George William Curtis (February 24, 1824 – August 31, 1892) was an American writer and public speaker born in
Providence, Rhode Island. An early Republican, he spoke in favor of African-American equality and civil rights both before and after the
Civil War.
Early life and education
Curtis, the son of George and Mary Elizabeth (Burrill) Curtis, was born in
Providence
Providence often refers to:
* Providentia, the divine personification of foresight in ancient Roman religion
* Divine providence, divinely ordained events and outcomes in Christianity
* Providence, Rhode Island, the capital of Rhode Island in the ...
on February 24, 1824. His mother died when he was two. His maternal grandfather,
James Burrill Jr., served in the
United States Senate representing
Rhode Island from 1817 to 1820.
At six he was sent with his elder brother to school in
Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, where he remained for five years. Then, his father having again married happily, the boys were brought home to Providence, where they stayed till, in around 1839, their father moved to New York. Three years later, Curtis, fell in sympathy with the spirit of the
Transcendental movement. He joined the communal experiment known as
Brook Farm from 1842 to 1843.
[Baker, Carlos. "Parke Godwin: Pathfinder in Politics and Journalism", ]
Lives of Eighteen from Princeton
'. Willard Thorp, editor. Princeton University Press, 1946: 220. He was accompanied by his brother,
James Burrill Curtis, whose influence on him was strong and helpful. He remained there for two years, and met many interesting men and women. Then came two years, passed partly in New York, partly in
Concord, Massachusetts, in order mainly to be in the friendly neighborhood of
Ralph Waldo Emerson, and then followed four years spent in Europe,
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...
and
Syria.
He married Anna Shaw Curtis at the Unitarian Church of the Redeemer in 1856. Curtis, another
New England transplant to
Staten Island, was a founding member of the Unitarian Church of Staten Island (originally the Unitarian Church of the Redeemer), an author, editor of ''
Putnam's Magazine'', and columnist for ''
Harper's Weekly''. He was an
abolitionist and supporter of
civil rights for African Americans and
Native Americans. He also advocated
women's suffrage,
civil service reform, and
public education.
The Curtis and Shaw families, rooted as they were in the liberal soil of New England, counted Emerson,
Nathaniel Hawthorne and
Henry David Thoreau among their close associates.
[This history was adapted from writings of UCSI Minister Emeritus Benjamin Bortin; Bradford Green, UCSI historian; and Susan McAnanama, long-time congregation member. To learn more about the church's history download this PDF.]
The
Underground Railroad was in use during the 1850s to help
runaway slaves
In the United States, fugitive slaves or runaway slaves were terms used in the 18th and 19th century to describe people who fled slavery. The term also refers to the federal Fugitive Slave Acts of 1793 and 1850. Such people are also called free ...
, and it is believed that the Curtises and the Shaws were very involved in the Railroad. The Shaw sisters, Anna and Josephine, and their mother, Sarah Sturgis, also spearheaded local efforts to help during the
Civil War. George Curtis was targeted by Southern sympathizers, and Anna and her three children left Staten Island temporarily during the
New York City draft riots in 1863 for the safety of her grandparents’ home in
Roxbury, Massachusetts.
Career
Curtis returned from Europe in 1850, attractive, accomplished, and ambitious for literary distinction. He settled on
Staten Island and instantly plunged into the whirl of life in New York, obtained a post on the ''
New-York Tribune'', became a popular lecturer, started work on ''
Nile Notes of a Howadji
The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered the longest rive ...
'' (1851), and became a favorite in society. He wrote for ''
Putnam's Magazine'' which he helped
George Palmer Putnam to found. He became an associate editor along with
Parke Godwin
Parke Godwin (January 28, 1929 – June 19, 2013) was an American writer. He won the World Fantasy Award for Best Novella in 1982 for his story "The Fire When It Comes". He was a native of New York City, where he was born in 1929. He was the ...
and managing editor
Charles Frederick Briggs
Charles Frederick Briggs (December 30, 1804 – June 20, 1877), also called C. F. Briggs, was an American journalist, author and editor, born in Nantucket, Massachusetts. He was also known under the pseudonym "Harry Franco", having written ''The A ...
; the three also collaborated on a
gift book called ''The Homes of American Authors'' (1853).
Curtis produced a number of volumes, composed of essays written for ''Putnam's'' and for ''
Harper's Weekly'', which came in rapid succession from his pen. The chief of these were the ''
Potiphar Papers'' (1853), a satire on the fashionable society of the day; and ''Prue and I'' (1856), a pleasantly sentimental, fancifully tender and humorous study of life. In 1855 he married Anna Shaw, daughter of abolitionist Francis Shaw and sister of
Robert Gould Shaw of the famed
54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry
The 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment that saw extensive service in the Union Army during the American Civil War. The unit was the second African-American regiment, following the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry ...
. Not long afterwards he became, through no fault of his own, deeply involved in debt owing to the failure of ''Putnam's Magazine''; and his sense of honour compelled him to spend the greater part of his earnings for many years on discharging the obligations for which he had become responsible, and from which he might have freed himself by legal process. In the period just preceding the
Civil War, other interests became subordinate to those of national concern. He was involved in the founding of the
Republican Party
Republican Party is a name used by many political parties around the world, though the term most commonly refers to the United States' Republican Party.
Republican Party may also refer to:
Africa
* Republican Party (Liberia)
*Republican Party ...
, and made his first important speech on the questions of the day at
Wesleyan University in 1856; he engaged actively in
John C. Fremont
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Second E ...
's presidential campaign of 1856 (the Republican campaign headquarters were located not far from his Staten Island home), and was soon recognized not only as an effective public speaker, but also as one of the ablest, most high-minded, and most trustworthy leaders of public opinion.
In 1862 George William Curtis delivered his "Doctrine of Liberty" address to the
Phi Beta Kappa Society at
Harvard, on behalf of President
Abraham Lincoln, who was encouraging support for the
Emancipation Proclamation. In it, he laid out the intellectual foundations for the purpose of American education that would last another 30 years, and public schools, nearly 100 years.
In 1863 he became the political editor of ''
Harper's Weekly'', which was highly influential in shaping public opinion. Curtis's writing was always clear and direct, displaying fairness of mind and good temper. He had high moral standards. From month to month he contributed to ''
Harper's Magazine'', under the title of "The Easy Chair," brief essays on topics of social and literary interest, charming in style, touched with delicate humour and instinct with generous spirit. His service to the
Republican party was such, that he was offered several nominations to office, and might have been sent as minister to England; but he refused all such offers, preferring to serve the country as editor and public speaker.
In 1871 he was appointed, by
President Ulysses S. Grant, to chair the commission on the reform of the
civil service. Its report was the foundation of every effort since made for the purification and regulation of the service and for the destruction of political patronage. From that time Curtis was the leader in this reform, and its progress is mainly due to him. He was president of the
National Civil Service Reform League and of the New York Civil Service Reform Association. In 1884 he refused to support
James G. Blaine
James Gillespie Blaine (January 31, 1830January 27, 1893) was an American statesman and Republican politician who represented Maine in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1863 to 1876, serving as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representati ...
as candidate for the presidency, and thus broke with the Republican party, of which he had been a founder and leader. From that time he stood as the typical independent in politics. In April 1892 he delivered at Baltimore his eleventh 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 address on
James Russell Lowell
James Russell Lowell (; February 22, 1819 – August 12, 1891) was an American Romantic poet, critic, editor, and diplomat. He is associated with the fireside poets, a group of New England writers who were among the first American poets that r ...
, which he had first delivered in Brooklyn on the 22nd of the preceding February, the anniversary of Lowell's birth.
Curtis was one of the original members of the Board of Education for what would become New York City, and advocated educational reforms. He was a member of and frequent speaker at the Unitarian Church on Staten Island (the congregation still meets in the same building). A high school not far from his home is named for him. He is also immortalized with an annual namesake oratorical prize awarded by
Columbia College of Columbia University.
Works
* ''Notes of a Howadji'' (1851)
* ''The Howadji in Syria'' (1852)
* ''Lotus-Eating'' (1852)
* ''Potiphar Papers'' (1853)
* ''The Duty of the American Scholar to Politics and the Times'' (1856)
* ''Prue and I'' (1856)
* ''Trumps'' (1862)
* ''Washington Irving: A Sketch'' (1891)
* ''Essays from the Easy Chair'' (1893)
* ''Orations And Addresses'' (1894)
* ''Literary and Social Essays'' (1895)
* ''Early Letters of George Wm. Curtis to John S. Dwight: Brook Farm and Concord'' (1898)
* ''Ars Recte Vivendi'' (1898)
See also
*
Curtis High School
Curtis High School, operated by the New York City Department of Education, is one of seven public high schools located in Staten Island, New York City, New York. It was founded on February 9, 1904, the first high school on Staten Island.
Histo ...
on Staten Island is named for him. It was built in 1904.
Notes
;Attribution
References
*
* ''George William Curtis'', by Edward Cary, in the ''American Men of Letters'' series (Boston, 1894)
* ''An Epistle to George William Curtis'', by
James Russell Lowell
James Russell Lowell (; February 22, 1819 – August 12, 1891) was an American Romantic poet, critic, editor, and diplomat. He is associated with the fireside poets, a group of New England writers who were among the first American poets that r ...
(1874–1887), in Lowell's ''Poems''
* ''George William Curtis, a Commemorative Address delivered before
The Century Association, December 17, 1892'', by
Parke Godwin
Parke Godwin (January 28, 1929 – June 19, 2013) was an American writer. He won the World Fantasy Award for Best Novella in 1982 for his story "The Fire When It Comes". He was a native of New York City, where he was born in 1929. He was the ...
(New York, 1893)
* ''Orations and Addresses by George William Curtis'', edited by
Charles Eliot Norton (5 vols. New York, 1894).
*
*
Galahad in the Gilded Age: A Life of George William Curtis', Linda Dowling. 528 pp. (United States: Xlibris, 2021)
External links
*
*
*
George William Curtis Papers (MS Am 1124.5-1124.8)at
Houghton Library, Harvard University.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Curtis, George William
1824 births
1892 deaths
19th-century American essayists
19th-century American journalists
19th-century American male writers
19th-century American non-fiction writers
19th-century Unitarians
Activists for African-American civil rights
American abolitionists
American essayists
American magazine editors
American male essayists
American male journalists
American male non-fiction writers
American satirists
American suffragists
American Unitarians
Civil service reform in the United States
Comedians from New York (state)
Journalists from New York City
Native Americans' rights activists
New York (state) Republicans
People from Jamaica Plain
People from Livingston, Staten Island
Rhode Island Republicans
Writers from Boston
Writers from Providence, Rhode Island
Harper's Weekly editors