Polish Ambassador visits Joseph Conrad exhibition at Senate House Library

The display, running throughout August in the library's Membership Hall, features first and limited editions of Conrad's work. It includes sections on Conrad's periodical publications, his early and later works, his novel "The Secret Agent" and the 1894 Greenwich Bombing that inspired the work.

Curator Professor Robert Hampson, Emeritus Professor in English at Royal Holloway, University of London and Chair of the Joseph Conrad Society, with support from Leila Kassir, Academic Librarian at Senate House Library, drew items from the library's modern and special collections and archives. Professor Hampson is also a Research Fellow in the Institute of English Studies, School of Advanced Study.

Professor Wendy Thomson CBE, Vice-Chancellor of the University of London and Catriona Cannon, Senate House Librarian and Director of the Library Transformation Programme, along with the exhibition curators, met with Ambassador Wilczek, who was also accompanied by filmmaker Piotr Fudakowski and embassy staff member Anna Tarnowska-Waszak.

The exhibition commemorates the 100th anniversary of Conrad's death on 3 August 1924. 

Joseph Conrad, born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski in 1857 in what is now Ukraine, was a Polish-British writer regarded as one of the greatest novelists in English. Despite not learning English until his twenties, Conrad became a master stylist, known for works such as "Heart of Darkness", "Lord Jim" and "Nostromo". 

The Joseph Conrad exhibition is open to all in the Members Hall of Senate House Library until the end of August.