Typhoon.

CONRAD, Joseph.

Item Number: 143901

New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1902.

First American edition of the first Conrad book to be illustrated. Octavo, original cloth, frontispiece, illustrated by Maurice Greiffenhagen. In near fine condition, bookplate to the front pastedown. Housed in a custom half morocco and chemise clamshell box. Cagle A8a. An exceptional example.

Typhoon is most likely based upon Conrad's actual experience of seaman's life, and probably on a real incident aboard of the steamer John P. Best. The Typhoon describes how Captain MacWhirr sails the s/s Nan-Shan, a British-built steamer running under the Siamese flag, into a typhoon a mature tropical cyclone of the northwestern part of the Pacific Ocean. Other characters include the young Jukes most probably an alter ego of Conrad from the time he had sailed under captain John McWhirr and Solomon Rout, the chief engineer. The novella classically evokes the seafaring life at the turn of the century. While Macwhirr, who, according to Conrad, never walked on this Earth is emotionally estranged from his family and crew, and though he refuses to consider an alternate course to skirt the typhoon, his indomitable will in the face of a superior natural force elicits grudging admiration.