Kant §ulle.ti‘rx mo. 3 (aw 198+) When I arrived in Kent in September 1967 as a “Temporary” Lecturer in English and American Literature, I needed to find a place to live and I wanted to visit the grave of Joseph Conrad. The former proved much easier than the latter because nobody seemed to know where Conrad was buried. When i finally discovered the graveyard only a mile away from the campus (on the right—hand side of Westgate Court Avenue) I expected signposts and feared commercial exploitation, and met instead a sexton who “hadn’t heard the name”. I mentioned that Conrad was buried a Roman Catholic and be indicated the “R.C. bit” in the far right-hand corner. The marble stone is shaped like a tooth. Conrad born in the Russian Ukraine in December 1857 and christened Jozef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski is called Joseph Teador Conrad Korzeniowski on his tomb. it is grimly appropriate that a writer famous for his sardonic wit, and buried so far from his birthplace — yet in his beloved adopted country — should lie beneath a stone which mis- spells his second name and» iritermirigles his English and Polish identity. As a seaman Conrad called himself Conrad Korzeniowski and shortly before he was naturalized in 1886 he began to use Conrad as his surname. The headline of Conrad’s obituary in the Kentish Gazette and Canterbury Press of August 9th. 1924 concludes “A ROMANTIC CAREER", a cliche which for once is most apt. Conrad's father, Apollo Korzeniowski. a romantic nationalist who was imprisoned in 1861 for his clandestine political activities against Russia and who died in exile in 1869. deliberately named his son after the hero of Adam l\lickiewicz’s Konrad Wallenrod. Apollo"s son was expected to be inspired by his literary forbear who was an epic, chivalrous defender of Poland's national integrity against the Czarist barbarians. Conrad eschewed his father's idealistic politics and left In February 1878 he tried to commit suicide, but fortunately the bullet passed straight through his chest. Poland as a sixteen-year-old for Marseilles, and embarked on a career which is more romantic and remarkable than any in English letters. His dreams of becoming a sailor were truly Quixotic because Poland then had no sea coast and his kinsfolk thought his ambitions were absurd. He spent four years based in Marseilles (1874-8) and sailed to the W est Indies and South America. in February 1878 he tried to commit suicide, but fortunately the bullet passed straight through his chest. Within ten years (1878-1889) he rose through the ranks of the British Merchant Service from able~bodied seaman to master mariner, spending much of his time in the Far East. In Conrad '5 gravestone in Canterbury Cemetery. (left) The inscnpiion. 1890 he visited the Belgian Congo — an experience vividly recorded in The Heart of Darkness (1 898), the finest novella in the English language. His maritime career ended in 1893 and his first novel /llmayeris Folly was published in 1895. He married Jessie George in March 1896 and lived in six He visited Poland for the first time in 20 years with his family in 1914; and, typical of a man who was a personal disaster zone, war broke out. different houses during his 28 years of married life, punctuated by frequent trips to the continent. He visited Poland for the first time in 20 years 20 with his family in 1914; and, typical of a man who was a personal disaster zone, war broke out Only the intervention of the American Ambassador to Austria ensured a safe return to England. Four of Conrad's six rented homes were in Kent. He lived at Pent Farm, Postling near Hythe from 1898- 1907; Cape] House, Orlestone, near Ashford, June 1910-March 1919; and after six months at Spring Grove near Ashford he moved to “Oswald’s", iishopsbourne where he dwelt until his death. Conrad wrote Lord Jim, Typhoon, Nostromo, The Mirror of the Sea and The Secret Agent at Pent; Under Western Eyes, “The Secret Sharer", Victory and The Shadow- Lineat Capel House, and finished The Joseph Conrad. painted by It '. ‘Tittle. Courtesy National Portrait Gallery. d‘ obituary in the Kentish Gazelle. Crmra S A ugust 9th 1924- }\l\'ll‘t'll\I1’.L‘ 33‘ V55‘ fttiitislx Q31\‘;rttt mitt (‘Z Tn or .:os:!‘H comma. _- .~—- 2 o : -*-'-‘ -- ~.- wmru H.-\\'IZ m:n-\H- “"5 ‘:T"R"' A \‘m'.l.‘t1. A 1-.mi,\x1'rc ruxmuv. . L . } flu .1.-an 1 Mr. """-H .. 4, , lvnr ‘I‘H\\‘F“\t ‘u uccnrr:-vi at his I‘ " .- Vh . 3'. 1 . " 0m\'ul4|~*."\ ‘¥;'l“'l"“:";""":;l:' |"rvl*cI'.\d .‘uIun_v in -_-~* . 1‘ ly » ...\..n . ,__,_. ...a4..... om... um"... '- sl l>l>l—‘..\ l3l'..\%i§ H1’ .I(>>l~‘.l’li “‘,’.‘\ml” ’nn= xmi-;i.l>‘i W*T‘l 'l'lll{ >il’..\>. inn -lt<>.\1.\.\"H&5 L11-‘I-‘. .\"mR.\' ‘mum in’ .\ 1«‘H1x~;rsn. ammus.~'.c ’-ll‘ We "'31" 4:! ‘V’ Rescue and wrote The Roverat “0swald’s". Conrad thought “Oswald's” “a hole" because he could not see the sea. it is surely fitting that a restless exile should suffer the heart attack that killed him on his way to inspect a fresh house within sight of the Channel. Conrad's funeral took place at St. Thomas’ R.C. Church during “Cricket Week", the high spot then, as now, of Canterbury's social and sportinglife. Kent defeated Hampshire by an continued nvcrfcuI' , ~ ‘ h D ilyhlailof Augus - ~ - ‘ CONRAD & CANTERBURY lei ' » innings and 21 runs, and two cricketing immortals, Frank Woolley and “Tich" Freeman (the finest leg- spinner England ever produced) excelled themselves. According to his great friend Cunningham Graham the streets were “all hung with flowers, as if to honour" Conrad, and “the collected band of cricketers” stood outside “the chief hotel" and “saluted” as the cortege passed “as reverently as if the funeral had been that of one of their own mystery”. The obituary in the Kentish Gazette is flanked by “Local Intelligence” and a corset ad. The Conrad thought “Oswald's” “a hole” because he could not see the sea. It is surely fitting that a restless exile should suffer the heart attack that killed him on his way to inspect a fresh house within sight of the Channel. former includes news of a “Druid’s concert at Lodge 98 where Brother Gaylor presented a case of butterflies to be disposed of to augment the fund". (Devotees of Conrad will be irresistibly reminded of Stein in Lord Jim among his butterflies: “ ‘Man is amazing, but he is not a masterpiece’ he said keeping his eyes fixed on the glass case".) “Some Features in Corsetry’ includes a drawing of a buxom matron gazing rapturously into the future wearing an ample “closed-back corset", “the first great progressive step of modern corsetry . . . since we broke away from the tyranny of the 1890 corset." The obituary also informs us that “the body" was placed “upon a purple- draped catafalque flanked with lighted candles in front of the altar”. A Requiem Mass was sung and the “Dead March" (from Saul) resounded as they bore his body from the church A bitter-sweet end for a confirmed austere atheist who once declared wryly: “It is impossible to know. it is impossible to know anything tho‘ it is possible to believe a thing or two". Kent that day claimed Conrad as their own: but the Polish Minister to London, who attended the funeral. sent a telegram to Mrs. Conrad assuring her that “we know that until the end ire ever remained a true son of Poland". llis gravestone attests that Conrad was, as he once said, “an homo duplex”. lnscribed on the tomb are the last two lines of a stanza from Spenser's The Faerie Ouecne. “He there does now enjoy etcmall rest And happy ease, which thou doest want and crave, ' And further from it daily wanalerest: What if some little payne the passage have, That makes frayle flash to feare the bitter wave? Is not short payne well borne, that Photo: Philippa Nice bringes [Ong ease, “Oswald's” at Bishopsboume. And layes the soule to sleep in quiet I wonder if Conrad left us with lead to suicide. The Knight resisted grave? one last wry retrospect on his own life, and found sustenance in Christianity; Sleep after toyle, port after stormie and one last grasp on the sensibilities Conrad survived a suicide attempt, seas, of those readers who will visit his rejected spiritual nostrums and, stoically, fulfilled his uncle Tadeusz’s motto and endured “usque ad flnem" . . “to the very end”. tomb? The words are spoken by Despair to the Redcrosse Knight to induce a loss of hope which would Ease after warre, death after life does greatly please. ” Book I, Canto .9, Stanza 40. Dr. Keith Carabine, Lecturer in English and American Literature, came to Kent in 1967 after five years at Leeds and three at Yale where he held the William R. Coe fellowship in American Studies. He has taught at Yale, Texas Southern, Colorado State, and U.W.I.(Jamaica). His publications include articles on Sherwood Anderson, Conrad, Dickens, Hawthorne, Hemingway and the modern N ebraskan novelist Wright Morris. He reviews for Modern Language Review and Notes and Queries. His edition of Nostromo for Oxford University Press, World’s Classics Series, will appear in June 1984.