Conrad, Joseph

expressing the intensity of his gratitude for Garnett's praise and support of his writing ("...what would become of me if it were not for your brave words that warm like fire and feed like bread and make me drunk like wine!..."), discussing the structure of his ongoing work, Lord Jim, then turning to discuss in rare detail his Polish cultural heritage and family history, touching on the exile and early death of his parents, concluding his melancholy recollections with the comment that "I always intended to write something of the kind for Borys, so as to save all this from the abyss a few years longer. And probably he wouldn't care", 14 pages, 8vo, Pent Farm, Kent, 20 January 1900, with a red wax seal impression on p.7, slight staining and occasional nicks

Sotheby's, London, 13 December 1990, lot 233

Collected Letters, II, pp.243-47

A deeply personal letter in which Conrad discusses both the structure of Lord Jim and his own Polish inheritance and family history. In a passage that reveals Conrad's growing sense of his own artistry, he explains that he had broken with his earlier practice of sending his manuscript to Garnett for comment out of anxiety that the structure of his new work could only be understood when it was complete:

"...You see the work fragmentarily ... you cannot possibly know where I tend and how I shall conclude this most inconclusive attempt; you don't; and the truth is that it is not my depth but my shallowness which makes me so inscrutable (?) Thus (I go cold to think) the surprise reserved for you will be in the nature of a chair withdrawn from under one; something like a bad joke - it will strike you no doubt. Bad and vile. Now had you taken the thing whole the fall would not have been so heavy, I imagine..."

The remaining 9 pages of the letter are given over to a Conrad's own Polish roots. He explains that he has no family connection to earlier writers with similar surnames, and describes his own family history. His paternal grandfather was more remarkable for his distinguished military career than for his efforts at writing ("...a tragedy in 5 Acts ... so extremely dull that no one was ever known to have read it through...") whilst his mother's father "never wrote but letters (and very few of these) and a large number of promissory notes". He writes about the loss of his mother, the importance of his uncle "Thaddeus" [Tadeusz] to his upbringing, and gives a summary biography of his father ("...Arrested in 1862 and after 10 months detention in the Citadel condemned to deportation into Russia. My mother died in exile. My father liberated in 67 ... He was dying..."), listing his achievements as a poet, editor, and translator of Shakespeare. Conrad recalls his "exalted and dreamy temperament; with a terrible gift of irony", and ends his memories with a melancholy picture of unfulfilled ambitions:

"...There were piles of MS. Dramas verse, prose, burnt after his death according to his last will. A friend of his a Polish Critic of distinction wrote a pamphlet entitled 'A little known Poet' after his death. And so finis..."

For Edward Garnett see note alongside lot 200.