Conrad, Joseph

the first thanking him for his encouragement and review of Chance in the Observer ("...I can feel ... a profound gratitude for what you have done for the book, and for all the body of my work, by your most friendly and discriminating review..."), and explaining that he was suffering from a severe attack of gout; the second expressing his gratitude for later praise by Colvin on the novel ("...It has made me happy to hear that the book (which seems so far away) stood re-reading so well..."); altogether 4 pages, 4to, headed stationery of Capel House, Orlestone, near Ashford, and Oswalds, Bishopbourne, Kent, 22 [corrected from 19] January 1914 and 28 December 1922, both letters with remains of mount on the right edges of the versos and lacking

Edward and Betty Marcus of Dallas, Texas; Christie's, New York, 22 November 1985, lot 24 (portion)

Collected Letters, V, p.335, and VII, pp.628-29

"...Conrad has been contributing to our literature in the last eighteen years; work which sets before us the fruits of a remarkable experience enriched a hundredfold in the ripening light and head of imagination; work combining, as scarcely any other in our time combines, the three-fold powers of enthralling narrative, magically vital description and an unflagging subtlety and sanity of analytic character study; work finally, distinguished by so resourceful a mastery of English speech and style..." (Sidney Colvin, review of Chance, The Observer, 18 January 1914, p.5)

For Sidney Colvin, see lot 267.