Conrad, Joseph

One typescript letter with an extensive autograph addition, signed ("Joseph Conrad") to Sidney Colvin, dated "March 4th. 1919"; 2 pages (10 x 8 in.; 253 x 202 mm), "Capeh House, Orlestone, Nr Ashford" heading; tiny tear at the top without loss, formerly folded.

Together with: Autograph note signed ("Joseph Conrad"), dated 1923; one page (7 x 4 1/4 in.; 178 x 110 mm); Autograph letter signed ("J. Conrad") to Sir Robert, dated "21 March 15"; one page (10 x 8 in.; 253 x 202 mm), on headed paper "Capeh House, Orlestone, Nr Ashford"; formerly folded. Conrad doesn’t possess “a single scrap of my work in ms”.

tiny tear at the top without loss, formerly folded.
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A touching and unpublished letter to Sidney Colvin about his son Borys’ return from the war.

Borys, Conrad’s elder son, volunteered for service in 1916, serving as an officer. He was  gassed, suffered shell-shock, and was eventually hospitalized in Le Havre. By 1919, Conrad explains to Colvin that “he has recovered considerably his confidence in his mental power which was a bit shaken by three years at the front”. He asks his friend, former Slade professor of Fine Art, to provide an introduction to Cambridge University.

At the end of the letter, Conrad writes directly to Colvin about his work in progress: “I would have a lot to tell dear Lady Colvin and yourself but it must be left for viva-voce. I saw Marie Lohr and all the rest of the cast of the forthcoming Victory”. The play was adapted from the 1915 Conrad Tale, and the title was indeed, at the time, “of good omen”; the play ran for eighty performances at the Globe Theater in 1919 with the Australian actress Marie Lohr in the role of Lena.