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“Exact Biography” and The Shadow-Line

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Norman Sherry
Norman Sherry*
Affiliation:
University of Singapore, Singapore 10, Federation of Malaysia
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Extract

In 1917 Conrad wrote two letters on the subject of The Shadow-Line, one to his agent, J. B. Pinker, the other to his friend, Sidney Colvin. Both letters emphasise that this story is exact biography. To Pinker he wrote of “That piece of work which is not story really but exact biography,” and to Colvin he stated, “The very speeches are (I won't say authentic—they are that absolutely), I believe, verbally accurate. And all this happened in March-April 1887.”

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 79 , Issue 5 , December 1964 , pp. 620 - 625
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1907

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References

1 G. Jean-Aubry, Joseph Conrad: Life and Letters (London, 1927), ii, 181, 182.

2 Ibid., i, 104. “From comparison between these two stories [The Shadow-Line & Falk] and documents in our possession we can reconstruct the events which followed accurately.”

3 Jocelyn Baines, Joseph Conrad: A Critical Biography (London, 1959), p. 94, n.

4 P. vii. Page references throughout are to the 1921 edition of The Works of Joseph Conrad (London: Heinemann).

5 The Shadow-Line, p. 58.

6 Joseph Conrad: Life and Letters (London, 1927), i, 109.

7 The Shadow-Line, p. 81.

8 Life and Letters, i, 105, The Singapore Free Press, 6 March 1888, lists the date of departure as 9 February.

9 Baines, p. 94.

10 Life and Letters, i, 110.

11 Baines, p. 95.