'During the first decade of the twentieth century, John Galsworthy was widely regarded as one of England's leading writers. As a novelist and a playwright, he was commercially successful and critically esteemed. After the First World War and until his death in 1933, Galsworthy remained one of Britain's most widely read and widely translated authors'. In November 1892 Galsworthy travelled to Australia, 'stopping at assorted exotic ports along the way'. For the voyage home he 'boarded the celebrated clipper
Torrens, whose first mate was an as-yet-unpublished Polish author who called himself
Joseph Conrad (q.v.). After spending many evenings together on the poop deck of the
Torrens talking of literature and life, Galsworthy and Conrad formed a friendship that deepened considerably over the next three decades'. (Source:
Concise Dictionary of British Literary Biography)
