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Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski ; 3 December 1857 - 3 August 1924) was a Polish-born English novelist. He is regarded as one of the greatest English novelists, which is even more notable because he did not learn to speak English well until he was in his 20s (albeit always with a Polish accent). Conrad is recognized as a master prose stylist. Some of his works have a strain of romanticism, but more importantly he is recognized as an important forerunner of modernist literature. His narrative style and anti-heroic characters have influenced many writers, including Ernest Hemingway, D. H. Lawrence, Graham Greene, William S. Burroughs, Joseph Heller, John Maxwell Coetzee as well as Jerzy Kosiński [ citation needed ] and inspired such films as Apocalypse Now (drawn from Conrad's Heart of Darkness ). Writing during the apex of the British Empire, Conrad drew upon his experiences in first the French and later the British Merchant Navy to create novels and short stories that reflected aspects of a world-wide empire while also plumbing the depths of the human soul.
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