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Overview
In Joseph Conrad: A Biography, acclaimed writer Jeffrey Meyers presents the definitive account of the life of Joseph Conrad (1857-1924), author of Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim, Nostromo, and many other landmarks in modern literature. Meyers' biography, published for the first time in paperback by Cooper Square Press, is the first biography of the author in many years. Joseph Conrad brings to light new information about Conrad's life and its impact on his fiction: new models emerge for his characters, including Heart of Darkness' Kurtz, and Meyers also examines in great detail Conrad's relationship with the wild and beautiful American journalist Jane Anderson.
Synopsis
Celebrated biographer, Jeffrey Meyers recounts the contradictory, tormented life of Joseph Conrad.
Publishers Weekly
To his distinguished biogrpahies of Hemingway, Wyndham Lewis, D. H. Lawrence and others, Meyers now adds a study of the elusive author of Nostromo and Victor , and he comes up with all sorts of little-known or unpublished material. Meyers provides new insights into Conrad's troubled Polish childhood, his harsh 20 years as a seaman, his rash involvement in the Carlist wars, his marriage to a placid woman who was the perfect foil to his neurasthenic personality and his friendships with the likes of Madox Ford, Galsworthy, Stephen Crane and Henry James. In his role as passionate literary detective, Meyers finds real-life sources of lead characters in Heart of Darkness, Under Western Eyes and The Arrow of Gold (about the tempestuous American journalist, Jane Anderson, with whom Conrad had an affair). The author gives us a clear perspective on both the life (1857-1924) and achievements of a writer who, racked by gout, guilt and debt most of his life (his novels were more often praised than read), mastered a foreign language in middle age to become one of its greatest craftsmen. Photos. (Apr.)
Editorials
Los Angeles Times
Meyers has looked hard at the raw materials of Conrad's life and has made the right connections. The resulting portrait is stunning and compelling.— Jay Parini, author of The Last Station
The New York Times
Shrewdly and sensitively written, and clearly inspired by a great admiration for its subject.— Joyce Carol Oates