Conrad and the Web

A Bookman's Daybook by Burton Rascoe includes a noteworthy item on Joseph Conrad. Rascoe wondered how someone who lived in an "inland hamlet" seemed to know everything that was going on -- unlike most novelists, he said, "who are concerned only with themselves." The answer was that Conrad used a clipping service to send him news that might reasonably interest him. This saved him the time of plowing through all the papers himself. Convenient, yes, and also preceding by about 90 years the "invention" of the RSS feed.