In Eastern Seas SIR, -1 should like to correct factual errors
in Nor- man Sherry's letter (September 16) regarding my work on Conrad. In 'Conrad's River' (Columbia University Forum, 1962) I described the efforts made by men of many nationalities to locate and identify the village in Borneo (Berau) used by Conrad as the setting of his Eastern fiction.
Such men included Dr Roelof Broersma, writing in 1927, and F. Harold Gray in 1937; in 1939 Dr John D. Gordan mistakenly went to the wrong village of Bulungan, as he told in Joseph Conrad: the Making of a Novelist. It required the dedicated work of Mr R. Haverschmidt, a resident there for many years, to provide the proofs of Berau—the physical evidence of Olmeyer gravestones. Learning directly from Mr Haverschmidt of his fruitful jungle exploration, I gave the conclusive identification of Berau four years ago in 'Conrad's River.'
That A. P. Williams, first officer of the 'Jeddah,' was one of the two men upon whom Conrad based Lord Jim is told in detail in the second volume of my Conrad biography, The Sea Years of Joseph Conrad. published in New York in 1965 and shortly to be issued by Methuen. This Williams–Lord Jim identifi- cation was made in 1960, ending Singapore research begun in 1959. On this point the Straits Times states in its issue of August 8: 'The tracing of the 'Jeddah's' first officer became a task for the Straits Times library staff in Singapore seven years ago, at the behest of the American biographer of Conrad, Jerry Allen, its success generously acknowledged even before Dr Sherry came to Singapore.'
The Straits Times of September 10, in 'The Hunt for Conrad's Lord Jim,' gives a documented history of this concluding phase of research I had started in 1954. The Williams–Lord Jim chapters of my book were written in 1960. In manuscript form they were read in 1960-61 by, among others, Erik Wens- berg of the New York Times Book Review and the editors of the New Yorker. All have offered verifica- tion from their records. Records of the Director of the Marine Department of the Government of Singapore confirm that Mr Sherry borrowed my 1959-60 re- search correspondence early in 1962.
On a wider issue than Conrad a more productive discussion in these pages would be on problems affecting all readers and writers. To guard both from misrepresentation, legislation is needed in the area of copyright, specifically the protection of research. Since codes of conduct operate effectively in the fields of medicine and law, it might also be worth discussing if, and how, such a code could be de- veloped for the field of scholarship.
JERRY. ALLEN
21 Richmond Mansions, 250 Old Brampton Road, London. SW5
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