Conrad, Joseph

Estimate

500 - 700 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

Conrad, Joseph
Typed letter signed, to the publishers Chatto and Windus
ink on paper

writing tersely that he cannot "give my serious consideration to a proposal from which all mention of time is excluded. No doubt many writers can shake 50,000 words out of their sleeve in their spare time but I have not that facility", 1 page, 4to, Capel House, Orlestone, near Ashford, 11 December 1918, receipt stamp (13 December 1918), some light soiling

Provenance

Sold by Chatto and Windus on behalf of the Royal Society of Literature, Sotheby's, 18 December 1995, lot 381

Literature

Collected Letters, VI, p.325

Catalogue Note

This splendidly grumpy letter was written in answer to an invitation for Conrad to supply text for a book to accompany an exhibition, "Sea Power", held at London's Grosvenor Galleries under the auspices of the newly-founded Imperial War Museum in aid of King George's Fund for Sailors.