This is the second of the projected eight-volume edition comprising all the surviving letters of Joseph Conrad. Once completed the edition will have assembled over 3,500 letters, one third of them as yet unpublished and many others only published before in inaccurate versions. The period covered by this volume, 1898-1902, was one of considerable achievement and anxiety for Conrad. The birth of his first child, the death of Stephen Crane, the murder of a friend's son, an encounter with an early X-ray machine, imperial wars in Cuba and South Africa - these events forced Conrad to face the problems of identity in terms of family, nation, history, and the cosmic order. This is also the period of 'Youth', 'Amy Foster', 'Typhoon', Lord Jim, and 'Heart of Darkness'. Often funny, always thoughtful, full of verbal energy even in the toils of severe depression, the letters in Volume Two present Conrad at a crucial though vulnerable moment of his life and literary career.
