Who Am I? (Number 3)

     I was born on December 3, 1857 of a noble family in the city of Berdychiv. My mother died in 1865, and my father died in 1869. I was an orphan at age 11.
     I was raised by my uncle. At age 16 I traveled to Marseille and I enlisted as a seaman in the French Merchant Marine. For awhile, I was involved in gunrunning, and I experienced a broken heart when an early love affair failed.
     When I was 21, I was wounded in the chest. Some biographers claim it was attempted suicide, others claim it was the result of a duel. I always kept the cause of that wound a secret, so you can draw your own conclusions.
     By 1878, at age 22, I enlisted in the British Merchant Marine. My first British ship was called Skimmer of the Sea. In 1881, I became Second Mate on the Palestine, a ship with a tragic history. Bound for Bangkok in 1883, the ship caught fire in the Sundra Straight and sank. The entire crew reached shore safely, myself included.
     In 1886, I earned a British Master Mariner certificate. By then I could speak three languages fluently.
     After many voyages worldwide and a total of 16 years in the Merchant Marine, I retired in the year 1894. My maritime adventures served me well when I began my second career as an author. My first book, Almayer's Folly, was quickly followed by An Outcast of the Islands. I used a pen name for all my books and stories.
      I wrote about human nature and human emotions. I was denounced as a racist, and praised as a writer who understood human psychology. My writing style was best described by my contemporary friend, Ford Madox Ford, in his essay The Critical Attitude. "He is an impressionist. If he were to describe a murder...(he) would find it necessary to describe minutely the knife with which the murder was committed." In short, I would describe EVERY detail.
      I married Jessie George in 1896 and we had two sons. We lived in England where I wrote most of my books and short stories. In 1923 I visited the United States.
     In April 1924 I turned down a British non-heredity knighthood. Shortly after, on August 3, 1924, I had a heart attack and died.
     I am buried in Canterbury, England, and identified by my Polish name: Jozef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski. I am the Polish-born English novelist Joseph Conrad.
     I wrote Victory, Lord Jim, Typhoon, The Secret Agent, The Duel, Heart of Darkness, Nostromo, The Rover, and The Nigger of Narcissus, and some short stories such as Amy Foster.
    

To read a good short biography of Joseph Conrad, click on this Wikipedia link:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Conrad