A Personal Record is an autobiographical work (or "fragment of biography") by Joseph Conrad, published in 1912. Notoriously unreliable and digressive in structure, it is nonetheless the principal contemporary source for information about the author's life.[citation needed] It tells about his schooling in Russian Poland, his sailing in Marseille, the influence of his uncle Tadeusz Bobrowski, and the writing of Almayer's Folly. It provides a glimpse of how Conrad wished to be seen by his British public, as well as being an atmospheric work of art