Her closest friend was Sarah Orne Jewett, a novelist and story writer whom her husband had published in "The Atlantic". Fields and Jewett lived together for the rest of Jewett's life (Jewett died in 1909). Jewett spent the winter of 1881–1882 with Fields at her Boston home immediately after her husband's death. From then on, they shared their homes for one another for about half the year. The two also traveled together, including in 1882 when they visited Ireland, England, Norway, Belgium, France, Switzerland and Italy together. During the trip, Fields's networks allowed them to meet with European authors like Charles Reade, William Makepeace Thackeray, and the family of Charles Dickens. They visited Europe again together in 1892, 1898, and 1900.