CURTIS, GEORGE WILLIAM American man of letters, was born in Providence, R.I., U.S.A., Feb. 24 of old New England stock. The most significant factor in his early life was his two years' stay with his brother James as a boarder at the Brook Farm community and school. Then came two years, passed partly in New York, partly in Concord in order to be near Emerson and to combine intellectual with outdoor occupation. After four years spent in Europe, Egypt and Palestine, Curtis returned to America in 1850, handsome, attractive, accomplished, ambitious of literary distinction. He joined the staff of the New York Tribune, to which, as to the Courier and Enquirer, he had sent some letters from Europe. He became a popular lecturer. He set himself to work on a volume published in the spring of 1851 under the title of Nile Notes of a Howadji, which was fol lowed in 1852 by The Howadji in Syria. He wrote much for Putnam's Magazine, of which he was an associate editor; and a number of volumes, composed of charming essays written for that publication, for his department, "The Lounger," in Harper's Weekly, and for Harper's Monthly, where he was long associated with "The Easy Chair," 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 fancifully tender and humorous study of life. These, the Howadji books and Lotus Eating (5852) appeared in a uniform edition in 1856. In 1856 Curtis married Miss Anna Shaw. For years he was obliged to sacrifice much of his home life that he might, by lecturing, pay off the debts he had assumed voluntarily after the failure of Putnam's Magazine.
In the period just preceding the Civil War other interests were subordinated to those of national concern. He made his first important speech on current questions at Wesleyan university in 1856. He engaged actively in the presidential campaign of that year, and was soon recognized not only as an effective public speaker but as one of the ablest and most trustworthy leaders of public opinion. In 1863 he became political editor of Harper's Weekly, and as such his writing was clear, direct and forcible. Although he never became a mere partisan, his service to the Re publican Party was such that he was offered nominations of distinc tion and was given his choice of the chief missions under President Hayes. He refused them all, feeling that he could be of more service to the country as editor and public speaker. In 1871 he was appointed by President Grant chairman of the commission on civil service reform. From then until his death, he led this movement, and to his sound judgment, his vigorous presentation of the evils of the corrupt political patronage system and his untiring efforts, progress in the reform is mainly due. He was president of the National Civil Service Reform League and of the New York Civil Service Reform Association. In 1884 in refusing to support the nomination of James G. Blaine as candi date for the Presidency, he broke with the Republican Party, and became the typical Independent in politics. In 1890 he was made chancellor of the University of New York, having been a member of the board of regents from 1864. He died at New Brighton, Staten Island, N.Y., Aug. 31, 1892. (C. E. N.) BIBLIOGRAPHY.-See George William Curtis, by Edward Cary, in the Bibliography.-See George William Curtis, by Edward Cary, in the "American Men of Letters" series (1894) , an excellent biography ; "An Epistle to George William Curtis, 1874" and "Postscript, 1887" in James Russell Lowell's Complete Poetical Works; George William Curtis, a commemorative address delivered before the Century Associa tion, Dec. 17, 1892, by Parke Godwin (1893) ; Orations and Addresses by George William Curtis, edited by Charles Eliot Norton (1894), and Early Letters of George Wm. Curtis to John S. Dwight, Brook Farm and Concord, edited by G. W. Cooke (1898) . A number of his literary and social essays were published in book form posthumously. W. M. Payne refers to him in his Leading American Essayists (191o).