Joseph Conrad

Greg writes:
Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) was born in Poland as the son of Apollo
Korzeniowski, a Polish playwright and nobleman. His father was well respected in his hometown of Berdychiv (then, it was spelled Berdyczów) mainly for his abilities as a translator of the works of very notable literary geniuses – Dickens, Shakespeare, and Hugo, just to name a few. A life of literature clearly ran in the family!
Conrad became an orphan in 1869, when his father died four years after Conrad’s mother had died of tuberculosis. As a result of these tragic events, the young Conrad spent the rest of his childhood with his uncle in Kraców. Despite having known his father for a relatively short amount of time, his influence spanned Conrad’s entire lifetime; Koreniowski, being a translator, always had the house filled with books in other languages lying around, and a curious Conrad loved to pick them up and read. As a result, Conrad learned three languages – Polish, French, and a bit of English – before his parents’ death, which would prove to be quite useful in his later years, when he developed a love of writing.
At age 16, Conrad began his life at sea. As a seaman, Conrad traveled to all sorts of exotic parts of the world – Australia, Borneo, and the Congo just to name a few. Conrad always found himself writing about his surroundings as a sort of escape. Many voyages out to sea later, Conrad had decided that his true passion was not at sea, but rather with paper and ink. At age 36, Conrad decided to live a more relaxed life at his home in England, and began writing “Heart of Darkness”, a novel that was loosely based on his experiences at sea. Conrad became a well-renowned author in his days, and remains to be one, long after his death at age 66.