 The Limpsfield-Oxted area was home to members of the socialist Fabian Society and a magnet for writers such as Edmund Gosse, Ford Madox Ford and Edward Garnett.Crane also met the Polish-born novelist Joseph Conrad in October 1897, with whom he would have what Crane called a "warm and endless friendship".Although Crane was confident among peers, strong negative reviews of the recently published "The Third Violet" were causing his literary reputation to dwindle.