By the time he died in 1924, at the age of 67,Conrad had a secure place in 20th-century English literature.He was a personal friend of such greats as H.G. Wells and Ford Madox Ford.Some literary reviewers criticized him for not being "really English," for using French-based vocabulary instead of Anglo-Saxon words (e.g. arrest instead of stop), or for letting some Polish influences show through his English.Almost no one now remembers who these critics were.