Curtin began translating Henryk Sienkiewicz's historical novel "With Fire and Sword" in 1888 at age fifty. Subsequently, he rendered the other two volumes of the author's "Trilogy", other works by Sienkiewicz, and in 1897 his "Quo Vadis", "handsome income ... from [whose sale ... gave him ... financial independence ..." and set the publisher, Little, Brown and Company, on its feet. Sienkiewicz himself appears to have been short-changed in his part of the profits from the translation of the best-selling "Quo Vadis".