I read this memoir by Jessie Conrad about her life with husband Joseph Conrad online. The edition was a rare hardback scanned into The Internet Archive. Had I not stumbled upon it on this site, I likely would never have heard of it let alone read it. Very few editions were printed during the author’s lifetime and it doesn’t appear to have been republished since. The combination of my fondness for Joseph Conrad and the rareness of the material has likely inspired some generosity when rating this book. With that in mind, the material is slight and uncritical and seems to drift—yet this is an intimate view of their lives—a window into history not opened anywhere else. The writing is very accessible and while clearly influenced by years of reading her husband’s work Jessie Conrad remains restrained and avoids parody. She mentions in her preface that she had been wanting to write something for much of their marriage but Joseph had requested she wait. Much of the memoir reflects how involved she was in his work, especially early on, and clearly the thought of finding her own voice surfaced somewhere along the way. And her creation is modestly admirable. As a fan I enjoyed reading as Joseph Conrad’s books were produced with a little bit of context and how their fortunes were affected by them. Also of interest was impact of one of their son’s going off to fight as part of the British forces in WW I. The drama of their long-distance concerns as they awaited any news good or bad about him does hit home. Accounts of the time present the much younger Jessie as an unremarkable and unlikely match for the genius but like most women of her era she was expected to serve her husband—this appears to be the point of the union. She certainly deserves credit for sustaining Joseph’s desire and ability to create but her memoir also shows her engagement in his work and perhaps influence. I suspect it was greater than she references, this being a habit of deference to her husband.