Who is Joseph Conrad from King Leopold's Ghost and what is their importance?

Joseph Conrad (1857 - 1924) was born Konrad Korzeniowski. Polish by birth, he grew up in Paris where he was involved in various petty criminal activities. He then spent over a decade in the British merchant marine, learning English and seamanship, and becoming an officer. Conrad, looking for work, was offered a job in the Congo as the officer of a paddle wheeler navigating the Congo River. Having an interest in the heart of Africa since a child, Conrad accepted the position. He arrived in the Congo in 1889, and became captain of a steamboat, traveling about two thousand miles by river in about six months. The atrocities he witnessed changed his outlook and, ultimately, resulted in his most famous work Heart of Darkness, which includes many autobiographical elements. Disgusted with the brutalities of Leopold's administration, and sickened with malaria and dysentery, Conrad left the Congo and returned to Europe.