TLS signed “Ever affectionally yours, Joseph Conrad,” one page both sides, 7 x 9, Oswald Bishopsbourne letterhead, March 8, 1922. Letter to Irish artist Alice Sarah Kinkead, in full: “I haven’t been in Bohemia (or whatever the country is called now) since the year of grace 1871, since when I took not the slightest interest in it. I never heard of the place and for my part I don’t believe in baths or drinking waters of any kind. But I make bold to say that the establishment will be everything that it should be. I wonder what your idea of Bohemia can be? Of course there may be cannibals there, but I never heard of them. I can assure you that that part of the world is more civilised than a great many parts of France. Carlsbad and Marienbad (both in Bohemia) have a world-wide reputation; and if the place your friend wants to go to has been recently established, that will only mean that all the torture apparatus will be perfectly new and in dreadful working order, and the water more nasty than any words in any human language can express. I can’t find the place on the map but there are agents for all those medicinal stations who would have probably all the details. I imagine that Cook himself would be able to give the information, though as an information bureau Cook generally speaking is contemptible. It’s a mere ticket ‘selling enterprise,’ but even from that point if view I think it would pay them to know something of watering places.” Conrad adds a postscript to the reverse, handwriting the initials “P. S.,” in full: “We are looking forward to your visit, though Jessie’s feelings on that matter are less mixed than mine. Still affection goes a long way and I think I will be really glad to see you, after all. Pray convey my regards and sympathy to Sir Maurice in his bitter disappointment at missing getting dreadfully wet in a howling gale, and give my humble duty to Lady Cameron if she will accept it from such an unworthy source.” Conrad has added a handwritten salutation and several handwritten emendations. In fine condition, with two tape repairs to central vertical and horizontal folds. Kinkead befriended Conrad during a trip to Corsica in 1921, and in April 1924, four months before the writer’s death, she painted what would become his final portrait. Pre-certified PSA/DNA.
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