Although English was not his native tongue, Polish-born Joseph Conrad honed his language skills over his lifetime and would eventually become enshrined as one of the masters of English literature. As a sailor, he spent his free time during months-long voyages at sea writing stories, letters, and later, novels such as The Heart of Darkness. However, he regarded short stories as his favorite form, and the literary gems collected in Tales of Hearsay confirm that he was a remarkably skilled writer of short fiction.