Joseph Conrad (The British Library Writers' Lives) (ISBN 0712345914)

An incredible success story:
Joseph Conrad was one of the world's greatest English writers. How he reached that position is a fascinating story. Born in the Ukraine to parents who were ardent Polish nationalists, Jozef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski knew oppression and difficulties at a young age. Before he was born, the nation that was once known as Poland had been dismembered and incorporated into the German, Austrian and Russian Empires. All three nations were vigorous in their repression of Polish nationalism, with the Russians being especially harsh. After his difficult upbringing, he became a sailor, traveling all the world's oceans, starting at the bottom and eventually becoming a mate and then a captain. It was at this time that he started to write in earnest and fortunately, his talent was identified and nurtured. He gave up a life at sea to get married, write and raise children. Fortunately for us all, he was able to dedicate the time he needed to writing and produced a great deal of quality work. This book is a short, yet essentially complete biography of this extraordinary man, who succeeded despite such enormous odds. He survived the oppression of the Polish people, managed to live through harrowing adventures at sea and learned English well enough to write compelling novels. This is an inspiring story of dedication, hard work and perseverance.