureau vêtu d’un veston noir ou de coleur foncée, d’un gilet généralement clair et d’un pantalon “de fantaisie,” le tout bien fait et d’une grande élégance; coiffé d’un “melon” noir ou gris placé légèrement sur le côté, toujours ganté et portant un jonc à pomme d’or. Vous jugez, par cette description, s’il contrastait avec les autres capitaines avec lesquels il n’avait au reste que des relations de stricte politesse se limitant, la plupart du temps, à un salut. Aussi était-il très peu

170

populaire parmi ses collègues qui l’appelaient ironiquement “the Russian count.” Voilà pour le physique. Au moral: une éducation parfaite, une conversation très variée et intéressante lorsque c’était son jour d’être communicatif. Il ne l’était pas tous les jours. Celui qui devait acquérir la célebrité sous le nom de Joseph Conrad était assez souvent très taciturne et très nerveux. Ces jours-là, il avait un tic de l’épaule et des yeux et la moindre chose inattendue, la chute d’un objet sur le plancher, une porte qui bat, le faisaient sursauter. C’était ce qu’on appellerait aujourd’hui un neurasthénique; à cette époque on disait un névrosé. On ne le voyait chez Krumpholtz, avant son affrètement, que pendant quelques minutes chaque jour; et, une fois affrété, il n’y allait plus ––. Toujours à son bord, on ne le voyait jamais à l’Hôtel Oriental où presque tous les captaines prenaient leur lunch et passaient l’après-midi; c’était là qu’on les faisait appeler lorsque l’on avait besoin d’eux. Pendant son séjour à Port-Louis, je ne crois pas que le taciturne Conrad ait une seule fois fait une promenade à la campagne et encore moins, se soit mêlé à la bonne société du pays1 parmi laquelle sa culture, sa parfaite éducation, ses manières d’une impeccable correction, l’élégance de sa personne lui auraient certainement fait ouvrir bien des portes. Joseph Conrad parlait indifféremment et très purement l’Anglais et le Français, mais préférait cette dernière langue qu’il maniait avec élégance; nos conversations avaient toujours lieu en français. Translation […] I’d like to pass on to you some impressions of Captain Korzeniowski, which are interesting, I believe, because my memories are so vivid. I often saw him during the six or seven weeks he spent in PortLouis, and, as his charterer, was in almost daily contact with him. In height slightly below average, forceful and very mobile features, passing very rapidly from gentleness to an agitation bordering on anger; big black eyes usually melancholy and dreamy, and gentle as well, except for fairly frequent movements of irritation; a decisive chin, a finely shaped graceful mouth, a thick, well-trimmed dark brown moustache. That was his face –

Langlois evidently knew nothing of Conrad’s connections with the Schmidt family and Eugénie Renouf, to whom he proposed, during his stay in PortLouis.

1

171

good-looking certainly but, above all, strange in its expression and difficult to forget if you had seen it once or twice. Apart from his distinguished manners, the most striking thing about the captain of the Otago was the contrast between him and other skippers. As a large-scale sugar exporter, I saw ten or so of them every day in the office of “Old Krumpholtz,” who for over thirty years was the only freight agent in the area. Between ten in the morning and one o’clock in the afternoon, his office, situated on the ground floor of the Mauritius Fire Insurance Co., was the meeting-place for all the captains in search of a cargo. And if you remember that in those days, before the sea had been invaded by steamers, there were always fifteen ships or so in port during the sugar season, you can get an idea of the numerous assembly that packed the outer office of “Old Krumpholtz” every day. Now, those shipmasters generally dressed in ducks, with caps or straw hats on their heads, their faces and hands tanned by sun and salt water, their nails black with the telltale tar of their profession, their language forceful and often coarse, were not models of taste and refinement. Unlike his colleagues, Captain Korzeniowski was always dressed like a dandy. I can still see him (and just because of the contrast with the other sailors my memory is precise) arriving in my office almost every day dressed in a black or dark coat, a vest that was usually light in colour, and fancy trousers; everything well cut and very stylish; on his head a black or grey bowler tilted slightly to one side. He invariably wore gloves and carried a cane with a gold knob. From this description you can judge for yourself the contrast he made to the other captains, with whom, by the way, he was on strictly formal terms, generally not going beyond a greeting. He was not, of course, very popular with his colleagues, who ironically called him “the Russian count.” So much for his physical appearance. As to his character: a perfect education; very varied and interesting conversation – on the days when he felt communicative, which wasn’t every day. The man who was to become famous under the name Joseph Conrad was quite often taciturn and highly excitable. On those days he had a nervous tic in the shoulder and eyes, and anything the least bit unexpected – an object dropping to the floor, a door banging – would make him jump. Today we would call him a neurasthenic, in those days one said a neurotic. Before his ship was chartered, he would appear at Krumpholtz’s only for a few minutes each day, and afterwards not at all ––. He was always on board his ship, was never to be seen at the Hôtel Oriental,

172

where most of the captains took their lunch and spent the afternoon and where they could always be reached if they were wanted. During his whole stay in Port-Louis I don’t believe the taciturn Conrad ever took a walk in the country, or – still less – ever made any contact with the island’s fashionable society, to which his culture, his perfect education, his impeccably correct manners and the elegance of his appearance would have opened many doors for him. Joseph Conrad’s English and French were both equally pure and fluent, but he preferred the latter language, which he handled with elegance. Our conversations were always in French.

From Edward Garnett to Richard Curle Text MS Indiana; Stone Trough (in part)

31 July 1935 Dear Curle, Yes, I’ve read & reviewed Jessie’s horrible book in the August number of “The London Mercury.” I wrote her a very strong letter a fortnight ago saying it was the “most detestable book ever written by a wife about her husband” etc. She answered brazenly, saying she would not read my review, etc. – but it was rather weak her reply. I’ll show it you.1 I am going to Ireland on the 9th – & suggest that we lunch at the Russian Cafe. 50 Harrington Road, either this Friday or Tuesday next at 1 o’clock. I’m afraid I haven’t a night free. Let me hear by return. Yours Edward Garnett

For the acrimonious correspondence between Jessie Conrad and Garnett on the subject of her memoir, Joseph Conrad and his Circle (1935), see Portrait, pp. 256–58.

1

173

From R. B. Cunninghame Graham to Richard Curle Text MS Indiana; Stone Trough (in part)

[letterhead:] Ardoch, Cardross, Scotland August 8/ [19]35 Dear Dick. Welcome home! Certainly Jessie’s book is pretty awful. However it is not so bad as I had feared. She certainly always exhibits herself as a martyr, but often the things she says about Conrad are really trifling – that he was cross when dinner was late, or when there was none. Why not? He was not an angel. Why she treasured up all these petty things & made a book of them passes my understanding. Clearly she seems to have suffered from a sense of being overshadowed, as she undoubtedly was; but after all she owed all to Conrad, position, comfort & everything. Moreover she brought nothing (except being a good cook) to the common stock & it was a privilege most women would have welcomed, to be married to such a man. She seems to have been quite unaware of his greatness & not to have taken in he was a world figure. The book, I thought[,] was in the worst possible taste; but I cannot think it can harm the sale of his writings in the U.S.A. Poor Conrad, – Jessie & Borys are two crosses he has escaped. I am doing a little introduction to the “Everyman” edition of “Lord Jim.” I had not read it for years. How good it is! Some of his descriptions of tropical nights at sea are unsurpassed & unsurpassable. That such a man should be “denigré” by his wife after his death is unbelievable. One would have thought it would have been a joy to her to unite in his brains. […] Believe me, Suyo amigo affmo R B Cunninghame Graham

174

From Richard Curle to Paul Wohlfarth Text TS Wellcome 8512/1; Unpublished

Madison Square Hotel 37 Madison Avenue New York City. U.S.A. March 30, 19361 Dear Sir, I received your letter a few days ago and will answer it to the best of my ability. But first I must apologize that I cannot pay you the compliment, which you pay me, by answering in your own language. My German is, I fear, very rusty. Also I must apologize for being unable to decipher part of your address and being thus compelled to paste it on to the envelope as you wrote it. Conrad certainly thought that his gout was directly traceable to the illness he suffered on the Congo. But, of course, this illness may only have brought out an inherent tendency to gout, and perhaps it would have manifested itself later in any case. It was, undoubtedly the undermining of his health which had so much to do with Conrad leaving the sea, and so one may argue that if he had remained a strong man he would not have become a novelist, but have remained a sailor. But there, again, the genius that was in him might have forced itself to the surface sooner or later. After all, “Almayer’s Folly” was partly written while he was at sea. Conrad always held that, while gout crippled him, yet it kept his brain alert. He used to cite, if I remember, the cases of Lord Chatham and Lord Holland.2

This and the following letter are responses to Wohlfarth’s request for information regarding Conrad’s health problems and their effect upon his life and work. Wohlfarth would later write on Conrad’s illnesses in “Der Kranke Joseph Conrad,” published in Suddhoffs Archiv für Geschichte der Medizin und der Naturwissenschaften (Wiesbaden: Verlag, 1957). 2 Conrad cited the example of Lord Henry Holland (1773–1840) in his letter to Curle of 9 October 1918: “I am getting awfully crippled and it’s about time Jessie ceased to be so. And if that happens I don’t really mind very much if I have to end my days in a wheeled chair like Macaulay’s Lord Holland. He kept his wits to the end and I have the advantage over him that my wife is not a Lady Holland” (CL6 282). William Pitt the Elder, 1st Earl of Chatham (1708–78), had suffered from hereditary gout. 1

175

I am afraid that these are not very satisfactory answers to your questions, but I hesitate about being too dogmatic. Yours sincerely Richard Curle

From G. Jean-Aubry to Paul Wohlfarth Text TS Wellcome 8512/2; Unpublished

IIbis rue Théodore de Banville Paris XVII 7 mai 1936 Monsieur, Je m’excuse grandement du retard apporté à répondre à votre si intéressante lettre. J’étais en voyage quand elle m’est parvenue, et hors d’état malheureusement d’y répondre aussitôt, et depuis lors, elle s’est trouvée égarée, à mon grand regret. Pour ce qui est de l’influence de la maladie de Joseph Conrad sur son œuvre, elle est indubitable. J’ai cité, à cet égard, le mot révélateur de Conrad lui-même, lorsqu’il a dit à son ami Edward Garnett qui me l’a rapporté: “Avant le Congo, je n’étais qu’un animal simple” – voulant laisser entendre évidemment par là, qu’avant l’expérience fâcheuse du Congo, il s’était contenté de vivre sans réfléchir sur les choses et les raisons des choses. Or le Congo, pour Conrad, outre ses souvenirs, c’est assurément la maladie. C’est au retour de son expédition au Congo que Conrad pour la première fois de sa vie s’est vu gravement malade, obligé de demeurer de longues semaines à l’hopital à Londres et n’ayant autre chose à faire que des retours sur lui-même. C’est le premier moment de sa vie où il lui fut donné de rester à ne rien faire, et à réfléchir. Cette époque (1891) coïncidait avec celle où son goût d’écrire venait de se faire jour (deux ans auparavant) et il est évident que ce n’est pas la maladie qui a déterminé son talent littéraire; mais elle l’a renforcé pour deux raisons, d’une part en l’accoutumant à de longues méditations et introspections; d’autre part en diminuant en lui la force de sa vocation maritime. Il ne faut pas oublier que Conrad a toujours conçu le métier de marin comme un combat de l’homme et du navire contre la mer, un combat qui réclame toute la puissance morale et physique de l’homme; au retour du Congo, Conrad s’est senti atteint dans sa résistance physique, et par consequent, diminué dans sa force de combatant marin.

176

C’est assurément l’union de ces forces intérieures et sourdes, inconscientes encore, ou à tout le moins, à demi-inconscientes qui ont encouragé chez Conrad, sans qu’il s’en rendît compte, son penchant littéraire, qui était alors si vague qu’il n’envisageait aucunement une carrière littéraire, et qu’il ne l’envisagea vraiment que cinq ans plus tard. Quant à la possibilité du relations entre les maladies tropicales et la goutte, n’étant pas médicin, je n’en puis rien dire; il est hors de doute que c’est après le Congo que Conrad commence à connaitre ces accès de goutte don’t il n’est pas fait mention avant. Tout ce que je puis vous dire c’est que Conrad (et en cela il avait probablement raison) considerait la goutte comme une maladie d’ordre nerveux. Il est indubitable qu’à plusieurs époques de sa vie, il eut de très violentes crises de goutte après des moments où il avait eu de grandes préoccupations, de grandes fatigues nerveuses. Il n’est pour s’en render compte que de relire la Correspondance de Conrad, que j’ai publiée et de la comparer avec son activité littéraire. Cela ne veut pas dire que toutes ses attaques de goutte ont été déterminées ainsi. J’ai connu Conrad intimement pendant près de dix ans, et l’ai vu très souvent, trop souvent, hélas! en proie à la goutte; mais ses plus fortes crises ont toujours coincidé avec des crises d’ordre moral, et par conséquent nerveuses. Il y en a même eu des cas troublants, telle la crise de goutte très violente qui semble bien avoir attendu juste le moment où il venait de déterminer “Under Western Eyes”, comme si l’écrivain avait eu la faculté de retenir cette crise jusqu’au moment où il aurait achevé son travail. Je ne puis l’affirmer, mais j’ai toujours eu l’impression que Conrad considérait sa goutte comme une conséquence des fièvres et de la dysenterie qui avaient déterminé, aussitôt après, une enflure du bras et des jambes, plus grave, mais semblable à celles que je lui ai vues plus tard. Je suis bien heureux, Monsieur, d’apprendre qu’il y a à Breslau un admirateur et un lecteur aussi éminent et soigneux que vous. Il me serait bien agréable de savoir la liste des articles que vous avez publiés.1 Je ne lis malheureusement l’allemand, mais, comme vous le savez, je suis certainement la personne qui a le plus étudié la vie et l’œuvre de Conrad. At the time of writing to Jean-Aubry, Wohlfarth’s several articles on Conrad included “Joseph Conrad und die Rahmenerzählung [Joseph Conrad and the Frame Tale],” Literatur, 36 (1934), 507–10; “Die verbrecherische Persönalichkeit bei Dostojewski und Joseph Conrad [The Criminal Personality in Dostoevsky and Joseph Conrad],” Monatsschrift für Kriminalpsychologie, 26 (1935), 349–57; and “War Joseph Conrad ein englisher Dichter? [Was Joseph Conrad an English Writer?],” Germano-Slavica, 4 (1936), 143–51.

1

177

Outre les deux volumes de Correspondance précédées d’un essai sur la Vie du grand écrivan, je me prépare à terminer une “Vie de Conrad”1 qui paraitra à peu près en même temps en français, en polonaise et en allemande. Mais ce ne sera pas avant une année d’ici. Je possède dans ma “collection Conrad” plusieurs volumes des traductions allemandes, entre autres celle de “A Personal Record” sur la couverture de laquelle il y a une photo de Conrad et de moi, et celle récente “Spannung” où se trouve un article de moi sur l’histoire de ce livre. J’aimerais bien avoir une petite liste des articles les plus importants consacrés à Conrad en Allemagne, afin de les faire figurer dans une Bibliographie dont mon livre sera muni nécessairement. Veuillez croire, Monsieur, à l’assurance de ma considération la plus distinguée. G. Jean Aubry Translation 7 May 1936 Sir, I greatly apologize for the delay in replying to your very interesting letter. I was travelling when it arrived, and unfortunately not in a position to respond, and since that time your letter was mislaid, to my great regret. On the subject of the influence of Joseph Conrad’s illness upon his œuvre, it is indubitable. I have cited, in this regard, the revealing statement of Conrad himself, when he said to his friend Edward Garnett, who reported it to me: “Before the Congo, I was nothing but a mere animal” – obviously wishing it to be understood from that, that before the deplorable Congo experience he had been content to live without reflecting upon things and the causes of things. As a matter of fact, what the Congo meant for Conrad, over and above his memories, was most certainly his illness. It was on his return from the Congo expedition that Conrad, for the first time in his life, saw himself as seriously ill, obliged to spend long weeks in a London hospital and having nothing else to do but withdraw into himself. It was the first time in his life that he was given the chance to do nothing, and to reflect. Probably a reference to Vie de Conrad, which did not appear until 1947, published in Paris by Gallimard.

1

178

That date (1891) coincided with the period when his taste for writing came to light (two years previously) and it is clear that it was not his illness that determined his literary talent, but that the illness reinforced it for two reasons: on the one hand in his becoming accustomed to long periods of meditation and introspection; and on the other hand because it reduced within him the strength of his maritime vocation. It must not be forgotten that Conrad always conceived of the seaman’s job as a battle of man and ship against the sea, a battle that demands all a man’s physical and moral strength; on his return from the Congo, Conrad felt his physical stamina to be impaired, and consequently he was diminished in his strength as a combatant sailor. It is definitely the combination of these interior and muted forces, still unacknowledged or at least halfacknowledged, that encouraged in Conrad’s mind, without his fully realising it, his literary predilection, which at that time was so vague that he did not envisage in the least a literary career and he didn’t see it that way until five years later. As for the possibility of relationships between tropical illnesses and gout, I can’t comment, not being a doctor, but it is beyond doubt that it was after the Congo that Conrad began to experience these attacks of gout that he had never mentioned before. All that I can tell you is that Conrad (and in this respect probably with good reason) considered gout to be a nervous illness. It is indubitable that at various periods of his life he had very violent bouts of gout following moments when he had great anxieties and intense nervous exhaustion. To acertain this fact, all one needs to do is to re-read Conrad’s Letters, that I published and also to compare it with his literary activity. This is not to say that all his attacks of gout were brought on in that way. I knew Conrad intimately for nearly ten years, and I saw him very often – too often (alas!) when he was a victim of his gout. But his most severe crises always coincided with moral crises, which were therefore nervous ones. There were even some worrying instances, such as the extremely violent attack of gout that really seems to have been delayed until the precise moment when he had just finished Under Western Eyes, as if the writer had the ability to hold off this crisis right up to the moment when he had completed his work. I cannot prove it, but I always had the impression that Conrad considered his gout to be the result of fevers and dysentery that, immediately afterwards, cause swelling to his arms and legs, [swelling] more serious but similar to those that I saw later on. I am delighted, sir, to learn that there is in Breslau an admirer and reader as eminent and painstaking as you. I would be very happy to

179

know the list of articles that you have published. Unfortunately, I do not read German, but, as you know, I am certainly the person who has studied Conrad’s life and work the most. In addition to the two volumes of Correspondence prefaced by an essay on the Life of the great writer, I am about to finish a “Life of Conrad” which will appear nearly at the same time in French, in Polish and in German. But this won’t be for a year from now. I have in my “Conrad Collection” several volumes of German translations, among others one of A Personal Record, on the cover of which there is a photograph of Conrad and me; and the recent “Spannung” which contains an article by me on the history of that book. I should very much like to have a short list of the most important articles devoted to Conrad in Germany in order to include them in a Bibliography with which my book must necessarily be supplied. Yours most warmly, G. Jean-Aubry

From St-John Perse to G. Jean-Aubry Text MS Yale; Vidan

Washington, 19 Sept. 1947 2800 Woodley Road, N. W. Cher Jean-Aubry, Quel beau livre est votre “Conrad,” et combien digne, intellectuellement et moralement, de l’écrivain et de l’homme que nous avons aimé! Je suis heureux que vous ayez bien voulu me le faire tenir, car de vous-même, comme écrivain et comme homme, il me dit plus de choses, à l’heure actuelle, que je n’en aurais pu apprendre par ailleurs. Il faut une réelle abnégation, et une bien rare élégance d’esprit, pour pousser si loin un[e] telle documentation sans la moindre trace de servilité scolaire, de parasitisme intellectuel ni de suffisance personnelle. Il faut une réelle délicatesse, et une bien rare probité d’esprit, pour faire, aussi vivante, œuvre de Biographe, sans céder jamais à nulle ostentation ni complaisance de style “romancé.” Il faut enfin, soi-même, avoir su vivre avec beaucoup de sens humain et de bien rares exigences intellectuelles, pour s’acquitter avec tant d’aisance, envers un homme comme Conrad, d’une analyse aussi sensible, aussi lucide et pénétrante.

180

Je me souviens bien de ce trop court séjour chez Conrad, que vous mentionnez.1 1911 ou 1912. Ashford, par Hamstreet, Kent. Conversations le moins intellectuelles possible, car j’aimais beaucoup en lui l’homme, sa face couleur d’argile, son respect de l’incidence humaine la plus fortuite, sa loyauté dans tout rapport humain une fois noué, abstraction faite de tout jugement. Je me souviens pourtant de quelques fugues littéraires, au cours d’entretiens nocturnes (dans la pièce du bas, à droite en entrant): Melville, Hudson, et les “nonsense lyrics” (“The Jumblies!”) que je rapportais de la chamber d’enfant, (au haut de l’escalier, sur l’arrière-cour). Le jour de mon départ, il avait cru devoir inviter, “pour un Français,” Arthur Symons, et c’était une erreur, touchante entre nous, dont il semblait, humainement, s’excuser du regard. Vous souvenez-vous de son goût inattendu pour Molière et pour Zola, de la vivacité de ses réactions contre Dostoïewsky, à qui il prétendait préférer Tourguénieff? De la mer aussi, je m’interdisais de parler, sachant combien les marins amateurs doivent respecter et ménager l’étrange “complexe” de ceux qui ont eu à vivre de la mer, à y peiner pour vivre, et non à s’y complaire. Pourtant, à force de contempler, de ma place aux repas, un large agrandissement photographique (juste en face de moi, sur le panneau de droite en entrant), d’un grand trios-mâts barque du “trafic australien” sous toute sa toile, je n’avais pu sans doute éviter quelques remarques, qui me valurent d’amusantes saillies: Conrad se défendait d’être le poète de la mer et déclarait aimer, non point la mer, mais le bateau, triomphe de l’art ou plus simplement de l’homme, sur la mer! Quand je prenais mon chapeau pour aller marcher un peu dans cette campagne à lapins, Conrad, retenu par une crise de goutte et béquillant jusqu’à la porte d’entrée, semblait heureux de me crier malicieusement: “Et vous savez! Vous n’apercevrez, ni n’entendrez, ni ne sentirez rien, par ici, de la mer. . . . 40 milles de la mer!” (Je crois qu’il exagérait, pour nous amuser tous deux.) Il m’étonnait aussi parfois par son goût imaginatif de la vie de société, par une curiosité très XVIIIe du rôle de la femme derrière le cours des événements. Vous avez bien senti, cher ami, la réelle noblesse de cet homme. Aussi ombrageuse que fût sa pudeur secrète, il eût aimé votre livre, pour sa propre pudeur et pour son tact, pour sa délicatesse d’esprit et de cœur, qui fait toute sa tenue littéraire. […] Alexis St L. Leger Perse had visited Capel House in August 1912. For his letter to Conrad of February 1921, see Portrait, pp. 169–76. 1

181

Translation Dear Jean-Aubry, What a fine book your “Conrad” is, and how worthy intellectually and morally, of the writer and man we loved! I am delighted you had it sent me, as I’ve learnt from it more about you, as both writer and man, at the present time, than I could possibly have discovered otherwise. It requires real self-denial and a rare elegance of mind to take documentation so far without any trace of scholarly servility, intellectual parasitism or self-aggrandizement. It requires real delicacy of touch and a rare integrity to achieve such a vivid biography without ever giving way to ostentation of self-indulgence in the romanticized manner. It requires in fact someone who has lived with a fine sense of his fellow men and rare intellectual demands to accomplish with such elegant ease, with regard to a man such as Conrad, so sensitive, lucid and penetrating an analysis. I well remember the all-too-short stay at Conrad’s house which you mention. Ashford, via Hamstreet, Kent. Conversations the least intellectual possible, for what I so liked in him was the man, his face the colour of clay, his respect for the most fortuitous human incident, his loyalty in every human relationship once it was made, irrespective of any value judgement. I remember some literary sallies in the course of our night-time discussions (in the ground-floor room on the right as you went in): Melville, Hudson and the nonsense lyrics (“The Jumblies!”) that I brought down from the children’s room (at the top of the stairs, looking onto the yard). The day I left he felt constrained to invite – “for a Frenchman’s benefit” – Arthur Symons, and it was a mistake, a touching one between you and me, for which his glances seemed, humanly, to make apology. Do you recall his unexpected love of Molière and Zola, the abruptness of his reactions to Dostoevsky, to whom he claimed to prefer Turgenev? Of the sea too I refrained from speaking, knowing how much amateur sailors have to respect and defer to the strange “complex” of those who have had to make a living from the sea, to struggle to survive on it, and not simply enjoy themselves. Yet by steadily scrutinizing, from where I sat at meals, a huge photographic enlargement (just opposite me, on the right-hand panel as you went in) of a great three-masted barque from the Australian run in full sail, I had doubtless been unable to avoid a few remarks, which brought me some amusing ripostes: Conrad denied he was the poet of the sea and declared that he loved not the sea but ships, the triumph of art or rather quite simply of

182

man over the sea! When I took my hat to go for a walk in that countryside full of rabbits, Conrad, pinned down by gout and hobbling with the aid of a crutch to the front door took a mischievous delight in calling out after me: “And you know, you’ll neither see nor hear nor smell anything of the sea here! . . . 40 miles from the sea!” (I think he was exaggerating to amuse both of us.) He surprised me sometimes by his imaginative taste for society life, and by his very eighteenth-century curiosity about the role women play behind the scenes of history. You have sensed, my dear friend, the real nobility of the man. However secretive his most intimate self, he would have liked your book, for its own modesty and tact, for its delicacy of thought and feeling, which give it its literary merit. […]

F. Warrington Dawson to Arnold T. Schwab Text Schwab

11 March 19541 […] Up to the time I last saw Conrad just before his catastrophic expedition to Poland (with Retinger) he certainly had no anti-American bias as such. He had had few American contacts, a letter to me confirmed what he had told me that I was his “second American friend”2 – in point of time, for in friendship I was one of those who were nearest to him – a thing which can be said of very few. The “first” had been Stephen Crane. There was also Henry James. You ask about dear sweet Ellen Glasgow – it was I who introduced Ellen to him, along with Louise Collier Willcox,3 arranging for them to come down for afternoon tea one Sunday when I was week-ending at Capel House. The photographs she and Louise used for propaganda purposes showing them with the Conrads on the lawn were taken by me with my camera I had had in Africa with Theodore Roosevelt – that’s why I did not appear in the

In response to Schwab’s request for information regarding Conrad’s attitudes to America and his friendships with individual Americans. 2 As Conrad had remarked in a letter to Dawson of 29 July 1923 (CL8 141). 3 The American writer Ellen Glasgow (1874–1945) and her close friend Louise Willcox (1865–1929) made their visit to Capel House in June 1914. 1

183

group.1 But I duly noted the touching constancy of Ellen’s propaganda department in omitting any mention of me in newsprint. Similarly with James Hopper,2 whom I never introduced to Conrad but I did agree to hand to Conrad a copy of Hopper’s book The Trimming of Goosie [1909] – and I stood over Conrad until I had made sure that he wrote a nice letter to Hopper – who leapt to notoriety by advertising himself on the strength of that letter. […] Now this is one American characteristic (for I regret to say it is characteristic) – which Conrad noted and did dislike in Americans – the irresponsibility with which people are used and dropped. From what he knew of us as a race, he preferred Southerners to Northerners. […] His general criticism of American novels was that, with very rare exceptions, “ils manquent de fond” – always so said in French and difficult to render in English, meaning roughly running to technique with but little stuff back of it, which is unfortunately true. […] As for naming some of those against whom he fumed in private after having imposed courtesy upon himself when allowing himself to be interviewed – I should not care to do that. Conrad was a great gentleman with olden Polish traditions of courtesy and hospitality – whoever was received by him at his home deserved all that is due to a guest, whatever the feelings of the host. […]

Michael Holland to The Times Literary Supplement Text TLS (1)

7 October 19553 Sir – According to your critic in the issue of September 13, Mr. Visiak4 could not obtain from Conrad any expression of favouritism with regard

Four of the photographs taken on that afternoon are included in the concluding appendix of Dale B. J. Randall’s Joseph Conrad and Warrington Dawson: The Record of a Friendship (Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1968). 2 The Paris-born American novelist and short-story writer (1876–1956). For Conrad’s letter to Hopper, see CL5 232–33. 3 This and the following letter were printed under the rubric “Conrad’s Favourite Novel.” 4 “E. H. Visiak” was the pseudonym of Edward Harold Physick (1878–1972), a critic, poet, and fantasy writer. The issue of Conrad’s “favourite novel” had first 1

184

to the novels. But Conrad once told me, in conversation, that he liked Nostromo best. Michael Holland

Richard Curle to The Times Literary Supplement Text TLS (2)

14 October 1955 Sir, – It is true that, from my recollection of his talk, Conrad regarded Nostromo as his greatest creative effort. But the novel of which he was fondest – “liked best” to use Mr. Holland’s words – was The Nigger of the “Narcissus”. This was not primarily because of its literary qualities, but because of the nostalgic memories it evoked. Richard Curle

From J. H. Retinger to Ian P. Watt Text H. & W.

27, The Vale, London S. W. 3. 15th May, 1957 Dear Mr. Watt, Thank you for your letter of 22nd April, which I have only just received on my return home after several weeks of travel. To answer your questions in order: (1) Since I gave no further details in references to the lady [Jane Anderson] in whom you are interested, I obviously thought it right to observe due discretion on the subject, and that is still my view. (2) Unfortunately, though I searched for the manuscript of the play on which I collaborated with Conrad,1 and even advertised arisen in a review of Visiak’s The Mirror of Conrad (1955) in TLS, 13 September 1955, 575. 1 According to Retinger, the play had a South American subject and had temporarily attracted both men as a way of making “heaps of money” (Retinger, Conrad and His Contemporaries: Souvenirs [London: Minerva, 1941], p. 120).

185

a request for information as to its whereabouts, I simply could not find it. You can imagine how sorry I was about this myself. (3) At the time I discussed Mark Twain with Conrad, he had a general dislike of Americans and the American mentality, which he knew only very slightly until his visit to America after the first war, when he completely changed his attitude. I suppose that was the reason why he neither understood nor liked Mark Twain.1 Richardson, Smollett and the English novelists of the Eighteenth Century pleased him because of the rambling way in which they wrote their novels. He liked details and anything which seemed to him to give a personal touch to the description of events. That is why he was so fond of diaries and memoirs. (4) I am almost sure that he did not understand German, since I well remember having to interpret for him when addressing Germans on our way across Germany to Poland. On the other hand, German literature was pretty well-known in Poland when he was a young man there, and later on when he was in close touch with his Polish fellow-countrymen; and, as Polish literature itself was greatly under the influence of Goethe, Schiller and the romantics, I am sure he could have read them in Polish translation. I hope that these comments may help to clear up any points in which you are in doubt. Yours sincerely, J. H. Retinger

This testimony does not wholly square with existing evidence. Conrad seems to have had an enduring affection for Twain’s The Innocents Abroad (1869) and Life on the Mississippi (1883): see D. L. Higdon, “Conrad and Mark Twain: A Newly Discovered Essay,” Journal of Modern Literature, 12.2 (1985), 354–61.

1

186

From Cecil Roberts to the Editor of The Times Text Times

Palazzo Vairo, Alassio, Italy. 10 December 1957. Sir, – In his appraisal of the work of Joseph Conrad published in The Times of December 3 Dr. Leavis writes of the irresistible claim of Nostromo to acceptance as a major classic. His words emphasize the irony that often underlies great achievement. When I was a very young man, on the threshold of my career, I had the good fortune to gain the friendship of Joseph Conrad. One evening, 40 years ago,1 in a flat he had temporarily taken in the Marylebone Road, the talk turned to his work and what degree of permanence it might have. He said he was tortured by his limitations. In my young enthusiasm I asserted that he should have no doubt in the matter, he was among the immortals. “With what work do you feel I have achieved this?” he asked, waiting for the noise of an anti-Zeppelin barrage outside to die down. “With Nostromo, undoubtedly,” I replied. He was silent for a few moments, then, placing his hand on my shoulder, “My dear young man, God bless you for that!” he exclaimed, his dark eyes and voice betraying his emotion. “My poor Nostromo! They do not like it. Always this chatter about The Nigger of the Narcissus, which is nothing!” That evening as I was leaving, long past midnight, with a sudden thought he asked me to wait in the hall. Presently he returned with a wrapped-up book. “Open it later,” he said, wishing me goodnight. Out in the street I opened the parcel. It was a copy of Nostromo inscribed to me in his bold handwriting. Dizzily elated, I walked home to my lodging. I am, Sir, yours faithfully, Cecil Roberts.

In February 1918, when Conrad seems to have met Roberts twice at Hyde Park Mansions (see CL6 183, 188). Roberts’s extended reminiscence of these meetings is included in Ray, pp. 124–31.

1

187

From Fred Arnold to the Editor of The Daily Telegraph Text DT; Ray, ed., 220

8 June 1958 Sir, – Myself when young did eagerly frequent the Fleur-de-Lys in Canterbury,1 so perhaps I may suggest another reason why this attractive old inn should be saved. I have not seen mentioned the fact that the Fleur-de-Lys was Joseph Conrad’s favourite and, I believe, only port of call while he lived nearby. In his declining years, both before and after his visit to the United States in 1923, each evening when it pleased him, at about nine o’clock, Conrad would enter the Fleur-de-Lys. Turning in right-handed round the partition which separated the tiny saloon bar from the manager’s office, he would take up the seat tacitly reserved for him to the right of the window. There he would chat for an hour in his forceful and staccato fashion with certain acquaintances or with the innkeeper of those days, Marcelle Sheppard, taking aboard the while a healthy master mariner’s ration of his favourite gin. He almost invariably wore his old but well-brushed bowler hat but, if memory serves, very occasionally affected a rough homespun homberg with small blue “flash” feather. […] May I add that the force of character emanating from Conrad himself, and the never-failing courtesy and kindliness of his latterly much-crippled but always most charming wife, are two of my outstanding and treasured memories. Fred Arnold

1 As J. H. Stape indicates, Arnold’s spelling is incorrect: “neither of two possible locales was so spelled: a hotel at 34 Canterbury High Street, and the Fleur-de-Lis Taproom operating in Bridge’s White Horse Inn (Kelly’s 1913 Directory for Kent, Surrey and Sussex, pp. 1075, 1138). In Bridge High Street, the White Horse was within easy walking distance of Oswalds […] and seems to be the location at issue. Kelly’s Directory also places the White Horse in ‘Canterbury’ rather than in the small village of Bridge, at the town’s outskirts” (The Several Lives of Joseph Conrad [London: Heinemann, 2007], p. 321).

188

From The Earl Russell to C. T. Watts Text: TS Watts; Watts (2) 134 (in part)

[letterhead:] Plas Penrhyn, Penrhyndeudraeth, Merioneth. 3 October, 1961. Dear Mr. Watts, Thank you for your letter and for the interesting introduction.1 I have read both with a great deal of interest. To begin with a small point, I think you are quite justified in your quotation from My Philosophical Development,2 though the view expressed in your quotation is one which I ceased to hold later. As for the strange sympathy between Conrad and myself, I cannot pretend that I have ever quite understood it. I think I have always felt that there were two levels, one that of science and common sense, and another, terrifying, subterranean and chaotic, which in some sense held more truth than the everyday view. You might describe this as a Satanic mysticism. I have never been convinced of its truth, but in moments of intense emotion it overwhelms me. It is capable of being defended on the most pure intellectual grounds – for example, by Eddington’s contention that the laws of physics only seem to be true because of the things that we choose to notice.3 I suppose that Watts had sent to Russell a short introduction to a projected doctoral thesis on anti-rational primitivism, that is, the paradox of anti-rationalism in the writings of civilized writers (Samuel Butler, Walter Pater, D. H. Lawrence, and Conrad). The introduction may have been entitled “Joseph Conrad and Anti-Rational Primitivism.” Watts’s projected thesis evolved into a full-length study of the literary aspects of the friendship between Conrad and R. B. Cunninghame Graham, followed in due course by his edition of Conrad’s letters to Graham (1969). (Information here and in the following notes kindly supplied by Cedric Watts.) 2 In his introduction, Watts had used the following quotation from Russell’s work: “I do wish I believed in the life eternal, for it makes me quite miserable to think that man is merely a kind of machine endowed, unhappily for himself, with consciousness” (My Philosophical Development [London: Allen & Unwin, 1959], p. 30). 3 Cf. “Scientific measurement is a process which has evolved, and is still evolving; and its evolution is guided by our conceptual interpretation of it. It is not a practical process hit on by accident whose meaning we have to discover; we first make up our minds what we think a measurement ought to mean, and then design a procedure which will yield a ‘good’ measurement, i.e. a measurement to which we can without inconsistency assign that meaning,” Sir 1

189

the feeling I had for Conrad depended upon his combination of passion and pessimism – but that perhaps is a simplification. You ask whether my feeling for Conrad was based upon a common sense of loneliness. I think this may have been the case, but the experience, while it lasted, was too intense for analysis. Yours sincerely, Bertrand Russell

From Borys Conrad to Richard Curle Text MS Indiana; Unpublished

Olinda Beacon Hill Hindhead. Surrey June 15th 1964 Dear Dick. I have just returned from a weekend spent with John1 which I found very enjoyable. Thank you for your letter and the books. I shall of course be happy to write something for your friend if he wishes. As to my recollections of J. C., if you think it worth while producing more of these I have no doubt I can do so. I would like to be guided by you on this point and also, if possible, submit any future writings about J.C. to you for your comments. He did not discuss his work with me at any time. Apart from yourself and Hueffer, the only people with whom I know he discussed his work were (a) Perceval Gibbon – often for hours on end (b.) Hugh Walpole but only to a minor extent (c.) Arthur Marwood – why I cannot imagine as he always appeared to me an unintelligent and bovine individual. Incidentally I detested the man as did Mrs. C. I am unable to believe J. C. can have found conversation with A. M. in any way stimulating. Very little seems to be known about this, to me, strange friendship and I feel that, if it had ever produced any fruit worth plucking, some facts would have turned up from somewhere. I shall be very happy to come and see you whenever it is convenient to you. […]

Arthur Eddington, Fundamental Theory (Cambridge University Press, 1948; rpt. 1953, p. 279). 1 His younger brother.

190

Richard Curle to Borys Conrad Text TS draft Indiana; Unpublished

[London] [mid- or late 1960s] I have been thinking over your letter which I received yesterday, and understand quite well the sort of difficulty you have reached in your book.1 But I feel sure that, putting aside your own state of mind at that time, which was quite obviously the result of the War, I would still have advised you to end your book with the journey overseas.2 You saw little of your father after then, both of you were in a state of strain, of entirely different sorts, owing to the War, and though your father most certainly did not change, in the very slightest, in his affectionate attitude to you, the very fact that you were in constant danger worried him and affected his highstrung temperament. Therefore neither of you was his normal self, and thus your book could not give, in the very nature of things, a just picture of your relationship. Indeed, let me repeat that in any circumstances at all, this would be the ideal time to close your reminiscences of J. C. Of course, 30,000 words is a short book, but apart from the fact that there are numbers of very short books about your father, I expect it can be lengthened. Possibly I might be able to give you some ideas in this direction, but I am sure you can get them from your own memory. As regards what you say about your possible feelings at present, put all such thoughts completely out of your head for ever. There were literally tho[u]sands of you[n]g men like you who, perfectly sensible, like yourself, before and later, suffered from shell shock of one kind or another – and there were all sorts – yet did change for the time being. At first, their behaviour was treated correctly and nothing happened, but later on there were so many cases of anti-social acts that the authorities came to the conclusion that their excuses were “try-on,” which they most certainly were not and they were down on them for no just reason. The whole matter is now utterly forgotten, and rightly so, and you should put it for ever out of your mind. That, I do assure you, is justice. One of my friends, a doctor, was a leading authority on such matters and explained it all to me. I know he was right and nothing could ever change my mind. If you like we could talk it all over but I assure you it’s simply not worth it. […] 1 2

Joseph Conrad: My Father (London: Calder and Boyars, 1970). That is, in early 1916, when Borys left for the war front.

Appendix I Ford Madox Ford’s Letter to Edward Garnett, 5 May 1928 WHEN, IN 1928, Edward Garnett published his edition of Conrad’s letters to him, Letters from Conrad: 1895 to 1924 (London: Nonesuch), he included one of 26 March 1900, in which Conrad had maligned the efforts of his collaborator, Ford Madox Ford. The relevant part of the text reads as follows: I set myself to look upon the thing [The Inheritors] as a sort of skit upon the political (?!) novel, fools of the Morley Roberts sort do write. This in my heart of hearts. And poor H[ueffer] was dead in earnest! Oh Lord. How he worked! There is not a chapter I haven’t made him write twice – most of them three times over. This is collaboration if you like! Joking apart the expenditure of nervous fluid was immense. There were moments when I cursed the day I was born and dared not look upon the light of day I had to live through with this thing on my mind. H[ueffer] has been as patient as no angel had ever been. I’ve been fiendish. I’ve been rude to him; if I’ve not called him names I’ve implied in my remarks and in the course of our discussions the most opprobrious epithets. He wouldn’t recognize them, ’Pon my word it was touching. And there’s no doubt that in the course of that agony I have been ready to weep more than once. Yet not for him. Not for him. You’ll have to burn this letter – but I shall say no more. Some day we shall meet and then – ! (CL2 257)

When in 1928 George T. Keating drew Ford’s attention to this letter, Ford fired off from Paris an angry four-page letter to Garnett, protesting that Garnett had chosen to publish something that Conrad had instructed him to “burn,” defending himself from the letter’s charges, and reviewing his association with Conrad. This agitated letter to Garnett involves a wider biographical context: it was written at a time when Ford, suffering the inevitable anti-climax after finishing Parade’s

192

End and still coming to terms with the end of his relationship with Stella Bowen, felt his life to be disintegrating. The first and worst of such times was his 1904 breakdown, just after he and Conrad had published Romance, and it is likely that the news of Garnett’s having published the Conrad letter may have taken him back to, and over, those early stressful years. Ford’s important letter to Garnett of 5 May 1928 is extant (TS Northwestern) but is, unfortunately, not available for inclusion in the present volume. Ford’s latest biographer, Max Saunders, was allowed to use extracts from it in his monumental biography, Ford Madox Ford: A Dual Life (2 vols., Oxford University Press, 1996), and has generously given permission to reprint those extracts with his contextual commentary here: […] Ford was working on A Little Less Than Gods when [in 1928] George Keating sent him the volume of Conrad’s letters that Edward Garnett had published, having marked the one in which Conrad makes sardonic fun of Ford’s efforts over The Inheritors, saying that he thought of it as a “skit,” whereas Ford had been “dead in earnest,” and that Conrad had been ready to weep – “Yet not for him.” Ford was outraged that Garnett should publish this letter – which Conrad had told him to burn – just when the controversy over his book on Conrad [Joseph Conrad: A Personal Remembrance (1924)] appeared to have played itself out. Ford wrote a four-page letter to Garnett, bristling with the anger of betrayal, and headed reproachfully “Private and not for publication in perpetuity.” He also told Garnett to burn it, which of course he didn’t. Ford said: “I have myself heard Conrad utter such bitter jeers against other people to whom he wrote in the same terms of adoration that he addressed to myself that I could quite well have invented the letter myself.” That is believable. His argument that by publishing such letters Garnett had discredited “the memory of that unfortunate man” also had great force. But his claim that he was “fairly indifferent” to Conrad’s sarcasms against him is belied by his tone – and by the fact that he needed to repeat the old “indifferentist” pose of his youth in order to convince himself he need not be hurt, saying he was “absolutely indifferent” to anything that had been said about his relations with Conrad “except in so far as they do anything to injure his memory.” He

193

made the kind of fantastical claims that Garnett of all people censured in him: that Conrad had begged him to write the memoir of him; and a paranoid fantasy that Conrad “was surrounded by people of whom he stood in dread,” and tried to evade them by begging Ford to write to him via his secretary or at post-offices. “Anyhow, I beg you not to take in bad part anything that I have writ[t]en,” he said. “It is written with a great deal of emotion: My affection for Conrad was so great and remains so unchanged that I have never been able really to believe in his death, and at this moment it is as if he were sitting behind me waiting to read what I have tapped out. You see, we did live together, day in day out, for many years – ten, I daresay and even towards the end he could not really get on without me any more than I could or can get ob [sic] without him, and I do not shrink from saying that at this moment I cannot see for tears. Hang it all I worked for that man during years as hard as any other man ever worked for a man. And for what? You don’t suppose I did it in order to go up to glory on his skirts. I can do it for myself thank you. Naturally he did the dirty on me from time to time. He had to and I never cared and don’t care now.

Who was Ford weeping for? For Conrad, for himself, for Stella [Bowen], for Garnett; perhaps for all the friendshipwrecks Conrad had prophesied in 1909, and that the knowledge of Conrad’s letters to Garnett probably brought back to him, at a time when his life was again becoming as desperately complicated as it had been in the fraught years with Violet Hunt. He quoted the remark in one of Conrad’s last letters: “Unlike the Serpent which is Wise, you are unchanging,” saying to Garnett: “And I think I am and you are too, and as we never did agree about anything in literature I see no possibility of our now doing so so there would be little use in our meeting even if you don’t cherish the full serpent’s hatred that Conrad said you did for me.” It must have been particularly distressing to confront the evidence of Conrad’s duplicitous changeability while writing A Little Less Than Gods, which was another act of symbolic rapprochement with Conrad: an

194

attempt to revisit the ghost of their collaborative mutual dependency.”1

1

© Max Saunders, Ford Madox Ford: A Dual Life, Volume 2 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), pp. 331-32. By permission of Oxford University Press.

Appendix II Additions to the Calendar of Letters Addressed to Conrad THE LETTERS LISTED below are additions to the “Calendar of Letters Addressed to Conrad” compiled by J. H. Stape (A Portrait in Letters, pp. 259–79). Conjectural dates are indicated in square brackets. The rubric “TS copy” indicates a typed transcription of an unlocated original. A letter known only from a printed source is noted by the abbreviation given in “Published sources of letters” at the front of this volume.

Date

Author and Year

Location

1908 3 July

Stephen Reynolds

MS Texas

1909 [early December]

Lindsay Bashford

MS Yale

1910 12 July 3 November

Norman Douglas John Galsworthy

MS VL Marrot

1918 5 July

Arnold Bennett

MS Yale

1919 30 January

John Galsworthy

MS Brandeis

196

1920 21 April 4 May 18 May [late July]

John Galsworthy John Galsworthy British Museum Kate Gordon Quill

MS Brandeis MS Brandeis Printed letter BL TS copy Private

1921 14 February 20 May 6 June 12 June 13 July 30 October

Philippe Neel John Galsworthy John Galsworthy John Galsworthy Alice H. James John Galsworthy

MS Private MS Brandeis MS Brandeis MS Brandeis MS Private MS Brandeis

1922 3 February 10 February 15 March 25 March 22 October 29 October 6 November 26 November

John Galsworthy John Galsworthy Philippe Neel Philippe Neel Philippe Neel Philippe Neel Philippe Neel John Galsworthy

MS Brandeis MS Brandeis MS Private MS Private MS Private MS Private MS Private MS Brandeis

1923 8 April 27 June 14 July 23 August 11 October 1 November 20 November

John Galsworthy John Galsworthy John Galsworthy Julio Calvo Alfaro John Galsworthy John Galsworthy Philippe Neel

MS Brandeis MS Brandeis MS Brandeis TS Berg MS Brandeis MS Brandeis MS Private

1924 20 May

Henry Furst

TS Berg

Appendix III A Calendar of Missing Conrad Letters WITH THE COMPLETION of the nine-volume edition of Conrad’s letters (Cambridge University Press, 1983–2007) as well as two volumes of letters to and about him, it is now possible to begin the task of compiling a calendar of known missing Conrad letters. The following list collects references in these eleven volumes to letters mentioned as having been written by Conrad that have not yet come to light. Such a list is, of course, not a complete record of known missing letters. At a future stage it will need to be supplemented by, for example, references in auction catalogues and other factual sources that point to additional missing letters. Nor should the list obscure the fact that in some cases an entire body of correspondence (as with Conrad’s letters to his uncle Tadeusz Bobrowski or to Perceval Gibbon) is known to be destroyed or (as with the letters to Sir Robert Jones) is possibly extant but unlocated. In light of these reservations, the accompanying calendar should be regarded as a modest beginning rather than a final accounting. In the list below, missing letters are indicated by the recipients’ names at the left-hand followed by supporting evidence. Where a single extant letter gives evidence of two missing Conrad letters to the same correspondent, this fact is noted after the correspondent’s name in round brackets as (2). Abbreviations are as used throughout the present volume, which is referred to below by the abbreviation DF. T. Fisher Unwin: JC to Garnett, 2 June 1896, CL1 284 Cornhill Magazine: JC to Unwin, 9 August, 1896 CL1 298 Katherine Sanderson: JC to E. L. Sanderson, 14 November 1896, CL9 40 Smith, Elder & Co: JC to Garnett, 16 November [1896], CL1 316 S. S. Pawling: JC to Garnett [7 February 1897], CL1 338 John Galsworthy: JC to Garnett [19 February 1897], CL1 341 Katherine Sanderson: JC to E. L. Sanderson, 3 May 1897, CL1 353 S. S. Pawling: JC to Pawling, 5 November 1897, CL9 51 S. S. Pawling (postcard): JC to Pawling, 5 November 1897, CL9 51

198

S. S. Pawling: JC to W. H. Heinemann, 13 October 1898, CL9 64 Robert McClure: McClure to JC, 23 November 1899, Portrait 32 Robert McClure: JC to Garnett [24 November 1899], CL2 221 Watson & Co: JC to William Blackwood, 3 January 1901, CL2 317 Robert Garnett: Garnett to JC, 13 July 1901, Portrait 33 S. S. Pawling: JC to Galsworthy, 11 June 1902, CL2 425 David Meldrum: JC to Meldrum, Friday [August or September? 1902], CL2 440 Harper & Brothers: Harpers to JC, 18 November 1902, Portrait 39 McArthur: JC to Pinker, 28 [29] November 1902, CL2 458 Robert McClure: JC to Pinker, 19 January 1903, CL3 10 Smith, Elder & Co: JC to Galsworthy, 30 November 1903, CL3 84 Mrs Hoare: JC to Galsworthy, 30 November 1903, CL3 84 Morning Post: JC to Elsie Hueffer, 2 September 1904, CL3 161 William Rothenstein: Rothenstein to Newbolt, 20 March 1905, DF 20 William Rothenstein: Rothenstein to Gosse, 28 March 1905, DF 22 William Rothenstein: Rothenstein to Newbolt [16 May 1905], DF 28 William Rothenstein: Rothenstein to Gosse, 20 May 1905, DF 29 William Rothenstein: Rothenstein to Newbolt, 20 July 1905, DF 36 William Rothenstein: Rothenstein to Newbolt, 7 September 1905, DF 38 The Tribune: JC to Pinker [early November 1905], CL3 295 R. B. Cunninghame Graham: JC to Galsworthy, 4 July 1906, CL3 339 Giorgio Cerio: JC to Count Szembek, 8 December 1906, CL3 387 Marguerite Poradowska: Poradowska to JC, 26 April 1907, Portrait 62 W. Robertson Nicoll: JC to Pinker, 10 October 1907, CL3 497 Stephen Reynolds: Reynolds to Pinker, 8 November 1907, DF 42 Ella D’Arcy: JC to Ford [7 December 1908], CL4 157 Elsie Hueffer: JC to Ford, 20 May 1909, CL4 236 Norman Douglas: JC to Pinker [30 June or 7 July 1909], CL4 251 Hilton, Hill & Coles, Ltd: JC to Pinker [17 October 1909], CL4 279 Henry Mills Alden: JC to Pinker [12 January 1910], CL4 319 Daily Mail: JC to Galsworthy, 26 June 1910, CL4 341 Austin Harrison: JC to Norman Douglas, 27 July 1910, CL4 350 Austin Harrison: JC to Harrison [autumn 1910], CL9 147 London Magazine: London Magazine to Pinker, 19 November 1910, Portrait 74 Pall Mall Magazine: JC to Pinker, 2 March 1911, CL4 418 Henry Mills Alden: JC to Pinker [March 1911] CL4 420 New York Herald: Herald to JC, 7 June 1911, Portrait 76

199

J. M. Dent & Sons: JC to Pinker, 19 June 1911, CL4 450 Macmillan & Co: JC to Pinker, 19 June 1911, CL4 450 Austin Harrison: JC to Pinker, 27 June 1911, CL4 454 Wincenty Lutosławski: JC to Olivia Rayne Garnett, 20 October 1911, CL4 489 Laurence Irving: JC to Pinker [24 October 1911] CL4 492 Eveleigh Nash: JC to Elsie Hueffer [February or March 1912], CL5 27 Morning Leader: JC to Pinker [5 February 1912] CL5 16 J. M. Barrie: JC to Eden Phillpotts, 16 February 1912, CL5 22 Dorothea Mackellar: JC to H. H. Champion, 9 April 1912, CL5 50 Andrew Melrose: JC to Pinker [22 April 1912], CL5 55 Daily News & Leader: JC to Pinker [8 November 1912], CL5 132 J. H. Retinger: JC to Arnold Bennett, 17 November 1912, CL5 135 J. M. Dent: Dent to JC, 13 February 1913, DF 57 Sir George Alexander: JC to Pinker [27 April 1913], CL5 218 Mr Gow: JC to Iris Wedgwood, 22 July 1914, CL5 404 Walter Hines Page: JC to Pinker, 8 August 1914, CL5 410 R. B. Cunninghame Graham: Graham to JC, 19 May 1915, Portrait 99 Sir Douglas Brownrigg: JC to Pinker [15 February 1917], CL6 31 H. B. Irving: JC to Catherine Willard [4 April 1917], CL6 68 H. B. Irving: JC to Catherine Willard 19 April 1917, CL6 71 André Gide: JC to Macdonald Hastings [c. 6 May 1917, CL6 85 H. B. Irving: JC to Macdonald Hastings [c. 6 May 1917], CL6 85 H. B. Irving: JC to Garnett [11 May 1917], CL6 89 H. B. Irving: JC to Pinker [26? May 1917], CL6 95 B. Macdonald Hastings: JC to Pinker [27 June 1917], CL6 106 F. N. Doubleday: JC to Pinker [30 August 1917], CL6 119 Lloyds Bank Ltd: JC to Pinker [4 December 1917], CL6 153 Hesketh Pearson: JC to Lewis Browne, 15 May 1918, CL6 216 R. B. Cunninghame Graham: Graham to JC, 4 September 1918, Portrait 131 Hampton & Son: JC to Pinker [22? November 1918], CL6 309 Harry E. Maule: JC to Pinker [27 November 1918], CL6 315 R. B. Cunninghame Graham: Graham to JC, 24 December 1918, Portrait 135 John Galsworthy: Galsworthy to JC, 30 January 1919, DF 97 Alfred Burrows & Co: JC to Pinker, 11[10] March 1919, CL6 382 Marie Löhr: JC to Macdonald Hastings, 21 March 1919, CL6 393 Emilio Cecchi: JC to Pinker [c. 1 April 1919], CL6 400 W. H. Smith & Co: JC to Pinker [c. 21 May 1919], CL6 423

200

Murray Allison: JC to Pinker, 25 May 1919, CL6 426 Land & Water: JC to Pinker, 25 May 1919, CL6 426 Maurice Greiffenhagen: JC to Pinker, 25 May 1919, CL6 426 J. C. Squire: JC to Pinker, 25 May 1919, CL6 426 Sir Robert Jones: JC to G. Jean-Aubry, 7 November 1919, CL6 517 G. P. Putnam: Putnam to JC, 28 November 1919, Yale Samuel A. Everitt: JC to Pinker, 25 February 1920, CL7 33 Sir Robert Jones: JC to Pinker, 26 February 1920, CL7 35 William Heinemann: JC to Eric Pinker, 3 March 1920, CL7 41 Frank Vernon: JC to Eric Pinker, 17 April [1920], CL7 79 William Heinemann: JC to Pinker, 31 May 1920, CL7 102 The Graphic: JC to Pinker, 29 June 1920, CL7 122 Alice H. James: Alice James to JC, 13 July 1921, DF 115 R. D. Mackintosh: JC to Pinker [14 July 1921], CL7 315 W. M. Seabury: Seabury to JC, 23 November 1921, DF 117 Norman McKinnel: JC to Pinker, 28 November 1921, CL7 383 J. M. Dent: JC to Eric Pinker, 3[2] March 1922, CL7 427 Colonel Matthew Bell (2): Bell to JC, 27 March 1922, DF 121 Colonel Matthew Bell (2): Bell to JC, 27 March 1922, DF 121 Andrew Melrose: JC to Eric Pinker, 19 November 1922, CL7 591 John Galsworthy (2): Galsworthy to JC, 26 November 1922, DF 130 John Galsworthy (2): Galsworthy to JC, 26 November 1922, DF 130 Logan Pearsall Smith: JC to J. C. Squire, 30 November 1922, CL7 606 Karola Zagórska: JC to Eric Pinker [1 December 1922], CL7 606 T. Werner Laurie: JC to Eric Pinker [26 December 1922], CL7 628 J. M. Dent: JC to Eric Pinker, 29 December 1922, CL7 631 Revd Neville Ridgeway: JC to G. Jean-Aubry, 14 January [14? February] 1923, CL8 30 T. Werner Laurie: JC to Eric Pinker, 7 March 1923, CL8 42 James Bone: JC to David Bone, 12 April 1923, CL8 80 John Galsworthy: Galsworthy to JC, 14 July 1923, DF 144 Borys Conrad: JC to Eric Pinker, 30 January 1924, CL8 288 Muirhead Bone: Bone to JC, 26 February [1924], DF 153 Henry Furst: Furst to JC, 20 May 1924, DF 154

Indexes Correspondents LETTERS TO more than one individual are indexed under each name and marked †. Anderson, Jane, 74 Arnold, Fred, 187 Aubry: see Jean-Aubry Authors’ Syndicate, Ltd, 65, 66 Bashford, Lindsay, 48 Bell, Lt-Col Matthew, 121 Bennett, Arnold, 3, 94, 129 Bennett, Sanford, 6 Bone, Muirhead, 153 Bookman (NY), 166 British Museum, 105 Brooke, Lady, Dowager Ranee of Sarawak, 149 Burleigh, Louise, 110

Dent, J. M & Sons, 57, 59, 84 Doubleday, Florence, 143† Doubleday, F. N., 104, 143†, Doubleday, Russell, 137 Douglas, Norman, 47 English Review, 107 Fisher, H. A. L., 67, 71 Fitzgerald, F. Scott, 140 Follett, Wilson, 90, 91 Ford, Ford Madox, 146, 148, 149, 151, 154, 156, 158 Furst, Henry, 154

Cecchi, Emilio, 98 Chesson, W. H., 99 Chicago Daily Tribune, 140 Clarke, Harald Leofurn, 147 Clifford, Sir Hugh, 164 Conrad, Borys, 189, 190 Conrad, Jessie, 48, 49, 133, 135, 136, 138, 142, 143, 161 Crane, Stephen, 6 Curle, Richard, 67, 71, 149, 160, 164, 165, 172, 173, 174, 184, 190

Galsworthy, John, 44, 49, 51, 69, 97, 104, 105, 111, 113, 114, 116, 117, 118, 130, 133, 144, 145, 147 Garnett, Edward, 5, 53, 69, 165, 172 Garnett, Olivia Rayne, 4 Gillet, Louis, 102 Gosse, Edmund, 9, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 29, 31 Graham, R. B. Cunninghame, 5, 160, 173

Daily Telegraph, 187 Dana, Henry, 97 Dawson, F. Warrington, 182

Hackney, Dr Clifford, 48 Holland, Michael, 183 Hueffer, Elsie, 45

202

Hueffer, Ford Madox: see Ford Irving, Laurence, 53 James, Alice H., 115 Jean-Aubry, G., 96, 175, 179 Jones, Sir Robert, 145, 164 Keating, George T., 131 Korzeniowski, Apollo, 1 Kraszewski, Józef Ignacy, 1 Langlois, Paul, 168 Lawrence, T. E., 104 Lloyd’s Bank, 67 Lucas, E. V., 46 McFee, William, 166 Macintire, Elizabeth Jelliffe, 74 Madge, 148 Marwood, Arthur, 69 Maule, Harry E., 94 Mérédac, Savinien, 168 Methuen & Co., 52, 59 Moor, Dolly, 161† Moor, Harold, 161† Morrell, Lady Ottoline, 64, 68 Moxon, Thomas F., 85 Murray, Gilbert, 9 Nautical Magazine, 111 Neel, Philippe, 108, 118, 125, 126 Newbolt, Henry, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 20, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41 New Statesman and Nation, 168

Pathé Frères Cinema, Ltd, 61 Perse, St-John, 179 Pinker, Eric S., 129 Pinker, J. B., 42, 44, 48, 49, 52, 53, 69 Pomerański, Stefan, 159 Poradowska, Marguerite, 1 Quill, Kate Gordon, 106 Quinn, John, 54, 55, 56, 63, 72, 78, 80, 81, 88, 90, 91, 100, 124 Ramsay, M. G., 18, 22, 24 Retinger, J. H., 184 Reynolds Stephen, 42 Roberts, Cecil, 186 Robinson, Alex, 102 Rothenstein, Alice, 25, 49† Rothenstein, William, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 49† Russell, Hon. Bertrand, 64, 68, 188 St Clair, W. G., 86 Saunders, A. T., 111 Seabury, William Marston, 117 Schwab, Arnold T., 182 Stepniak, Fanny, 4 Strachey, J. St Loe, 157, 161 Street, Julian, 137 Symons, Arthur, 55 Taylor, Deems, 74 Ternant, Andrew de, 168 Thys, Albert, 1

203

Times Literary Supplement, 183, 184 Times, The, 186 To-day, 99 Twentyman, Ernest W. G., 84 Unwin, T. Fisher, 93 Wade, Allan, 122 Watt, Ian P., 184 Watts, C. T., 188 Wells, H. G., 3, 107 Wohlfarth, Paul, 174, 175

2. Names, Places, Titles THIS INDEX also includes persons listed in “Additions to the Calendar of Letters Addressed to Conrad” whose correspondence is not printed here. References to ships are consolidated under “Ships”; to newspapers and periodicals under “Periodicals”; and to London and its localities under “London.” References to Conrad’s works, uniform editions, and selections from his writings appear under his name. Adams, Elbridge L., 135 Adams, William Davenport, 19 Adelaide, 112 Africa, 165, 182 Alfaro, Julio Calvo, 196 Alpes (publisher), 55 America, 36, 37, 74, 79, 82–83, 89, 124, 144, 150, 151–52, 173, 182–83, 187 American Book Co., 111 Anderson, Jane, 184 Angell, Norman, 83 Antwerp, 2 Arlen, Michael, 166 Ashford (Kent), 180 Asquith, Rt Hon. Herbert, 80 Aubry: see Jean-Aubry Australia, 112–13 Baker, George Pierce, 74 Balfour, Rt Hon. Arthur James, 9–10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 83 Banana (Congo), 2 Bashford, Lindsay, 50 Bell, Clive, 83 Bell, Mary, 136, 142 Bell, Col. Matthew, 136, 142 Belloc, Hilaire, 46, 96, 98

Bennett, Arnold, 64, 166 Bennett, H. T. B., 67 Beresford, J. D., 116 Best, J., 61 Bialystok, 160 Biarritz, 148, 153 Bishopsbourne (Kent), 118, 122 Biskra (Algeria), 130 Blair, Captain John, 86 Bobrowski, Nicholas, 85 Bourne Park (Bishopsbourne), 142 Bradbury, Captain, 86 Bradford, 17 Breslau, 176 Bridge (Kent), 118 Brittany, 78 Brooksbank, Frederick Havelock, 86 Bruce, Gordon, 75 Brussels, 2, 3, 130 Bryan, William J., 83 Bryn Mawr College, 79 Butcher, Fanny, 140 Cambridge (Mass.), 116 Cameron, Angus, 112 Campbell, James, 123, 124 Canada, 133 Canby, H. S., 94

205

Canterbury, 135, 163, 187 Capel House, 96, 180, Capri, 21, 25, 27, 46 Casement, Roger, 78, 79, 80 Cather, Willa, 45 Cearne, The (Limpsfield, Surrey), 4 Ceylon, 165 Chapman, Frederic, 44 Chaumeix, André, 125 Chesterton, G. K., 98 Chopin, Frédéric, 5 Chrzynowski, Ignacy, 159 Cinncinnati, 101 Cintra, 148 Clifford, Hugh, 88 Coltman, L. I. (“Ella”), 41 Colvin family, 136, 139 Colvin, Sidney, 8 Connolly, James, 78 Cooper, F. G., 111 Congo, 2, 65, 174, 175–76 Conrad, Borys, 4, 12, 16, 27, 38, 39, 40, 43, 44, 45, 72, 76–77, 79, 88, 96, 97, 105, 134, 136, 137, 139, 142, 143, 162–63, 173 Conrad, Jessie, 4, 7, 12, 16, 21, 27, 43, 73, 75–76, 77, 80, 81, 84, 89 90, 96, 97, 101, 104, 105, 118, 122, 123, 130, 133, 154, 157, 164, 165, 166–67, 172, 173, 189 Conrad, Joan, 143, 162 Conrad, John, 43, 77, 96, 97, 105, 130, 134, 135, 136, 137, 139, 142, 143, 189 Conrad, Joseph: works: Almayer’s Folly, 3, 63, 74, 78, 85, 93, 95, 99, 149, 167,

174 The Arrow of Gold, 95, 100–01, 132, 124, 167, The Book of Job, 123–24 “Books,” 115 “The Brute,” 127 Chance, 51, 58, 59, 63, 119, 127 “The Crime of Partition,” 101 “The End of the Tether,” 132 “Freya of the Seven Isles,” 53, 55 Gaspar the Strong Man, 117 “Heart of Darkness,” 56, 132 “Henry James: An Appreciation,” 78 The Inheritors, 107, 151–52 “John Galsworthy,” 114 “Laughing Anne,” 160 “Legends,” 165 Lord Jim, 56, 65, 72, 74, 106, 108, 119, 125, 126, 127, 132, 149, 173 The Mirror of the Sea, 84, 102, 127, 164 The Nature of a Crime, 150, 152, 154 The Nigger of the “Narcissus,” 3–4 56, 57, 65, 132, 184, 186 The Nigger of the “Narcissus” (Preface), 132 Nostromo, 16, 56, 94, 95, 108, 119, 125, 127, 132, 140, 160, 167, 184, 186 Notes on Life and Letters, 114 One Day More, 25, 110 An Outcast of the Islands, 55, 93, 95, A Personal Record, 55, 85, 93,

206

106, 177 “The Planter of Malata,” 132 “Poland Revisited,” 147 The Rescue, 5, 97, 167 “The Return,” 57 Romance, 107, 151–52, 156, 167, 158 The Rover, 127, 144, 148, 149 The Secret Agent, 60 The Secret Agent (play), 105, 113, 114–15, 122–23, 124, 129, 139 “The Secret Sharer,” 132 A Set of Six, 127 The Shadow-Line, 81, 89, 112 “A Smile of Fortune,” 51 Some Reminiscences: see A Personal Record Suspense, 144, 148 “The Tale,” 98 Tales of Unrest, 93 “Tomassov”: see “The Warrior’s Soul” “To-morrow,” 57, 132 “Typhoon,” 57, 127, 149 Under Western Eyes, 44, 45, 48, 49, 51, 52, 53, 54, 60, 108, 119, 127, 176 Uniform Editions (UK), 70 Uniform Editions (USA), 81–82 Victory, 72, 76, 89, 92, 119, 127 Victory (play), 97 “The Warrior’s Soul,” 89 “Youth,” 85, 89, 132, 155, 167 Conrad, Philip J., 162–63 Corsica, 157 Country Life Press (NY), 95,

137 Cracow, 159 Craig, Gordon, 156 Craigie, Pearl, 7, 8 Cranbrook (Kent), 135 Crane, Stephen, 77, 85, 182 Craufurd, Commander C. Q. G., 86 Craufurd, General Robert, 86 Curle, Cordelia, 68 Curle, Richard, 100, 135, 136, 142 Curtis Brown, Ltd, 134 D’Annunzio, Gabriele, 155 Davies, Mr, 87 Delcommune, Camille, 2 Dent, J. M., and Sons, 151–52 Dobson, Austin, 11 Dolah, 86 Donnelly, Lucy, 65 Dostoevsky, Fyodor, 53, 180 Doubleday family, 142, 144 Doubleday, Florence, 135, 139, Doubleday, F. N., 82, 83, 135, 137, Doubleday, Page, & Co., 63, 81, 82, 91, 100, 150, 151–52 Douglas, Norman, 46 Douglas, “Robin” (Robert), 77 Drinkwater, John, 116 Duckworth & Co., 150 Eadie, Dennis, 123 Eddington, Arthur Stanley, 188 Elliott and Fry, Co., 139 Ellis, Captain Henry, 86 Emmet, Robert, 79 England, 75, 76, 79, 80, 150 English language, 75, 170

207

Epstein, Jacob, 153 Ervine, St John Greer, 116 Farrar, John Chipman, 166 Ferber, Edna, 137 Feuillet, Octave, 119 Fiji, 84 First World War, 73, 76, 84, 85, 89–90, 159, 190 Fiske, Admiral Bradley A., 90 Flaubert, Gustave, 140 Fleur-de-Lys (Canterbury), 187 Follett, Helen Thomas, 92 Foote, Arthur, 162 Ford, Ford Madox, 44, 46, 107, 166-7, 189 Fox, Dr Campbell, 139, 162–63 France, 41, 63, 76, 155 France, Anatole, 44 French language, 119, 170, 177 Furka Pass, 85 Gabbitas & Thring, 71 Galsworthy, Ada, 97, 104, 105, 111, 133, 144, 145, 147 Galsworthy, John, 91, 92, 135 Garden City (NY), 94, 95, 137, 142 Gardiner, Gordon, 117, 142 Garnett, Constance, 5, 139 Garnett, Edward, 4–5, 6, 99, 130, 139, 175 Garnett, Robert, 50 George, Alice, 16 George, Eleanor, 163 George, Ethel, 163 George, Florence, 163 George, Jane, 163 German language, 174, 177, 185 Germany, 73, 79, 89, 177, 185

Gibbon, Perceval, 69, 189 Gide, André, 108, 119, 120 Gissing, George, 57 Glasgow, 84 Glasgow, Ellen, 182-83 Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 185 Gorki, Maxim, 54 Gosse, Edmund, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 20–21, 25, 29 Graham, R. B. Cunninghame, 164 Gregory, Lady Augusta, 72 Gulf of Siam, 112 Hackney, Dr Clifford, 49 Hammersley, Hugh, 8 Hamstreet (Kent), 180 Hardy, Thomas, 57, 111, 146 Harper & Brothers, Co., 16 Harris, L. R., 71 Harvard University, 74 Hauptmann, Gerhart, 30 Hawksworth (Yorkshire), 10 Heath, Ellen, 4 Heinemann & Co., 61 Heinemann, W. H., 70 Hemingway, Ernest, 158 Hodgis (dog), 136, 142 Holland, 130, 133, 136 Holland, Lord Henry, 174 Holland, Michael, 184 Homer, 57 Holt, Henry, & Co., 92, 150, 151, 153, 156 Hope, Ellen (“Nellie”), 139 Hopper, James, 183 Hôtel Oriental (Port-Louis), 170 Howe, W. T. H., 111

208

Hudson, W. H., 114, 130, 135, 139, 161, 180 Hueffer, Elsie, 44, 156 Hueffer, Ford Madox: see Ford Huneker, James G., 63, 81 Hunt, Violet, 156 Italy, 63, 98, 155 Ireland, 72, 78–79, 80, 172 Ischia, 47 James, Henry, 64, 78, 81, 115, 182 James, William (senior), 55, 78 James, William (junior), 115 Jean-Aubry, G., 127, 135 John, Augustus, 82 Jones, Sir Robert, 133, 136 Jonson, Ben, 160 Keating, George T., 135 Kent, 27, 107 Kipling, Rudyard, 3, 57, 104, 140 Klein, Georges-Antoine, 68 Kluck, Alexander von, 83 Knopf, Alfred A., 72 Korzeniowski, Apollo, 159 Krumpholtz, 169, 170 Krupinski, Apolinary, 159 Lamb House (Rye), 115 Lane, John (publisher), 44 Lear, Edward, 180 Leavis, F. R., 186 Lee, Edgar, 168 Lisbon, 148 Liszt, Franz, 5 Little Theatre Players (Richmond, Virginia), 110

Lloyd-George, David, 83 Löhr, Marie, 97 London: I. General: 8, 25, 27, 83, 129, 139, 149, 153 II. Localities, etc.: Adelphi, 168 British Museum, 105, 113–14 Broad St, 32 Curzon Hotel, 164 Downing St, 15, 17 Foreign Office, 76, 80 Globe Theatre, 98 House of Lords, 26 Marylebone Road, 186 Mudie’s Library, 168 National Portrait Gallery, 113– 14 New Oxford St, 168 Russell Sq, 153 Russian Café, 172 Savile Club, 14, 24 Spital Sq, 28 Tower Hill, 85 Vienna Café, 28 Lucas, E. V., 47 Lvov, Giorgiy Yevgenievich, 90 Łysa Góra (Poland), 69 McCallum, Mr, 86 McClure, Alexander Kelly, 47 McClure, Dr Campbell, 104 McDonagh brothers, 80 McKinnel, Norman, 113 MacNeill, John, 79 Madeira, 148 Malay Peninsula, 86 Manchester, 51 Marwood, Arthur, 189 Massingham, H. W., 100

209

Maupassant, Guy de, 4, 132, 133 Mauritius Fire Insurance, Co., 169 Maxwell, General John, 80 McClure, Alexander Kelly, 47 Melville, Herman, 180 Mencken, H. L., 131 Meredith, George, 55, 57, 58, 111 Methuen & Co., 46, 47, 61 Miliukov, Pavel Nikolaevich, 90 Minnigerode, Meade, 157 Molière, 180 Moore, George, 3 Morocco, 164 Morris, William, 55 Morton, David, 106 Moville (Ireland), 133, 134 Murray, Gilbert, 8, 27 Napoleon I, 83 Nash, Eveleigh & Co., 93 Nelson, Viscount Horatio, 37 Newbolt, Henry, 12, 26, 27 Newbolt, Margaret, 8, 21, 26, 30, 36, 37, 38, 41 New England, 137 New York, 66, 89, 101, 124, 159 New Zealand, 112 Northcote, Lady Alice, 139 Nouvelle Revue Française (publisher), 119, 125 Oswalds (Bishopsbourne), 122, 180 Oxford, 30, 155 Oxford University, 30 Pacific Ocean, 87

Paderewski, Ignacy (Jan), 101 Padua, 155 Pahang (Malaya), 88 Paris, 83, 123, 127, 146 Pawling, S. S., 54 Pearse, Patrick, 78, 80 Pekan, 88 P. E. N. Club, 116 Perak (Malaya), 88 Periodicals: Albany Review, 44 Atlantic Monthly, 91, 92 Bookman (NY), 166 Century Magazine, 53 Daily Mail, 48, 50 English Review, 46, 55, 89 Everyman, 58 Fortnightly Review, 101, 165 Graphic, 163 Home Magazine, 134 Land & Water, 89, 96 La Ronda, 98, 155 Le Temps, 119 London Mercury, 172 McClure’s Magazine, 45 Metropolitan Magazine, 89 Monthly Review, 54 Munsey’s Magazine, 72 Nation, 100 New York Times, 63 Nineteenth Century Review, 155 North American Review, 78 Nouvelle Revue Française, 127 Pinang Gazette, 88 Reveille, 97 Revue de Paris, 125 Revue des Deux Mondes, 102 St Stephen’s Review, 168 Smart Set, 131 Spectator, 151, 158

210

Spannung, 177 Straits Times, 88 Tatler, 134 Times, The, 86, 186 Times Literary Supplement, 81 To-day, 99 transatlantic review, 146, 158 Petrograd, 69 Philadelphia, 79 Pinker, Eric S., 133, 139, 142, 150, 152 Pinker, J. B., 16, 36, 37, 47, 50, 59, 60, 82, 117, 118, 123, 151 Pinker, J. Ralph, 121 Pirandello, Luigi, 124 Pitt, William, 1st Earl of Chatham, 174 Plato, 58 Plunkett, Joseph, 79, 80 Plymouth, 158 Poland, 18, 65, 68, 69, 101, 142, 159–60, 182, 185 Port-Louis (Mauritius), 169, 170 Powell, John, 110 Princeton (New Jersey), 137 Prinsep, Anthony, 97 Queensland, 85 Ramsgate, 45 Rapallo (Italy), 156 Redmond, John, 80 Reid, Dr Edward, 134, 136, 142, 162–63 Retinger, J. H., 142, 182 Reutens, Mr, 86 Richards, Grant (publisher), 43 Richardson, Samuel, 185 Richmond (Virginia), 110 Ricketts, Charles, 98

Ridgeway, Revd Neville, 135 Rivière, Isabelle, 119 Rivière, Jacques, 127 Rome, 98 Roosevelt, Theodore, 72, 182 Rossetti, D. G., 57 Rothenstein, Alice, 27 Rothenstein, John, 27 Rothenstein, William, 13, 15, 17, 20, 23, 24, 25, 31, 32, 34, 55, 64 Royal Bounty Fund, 7–41 Royal Literary Fund, 10, 12, 16 Russell, Hon. Bertrand, 83 Russia, 54, 76, 90 Russian Revolution, 89–90 Ruston family, 134 Safford, Cornessia, 138 Safford, May, 138 St Bernard’s Convent (Slough), 16 Sauter, Rudolf Helmut, 130 Schiller, Friedrich, 185 Seal, Audrey, 142 Shakespeare, William, 160–61 Shaw, George Bernard, 111, 160 Sheffield, 67 Sheppard, Marcelle, 187 Ships: Arendale, 148 Floride, 2 Highland Forest, 84 Loch Carron, 102 Loch Etive, 86, 102, 112 Otago, 112, 186 Saxonia, 133 Torrens, 112, 147 Shorter, Clement K., 100–01

211

Simpson family, 112 Simpson, Henry & Sons, 112 Sinclair, May, 116 Singapore, 86–88 Sinn Fein, 79, 80 Slavonic languages, 168 Smeeth (Kent), 46 Smith, Sir Cecil Clementi, 88 Smollett, Tobias, 185 Snadden, Captain John, 112 Sobański, Władysław, 96 Someries (Luton), 45 Spain, 104 Spicer-Simson, Theodore, 111, 113, 114 Stage Society (London), 25, 26, 124 Stanley Falls (Congo), 2 Stephen, Alexander & Sons, Sterne, Laurence, 58 Sterry, Captain, 85 Stevenson, R. L., 135 Sussex, 15, 107 Symons, Arthur, 64, 180 Symons, Rhoda, 64 Teneriffe, 148 Tennyson, Alfred, 11 Thackeray, W. M., 140 Three Mountains Press (Paris), 151 Tobin, Agnes, 55 Trafalgar, 37 Trevelyan, Charles, 83 Troyes, 127 Turgenev, Ivan, 54, 180 Twain, Mark, 56, 185 Union Steamship Co., 112 Unwin, T. Fisher, 3, 99

Vance, Mr., 72 Vienna, 68 Vinten, Charles, 136 Visiak, E. H., 183 Wade, Claudine, 123 Walker, Colonel, Walpole, Hugh, 114, 116, 13132, 166, 189 Washington, D.C., 89 Watson, Frederick, 116 Watson, Hilda, 145 Watson, J. T., 72 Watson, Mrs, 142 Watson, William, 11 Watson, William & Co., 16 Webster, Mr., 60 Wells, H. G., 64, 77 Wells, Messrs & Co., 32 Whistler, J. M., 32 Whiteaway, Laidlaw, and Co., 87 Wilson, President Woodrow, 79, 83 Wingstone (Devon), 114, 144 Winter’s Farm (Bishopsbourne), 142 Wise, T. J., 101 Wishart, Captain, 87 Woodville (Adelaide), 113 Woolley, Bob, 43, 44 Woolley, Margot, 43 Woolley, Tom, 43 Wyzewa, Téodor de, 102 Yale University, 94 Zagórska, Karola, 139 Zangwill, Israel, 64 Zola, Émile, 180