1958.2 约瑟夫-康拉德：出版史上的一个脚注

shiyi18

Joseph Conrad: A Footnote to Publishing History
ALFRED A. KNOPF had graduated from Columbia and was serving his apprenticeship at Doubleday, Page & Co. when his enthusiasm for Joseph Conrad first had the opportunity to express itself. It seemed to him shocking that such a master of English prose should be so little read in the United States, and when he was allowed to read the manuscript of Conrad’s novel, CHANCE, young Knopf initialed a campaign to present the author in a new light.

By Alfred A. Knopf
FEBRUARY 1958 ISSUE
SHARE
ALFRED A. KNOPF


WHEN I was an undergraduate at Columbia I sometimes used to buy books at Scribner’s retail store, which was then on Fifth Avenue below Twenty-Second Street. A tall soil-spoken gentleman named Simpson worked there, and he sold me Lord Jim one day in 1910 or 1911 and thus started me reading Joseph Conrad.

That July I made my first visit to England. In my junior year I had discovered Galsworthy’s novels in a secondhand bookshop in Harlem run by Carol Cox and his father. Joel Spingarn, about to be ousted as professor of comparative literature, gave annual prizes for undergraduate stories and essays. I wrote Galsworthy telling him that I was attempting an essay on him and asking for some biographical information. How little he was known in America at that time may be gathered from the answer my teacher, John Erskine, gave me when I asked about the man who had already published Fraternity: “He’s an Englishman who writes plays for Charles Frollman” — a remark which I must have relayed to Galsworthy, who replied promptly that he didn’t write plays lor Charles Frohman or for anyone else.


I sent Galsworthy a copy of my paper — the prize was awarded to a far better man, Randolph Bourne — and a correspondence began which ended only with Galsworthy’s death. When I told him I would be in England in June, he invited me to spend a night or two in the little cottage he had at Manaton, Devonshire, on the eastern edge of Dartmoor. We must have talked about Conrad, for Galsworthy was his oldest English friend, having met him in March, 1893, when Conrad was first mate of the sailing ship Torrens and Galsworthy a passenger. Galsworthy and a friend, Ted Sanderson, made a long trip to the South Seas hoping to see Robert Louis Stevenson, whom they greatly admired. But they turned back at Adelaide, on the Torrens, and Sanderson went right to London, while Galsworthy stopped over in South Africa. Anyway, a few weeks later, ! read in a Tauchnitz edition those wonderful stories, A Set of Six, as I traveled by easy stages from Chamonix across Switzerland to Basel. They really got me; I had found my idol.

Magazine Cover image
View This Story as a PDF
See this story as it appeared in the pages of The Atlantic magazine.

Open
In the fall of 1912 I managed to secure very humble employment with Doubleday, Page & Company, newly moved to their great Country Life Press at Garden City. I worked there for cighteen months, first in the accounting and then in the manufacturing department. To my delight I found that the firm had published many of Conrad’s books: Youth, the volume of stories called Falk, Lord Jim, and the two novels written in collaboration with Ford Madox Hueffer, The Inheritors and Romance. In those days it seemed to me fantastic that a great writer shouldn’t have a large audience. I knew little as yet of the problems of publishing and, ignorant of my own ignorance, was completely happy. But I must have talked Conrad day in and day out to my associates. After all, James Hunekcr had written enthusiastically about him, and H. L. Mencken had been beating a drum for him for years.

In those days George H. Doran was publishing, with few exceptions, the best of the contemporary British novelists — his firm was at the top of its brilliant form — most of whom were represented by J. B. Pinker of London, who was also Conrad’s agent and had indeed staked Conrad rather handsomely for years. (To manage this Pinker always demanded generous advances from Conrad’s American publishers. He got them, but the novels never paid back these advances, and as a result by 1912 there were books by Conrad on the lists of Macmillan, Appleton, Dodd Mead, Putnam, Scribner’s, and Harper’s, as well as Doubleday. Harper’s had run the course longer than anyone else — from Nostromo in 1904 to A Personal Record in 1912.) Now Doran cast his line and hooked ’Twixt Land and Sea. But sometime early in 1913 Frank Doubleday (Effendi to all of us) returned from London with a contract that committed his firm once and for all to Conrad. Doran turned over ‘ Twixt Land and Sea, and shortly we received the manuscript of Chance.

RECOMMENDED READING
A view of the sea with people swimming, on the Asian side of Istanbul.
Climate Change Is Going to Be Gross
JENNA SCATENA
parent with hand on head of young girl
The Last Children of Down Syndrome
SARAH ZHANG

How to Die
JORDAN MICHAEL SMITH
Doubleday, Page & Company was an exciting place for a youngster just out of college; he was really given his head. Thus I was allowed to sit in on the weekly editorial meetings held in the firm’s handsome dining room, and I was allowed to take the manuscript of Chance home and to be the first to read it. I was completely bowled over. I hastened to write to my friend Galsworthy, and I still recapture after more than forty years the thrill with which I read my first letter from Conrad which followed.

Capel House
July 20, 1913
DEAR MR. KNOPF:
Mr. Galsworthy has communicated to me your very interesting and friendly letter. I assure you that I am very sensible of the good opinion you have of my work (which dear Hudson also likes) and I congratulate myself on it — since if you had not “happened along,” all these books would have remained on the back shelves of the firm where they have been reposing for the last ten years. I see in your letter that you suspect me of undue aloofness. It is not so. I am very much interested; I find it quite exciting to be rediscovered by my own publisher, after such a long time.
I have manifested as much interest in my publishers as my publishers have in me —nothingless; it would be unreasonable to expect more from a man — and I don’t know that any angel has yet taken to literature. At any rate, I am not he.
Writing to you as to a good friend of my work, I must begin by saying that in business I am a partisan of frank speech as much as of frank dealing. I am glad to hear that Doubleday, Page & Co. has bought two of my vols. from Mr. Doran. It is a sign of interest. But the fact remains that Mr. Doubleday might have had all my books up to date in his hands if he had cared. Other people bought them and I haven’t heard that they have been ruined by it; though I did not give away my work for ten cents a volume, I can assure you. I am not an amateur who plays at it. It’s anything but play with me. Perhaps Mr. Doubleday does not know it, but it’s a fact that ever since Nostromo (1904) every line of my writing has been serialized in the U.S. — with the exception of the Mirror of the Sea, of which however a good part appeared in Harper’s Weekly. And the Mirror is not the sort of stuff to be read in the Elevated train or on the river-ferry while goinghome. Yet even here the Pall Mall Mag: (a popular sixpenny) published several papers out of it, Blackwood two or three, and a great penny daily the last two.
Why did these people do these things? Surely not from personal liking. I don’t know a single magazine editor here, not even by sight. Of the men on your side, I have seen Col. Harvey once — years ago. Obviously there is something in what I do, some ground to go upon. It is also a fact that ever since The Nigger (published by Appleton in 1898 under the absurdly sweet title, Children of the Sea) I have had in the U.S. a very good press—invariably. And you cannot deny that the majority of writers of notices in newspapers are men of average tastes. When it comes to popularity I stand much nearer the public mind than Stevenson, who was super-literary, a conscious virtuoso of style; whereas the average mind does not care much for virtuosity. My point of view, which is purely human, my subjects, which are not too specialized as to the class of people or kind of events, my style, which may be clumsy here and there, but is perfectly straightforward and tending towards the colloquial, cannot possibly stand in the way of a large public. As to what I have to say — you know it is never outrageous to mind or feeling. Is it interesting? Well, I have been and am being translated into all the European languages, except Spanish and Italian. They would hardly do that for a bore.
There are two methods in the publishing business. The first is speculative. A book is a venture. Hit or miss. To a certain extent it must be so. But here and there a writer may be taken up as an investment. An investment must be attended to, it must be nursed — if one believes in it. I can’t develop much feeling for a publisher who takes me on the “hit or miss” basis. A gamble is not a connection. What position I have attained I owe to no publisher’s efforts. Sixteen years of hard work begin to tell.
The question for me is: Has the Doubleday, Page Co. simply bought two books of mine or is it to be a connection? If it is the last, then you will find me responsive enough. I appreciate warmly the practical evidence of your good will towards my work. The writing of this long letter (which is not in my habits) is the best proof of it, for I should not have cared to open my mind like this to an indifferent stranger, I can assure you.
All I can do to help you form a stable connection between me and the firm I am ready to do — even to the sacrifice of my personal tastes. To begin with I shall at once revise the notes on me and send them to you, I hope by the same ship with this letter. As to the portrait: I shall this week make arrangements with the Cadbys (a couple in great repute as photographers. Very artistie) to have more than one photograph taken in their best manner. The photos will be in your hands in good time before the publication of Chance. The Rothenstein portrait we like very much, but something more recent is needed, I think.
For the future: A young literary friend of mine, Mr. Richard Curle, was here some time ago and asked my permission to write a book on me, a critical monograph on my work. Don’t think I mean a cheap puff: it would be an interesting attempt to describe my subjects and my methods. Say 50-60 thousand words. It would be exactly what’s wanted to educate readers. He knows my work backwards. I may ask him to begin at once and the little book could be ready in some six months. But I can’t very well ask him to drop everything and get on with that study unless I may tell him that you will, when the work is ready, consider it in a favourable spirit for publication in the U.S. Of course, I don’t suggest you binding yourself in advance. What do you say?
And there is another thing. Last year I published with Harpers’ a short volume entitled: A Personal Record. A bit of autobiography — and a bit of good writing as well. I let it go to them at a royalty of 10%, because Harpers’ have in one way or another paid me a good lot of money in the last five years; thinking also that they would try to do something special with it. But apparently not. They sold a couple of thousand copies, I believe, on the strength of the name, and that’s all. This book, rather intimate, quite readable, and for which I care in a special way — is just wasted. Now if you could buy it from Harpers’ at once and put it before the public properly in a cheap edition (I am going to arrange for a 2/6 ed. here), say 50c., I believe it would do good. I would suggest extending the title, as thus: A Personal Record, by J. Conrad. The Story of His First Book and of His First Contact with the Sea. As a matter of fact it is just that. And if people really want that sort of thing they will be able to learn a lot about me from that little book.
Now if Doubleday, Page & Co. can and will do that and use it for the publicity (I don’t mean sending men with loaded guns to force it on people, but everything short of that) then for my part I am ready to forego my royalties (under the agreement with Harpers’) for three years — except in the case of that vol: coming out with others in a uniform edition before the three years expire.
I am ready to embody my proposal in an agreement as soon as you have succeeded in extracting the thing from Harpers’, which may not be difficult if attempted at once. I don’t think I could do more to show my interest in the connection with your house, and my appreciation of your efforts on my behalf.
Believe me, my dear Sir, with friendliest feelings.

P.S. I am very busy finishing my next novel — the one I told Mr. Doubleday all about. I hope he wasn’t bored to death. Please give him my kind regards. I’ll try to send you in time corrected galley slips to set up Chance from. I recommend to you that book very specially, for, of its kind, it isn’t a thing that one does twice in a lifetime!

Magazine Cover image
Explore the February 1958 Issue
Check out more from this issue and find your next story to read.

View More
I have no copy of my reply to this letter, but what I wrote, by Doubleday’s instructions, may be inferred from my next one from Conrad.

Capel House
August 24, 1913
MY DEAR MR. KNOPF:
I have your letter of the 13th inst. for which thanks.
In the matter of Curle’s book I certainly did not ask you (meaning the firm) for anything binding. But the idea of the publication in United States by means of English sheets does not commend itself to me. Both Mr. Conrad as subject and Mr. Curle as writer deserve better treatment. I assure you he is not a hack-writer. I am personally very much interested in the book, for reasons of which some are on the surface and for others which lie much deeper. I mean that book to be published in the United States independently of all arrangements in England; and I have good grounds to think that, should you decline it, I can carry the transaction out elsewhere. You don’t seem to realize that a book about Conrad will get published anyhow. And I mean Mr. Curle (who out of regard for me has put other work aside) to get a decent royalty and a small advance for his critical volume.
As to the Personal Record. I regret to say that my suggestion was not prompted by any specific information. I just threw it out on general principles. Harpers’ had it cheap. They haven’t made any special effort with it and I concluded that they would let it go if approached diplomatically. I am glad you think on re-reading that there is much to learn about me in it. Truly it is the very heart and essence of Conrad. And if people are only told that sympathetically, they begin to see that it is so.
The Falk volume question is interesting to me, but I fear there are no details that I could give you as to the origin of the stories. The volume failed with the public, because it was decapitated. It ought to have had “Typhoon” for the first story as published in England. But for some reason you allowed “Typhoon” to go to Putnam. I don’t shovel together my stories in a haphazard fashion. “Typhoon” belonged to that volume; on artistic and literary grounds; and its absence ruined the chances of the other stories. The reading of that first story attuned the mind for the reception of the others. And the public by neglecting “Falk” and the others recognized obscurely that the volume had its head off— that it was a corpse which, I fear, you will have some difficulty to galvanize into any sort of popularity. There’s no harm in trying. But you must be careful not to put people off by forcing on them work of which the quality is not so much on the surface. Later on they will understand me better and recognize the artistic finish of “Falk” and of “Amy Foster” — two of the most highly finished of my stories. Well! No more to-day.


P.S. Yes, I do care very much for Romance. I’ll give your message to the Galsworthys before long.

A little later Conrad wrote me about a lawyer in New York—John Quinn — to whom he had been selling his manuscripts from time to time. In the New York telephone directory I found many John Quinns but, as luck would have it, I lighted the very first time on the right one. Quinn was fantastic; he was going away but if I would come to his office at 31 Nassau Street he would have his confidential clerk, Curtin by name, place his Conrad file at my disposal. And thus I came to read a most remarkable correspondence, one that seemed to me at the time almost heartbreakingly tragic. Conrad was always hard up, frequently ill — in a generally sorry state. He would discover a manuscript — or pretend to — and send it on to Quinn, who would buy it at whatever price seemed fair to him. There was nothing wrong with that, for manuscripts by Conrad surely had no market anywhere in those days.

My withers were wrung. I was young; I think I was ingenious; and I know I was brash, presumptuous, shameless. I ordered a fine personal letterhead, on handmade paper imported by the old Japan Paper Company; I lived at home in Lawrence, Long Island, with my parents, and had this address engraved on it; and I composed a letter designed to make its recipient run, not walk, to the assistance of Joseph Conrad.


I do not have a copy of that letter, but I know that I described my hero’s plight, asked for what we now so inelegantly call a blurb (we didn’t know the word then) about his work, and added mysteriously that I was in a position to see that any favorable comment sent me would be circulated through his publishers and the press. This letter went to many popular writers of the day: Basil King, Rex Beach, Louis Joseph Vance, William Dean Howells, Winston Churchill (the novelist), Harold Bell Wright, Robert W. Service, George Barr McCutcheon, Jack London, Theodore Dreiser, Meredith Nicholson, and Mary Austin. To all I sent an advance copy of Chance. Only Dreiser suspected a connection with Doubleday.

The generosity with which most of them responded struck me as touching. Robert W. Service wrote me (he is now eighty-four years old and the only one of my correspondents still alive):

. . . I am glad indeed to have an opportunity of expressing my admiration for the works of one who is regarded by all competent critics as (with two possible exceptions) the greatest living master of English prose. Mr. Conrad is pre-eminently the Writer’s Writer, one to whom the fastidious reader may yield with an absolute confidence. . . . To us who write, his gleaming, supple prose is at once an inspiration and a reproach. He reassures, he stimulates. He has a magic power of evoking atmosphere, or hurling at us luminous phrases, packed with meaning, of combining in some fresh surprising way three or four words so that they conjure up a vivid and irresistible picture in our minds.


And from George Barr McCutcheon:

. . . I have liked all of Conrad’s books. To my notion, he is one of the greatest of living writers, and I believe he will take his place among the leading men in literature in time and the century just closed. Chance is but a single illustration of his power. It deserves to live, with the rest of his stories.

And Basil King:

Thanks for your kind letter received this morning. I am sorry to have been so long in sending you my modest opinion of Conrad’s book, but owing to lack of sight and the necessity of reading with a magnifying glass, I am slow at any task of the kind. In this case I regret it the less, since it is a book to be read with the concentration of the tastes with which one savours good wines. It is a book in which one can afford to pass nothing over. The flashes of observation thrown out by those who tell the tale — wise, humorous, or tender, as the case may be — are as remarkable as the tale itself, like the precious stones set in the binding of a missal. As I have told you already, I know of no more appealing figure in fiction than Flora de Barral, nor of a more manly one than Anthony. But of the book’s many striking qualities none is to me more impressive than the degree to which the concluding sentence justifies the quotation from Sir Thomas Browne on the title page, delimiting the significance of the title itself and rounding out the sphere of the author’s thought. Unity of purpose could go no further.

And Rex Beach:

. . . Joseph Conrad stands for the highest mark in present day English fiction. I consider him the greatest living author in the English language and have read nearly everything he has written. That his books are not more widely circulated in this country has always been a mystery to me . . .

But the veteran William Dean Howells after a second approach:

I did not reply to your letter of some weeks ago, because I supposed it was generally understood that I never gave opinions of books which were to be used as advertisements. The fact that you would “see my remarks circulated through publishers and the press” seemed to me sufficient reason for not making any. I am sorry if I seem to have neglected your letter.

And from Harold Bell Wright, probably the biggest-selling novelist of the day:

Mr. Conrad’s book Chance and your letters relative to Mr. Conrad’s work at hand.
As to Mr. Wright’s writing a paragraph for the purpose of furthering the sale of Mr. Conrad’s books; I am sure that a moment’s reflection will convince you that such a thing is practically out of the question. Mr. Wright, though receving [sic] many calls of this kind has made it a rule to not give any letter for publicity, for you can see that did he do so in the case of one writer, he would be overrun with letters requesting the same from writers all over the country, and of course it would be manifestly impossible for him to comply with all requests, which would cause many writers to feel that they had been unjustly discriminated against.
Yours very respectfully,
B. H. Pearson, Sec’y


Meanwhile my indulgent employers allowed me to write and sign a booklet on Conrad which they printed and distributed widely, and we came to the publication of Chance with such a battery of critical praise that its success was assured and indeed the ground laid for a very substantial market for many years for all of Conrad’s books.

In the spring of 1914 I left Garden City to go to work for Mitchell Kennerley, then a small highly personal publisher with a list already studded with such distinguished names as Walter Lippmann, A. S. M. Hutchinson, D. H. Lawrence, and Joseph Hergesheimer. Kennerley, incidentally, was a great friend of John Quinn. After this I had little contact with Conrad for many years, though we exchanged an occasional letter. But in 1921 Mrs. Knopf and I drove his great friend, Richard Curle, from London to Canterbury for lunch with Conrad at Bishopsbourne, his house nearby, and there we met for the first time.

Then two years later we took Thomas Beer down to see him to discuss the introduction he had promised to write for Beer’s Stephen Crane. Conrad was in fine form; we had already after years of neglect made the books of his dear friend Hudson popular in America, and now we were promising to do our best for his “Stevie.” As we left for the station he accompanied us to the door, and the last words I heard him speak were, “Now we must do something for Robert.”

I never saw him again, and the books of Robert (R. B. Cunningham-Graham) never have been much read over here.



约瑟夫-康拉德：出版史上的一个脚注
ALFRED A. KNOPF从哥伦比亚大学毕业，在Doubleday, Page & Co.做学徒时，他对约瑟夫-康拉德的热情第一次有机会表现出来。当他被允许阅读康拉德的小说《机会》的手稿时，年轻的克诺夫开始了一场以新的方式介绍这位作家的运动，这让他感到震惊。

作者：阿尔弗雷德-A-诺普夫
1958年2月号
分享
阿尔弗雷德-A-诺普夫


我在哥伦比亚大学读本科时，有时会去斯克里布纳的零售店买书，该店当时位于第二十二街下面的第五大道上。一位名叫辛普森的高个子土生土长的先生在那里工作，1910年或1911年的一天，他把《吉姆勋爵》卖给了我，于是我开始阅读约瑟夫-康拉德。

那年7月，我第一次去了英国。大三时，我在哈林区卡罗尔-考克斯和他父亲经营的一家二手书店里发现了高尔斯沃西的小说。乔尔-斯宾格恩（Joel Spingarn）即将被赶出比较文学教授的位置，他每年都会为本科生的故事和散文颁奖。我写信给Galsworthy，告诉他我正在尝试写一篇关于他的文章，并要求提供一些传记资料。当时他在美国的知名度有多低，可以从我的老师约翰-厄斯金（John Erskine）在我问及已经出版了《博爱》的人时给我的回答中看出。"他是一个为查尔斯-弗罗尔曼写剧本的英国人"--我一定是把这句话转述给了高尔斯沃西，他迅速回答说他没有为查尔斯-弗罗尔曼或其他任何人写剧本。


我给加尔斯沃思寄去了我的论文副本--奖项颁给了一个更好的人，伦道夫-伯恩--然后开始了通信，直到加尔斯沃思去世才结束。当我告诉他我将在6月去英国时，他邀请我在他位于德文郡马纳顿的小别墅里住上一两晚，那里是达特摩尔的东部边缘。我们一定谈到了康拉德，因为高尔斯沃西是他最年长的英国朋友，他在1893年3月认识了康拉德，当时康拉德是托伦斯号帆船的大副，高尔斯沃西是乘客。加尔斯沃思和一个朋友泰德-桑德森长途跋涉来到南洋，希望能见到他们非常欣赏的罗伯特-路易斯-史蒂文森。但他们在阿德莱德折返，在托伦斯号上，桑德森直接去了伦敦，而高尔斯沃思在南非停留。总之，几周后，当我从夏莫尼穿越瑞士到巴塞尔时，在陶克尼茨的版本中读到了那些精彩的故事《六人行》。他们真的吸引了我；我找到了我的偶像。

杂志封面图片
以PDF格式查看本故事
请看这个故事出现在《大西洋》杂志的页面上。

打开
1912年秋天，我设法在道布尔迪、佩奇和公司找到了非常卑微的工作，他们刚搬到花园城的伟大乡村生活出版社。我在那里工作了18个月，先是在会计部，然后在制造部。令我高兴的是，我发现该公司已经出版了康拉德的许多书。青年》、名为《福尔克》的故事集、《吉姆勋爵》，以及与福特-马多克斯-休弗合作的两部小说《继承人》和《浪漫》。在那些日子里，在我看来，一个伟大的作家不应该有大量的读者，这很不可思议。我对出版业的问题还知之甚少，而且对自己的无知一无所知，完全感到高兴。但我一定是日复一日地和我的伙伴们谈论康拉德。毕竟，James Hunekcr曾热情地写过关于他的文章，而H.L. Mencken多年来一直在为他打鼓。

在那些日子里，乔治-H-多兰正在出版，除了少数例外，当代英国最好的小说家--他的公司正处于辉煌的顶峰--他们中的大多数人都由伦敦的J-B-平克代理，他也是康拉德的经纪人，多年来确实为康拉德提供了相当丰厚的报酬。(为了处理这个问题，平克总是要求康拉德的美国出版商提供慷慨的预付款。他得到了这些预付款，但这些小说从未偿还这些预付款，结果到了1912年，麦克米伦、阿普尔顿、多德-米德、普特南、斯克里布纳、哈珀以及杜伯雷的名单上都有康拉德的书。哈珀出版社在这方面做得比任何人都久--从1904年的《诺斯特罗莫》到1912年的《个人记录》）。现在，多兰投下了他的线，在 "陆地和海洋之间 "上钩。但在1913年初的某个时候，弗兰克-道布尔迪（Effendi to all of us）从伦敦回来，带着一份合同，将他的公司一劳永逸地交给康拉德。多兰交出了《海陆两界》，不久我们就收到了《机会》的手稿。

推荐阅读
伊斯坦布尔亚洲一侧的海面，人们在游泳的景色。
气候变化会很严重
珍娜-斯卡特纳
家长用手抚摸小女孩的头
最后的唐氏综合症患儿
SARAH ZHANG

如何死亡
乔丹-迈克尔-史密斯
对于一个刚从大学毕业的年轻人来说，Doubleday, Page & Company是一个令人激动的地方；他真的被赋予了他的头。因此，我被允许参加在公司漂亮的餐厅举行的每周编辑会议，我被允许把《机会》的手稿带回家，并成为第一个阅读它的人。我完全被征服了。我赶紧给我的朋友高尔斯沃西写信，四十多年过去了，我仍然记得我读完康拉德的第一封信后的激动心情。

卡佩尔之家
1913年7月20日
亲爱的先生。克诺普夫。
加尔斯沃西先生已将你那封非常有趣和友好的信转交给我。我向你保证，我非常了解你对我的作品的良好评价（亲爱的哈德森也喜欢），我为此感到庆幸--因为如果不是你 "碰巧来了"，所有这些书都会留在公司的后面书架上，它们在过去的十年里一直在那里。我在你的信中看到，你怀疑我过分地冷漠。事实并非如此。我非常感兴趣；我发现在这么长时间后被自己的出版商重新发现是非常令人兴奋的。
我对我的出版商表现出的兴趣，就像我的出版商对我的兴趣一样--没有什么；对一个人有更多的期望是不合理的--我不知道有哪个天使还对文学感兴趣。无论如何，我不是他。
作为给我工作的好朋友写信，我必须首先说，在商业上，我是一个坦率的言论和坦率的交易的支持者。我很高兴听到Doubleday, Page & Co.从Doran先生那里买了我的两卷书。这是一种兴趣的表现。但事实是，如果杜伯雷先生关心的话，他可能会把我所有的书都拿到手。其他人买了这些书，我没有听说他们因此而毁掉了；尽管我没有为了一卷10美分而把我的作品送出去，我可以向你保证。我不是一个玩这个的业余爱好者。对我来说，这完全不是游戏。也许杜伯雷先生不知道，但事实是，自从《诺斯特罗莫》（1904年）以来，我的每一行作品都在美国连载--《海之镜》除外，但其中有很大一部分出现在《哈珀周刊》上。而《海之镜》并不是那种在高架列车上或回家时在河上渡船上阅读的东西。然而，即使在这里，《Pall Mall Mag》（一种流行的六便士报纸）也用它出版了几份报纸，《Blackwood》出版了两三份，最后两份是大便士日报。
这些人为什么要做这些事？当然不是因为个人喜好。我在这里不认识任何一位杂志编辑，甚至不认识。在你们这边的人中，我见过哈维上校一次--多年前。很明显，我所做的事情有一定的道理，有一定的依据可循。还有一个事实是，自从《黑鬼》（1898年由阿普尔顿出版，书名是荒唐的甜美的《海的孩子》）以来，我在美国一直有非常好的媒体报道--总是如此。你不能否认的是，报纸上大多数写公告的人都是口味一般的人。说到受欢迎程度，我比史蒂文森更接近公众的想法，史蒂文森是个超级文学家，是个自觉的风格大师；而普通人的想法却不太在乎艺术性。我的观点是纯粹的人性，我的主题在人的类别或事件的种类方面不是太专业，我的风格在这里和那里可能是笨拙的，但完全是直截了当的，趋向于口语化，不可能挡住广大公众的路。至于我要说的--你知道它在思想和感觉上从来都是离谱的。它有趣吗？嗯，我已经并正在被翻译成所有的欧洲语言，除了西班牙语和意大利语。他们几乎不会为一个无聊的人这样做。
在出版业有两种方法。第一种是投机性的。一本书是一种冒险。命中或不中。在某种程度上，它必须如此。但在这里和那里，一个作家可能被当作一项投资。一项投资必须得到关注，必须得到呵护--如果人们相信它的话。我对那些在 "不成功便成仁 "的基础上接受我的出版商没有什么感觉。赌博并不是一种联系。我所取得的地位并不归功于出版商的努力。16年的辛勤工作开始告诉我们。
对我来说，问题是。道布莱德-佩奇公司只是买了我的两本书，还是要建立一种联系？如果是最后一种，那么你会发现我有足够的反应。我非常感谢你对我工作的善意的实际证据。写这封长信（这不是我的习惯）就是最好的证明，因为我不愿意像这样向一个漠不关心的陌生人敞开心扉，我可以向你保证。
为了帮助你在我和公司之间形成稳定的联系，我愿意做一切事情--甚至牺牲我的个人品味。首先，我将立即修改关于我的笔记，并将其寄给你，我希望与这封信同船。至于肖像：我将在本周与卡德比夫妇（这对夫妇在摄影界享有盛誉，非常有艺术性）作出安排，以他们最好的方式拍摄多张照片。这些照片将在《机会》出版前及时送到你的手中。我们非常喜欢罗滕斯坦的肖像，但我认为还需要一些更新的东西。
对于未来。我的一位年轻的文学家朋友理查德-库尔先生前段时间来过这里，他请求我允许他写一本关于我的书，一本关于我作品的批评性专著。不要以为我指的是廉价的吹捧：这将是描述我的主题和我的方法的一次有趣的尝试。比如5-6万字。这将正是想要教育读者的东西。他对我的工作倒背如流。我可以要求他马上开始，这本小书可以在大约六个月内完成。但我不能要求他放弃一切，继续研究，除非我可以告诉他，当作品准备好后，你会以有利的精神考虑在美国出版。你怎么说呢？
还有一件事。去年，我在《哈珀斯》杂志上出版了一本小册子，题为：《个人记录》。一本自传--也是一本好书。我以10%的版税让给了他们，因为《哈珀斯》在过去五年里以这种或那种方式给了我很多钱；我还以为他们会试图用它做一些特别的事情。但显然没有。他们卖了几千册，我相信，靠的是名字，仅此而已。这本书，相当亲切，相当可读，而且我以一种特别的方式关心它--只是浪费了。现在，如果你能马上从哈珀斯出版社买下它，并以廉价的版本（我准备在这里安排一个2/6的版本）把它适当地放在公众面前，比如说50分，我相信它会做得很好。我建议延长书名，如：。J. Conrad的个人记录。他的第一本书和他第一次接触海洋的故事。事实上，它就是这样。如果人们真的想要这种东西，他们就能从这本小书中了解到很多关于我的事情。
现在，如果Doubleday, Page & Co.能够并且愿意这样做，并且利用它进行宣传（我不是说派人拿着装满子弹的枪去强迫人们这样做，而是指除此之外的一切），那么就我而言，我准备在三年内放弃我的版税（根据与Harpers的协议）--除了该卷：在三年期满之前与其他版本统一上市的情况。
我准备在你成功地从《哈泼斯报》中提取出我的建议后，立即在协议中体现出来，如果立即尝试，这可能并不困难。我不认为我可以做得更多，以表明我对与贵院的关系的兴趣，以及我对你为我所做的努力的赞赏。
请相信我，亲爱的先生，我怀着最友好的感情。

附注：我正忙于完成我的下一部小说--我告诉过杜伯雷先生的那部。我希望他不会觉得无聊到死。请代我向他问好。我会试着及时给你寄去改正过的印版，让你据此设定钱斯。我特别向你推荐那本书，因为，就其种类而言，它不是一个人一生中能做两次的事情！"。

杂志封面图片
探索1958年2月号
查看本期的更多内容，并找到你要读的下一个故事。

查看更多
我没有这封信的回信副本，但根据杜伯雷的指示，我所写的内容可以从我下一封康拉德的信中推断出来。

卡佩尔之家
1913年8月24日
我亲爱的先生。克诺普夫。
我收到了你13日的信，对此表示感谢。
在库尔的书的问题上，我当然没有要求你（指公司）提供任何有约束力的东西。但是，我不赞成在美国用英文书页的方式出版的想法。作为主题的康拉德先生和作为作家的库尔先生都应该得到更好的待遇。我向你保证，他不是一个黑客作家。我个人对这本书非常感兴趣，其中有些原因是表面上的，有些原因是更深层次的。我的意思是，这本书将在美国出版，独立于英国的所有安排；而且我有充分的理由认为，如果你拒绝，我可以在其他地方进行这项交易。你似乎没有意识到，一本关于康拉德的书无论如何都会出版。我指的是柯尔先生（出于对我的尊重，他把其他工作放在一边），他的批评书可以得到体面的版税和少量预付款。
至于《个人记录》。我很遗憾地说，我的建议不是由任何具体的信息促成的。我只是根据一般原则提出来的。哈珀斯》有它的便宜。他们没有对它做任何特别的努力，我的结论是，如果以外交方式接触，他们会让它走。我很高兴你在重读时认为其中有很多关于我的东西可以学习。真的，它是康拉德的核心和本质。如果人们只是被同情地告知这一点，他们就会开始看到它是如此。
福尔克卷的问题对我来说很有趣，但我恐怕没有任何细节可以让你了解这些故事的来源。这卷书在公众中失败了，因为它被斩首了。它应该以 "台风 "作为在英国出版的第一个故事。但由于某种原因，你允许 "台风 "转给普特南。我不会胡乱地把我的故事塞到一起。从艺术和文学的角度看，"台风 "是属于那一卷的；它的缺席破坏了其他故事的机会。对第一个故事的阅读使人们对其他故事的接受有了心理准备。公众通过忽视《福尔克》和其他故事，隐约认识到这卷书有它的头，但它是一具尸体，我担心你很难把它变成任何形式的流行。试试也无妨。但你必须小心，不要把质量不高的作品强加给他们，让他们失望。以后他们会更好地理解我，认识到《福尔克》和《艾米-福斯特》的艺术完成度--我的两个完成度最高的故事。好了! 今天就不说了。


P.S.是的，我确实非常关心罗曼蒂克。我将在不久之后把你的信息转达给加尔斯沃思夫妇。

稍后，康拉德给我写了一封关于纽约的一位律师--约翰-奎恩的信--他一直在不时地向他出售他的手稿。在纽约的电话簿中，我找到了许多约翰-昆恩，但幸运的是，我第一次就点中了正确的那个。奎恩很神奇；他要走了，但如果我去他在拿骚街31号的办公室，他就会让他的机要文员科廷把他的康拉德档案交给我处理。就这样，我读到了一封最了不起的书信，在当时的我看来，这封信几乎是令人心碎的悲剧。康拉德总是很辛苦，经常生病--总的来说，他的状态很糟糕。他发现了一份手稿--或者假装发现了--然后把它寄给奎恩，后者会以他认为公平的价格买下它。这并没有错，因为康拉德的手稿在那些日子里肯定在任何地方都没有市场。

我的肩膀被扭伤了。我当时很年轻；我认为我很聪明；我知道我很粗鲁、自以为是、无耻。我订购了一张精美的个人信笺，用的是老牌日本造纸公司进口的手工纸；我和父母住在长岛的劳伦斯家中，并在上面刻了这个地址；我写了一封信，旨在让收信人跑步，而不是走路，去找约瑟夫-康拉德帮忙。


我没有那封信的副本，但我知道我描述了我的英雄的困境，要求提供我们现在如此不优雅地称之为关于他的作品的简介（当时我们还不知道这个词），并神秘地补充说，我有能力看到任何对我有利的评论将通过他的出版商和媒体传播。这封信寄给了当时的许多流行作家。巴西尔-金、雷克斯-比奇、路易斯-约瑟夫-万斯、威廉-迪安-豪威尔斯、温斯顿-丘吉尔（小说家）、哈罗德-贝尔-赖特、罗伯特-W-塞尔、乔治-巴尔-麦库切恩、杰克-伦敦、西奥多-德莱塞、梅雷迪斯-尼科尔森和玛丽-奥斯汀。我给所有的人都寄去了《机会》的预印本。只有德莱塞怀疑与道布尔迪公司有联系。

他们中的大多数人的慷慨回应让我感动不已。Robert W. Service给我写信（他现在已经八十四岁了，是我的通信者中唯一还活着的人）。

. . . 我很高兴能有机会表达我对一位被所有合格的评论家视为（除了两个可能的例外）最伟大的在世英国散文大师的作品的钦佩。康拉德先生显然是作家中的作家，是严格要求自己的读者可以绝对信任的人。. . . 对我们这些写作的人来说，他那熠熠生辉、柔韧的散文既是一种激励，也是一种责备。他让人放心，也让人振奋。他有一种唤起气氛的神奇力量，或者向我们抛出充满意义的发光短语，以某种新的令人惊讶的方式将三或四个词结合起来，使它们在我们的脑海中勾勒出一幅生动和不可抗拒的画面。


来自乔治-巴尔-麦库切恩的作品。

. . . 我喜欢康拉德的所有书。在我看来，他是在世的最伟大的作家之一，我相信他将在时间和刚刚结束的世纪中，在文学界的领军人物中占有一席之地。机会》只是他力量的一个例证。它应该和他的其他故事一起活着。

还有巴西尔-金。

谢谢你今早收到的亲切来信。我很抱歉这么久才把我对康拉德的书的微薄意见寄给你，但由于视力下降和必须用放大镜阅读，我对任何这类任务都很迟钝。在这种情况下，我的遗憾就更少了，因为这是一本需要集中精力去阅读的书，就像人们品尝好酒一样的味道。在这本书中，人们可以不遗余力地阅读。讲述故事的人抛出的观点--明智的、幽默的或温柔的，视情况而定--与故事本身一样引人注目，就像镶嵌在念珠上的宝石。正如我已经告诉过你的，我知道在小说中没有比弗洛拉-德-巴拉尔更吸引人的人物，也没有比安东尼更有男子气概的人物。但是，在这本书的众多引人注目的品质中，最让我印象深刻的莫过于结尾的句子在多大程度上证明了扉页上托马斯-布朗爵士的引文，划定了书名本身的意义，完善了作者的思想范围。目的的统一不能再进一步了。

而Rex Beach:

. . . 约瑟夫-康拉德代表了当今英国小说的最高标志。我认为他是英国语言中最伟大的在世作家，并且几乎读过他写的所有作品。他的书在这个国家没有得到更广泛的传播，这对我来说一直是个谜。

但老将威廉-迪安-豪威尔斯在第二次接触后。

我没有回复你几周前的来信，因为我以为人们普遍认为我从不对用作广告的书籍发表意见。在我看来，你会 "看到我的意见通过出版商和报刊传阅 "这一事实有足够的理由不发表任何意见。如果我似乎忽视了你的来信，我很抱歉。

还有来自哈罗德-贝尔-赖特，可能是当时最畅销的小说家。

康拉德先生的书《机会》和你与康拉德先生手头工作有关的信。
至于赖特先生为了促进康拉德先生的书的销售而写了一段话；我相信，只要稍加思考，你就会相信，这种事情实际上是不可能的。莱特先生虽然接到了许多这样的电话，但他规定不给任何宣传信，因为你可以看到，如果他在一位作家的情况下这样做，他就会被全国各地的作家要求同样的信淹没，当然，他显然不可能满足所有的要求，这将使许多作家感到他们受到了不公正的歧视。
尊敬的您好。
B. H. Pearson, Sec'y


与此同时，我宽容的雇主允许我撰写并签署了一本关于康拉德的小册子，他们印刷并广泛分发，我们在出版《机会》时得到了大量的批评赞扬，它的成功得到了保证，实际上也为康拉德的所有书籍在多年内获得非常可观的市场奠定了基础。

1914年春天，我离开花园市，去为米切尔-肯纳利工作，当时他是一个小型的高度个人化的出版商，他的名单上已经有很多杰出的名字，如沃尔特-李普曼、A-S-M-哈钦森、D-H-劳伦斯和约瑟夫-赫格海默。顺便说一句，肯纳利是约翰-奎恩的好朋友。在这之后的许多年里，我与康拉德很少接触，尽管我们偶尔会交换一封信。但在1921年，科诺夫夫人和我开车把他的伟大朋友理查德-库尔从伦敦送到坎特伯雷，在附近的比什伯恩与康拉德共进午餐，在那里我们第一次见面。

两年后，我们带托马斯-比尔去见他，讨论他答应为比尔的《斯蒂芬-克莱恩》写的介绍。康拉德的状态很好；经过多年的忽视，我们已经使他亲爱的朋友哈德森的书在美国受到欢迎，现在我们承诺为他的 "史蒂文 "尽一份力。当我们离开去车站时，他陪我们到门口，我听到他说的最后一句话是："现在我们必须为罗伯特做点什么。"

我再也没有见过他，罗伯特（R. B. Cunningham-Graham）的书在这里从来没有人读过。