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 subsequent English editions, 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-plus condition (minor rubbing at the extremities, endpapers cracking, faint evidence of bookplate removal on the front paste-down). Cagle A15b.1.