"When he lived in [city], a circle of progressive local writers formed around him, the same as happened earlier around [writer X] or [writer Y]".
Or "... he became the center of a community of progressive local writers, the same as [writer X] and [writer Y] did earlier"?
(Clarification: writer X and writer Y in their time, too, became centers of a community of writers, although in other places (I don't know if it matters for the grammatical correctness, but just in case...) :))
Thanks a lot!