What significant background does the author provide regarding Selwyn Crane in Chapter 3?

In Chapter 3 the reader learns that Frank's father, Bert Reid, hired Selwyn Crane as his chief accountant. Frank was under a printing apprenticeship in Nottingham at this time and his father writes advising he is starting a small printing press in Moscow. Bert describes Selwyn as a poet who is very spiritual, and also a disciple of Tolstoy (Lev Nikolaevich). Selwyn often visits Tolstoy at his Moscow estate.