The Introduction situates these writings in Conrad's career, offers new perspectives on Conrad in the marketplace and as a weiter of occasional prose and traces the contemporary reception of the volume. The explanatory notes elucidate literary and historical references, identify real-life places and indicate Conrad's main sources. Eight illustrations and four maps enrich this material. Appendices reprint Curle's introduction to the volume and to" The Congo Diary', and Conrad's prefatory note to the essay on the Torrens as well as material about the loss of the Dalgonar. Published here for the first time are two rejected draft openings to the Preface to The Shorter Tales of Joseph Conrad, notes for the essayTravel'and the first draft ofGeography and some Explorers'. The Essay on the Texts and the Apparatus lay out the history of composition and publication, detail interventions in Conrad's texts by his typists, compositors and editors, and explain editorial policy.--