“[A] man can no more be completely original [...] than a tree can grow out of air.”
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Joseph Conrad
Joseph Conrad was a Polish-British novelist and story writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest writers in the English language and – though he did not speak English fluently until his twenties – he became a master prose stylist who brought a non-English sensibility into English literature.
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culture · Polish-British writer (1857–1924) · writer · novelist · essayist · screenwriter · science fiction writer · autobiographer · slave driver · also Joseph Conrad, Conrad
Born 3 December 1857 · Died 3 August 1924 · Q82925
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2026· 7 entries
“the public mind fastens on externals”
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TTG Asia: New hotels: Conrad Nagoya, Fairmont Bangkok Sukhumvit and more
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My Buckhannon: Conrad named emergency department director for Vandalia Health Davis Medical Center and Webster Memorial Hospital
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facebook.com: MEET CONRAD GLORIA. A CEO at a financial consultancy firm, Conrad joined Rappler’s AI masterclass with little familiarity with AI, and a determination to keep learning. It’s never too late to understand the technology reshaping how we live, work, and lead. R
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Türkiye Today: Galatasaray eyes Leipzig striker Conrad Harder in search for attacking depth
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Literary Hub: This Week in Literary History: Joseph Conrad Becomes a British Subject
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2024· 1 entry
The Guardian: One Another by Gail Jones review – a writer’s obsession with Joseph Conrad
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2019· 2 entries
The Guardian: Heart of Darkness review – challenging reconstruction of Conrad
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The Guardian: The Ridiculous Darkness review – Conrad, Coppola and the 'white saviour' complex
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2018· 1 entry
The Guardian: Defacing Heart of Darkness: new plays tear down Conrad's colonialist tale
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1996· 1 entry
His grave was designated a Grade II listed structure
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1979· 1 entry
A small triangular square at Columbus Avenue and Beach Street, near Fisherman's Wharf, was dedicated as "Joseph Conrad Square" after Conrad
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1978· 1 entry
A more complete version was published as The Congo Diary and Other Uncollected Pieces
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1975· 1 entry
The Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe published an essay, "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness'", which provoked controversy by calling Conrad a "thoroughgoing racist"
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1933· 1 entry
Career landmark: Nazi book burnings.
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1931· 1 entry
Readers noted striking similarities to Stefan Żeromski's kitschy novel, The History of a Sin (Dzieje grzechu, 1908), including their endings
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1924· 12 entries
Died 1924-08-03.
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“Miłość jest to barwa na aksamitnym kwiecie. Patrz i używaj z daleka. Gdy go ściśniesz w palcach, zostanie plama i cały wdzięk przepadnie.”
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“Morze podobne jest sercu kobiety.”
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Of having been astonished at Conrad's "horrible" accent in English
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“Mimo niewyobrażalnej dla mieszkańców zachodniej Europy brutalnej przemocy stosowanej przez opresyjne i demoralizujące siły nie popadliśmy w obłęd i zachowaliśmy pełnię władz umysłowych”
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“Człowiek jest zadziwiający, ale arcydziełem nie jest.”
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“Being a woman is a terribly difficult trade since it consists principally of dealings with men.”
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“Każde źdźbło trawy ma swe miejsce na ziemi, skąd czerpie swe życie i siłę; tak i człowiek ma swe korzenie w kraju, z którego ciągnie wraz z życiem wiarę swoją!”
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“Woe to the man whose heart has not learned while young to hope, to love — and to put its trust in life!!”
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“To follow the dream, and again to follow the dream – and so – always – usque ad finem… (ang.)”
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“Dwie rzeczy osobiste napełniają mnie dumą, że ja Polak, jestem kapitanem angielskiej marynarki i że nieźle potrafię pisać po angielsku.”
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“Imię – to rzecz piękna, kiedy do niego przyłącza się zasługa, a bez tego jest tylko znakiem, który rozróżnia jednego człowieka od drugiego.”
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1923· 1 entry
Jessie Conrad published A Handbook of Cookery for a Small House, it came with a preface from Joseph Conrad praising "the conscientious preparation of the simple food of everyday life, not the
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1922· 1 entry
Near the end of his life and career, when another Scottish friend, Richard Curle, sent Conrad proofs of two articles he had written about Conrad, the latter objected to being characterised as a gloomy and tragic writer
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1921· 1 entry
Partly in search of connections with his long-dead friend and fellow merchant seaman
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1919· 1 entry
And 1922 Conrad's growing renown and prestige among writers and critics in continental Europe fostered his hopes for a Nobel Prize in Literature
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1915· 1 entry
As Jo Davidson sculpted his bust, Conrad answered his question: "Ah… to write French you have to know it
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1914· 3 entries
“s attempt to leave Poland in 1914, Conrad spoke German”
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Conrad spoke German "at considerable length and extreme fluency"
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In Paris, that in the war, for Poland to regain independence, Russia must be beaten by the Central Powers (the Austro-Hungarian and German Empires), and the Central Powers must in turn be beaten by France and Britain
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1913· 1 entry
Was the subject of more discussion and praise than any other English writer of the time
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1909· 1 entry
"The Secret Sharer": written December 1909; published in Harper's Magazine, 1910, and collected in Twixt Land and Sea, 1912
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1908· 1 entry
And published by Garden City Publishing in 1924
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1906· 2 entries
To critical acclaim, he wrote to his French translator: "The critics have been vigorously swinging the censer to me
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Conrad described it as his "best story"
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1903· 1 entry
As British Consul to Boma, Casement was commissioned to investigate abuses in the Congo, and later in Amazonian Peru, and was knighted in 1911 for his advocacy of human rights
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1901· 2 entries
“s 1901 book, Anticipations, an ambitious attempt to predict major social trends,”
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“Egoism, which is the moving force of the world, and altruism, which is its morality, these two contradictory instincts, of which one is so plain and the other so mysterious, cannot serve us unless in the incomprehensible alliance of their irreconcilable antagonism.”
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1899· 1 entry
And serialised in Pall Mall Magazine in January–March 1902; collected in Typhoon and Other Stories, 1903
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1898· 1 entry
At the start of his writing career, he had written to his Scottish writer-politician friend Cunninghame Graham: "What makes mankind tragic is not that they are the victims of nature, it is that they are conscious of it
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1897· 2 entries
“Understand that thou art nothing, less than a shadow, more insignificant than a drop of water in the ocean, more fleeting than the illusion of a dream.”
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Conrad was visited by a fellow Pole, the philosopher Wincenty Lutosławski, who asked Conrad, "Why don't you write in Polish
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1894· 2 entries
“[W]riting in a foreign language admits a greater temerity in tackling personally sensitive problems, for it leaves uncommitted the most spontaneous, deeper reaches of the psyche, and allows a greater distance in treating matters we would hardly dare approach in the language of our childhood. As a rule it is easier both to swear and to analyze dispassionately in an acquired language.”
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Aged 36, Conrad reluctantly gave up the sea, partly because of poor health, partly due to unavailability of ships, and partly because he had become so fascinated with writing that he had decided on a literary career
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1891· 1 entry
Was hospitalised for several months, suffering from gout, neuralgic pains in his right arm and recurrent attacks of malaria
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1888· 1 entry
During a stop-over on Mauritius, in the Indian Ocean, Conrad developed a couple of romantic interests
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1878· 2 entries
Conrad's four-year experience in the French merchant marine had been cut short when the French discovered he did not have a permit from the Imperial Russian consul to sail with the French
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“the speech of my secret choice, of my future, of long friendships, of the deepest affections, of hours of toil and hours of ease, and of solitary hours, too, of books read, of thoughts pursued, of remembered emotions—of my very dreams!”
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1875· 1 entry
When he travelled as a passenger on the Mont Blanc
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1857· 1 entry
Born 1857-12-03.
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1810· 1 entry
By Britain, many of the inhabitants were descendants of the original French colonists, and Conrad's excellent French and perfect manners opened all local salons to him
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