Conrad, Joseph

thanking him for kind words on Freya of the Seven Isles and admitting his prolixity ("...My great friend Perceval Gibbon (who I believe is fairly well known on your side [of the Atlantic] as a story writer) could have put it all in within the compass of say 7000 words. But I haven't the talent: Perhaps it is true that, as a distinguished French critic said: 'Conrad is essentially a dreamer (rêveur)..."), promising his magazine first refusal of Conrad's next unplaced short story, 1 page, 4to, headed stationery of Capel House, Orlestone, near Ashford, 25 February 1913, with autograph envelope, letter split in half

James Lowe Autographs of New York (dealer's note accompanying the lot); Maurice Neville; Christie's, New York, 10 December 1999, lot 150

Collected Letters, V, pp.183-84

William Griffith was an author and editor of the American Semi-Monthly Magazine Section, which was distributed with the Sunday editions of various regional papers in the USA. It had previously featured stories by distinguished British writers such as Kipling and Chesterton, and Griffith had invited a contribution from Conrad in a letter of 23 December 1912. Despite Conrad's promise, no contribution from him ever appeared in the magazine.