Joseph Conrad
Polish-British novelist who spoke English fluently only in his twenties yet mastered its prose Show bio
Bio
Joseph Conrad traced his earliest memories to the Warsaw prison where Russia held his rebel father. He lost both parents to tuberculosis and was an orphan by age eleven. Conrad discovered the sea through Victor Hugo and English literature through Shakespeare, both as a boy.
He left Poland at sixteen and sailed on French and British merchant ships. Conrad wrote novels like Lord Jim, whose anti-heroes face crises in a world he saw as indifferent.
He never followed his father into resistance, and choosing exile left him with lifelong guilt. Conrad always remembered a friend's parting words: wherever he sailed, he was sailing toward Poland.