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Curtin, Jeremiah, 1835-1906

We have 2 books for this author.

Curtin (left) with Sienkiewicz, author of Quo Vadis

Jeremiah Curtin (September 6, 1835 - December 14, 1906, Vermont) was an American translator and folklorist.

Biography

Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (some sources say Detroit, Michigan), he graduated from Harvard College in 1863. In 1864, he went to Russia. There he worked as both a translator and for the U. S. legation. He left Russia in 1877, stayed a year in London, and returned to the United States, where he worked for the Bureau of Ethnology. Curtin was stated to have known over 70 languages, and his work with native American Indian and well as Slavic languages was his specialty.

In addition to publishing collections of fairy tales and folklore and writings about his travels, Curtin translated a number of volumes by Henryk Sienkiewicz, including Quo Vadis, and Bolesław Prus' only historical novel, Pharaoh (Curtin's English translation: 1902).