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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Joseph Conrad Novel May Have Influenced Alleged Unabomber

Associated Press

Federal authorities believe Theodore J. Kaczynski, the alleged Unabomber, may have drawn upon “The Secret Agent,” a 1907 novel by Joseph Conrad, The Washington Post reported today.

In the novel, according to the Post, a brilliant but mad professor abandons academia in disgust for the isolation of a tiny room, where, clad in ragged, soiled clothes, he builds a bomb used to destroy an observatory referred to as “that idol of science.”

Kaczynski is a former mathematics professor said to be an avid reader of Conrad’s books. The Post said FBI agents had noted parallels between Conrad’s theme of science as a false icon and the Unabomber’s targeting of scientists and technological experts and his condemnation of technology.

They sent the book and other Conrad works to scholars last summer, seeking insights into the mind of the Unabomber, the newspaper said.

Edward Haley, who teaches at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, Calif., also had detected parallels at the time. “It’s really an uncanny coincidence,” Haley told The Associated Press last August. “But again, it’s a novel a lot of people may have read.”

Noting the parallels between Kaczynski and the professor in the book, the Post pointed out that Kaczynski left his job as a professor to lead the life of a hermit in a Montana cabin and wrote letters depicting technology as evil.

Federal agents also believe Kaczynski used “Conrad” or “Konrad” as an alias at least three times while staying in Sacramento, where he allegedly went to mail bombs. Coincidentally, the Post said, Kaczynski’s full name, Theodore Joseph Kaczynski, is similar to Conrad’s original name, which was either Teodore Jozef Konrad Korzeniowski or Jozef Teodore.

Kaczynski told his family in 1984 he was reading Conrad’s novels for “about the dozenth time,” according to Anthony P. Bisceglie, the lawyer for his mother and brother.

He is charged with killing two people and injuring six in seven bombings and is being held in Sacramento, Calif., for trial.