I wish to express my thanks to Harry H. Anderson, executive director of the Milwaukee County Historical Society, and Frederick I. Olson, professor emeritus of history at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, for drawing my attention to the unpublished materials concerning Sienkiewicz in the collections of the Milwaukee County Historical Society. I also want to thank Maria Bokszczanin for making Sienkiewicz's letters to Karol Potkariski available to me.

1. Alma Curtin's diaries give the date 1838, which is also engraved on Curtin's tombstone in Bristol, Vermont.

2. Memoirs of Jeremiah Curtin, ed. Joseph Schafer (Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1940), 55.

3. See Frederick I. Olson, “The Story of Jeremiah Curtin,” Historical Messenger of the Milwaukee County Historical Society 9 (March 1953): 3-7, and idem, “Jeremiah Curtin's Letters to His Publisher,” Historical Messenger of the Milwaukee County Historical Society 10 (June 1954): 3-7, in which he discusses Curtin's letters to James Mclntyre, an editor at Little, Brown. See also Harry H. Anderson, “Jeremiah Curtin's Boyhood in Milwaukee County,” Historical Messenger of the Milwaukee County Historical Society 27 (June 1971): 30-50 and “The Jeremiah Curtin House,” Milwaukee History 6 (Spring 1983): 2-25.

4. Krzyzanowski, Julian, Henryk Sienkiewicz. Kalendarz Zycia i Tworczoici. Dzieta, Vol. 57 (Warsaw: Panstwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 1954)Google Scholar; Segel, Harold B., “Sienkiewicz's First Translator, Jeremiah Curtin,” Slavic Review 14 (June 1965): 189–214 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; “Jeremiasz Curtin—ttumacz dziet Sienkiewicza,” in Literatura, komparatystyka, folklor. Ksiega poswiecona Julianowi Krzyzanowskiemu, ed. Maria Bokszczanin et al. (Warsaw: Paristowowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 1968), 549-569), and Segel, Harold B., “Jak przyjmowano twdrczoSc’ Sienkiewicza w Stanach Zjednoczonych,” in Henryk Sienkiewicz: TworczoU i recepcja Swiatowa, ed. Piorunowa, Aniela and Wyka, Kazimierz (Krakow: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 1968), 463–473 Google Scholar; Giergielewicz, Mieczystaw, “Henryk Sienkiewicz's American Resonance,” Antemurale 10 (1966): 256–354 Google Scholar, and Henryk Sienkiewicz (New York: Twayne, 1968), 180. Information concerning Curtin in Kasparek, Christopher “ Prus's Pharaoh and Curtin's translation,” The Polish Review 31, nos. 2-3 (1986): 127–135 Google Scholar is based on the article by Segel, , “Sienkiewicz's First Translator.” Curtin's 1898 article is in The Century 56 (July 1898): 428–433.Google Scholar

5. Complete materials concerning Sienkiewicz, his relationship with Jeremiah Curtin, and the Polish literary milieu as described by Alma Curtin in her diaries and letters will appear in my book Sienkiewicz i Curtin (Warsaw: Panstwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 1991).

6. In Poland the Curtins nearly always spoke English. Jeremiah Curtin understood but did not speak Polish.

7. John Murray Brown, head of Little, Brown in Boston, had been Curtin's classmate at Harvard.

8. Giergielewicz, “Henryk Sienkiewicz's American Resonance,” 308.

9. In his letter to Antoni Wodziriski, on 28 February 1907, Sienkiewicz wrote: “Initially, English translations had brought me some kind of royalties—then, also for many years, they have not brought me a single penny, neither the older ones, nor the most recent. I have what I receive from Polish publishers and nothing more, therefore I have no foreign accounts and I cannot settle them with anybody. This is a true and sad state of affairs for me.” (Henryk Sienkiewicz, Dzieta, ed. Julian Krzyzanowski (Warsaw: Panstwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 1951), 56: 315).

10. Giergielewicz, “Henryk Sienkiewicz's American Resonance,” 311, 270. The first translation from Sienkiewicz in the United States was: “Paul.” Translated from Polish by W. R. Thompson, it appeared in The Catholic World 4 (1884): 406-419.

11. In his article “The Author of Quo Vadis: My Acquaintance with Sienkiewicz,” published eleven years later in The Century, Jeremiah Curtin described the first meeting with Sienkiewicz as a chance encounter. Alma Curtin's description of the same event in the Memoirs closely corresponds to The Century version.

12. Alma Curtin frequently misspelled names, especially Polish names. I will correct both the spelling of names and some minor punctuation and stylistic errors.

13. A reference to Bruno Abakanowicz (1852-1900), a friend of Sienkiewicz who lived in France.

14. These letters are in the files compiled by Julian Krzyzanowski in Biblioteka Ossolifiskich in Wroclaw. Sienkiewicz also wrote many notes to his friends and acquaintances in which he asked them to help the Curtins establish contacts and research opportunities in Poland.

15. The agreement is in the Milwaukee County Historical Society.

16. A copy of the agreement is in the Milwaukee County Historical Society, box 7, file 19. In the Memoirs, 691, Alma Curtin used a different text. The agreement was in fact a unilateral statement by Sienkiewicz binding him to fulfill publishing obligations with the translator. No records indicate that as a result of this agreement Curtin or Little, Brown felt obliged to pay Sienkiewicz some fixed sum of money.

17. The statement was reprinted in various editions of Sienkiewicz's books published by Little, Brown.

18. Potocki, Jozef, Notatki mysliwskie z Afryki, illustrated by Piotr Stachniewicz (Warsaw: Gebethner and Wolff, 1897 Google Scholar. Curtin gave it the title Sport in Somaliland (London: R. Ward, 1900) and was paid more than $600 for translating the book.

19. Orzeszkowa, Eliza, The Argonauts (New York: Scribner, 1901 Google Scholar; Glovatski, Alexander (Prus), The Pharaoh and the Priest (Boston: Little, Brown, 1902).Google Scholar

20. “The Judgment of Peter and Paul on Olympus. A Poem in Prose,” The Century, 59 (December 1899): 316-317.

21. In 1900, the following translations of the novel appeared on the market: The Knights of the Cross, trans. Samuel A. Binion, 2 vols., illus. (New York: Fenno); The Knights of the Cross, trans. B. Dahl, abridged (New York: Ogilvie); The Knights of the Cross, Danusia, An Historical Romance, trans. Count C. E. Savoie-Carignan, ed. J. Manson (London: Sands); The Knights of the Cross, special translation, 2 vols. (New York: Street and Smith); The Knights of the Cross, trans. J. Curtin, 2 vols. (Boston: Little, Brown and Company); The Knights of the Cross, trans. J. Curtin (Toronto: Morang).

22. Karol Benni (1834-1916), Sienkiewicz's friend.

23. The agreement, signed and dated by Sienkiewicz, is in the Milwaukee County Historical Society, box 7, file 19. Curtin did not dramatize any of Sienkiewicz's books.

24. Original of the letter is in the Milwaukee County Historical Society, box 7, file 13. It was published by Jerzy R. Krzyzanowski in “Henryk Sienkiewicz to Jeremiah Curtin: Some Unpublished Letters,” Polish Review 10 (Summer 1965): 19.

25. An English translation of the letter, deposited in the Milwaukee County Historical Society, box 7, file 13, can be found in ibid., 20.

26. The letter is in the Milwaukee County Historical Society; see Jerzy R. Krzyzanowski, ibid., 20-21.