Conrad, Joseph

8vo, first edition, presentation copy inscribed in the year of publication by the author on front free endpaper to Stephen Reynolds (“Stephen Reynolds | affectionately, | from J. Conrad | 1912”.), original green cloth, title in black on upper cover and gilt on spine, preserved in a morocco-backed clamshell case

Cagle A16a(1)c (i.e. second binding with Freya of the Seven Isles correct on cover)

Conrad became friends with the writer Stephen Reynolds at the turn of the century and entered into a lengthy correspondence with him. In a letter of 27 October 1910, Conrad seems to see Reynolds as his natural successor: "At moments I am haunted by a lofty (but elusive I own) shape of a great seaboard novel by you with the whole of our civilization, social and political for background and with all your ideas and feelings presented to the populace, living, palpitating in a dramatic form... A great island novel, with all its life in the setting of the sea and the men nearest the sea in the foreground - Eh? - the foreground of a really inspiring tale". If these were Conrad’s hopes, they were not to come to fruition – Reynolds died age 37 during the third wave of the flu pandemic of 1918–1919. See also lot 211.