Conrad, Joseph

Corrected typescript in red ink with extensive autograph revisions to every page, an additional final paragraph of some 60 words, and the title and date of completion (25 September 1919) in Conrad's autograph, also initialled and dated at end ("Spring Cove, September 1919"), with a further signed autograph note added at the bottom of the final page on the circumstances of composition ("Written at the request of a complete stranger named P.F. Somerville who ... asked me to give him a sketch of the man for a newspaper he wished to revive, The Englishman, to be published in Glasgow ... After writing this paper rather impulsively I held it back to learn something more of the periodical and thus up to this date 4 October [19]19 the above remains unpublished"), a brief signed note to the publisher ("...If you don't like it send it back to me...") cancelled in red crayon, and a further signed note ("Original draft") on the top right corner of the first page, 6 numbered pages, 4to (260 x 203mm.), 1919, fastened at upper left corners with a brass split  fastener, in a collector's red morocco folding box lettered in gilt on upper cover

Betsey Cushing Roosevelt Whitney (1908-1998); her estate sale, Sotheby's, New York, 22-25 April 1999, lot 437

Moore 268

Condition is described in the main body of the catalogue, where appropriate.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

"...His passage on this earth was like that of a horseman riding swiftly in the dawn of a day fated to be short and without sunshine..."

The complete draft of Conrad's affectionate memoir of the great American writer Stephen Crane. He remembers a slender young man "with very steady penetrating blue eyes, the eyes of an artist who not only can see vivid images but can brood over them to some purpose", and writes warmly both of Crane's writing and character. Typically, however, there are reservations and ironies embedded in Conrad's assessment of Crane, as when he suggests that his work had already reached its greatest artistic expression: "The loss was great but it was the loss of the delight his art could give, not the loss of any further possible revelation." The piece concludes with Conrad recalling his last meeting with Crane two weeks before his death from tuberculosis. He was about to cross the Channel for a health cure in Germany, but "one glance at that wasted face was enough to tell me that it was the most forlorn of all hopes".

When Somerville's plans to revive The Englishman fell through, Conrad instructed Pinker to provide the article to J.C. Squire, editor of the London Mercury, who published it in December 1919. The piece was later collected in Note on Life and Letters (1921).