Joseph Conrad

At the age of eleven, Jozef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski had already led an extraordinary life. Born in the Ukraine, to Polish patriot parents, the boy had endured a hazardous childhood of exile and oppression.
How much more extraordinary that after many eventful years sailing the seas he should emerge as Joseph Conrad, Englishman, and one of the world’s greatest writers. Chris Fletcher’s accessible biography explores how Conrad’s experiences of exile and career as a merchant seaman shaped some of the major themes of his writing.
The British Library Writers’ Joseph Conrad draws material from the Library’s unparalleled collection of literary manuscripts and many other sources to illustrate the background to Conrad’s early family life, his voyages and later years as a writer in England.