Conrad, Joseph

top copy typescript in purple ink with authorial corrections and emendations to every page, including the addition of 12 lines to the conclusion of the text, 10 pages, 4to (255 x 202 mm, "1169 Underwriter Bond" (pp.1-6) and "Blickensderfer Linen Typewriter Paper" (pp.7-10) watermarks), 1916, loose in a cloth folder, pin holes

Joseph Conrad; estate sale of his library, Hodgson's, London, 13 March 1925, lot 173, £7 15s; Maggs Catalogue 260, no. 2852; Schuman's Rare Books, New York (dealer's note loosely inserted with the lot); Du Mouchelles, Detroit, 19 October 1996, lot 637, $4000

Moore 164

"The element of racial unity which may be called Polonism, remained compressed between Prussian Germanism on one side and the Russian Slavonism on the other." The corrected typescript for Conrad's memorandum calling for the establishment of a strong and independent Polish state. Although Conrad's parents were ardent Polish patriots, Conrad himself largely avoided public comment on Polish politics. However, his friendship with the Polish nationalist Jozef Retinger rekindled his interest in the land of his birth, and in 1916 Retinger persuaded Conrad to write this memorandum for circulation within the British Foreign Office. The official response was decidedly sceptical.