The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-03


 New York.
 Joseph Conrad, author of "A Personal Record" one of the latest publications from the house of Harper Brothers. is Russian, born of Polish parents, his real | name being Korzeniowski, and he was ss years of age before he started on his lit erary career. | No attempt has been made by Mr Con- rad in his book to give consecutive ae- count of his career, which makes the read | ing of it rather more enjoyable, since It is the sort of book that can be picked up at any time anywhere and read at will | Infused into the work are many delight | full episodes in the life of the author aud | his personality is very strongly felt l Throughout the series of stories. giving him most forceful hold upon his readers, who never tire of his experiences so uniquely told.
 | In regard to his dscurslve style of writ | ing, Mir Conrad says in hiss.'prefaee' to | "A Personal Record" that he is so con stituted that he could not write other wise. Among other things he says that he has been charged with fragrant dis regard of chronological order and with unconventionality of form, to which he cleverly replies:
 Alas, could I begin with the saera- mental words, T was born on such date 1 in such a placer The remoteness of the locality would have robbed the statement | of all interest. I haven't lived through wonderful adventures to be related ser- att I ,lf fcti inc icba on whom I could pass fatuous remarks.
 I haven't been mixed up with great or
 scandalous affairs. This is bit of psy
 chological document, and, even so, I
 haven't written it with view to put for ward any conclusion of my own"
 MT. Conrad's stories of the sea have been enjoyed by the English speaking people the world over, containing as they do a unique description of the sailors life, his vices and his virtues-the old time
 sailor. who haunted the hell holes of
 Calcutta and Hongkong and Callao in the | good old days
 Of his life on the Seven Seas he says: "1n that faint, ghostly sound there live
 the memories of 20 years, the voices of
 rough men now no more, the strong voice
 of the everlasting winds and the whisper
 of a mysterious spell, the murmur of the
 great sea, which must have somehow
 reached my inland cradle and entered my
 unconscious ear. like that formula of Mo-
 hammedan. faith the Mussulman father
 whispers into the ear of his new born n-
 fant. making him one of the faithful al
 most with his first breath"
 In speaking his literary work Mir.
 Conrad says concerning his seafarng pro- clvites
 'I wanted to pay my tribute to the sea,
 it's ships and its men, to whom I remain
 indebted for so much which has gone 10
 make me what I am.
 Beginning with his exile with his patri-
 otic Polish father and recalling the TO-
 mantle sensation of his first trip aboard
 an English ship, with voyages Into the ; Congo, Borneo, or the Ukrains. as the case may be- MT. Conrad discourses upon his doubts as to whether seamanship is a good equipment for the literary life. He gives utterance to a very clever sta tement concerning authorship when she ! declares that a good author is he who contemplates neither marked joy or ex-
 cessive sorrow"
 All of his views to the contrary, how
 ever MT. Conrad's readers somehow can't get away from the Influence of the sea, ; with which he never quite disassociates : himself and which lends most intangible
 charm to his writings
 His account of how, when he was a
 child of g. he put his finger on the map of
 Africa and said
 When I grow up l shall go there.' is
 quite interesting. and we follow him mp
 and find him true to his word bearing the
 manuscript of his first novel, "Almayer's 5 Folly" saturated with the sea and its in.
 1uence, we begin to feel a real personal sympathy for the man and his work.
 The description of his great uncle's ex- perience during the wars with Napoleon
 Is most entertaining reading also,
 In regard to the writing of his first l novel, "Almayers Folly MT. Conrad says concerning the opening of the tenth chapter of the story, which to be exact, | was written aboard the 900 ton steamer Adowa, moored in the river at Rouen, the l immediate episode being the entrance of | the third officer into the first officers | cabin in the midst of the setting down of | a few words from the lips of the romantic | Nina. | What are you doing, if it's fair to ask?' was the intruders query. "It was a fair enough question" says MT. Conrad, "but I did not answer him, and simply turned the pad over with movement of l instinctive secrecy. could not have told 1 him he had put to flight the psychology | of Nina Almayer, her opening speech of | the 10th chapter and the words of Mrs. l Almayer's wisdom which were to follow | in the omnibus oncoming of tropical night I could not have told him what | Nina has said. It has set at last He would have been extremely surprised and l perhaps have dropped his precious banjo. Neither could I have told him that the sun of my sea going was setting too. even | as I wrote the words expressing the In- l patience of passionate youth bent on it's | desire. I did not know this myself, and | it Is safe to say he would not have cared, | though he was an excellent younug feI- low and treated me with more deference than in our relative positions I was strict Il ly entitled to-
 MT. Conrads "A Personal Record' is | quite as enjoyable as any of his novels | and when the book Is finished and laid | aside the reader recalls the authors lines: l Joy and sorrow in this world pass into | each other, mingling their forms and their murmurs in the twilight of life as mys- l terious as overshadowed ocean, while the dazzling brightness of supreme hopes lies far (n. fascinating and still on the | distant edge of the horizon"
 l VEGETABLE vERSELETS," | By Margaret G. Hays. Illustrated by l Grace q. Weiderseim. J. B. Lippincotf 1 & Company, Philadelphia.
 | Oh. once there was cucumber. A dainty green young lass: