The original "Secret Agent"

"Twixt Land and Sea" presents celebrated author Joseph Conrad's life through his works, photographs and personal letters.

Born Teodor Józef Konrad Korzeniowski on December 3rd 1857 in the small town of Berdichev in what is now Ukraine, Conrad spent his childhood under the shadow of the Russian empire. He grew up to be a man who was deeply involved in the inner workings of society, having observed socialist imperialism and revolution at home and "strangeness" across the globe during twenty years at sea (1874-1894). Conrad's voyages made him a citizen of the world - a citizen whose sharp intelligence and keen preoccupation with morality and justice, progress and exploitation, created a tumultuous backdrop to his literary works. "Twixt Land and Sea" spans the author's entire life through writings, photographs and personal letters.

The exhibit starts with Konrad returning to Kraków in 1914 after forty years abroad - a moment of particular historical and emotional significance for the author. At the age of 57, a husband and father to two sons, he retraces the steps he'd taken to school as a boy walking through the market square.

"This is history - a political and private history. The exhibition is arranged to draw the individual into the life of Conrad, to get swept up by his memories and carried away," says the show's curator, Elżbieta Szymańska.

The final part of the exhibition tells the story of the writer's life through pictures and writings from the moment he gave up life at sea in 1894 to his death on August 3 1924. It includes critiques of his literary works, along with documents detailing how the novelist's political loyalty in the years 1945-1949 was questioned by the Polish government.

"Joseph Conrad. Twixt Land and Sea" will run until August 15 at the Museum of Literature, Rynek Starego Miasta 20