3 December 2012 The anniversary of Joseph Conrad’s birth
Exactly 155 years ago, on the 3rd of December 1857, Joseph Conrad was born.
Not many Polish writers have achieved such widespread international success while creating in a foreign language so far. The son of a Polish writer, Apollo Korzeniowski, chose the English language as his own and wrote only in English, gaining fame for his original style and as a witness to his period in history. As he professed, he could write in English and no other, as it was his sea experiences aboard British ships, across a number of continents, that made him a writer. It was from Krakow that the young Konrad Korzeniowski set out in 1873 on his sea voyage; after many years, he returned as a patron of international literature to the city of his youth.
The Conrad Festival, whose patron is Joseph Conrad, is an event on an international scale. Every year in the autumn it welcomes writers from many different countries who write in various languages and represent a variety of cultures and opinions. They create a multi-colour artistic mosaic that illustrates the riches of world literature.
