SOME REMINISCENCES

1912. London: Eveleigh Nash, 1912. 2 pp undated ads. Original dark blue cloth.

First Edition of this autobiographical work, which initially appeared serially in Ford Madox Ford's newly-founded English Review. What is remarkable about Conrad's reminiscences is how clearly he employed fictional techniques worked out with Ford,... wherein the narrative intensity increases as the story develops. To achieve that, Conrad used a constantly interrupted narrative as a way of unsettling conventional sequences and, thereby, established anticipation of the next episode. Conrad needed a method that permitted intimacy, up to a certain point, and then withdrawal, when he had revealed enough... so his reminiscences would be matters of attack and retreat [Karl]. SOME REMINISCENCES is generally believed to have slightly preceded the American edition -- which, as with English editions beginning in 1916, was titled A PERSONAL RECORD. Wise claimed that only 1,000 copies were printed (apparently including some bound by Bell as the colonial issue), but Nash records have not survived to substantiate this. This copy is in very good condition (minor rubbing at the extremities, rear endpaper cracked, small number stamped on front endpaper). Supino A15.1.0 (this copy); Cagle A15b.1. Provenance: 24 Dec 1913 endpaper signature of H.K. Rooke (possibly the British watercolorist Herbert Kerr Rooke 1872-1944); discreet bookplate of Conrad bibliographer David J.Supino.