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Although Murfin's collection of essays lacks a theme and fails to place Comad within the present literary moment, I, nevertheless, in the midst of the 1980s, enjoyed revisiting Comad through these pleasant, often stimulating pieces. Robert Kimbrough University of Wisconsin, Madison 8. CONRAD AND AMERICAN WRITERS Robert Secor and Debra Moddelmog. Joseph Conrad and American Writers: A Bibliographical Study of Affinities, Influences, and Relations. Westport, CN: Greenwood Press, 1985. $35.00 An academic friend of mine, up for promotion, was recently characterized as "only writing bibliographies," as if that were some left-handed activity one might stoop to when one had no real contribution to make. The comment reflected only the ignorance of its maker; however, we, whose lives depend on useful bibliographies, do tend to take them lightly. Thus I urge my colleagues, whether interested in Comad or not, to look carefully at Robert Secor and Debra Moddelmog's Joseph Conrad and American Writers, for it is not only beautifully conceived and executed, it is also a model for what bibliographies should do. The book's basic concept is straightforward enough: list every reference that connects Joseph Comad with any American writer. The run-of-the-mill bibliographer would have been satisfied to harvest from the MLA annual bibliography. Secor and Moddelmog have examined biographies, letters, reviews, and interviews, collecting every relevant grain of information. Moreover, they have organized, synopsized and cross-indexed their findings in such a way that whatever the user's needs, he will be satisfied. The final result is more than a bibliography; it is a valuable cross section of literary history. The first section-Conrad and Early Nineteenth-Century American writersfocuses on the influence of Cooper, Hawthorne, Melville and Poe on Comad's fiction. For Cooper, as an example, the authors first list Comad's comments in letters and essays on the Amencan writer. As with every entry in the book, they give such a precise synopsis of the contents of each item that in most cases the user will know immediately if he needs to read the original. The next sub-section lists references to Cooper in Comad's fiction, followed by Conrad reviewers who saw Cooper connections. The longest section—Biography and Criticism—lists and synopsizes Cooper comparisons and speculative influences found in articles and biographies. This same organization, including dissertations, governs the Hawthorne, Melville and Poe materials. The second section—Comad and Late Nineteenth-Century American Writersconcentrates on Crane, James, London and Twain, and, of necessity, becomes even more elaborate. Under Crane, for example, we find the conespondence between the two writers; a list of Crane's books in Comad's library; and Comad's books in Crane's. This is followed by ten items—letters, introductions, prefaces, and essays—in which Comad commented on the American writer, and two comments by Crane on Comad. Next are the reviewers of Conrad and Crane who 334 saw connections, and finally almost sixty items from biography and criticism linking the two writers. Following the same pattern for James (173 items), London (24 items), and Twain (20 items), the bibliography shows at a glance where the major cross-influences occur. The third section—Comad and Twentieth-Century American Writers—is more of a one-way street: Comad's influence on Eliot, Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Huneker, Mencken, Eugene O'Neill and Robert Penn Wanen. Even here Secor and Moddelmog have collected items that would have escaped less dedicated bibliographers. They list, for example, a comment by T. S. Eliot in an introduction to an obscure edition of Huck Finn; a Faulkner reference to Comad in his little read story, "Once Abroad the Lugger"; a Fitzgerald reference to Comad in an obscure 1923 review of an even more obscure book. The fourth section—Comad in America: Further Listings— is an extension of the previous section, listing connections with twenty-one other American writers from Hamlin Garland to Joseph Heller. To complete the survey, the authors have included a section on American filmings of Comad's work and a section on Comad's American visit in 1923. The cake is iced by Robert Secor's lucid introductory overview of the material and the three-part index...

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