Sticking close to his desk . . .

The Several Lives of Joseph Conrad
by John Stape

Why did he do it? In his late thirties, Joseph Conrad abandoned the modestly successful career as a seaman which he had steadily built up. Though the job involved tiresome exams and increasing responsibilities, it had been his ‘great passion’, he wrote a dozen years later. ‘I call it great because it was great to me. Others may call it a foolish infatuation. Those words have been applied to every love story. But whatever it may be the fact remains that it was something too great for words.’ Yet he gave it up, opting instead for writing, marriage and a family, all of which made him miserable.

Writing, in particular, was agony to him. He could spend days facing a blank page, and postponed the ordeal as often as he could. Once he had got going, he could never tell how long a story was going to turn out, let alone how successfully.