Within his lifetime, Renan was best known as the author of the enormously popular "Life of Jesus" ("Vie de Jésus", 1863). Renan attributed the idea of the book to his sister, Henriette, with whom he was traveling in Ottoman Syria and Palestine when, struck with a fever, she died suddenly. With only a New Testament and copy of Josephus as references, he began writing. The book was first translated into English in the year of its publication by Charles E. Wilbour and has remained in print for the past 145 years. Renan's "Life of Jesus" was lavished with ironic praise and criticism by Albert Schweitzer in his book "The Quest of the Historical Jesus".