Record Number: 25061

---

Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'They have arrived--the 6 of them; I have felt them all in turn and all at one time as it were, and to celebrate the event I have given myself a holiday for the morning,not to read any of them --I could not settle to that, but to commune with them all, and gloat over the promise of the prefaces. But of these last I have read one already, the preface to "The American",the first of your long novels I ever read--in '91.[...] I could not resist the temptation of reading the beautiful and touching last ten pages of the story. There is in them a perfection of tone which calmed me; and I sat for a long time with the closed volume in my hand going over the preface in my mind and thinking--that's how it began,that's how it was done!'

Century:

1900-1945

Date:

Between 11 Dec 1908 and 12 Dec 1908

Country:

England

Time

n/a

Place:

city: Luton Hoo Estate
county: Bedfordshire
specific address: Someries

Type of Experience
(Reader):
 

silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

Type of Experience
(Listener):
 

solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

---

Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

Joseph Conrad

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

3 Dec 1857

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

Master mariner and author

Religion:

originally Polish Catholic, by now agnostic/atheist

Country of Origin:

Poland

Country of Experience:

England

Listeners present if any:
e.g family, servants, friends

n/a

Additional Comments:

n/a

---

Text Being Read:

Author:

Henry James

Title:

The American

Genre:

Fiction,

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

probably new de luxe editions appearing in 1908

Provenance

owned
gift from author

---

Source Information:

Record ID:

25061

Source:

Print

Author:

Joseph Conrad

Editor:

Karl Frederick R. and Laurence Davies

Title:

The Collected Letters of Joseph Conrad Volume 4 1908-1911

Place of Publication:

Cambridge

Date of Publication:

1990

Vol:

4

Page:

161-162

Additional Comments:

Letter from Joseph Conrad to Henry James dated 12 December 1908, Someries.

Citation:

Joseph Conrad, Karl Frederick R. and Laurence Davies (ed.), The Collected Letters of Joseph Conrad Volume 4 1908-1911 (Cambridge, 1990), 4, p. 161-162, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/RED/record_details.php?id=25061, accessed: 19 April 2024

---

Additional Comments:

See also record 25060. See fn. 4 P; 161 of source text describing the gift by James of new editions of 'Roderick Hudson', 'The American', 'Portrait of a Lady' (2 vols), and 'The Princess Casamassima' (2 vols).