George William Curtis

George William Curtis
Curtis between 1855 and 1865
Born	February 24, 1824 Providence, Rhode Island, U.S.
Died	August 31, 1892(1892-08-31) (aged 68) New York City, New York, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Writer, editor
Political party	Republican
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George William Curtis (February 24, 1824 – August 31, 1892) was an American writer and public speaker, born in Providence, Rhode Island, of New Englander ancestry. A Republican, he spoke in favor of African American equality and civil rights.

Curtis, the son of George and Mary Elizabeth (Burrill) Curtis, was born in Providence on February 24, 1824, and 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 so-called Transcendental movement. He joined the communal experiment known as Brook Farm from 1842 to 1843. 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 Emerson, and then followed four years spent in Europe, Egypt and Syria.

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 Tribune, became a popular lecturer, started work on Nile Notes of a Howadji (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 and managing editor Charles Frederick Briggs; the three also collaborated on a gift book called The Homes of American Authors (1853).