author
Jessie Conrad
1873–1936
Best known for the warm, observant memoirs she wrote about life with Joseph Conrad, she offers a rare view of a major literary figure at home rather than on the page. Her surviving work feels practical, personal, and quietly vivid.
1 Audiobook
A Handbook of Cookery for a Small House
by Jessie Conrad
About the author
Born Jessie Emmeline George in 1873, she became Jessie Conrad after marrying the novelist Joseph Conrad in 1896. Contemporary reference pages identify her as an author in her own right as well as Conrad’s wife, and later accounts note that the couple had two sons, Borys and John.
Her best-known books are memoirs written after Joseph Conrad’s death, including Joseph Conrad as I Knew Him (1926) and Joseph Conrad and His Circle (1935). These books have remained useful to readers and biographers because they bring the famous novelist down to earth, showing his habits, illnesses, friendships, and family life through the eyes of someone who knew him intimately.
Jessie Conrad also published Simple Cooking Precepts for a Little House, a reminder that her writing was not limited to literary remembrance. She died in 1936, but her work still matters for the close, human picture it preserves of the world around Joseph Conrad and of her own steady, practical voice.