In 2015, a San Diego rare book collector made literary headlines with the Christie’s auction of letters, photos and other memorabilia by “To Kill a Mockingbird” author Harper Lee. The sale coincided ...

Pity the novelist who aspires to create high art. He may eventually find his place in the literary pantheon after his death. But during his lifetime, the prospects aren’t so pretty. These thoughts are ...

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, Illustrated by Matt Kish, Tin House Books, 200 pages Three years ago, self-taught artist Matt Kish and indie publisher Tin House released a sumptuous illustrated ...

In 1874, Jozef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, a 17-year-old orphan, persuaded his uncle to allow him to join the French merchant marine. After promising never to forget that “wherever you may sail, you ...

Maya Jasanoff weaves together biography, history, literature and her own travels in a new book about the globe-trotting author. Reviewer John Powers says Jasanoff's portrait of Conrad is terrific.

The Dawn Watch: Joseph Conrad in a Global World. By Maya Jasanoff. Penguin Press; 400 pages; $30. William Collins; £25. JOSEPH CONRAD was a phenomenon. Born to Polish parents in 1857 in a part of the ...

WHEN I was an undergraduate at Columbia I sometimes used to buy books at Scribner’s retail store, which was then on Fifth Avenue below Twenty-Second Street. A tall soil-spoken gentleman named Simpson ...