Conrad, Joseph, 1857-1924 -- Criticism and interpretation
Called out publicly in a kindly attempt to justify the work of the son,
that figure of my past cannot be dismissed without a few more words. As
a child of course I knew very little of my father's activities, for I
was not quite twelve when he died. What I saw with my own eyes was the
public funeral, the cleared streets, the hushed crowds; but I understood
perfectly well that this was a manifestation of the national spirit
seizing a worthy occasion. That bareheaded mass of work people, youths
of the University, women at the windows, school-boys on the pavement,
could have known nothing positive about him except the fame of his
fidelity to the one guiding emotion in their hearts. I had nothing but
that knowledge myself; and this great silent demonstration seemed to me
the most natural tribute in the world--not to the man but to the Idea.
What had impressed me much more intimately was the burning of his
manuscripts a fortnight or so before his death. It was done under his
own superintendence. I happened to go into his room a little earlier
than usual that evening, and remaining unnoticed stayed to watch the
nursing-sister feeding the blaze in the fireplace. My father sat in a
deep armchair propped up with pillows. This is the last time I saw him
out of bed. His aspect was to me not so much that of a man desperately
ill, as mortally weary--a vanquished man. That act of destruction
affected me profoundly by its air of surrender. Not before death,
however. To a man of such strong faith death could not have been an
enemy.
For many years I believed that every scrap of his writings had been
burnt, but in July of 1914 the Librarian of the University of Cracow
calling on me during our short visit to Poland, mentioned the existence
of a few manuscripts of my father and especially of a series of letters
written before and during his exile to his most intimate friend who had
sent them to the University for preservation. I went to the Library at
once, but had only time then for a mere glance. I intended to come back
next day and arrange for copies being made of the whole correspondence.
But next day there was war. So perhaps I shall never know now what he
wrote to his most intimate friend in the time of his domestic happiness,
of his new paternity, of his strong hopes--and later, in the hours of
disillusion, bereavement and gloom.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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