Letter from Joseph Conrad, Stanford le Hope, to Edward Garnett, 1897 November 26 : autograph manuscript signed.

Thanking him for a letter and some books; promising "When I see [Stephen] Crane I shall shake him till he drops the two stories;" saying that R. B. Cunninghame Graham has invited him to dine that evening and he is planning on accepting the invitation: "... I am interested in the man and besides it may do me good to be friendly with him. The chiel writes to the papers - you know;" adding "I am doing nothing and suspect myself of going crazy. Well, we shall see;" praising the work of Humphrey James (author of Paddy's Woman) and asking "Is he very deep or very simple?"; writing at length of his admiration for Robert Bridges's poetry: "There's more poesy in one page of 'Shorter Poems' than in the whole volume of Tennyson. This is my deliberate opinion. And what a descriptive power! The man hath wings - sees from on high. It is the real thing - a direct appeal to mankind, not to a certain kind of man. It is natural beauty - not would-be beautiful notions. I love him."