In Eastern Seas SIR,—Mr Tony Tanner ('In Eastern Seas,' July
15), in his review of Norman Sherry's book, says, 'Here we have for the first time, for example, full details about the man who provided Conrad with the character of Lord Jim—Augustine Podmore Williams.' This is not true. The first time Augustine Podmore Williams was identified as the original of Lord Jim (with full details about his life and a photograph of him given) was in the second volume of my Conrad biography, The Sea Years of Joseph Conrad, published on October 1, 1965, by Doubleday in New York and soon to be brought. out here by Methuen.
As your reviewer should know, a biography is the result of years of research—my book, mentioned above, was the work of ten years—and the dis- covery that A. P. Williams provided Conrad with the character of Lord Jim came about in this way. On April 30, 1959, Mr S. C. Sutton, Librarian of the India Office Library, sent me a photocopy of the Report (No. 896) of the Court of Inquiry held at Aden in August 1880 into the abandonment of the SS 'Jeddah.' This report—which had not been traced since the early 1880s and was even difficult for Mr Sutton's office to find—simply named the chief officer of the 'Jeddah' as a `Mr Williams.' But which particular Mr Williams and of what part of the world?
In my attempt to solve this mystery I was first aided, in September 1959, by Mr James A. Elliot,
Public Affairs Officer of the US Information Service in Singapore, and, through him, by Mr L. C. Hoffman, editor-in-chief of the Straits Times. On February 15, 1960, Mr Hoffman sent me the suc- cessful results of a search his staff had conducted for me for four months—a painstaking search of newspapers too fragile for any but the staff to examine and, I believe, in existence nowhere else in the world. I might add this meant a page-by-page Incrimination of several hundred newspapers, the staff, under the librarian, Mr H. R. Hunter, taking turns at this for twelve weeks.
What they found, and Mr Hoffman then sent me, were three vital items taken from the Straits Budget of October 22, 1914, and April 20, 1916, and from the Singapore Free Press of April 20, 1916. These contained personal facts about Augustine Podmore Williams—the Singapore Free Press identifying him as the chief officer of the SS 'Jeddah.' These three items were published ten months ago in The Sea Years of Joseph Conrad, where the 'Jeddah' case and its connection with Lord Jim are told in pages 120-150.
Also in my book are the identifications of Captain William Lingard as the original of Conrad's 'Tom Lingard' and of the village of Beura in Borneo as the setting of much of Conrad's Eastern fiction. In a shorter version, and told for the first time any- where, these appear in my article 'Conrad's River,' published in the Columbia University Forum, winter 1962. JERRY ALLEN
21 Richmond Mansions, 250 Old Brompton Road, London. SWS
[Tony Tanner writes: Of course I readily accept Miss Allen's correction to the statement I made in my review of Mr Sherry's book, and I was interested to read her authoritative account of the discovery of the identity of the original Lord Jim. In self- defence, I can only point out that her book has not been published over here. and, regrettably, an American copy has not come my way. Had I known of it, I would have been only too happy to give due credit to Miss Allen's work.—Editor, SPECTATOR.]
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