‘Twixt Land and SeaThe Shadow-LineThe Nigger of the “Narcissus”The Shadow-LineCutty Sark JOSEPH CONRAD was born in Polish Ukraine on December 3, 1857, with the name Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski. Orphaned at the age of eleven, Conrad spent the remainder of his youth in Switzerland and Cracow before joining the French marines. In 1878, he enlisted in the British Merchant Navy. Following sixteen years of service, Conrad launched his literary career in England. He published many novels and stories, including Lord Jim (1900), Nostromo (1904), and most famously, The Heart of Darkness (1899), inspired by his steamboat voyage on the Congo River. Although English was his third language (after Polish and French), Conrad's rich and distinctive prose established him as one of England's greatest novelists. Conrad died on August 3, 1924, in Kent, England. John G. Peters is Professor of English at the University of North Texas. He is the author of Joseph Conrad's Critical Reception , The Cambridge Introduction to Joseph Conrad , and Conrad and Impressionism . He is editor of Joseph Conrad: The Contemporary Reviews (Volume 2), A Historical Guide to Joseph Conrad , and Conrad in the Public Eye: Biography/Criticism/Publicity .