New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-05-23

most reticent personalities in mod
ern English literature. The art of
" self-advertising, which is pretty
-,,.rally practiced by writers on both
10. Of the Atlantic, is altogether UNI
snown to him.
We know Conrad as an incompar-
.Ale painter of the sea in all its varied
noods as creator of strange plots
chose scenes are laid in strange lands,
=. On author Of rare psychological in
.;rbt who has contributed some unfor-
stable types of men and women to
he worlds literature.
Rat the authors personality, except to
II. small circle Of intimate friends, has
r.nained as mysterious and incrutable
=, that of Nostronlo or Lord jim.
Americas First Glimpse
However. Conrad reveals something
of his personality and great deal of
HI. literary art in a series of prefaces
To his novels, to be included in de
ike edition Of his works to BE pub
ljshed soon b. Doubleday, Page {; Co.
Most Of these prefaces have never been
published in America before. Taken
as whole, they constitute rare and
exceedingly interesting document, the
frank autobiographsca sketch of an
artist in his workhop.
In one Of the prefaces Conrad tells
how he came 20 choose English instead
Of his native Polish or any other Ian
guage as his medium of expression.
After clearing up the Misrepresentation
that ne had exercised a deliberate
choice as between English and French
he gives the following account of the
irresistible attraction which the Eng
lish language holds for him:
How He Came to Write English
"The truth Of the matter is that my
faculty to write in English is as nat
ural as any other aptitude with which
might have been born. / have 3
strange and overpowering feeling that
it had always been an inherent part of
myself. English was for ME neither
matter Of choice nor adoption. The
merest idea Of choice had never en-
tered My head And as to adoption
eel yes, there was adoption; but it
was who was adopted by the genius of
The language, which, directly | came out
Of the stammering stage, made me its
own so completely that its very idioms,
1. truly believe, had direct action on
M temperament and fashioned my still
plastic character.
1T was very intimate action. and
Tor that very reason it is too mysteri-
GUS to explain. The task would be as
npossible as trying TO explain love at
irst sight. There was something in
mis- conjunction of exulting, almost
physical recognition, the same sort of
emotional surrender and the same pride
II possession, all united in the wonder
q great discovery; but there was on
it none Of that shadow of dreadful
doubt that falls on the very fame of
our perlshable passions. One knew
very well that this was forever.
"A matter Of discovery and not Of in
heritance, that very inferiority OF the
title makes the faculty still more
precious, lays the possessor under q
lifelong obligation to remain worthy Of
DIS great fortune. But it seems to me
mat all this sounds as if I were try
ing TO eXplaln-a task which l have Just
pronounced to be impossible. If in &C
ton We may admit with awe that the
impossible reeds before mems in
domitabie spirit, the Impossible in
matters Of analysis will always make
stand at some point or other. All I can
Claim after all those years Of devoted
practice. with all the remembered an
gulsh of its doubts, imperfections and
isterings in my heart, is the right to
oe believed when say that if had not
written in English I would not have
written at all.
Not Revolutionist
conrad is Pole, not a Russian. He
IS democrat, not an anarchist or a
''VOlutionist. For himself, as for his
'1ce, ne claims affinity with Western.