The approach of the American Civil War and American preoccupation with western expansion turned interest away from Slavic themes. It was only near the end of the Civil War that we begin to find truly interested spokesmen for Slavic culture and even then the leaders were men who had personal connections with the Slavic World, often through service in the American diplomatic corps. One of these was Jeremiah Curtin.[21] Born near Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1840, after a common school education and some study at Carroll College, Waukesha, Wisconsin, he went to Harvard where he received his degree in 1863. A few months later, he met Admiral Lisovsky and the other Russian naval officers in the fleet that visited New York. They induced him to go to Russia and for a while, he was secretary of the American Legation there. On his return to the United States, he did some work on the folklore of the American Indian but later returned to Russia and traveled extensively in the Caucasus. He wrote a great deal about his experiences but achieved most of his fame by his translations of the novels of the Polish writer, Henryk Sienkiewicz. Sienkiewicz’s _Quo Vadis_, in Curtin’s translation, has kept its place as the most popular piece of Slavic literature in English. It has been produced several times in the movies and while Curtin’s name is largely forgotten, his translations are still read and Sienkiewicz is still the best known figure in Polish literature among Americans. Another American born in the same year, 1840, was Eugene Schuyler.[22] A member of the celebrated Schuyler family, he was born in Ithaca and educated at Yale, where he graduated in 1859. He then went to the Columbia Law School and on leaving it in 1863, entered the American diplomatic service. He was American Consul in Moscow and Revel (Tallinn) and Secretary of the American Legations in St. Petersburg and Constantinople. While he held the latter post he made a full report on the Turkish atrocities against the Bulgarians in 1876. For a while he acted as Minister Resident in Greece, Romania and Serbia. He was regarded as somewhat too pro-Russian, though, and in 1889 the Senate refused to confirm him as Assistant Secretary of State. Schuyler died in 1890. His chief work was a two volume biography of Peter the Great which appeared in 1884 and was the chief American historical work dealing with a Russian subject. While it has been outmoded by later historical research, the biography still stands as a monument to his scholarship and understanding of the Russian scene.