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CURTIS, GEORGE WILLIAM (1824-1892)

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Originally appearing in Volume V07, Page 652 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CURTIS, See also:GEORGE See also:WILLIAM (1824-1892) , See also:American See also:man of letters, was See also:born in See also:Providence, Rhode See also:Island, on the 24th of See also:February 1824, of old New See also:England stock. His See also:mother died when he was two years old. At six he was sent with his See also:elder See also:brother to school in See also:Jamaica See also:Plain, See also:Massachusetts, where he remained for five years. Then, his See also:father having again married happily, the boys were brought See also:home to Providence, where they stayed till, in 1839, their father removed to New See also:York. Three years later, Curtis, being allowed to determine for himself his course of See also:life, and being in sympathy with the spirit of the so-called Transcendental See also:movement, became a boarder at the community of See also:Brook See also:Farm. He was accompanied by his brother, See also:James Burrill Curtis, whose See also:influence upon him was strong and helpful. He remained there for two years, brought into stimulating and serviceable relations with many interesting men and See also:women. Then came two years, passed partly in New York, partly in See also:Concord in See also:order mainly to be in the friendly See also:neighbour-See also:hood of See also:Emerson, and then followed four years spent in See also:Europe, See also:Egypt and See also:Syria. Curtis returned from Europe in 185o, handsome, attractive, accomplished; ambitious of See also:literary distinction. He instantly plunged into the whirl of life in New York, obtained a See also:place on the See also:staff of the See also:Tribune, entered the See also:field as a popular lecturer, set himself to See also:work on a See also:volume published in the See also:spring of 1851, under the See also:title of See also:Nile Notes of a Howadji, and became a favourite in society. He wrote much for See also:Putnam's See also:Magazine, of which he was See also:associate editor; and a number of volumes, composed of essays written for that publication and for Harper's Monthly, came in rapid See also:succession from his See also:pen. The See also:chief of these were the Potiphar Papers (1853), a See also:satire on the fashionable society of the See also:day; and Prue and I (1856), a pleasantly sentimental, fancifully See also:tender and humorous study of life.

In 1855 he married See also:

Miss See also:Anna See also:Shaw. Not See also:long after his See also:marriage he became, through no See also:fault of his own, deeply involved in See also:debt owing to the failure of Putnam's Magazine; and his high sense of See also:honour compelled him to devote the greater See also:part of his earnings for many ygtrs to the See also:discharge of obligations for which he had become only by See also:accident responsible, and from which he might have freed himself by legal See also:process. In the See also:period just preceding the See also:Civil See also:War other interests became subordinate to those of See also:national concern. Curtis made his first important speech on the questions of the day at Wesleyan University in 1856; he engaged actively in the presidential See also:campaign of that See also:year, and was soon recognized not only as an effective public See also:speaker, but also as one of the ablest, most high-minded, and most trustworthy leaders of public See also:opinion. In 1863 he became the See also:political editor of Harper's Weekly, and no other See also:journal exercised during the war and after it a more important part in shaping public opinion. His See also:writing was always clear, See also:direct, forcible; his fairness of mind and sweetness of See also:temper were invincible. He never became a See also:mere See also:partisan, and never failed to apply the test of moral principle to political See also:measures. From See also:month to month he contributed to Harper's Monthly, under the title of " The Easy See also:Chair," brief essays on topics of social and literary See also:interest, charming in See also:style, touched with delicate See also:humour and See also:instinct with generous spirit. His service to the Republican party was such, that more than once he was offered nominations to See also:office of high distinction, and might have been sent as See also:minister to England; but he refused all offers of the See also:kind, feeling that he could render more essential service to the See also:country as editor and public speaker. In 1871 he was appointed by See also:President See also:Grant chairman of the See also:commission to See also:report on the reform of the civil service. The report which he wrote was the See also:foundation of every effort since made for the See also:purification and regulation of the service and for the destruction of political patronage. From that See also:time till his See also:death Curtis was the See also:leader in this reform, and to his See also:sound See also:judgment, his vigorous presentation of the evils of the corrupt prevailing See also:system, and his untiring efforts, the progress of the reform is mainly due.

He was president of the National Civil Service Reform See also:

League and of the New York Civil Service Reform Association. In 1884 he refused to support the nomination of James G. See also:Blaine as See also:candidate for the See also:presidency, and thus See also:broke with the Republican party, of which he had been one of the founders and leaders. From that time he stood as the typical See also:independent in politics. In See also:April 1892 he delivered at See also:Baltimore his See also:eleventh See also:annual address as president of the National Civil Service Reform League, and in May he appeared for the last time in public, to repeat in New York an admirable address on James See also:Russell See also:Lowell, which he had first delivered in See also:Brooklyn on the 22nd of the preceding February, the anniversary of Lowell's See also:birth. On the 31st of the following See also:August he died. He was a man of consistent virtue, whose See also:face and figure corresponded with the traits and stature of his soul. The See also:grace and See also:charm of his manner were the expression of his nature. Of the Americans of his time few were more widely beloved, and the respect in which he was held was universal. See George William Curtis, by See also:Edward See also:Cary, in the " American Men of Letters " See also:series (See also:Boston, 1894), an excellent See also:biography ; An See also:Epistle to George William Curtis," by James Russell Lowell (1874-1887), in Lowell's Poems; George William Curtis, a Commemorative Address delivered before The See also:Century Association, 17th See also:December 1892, by Parke See also:Godwin (New York, 1893) ; Orations and Addresses by George William Curtis, edited by See also:Charles See also:Eliot See also:Norton (3 vols. New York, 1894). (C.

E.

End of Article: CURTIS, GEORGE WILLIAM (1824-1892)

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