The Collected Letters of Joseph Conrad

This is the third of the projected eight-volume edition comprising all the surviving letters of Joseph Conrad under the general editorship of Professor Frederick R. Karl. When completed, it will have assembled about 4,000 letters, over a third of them published before only in defective versions. As with previous volumes in the series, this volume contains an editorial introduction, illustrations, and extensive annotation. The period covered by the third volume is 1903 to 1907 when Conrad stood at the height of his powers. It was during these years that he completed Nostromo and The Secret Agent. Yet this was not a happy time for him: his plans for leisurely, contemplative work were constantly interrupted by dangerous illnesses in the family, his own bad health, financial worries, and the pleas of editors desperate for copy. Conrad maintained his correspondence with old friends such as Galsworthy, Wells, and Ford Madox Ford, and developed a number of new friendships. This is also the period in which Conrad became absorbed in political fiction, and this is reflected in an intriguing sequence of America, and censorship. As always, the letters to his literary agent J. B. Pinker provide a detailed (and largely unpublished) account of Conrad's plans and literary commitments, week by week, month by month.