CONRAD JOSEPH: (857-1924)

CONRAD JOSEPH: (857-1924) Polish-British novelist. T.L.S., Joseph Conrad, with holograph salutation, subscription and some corrections, two pages, 4to, Wye, Kent (although on the printed stationery of Capel House, Orlestone, 3rd May 1919, to [Elbridge] Adams (´My dear Mr. Adams´). Conrad states that it was pleasant to hear from his correspondent again, and remarks ´I will tell you at once that our boy has come through this war alive and is now with us, having been discharged out of the army about a month ago´, adding that he was touched by Adams remembering his son, further continuing ´Your letter has made me feel ashamed again after the lapse of years for the utterly unnecessary heat in argument which I displayed that afternoon when you and I went for a drive in the Ford and discussed the question of individual liberty. I remember when I confessed it to my wife afterwards with much compunction how shocked she was, but you have been extremely good about it. Your candid letter was very pleasant reading for me, mainly because my point of view has become practically demonstrated to you. Pray do not believe that I am triumphing, for there is much to say for the other - I may call it the ethically utilitarian attitude. In fact it is the undeniable strength of that attitude that makes it so exasperating to the objectors of my sort. The foundation of my argument was really the feeling that there is more than one kind of utility, whether in the moral or in the material sphere´. Conrad also thanks Adams for their friendly invitation, which he prizes immensely, although adds that his travelling days are over, ´My health has been rather bad for the last two years and shows no signs of improvement. Still, one never knows!´. In a postscript Conrad expresses his thanks for a press cutting and remarks ´If you wait for the English edition it will be some time because the book cannot appear for some months yet on this side´. Some staining and age wear, G

Elbridge L. Adams (1866-1934) American journalist and writer, a friend of Conrad and the author of Joseph Conrad: The Man and a Burial in Kent (1925). The two men had first met in 1916 and when Conrad visited the United States of America in 1923 he stayed with Adams at their country retreat in Massachusetts.

Conrad´s elder son, Alfred Borys Conrad (1898-1978) served as as a Lieutenant in the Royal Army Service Corps on the Western Front during World War I. Conrad dedicated his novella The Shadow-Line (1917) to Alfred Borys Conrad and to other young men who had gone to war.