Not at all yarn related, but I was very pleased to discover a very sweet article about two of my favorite subjects in today’s New York Times.
One of my favorite non-yarn-related authors is Joseph Conrad. Most people know him, if they know of him at all, because of Heart of Darkness, which they were often forced to read in high school, thus leading them to heartily resent Joseph Conrad. This is a shame. Much as I love Mr. Conrad, Heart of Darkness is not my favorite work, and in any case it is mostly wasted on high school students. Joseph Conrad was a sea captan for years before he started writing, and he manages to convey, more than any other author I have ever read, the joys and frustrations and intimacies and terror of working on boats. During his working life the age of sail was coming to a close, and while he often worked on steamers, his heart belonged to tall ships. I love my current job but my sailing life began on tall ships, and like Mr. Conrad in his day, if there was any way I could afford to, I would still be working on tall ships.
The article that so pleased me in today’s Times was written by a from Harvard history professor who is writing a book about Conrad and who sailed aboard the Corwith Cramer from Cork to Brittany. This connection was especially lovely for me as I spent a season working on the Cramer (my first trip was this one).