I am pleased to acknowledge the generous assistance of a great many people and institutions. Frederick Karl and Laurence Davies sent xerox copies of a thousand pages of unpublished letters from volumes five to eight of their superb Cambridge Edition. Ian Watt sent unpublished typescripts of the valuable essay he wrote with John Halverson on Jane Anderson and of BBC interviews with friends of Conrad. My old friend Thomas Moser sent useful addresses, xeroxes and photographs. Leon Higdon, the editor of Conradiana, answered many detailed questions. Joan Givner, the biographer of Katherine Anne Porter, sent useful information and many valuable leads. Eugene Petriwsky of the University of Colorado clarified crucial problems about the Polish Ukraine. Ian Gibson, the biographer of Lorca, sent important material from Spain on the Marqués de Cienfuegos. The family of the late Kitty Barry Crawford sent seventy-five pages of unpublished material about Jane Anderson. Joan Kennedy Taylor, the daughter of the composer Deems Taylor, met me at her country house in Massachusetts and provided fascinating material about her father’s marriage to Jane Anderson.
Though Conrad was born in 1857, I have interviewed five people who knew him: Philip Conrad, David Garnett, Sir John Rothenstein, George Seldes and Frank Swinnerton. And I have corresponded with three children of his close friends: Adam Curle, Conrad Russell and Veronica Wedgwood.
For other letters about Conrad I am deeply grateful to the late Jocelyn Baines, Basil Barlow, Michael Bolton, Ian Boyd, Morris Brownell, Keith Carabine, the late Borys Conrad, Dr. Sheldon Cooperman, H. M. Daleski, the Duke of Norfolk, John Edwards, Theodore Ehrsam, Hugh Epstein, Kevin Froggatt, James Gindin, Luis González-del-Valle, Eugene Good-heart, Stephen Gray, Donald Greene, Albert Guerard, Desmond Harms worth, Eloise Hay, David Holmes, Mark Holloway, Douglas Hurd, Neill Joy, David Kenney, Jerzy Kosinski, Michael Markel, John McCarthy, Juliet McLauchlan, M. J. McLendon, Mario Menocal, Jr., the late Bernard Meyer, Michael Millgate, Paula Milone, Zdzislaw Najder, Beatrice Ogilvy, Felipe Orlando, Thomas Pinney, John Pomian, S. W. Reid, Donald Rude, Thorwald Sanchez, Timothy Seldes, Norman Sherry, William Shirer, Rowland Smith, Jon Stallworthy, the late Sondra Stang, Raymond Sutton, Jr., Bruce Teets, Hugh Thomas, the late Virgil Thomson, Hans van Marie, Cedric Watts, Randy Weinstein, Pieter Williams, A. N. Wilson, Senator Timothy Wirth.
I received useful material from the following institutions: American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, Arizona Historical Society, Auswärtiges Amt, Boston College, British Library, Bundesarchiv, Colgate University, Department of the Army, Department of Transport: Marine Directorate, Deutsches Rundfunkarchiv, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Federal Communications Commission, General Register and Record Office of Shipping and Seamen, Georgia Department of Human Resources, German Embassy, Harvard University Alumni Office, Heffers Booksellers, Institut für Zeitgeschichte, Joseph Conrad Society (U.K.), Library of Congress, London Library, Ministerio de Justicia: Asuntos de Gracia (Madrid), National Maritime Museum, National Sound Archive, Netherlands Consulate, Netherlands Genealogy Office, New York City Municipal Archives, New York Public Library, the Observer, Piedmont College, St. Bernard’s Convent School, Samuel French Ltd., Spanish Embassy, University of Colorado: Inter-Library Loan, University of Texas: Humanities Research Center, Yale University, Zentrales Staatsarchiv.
A grant from the University of Colorado paid part of my research expenses, and enabled me to visit libraries and conduct interviews in England and America. My wife, Valerie, scrutinized each chapter and compiled the index.