The Secret Sharer (Introduction)

Untitled, unsigned introduction to the novella.

Essay starts: "I make no secret of my admiration for the work of Joseph Conrad. (Or for Conrad himself, the tough, stubborn little man who, although English was only his third language, after Polish and French, not only was able to pass the difficult oral qualifying exam to become a captain in the British merchant marines, but then, a decade or so later, to transform himself into one of the greatest figures in twentieth-century English literature.)"

Essay finishes: "But Joseph Conrad's original version of the story didn't win a Hugo or a Nebula either, and people still read it admiringly to this day. You take your lumps in this business, and you go bravely onward: it's the only way. Conrad would have understood that philosophy." [Source: PR# 834559]