author
George William Curtis
1824–1892
A graceful essayist and magnetic public speaker, he brought literary style to public life and turned reform into something readers could feel. Best remembered as a writer, editor, and champion of civic causes, he stood out in 19th-century America for linking culture with conscience.
9 Audiobooks
Literary and Social Essays
by George William Curtis
Prue and I
by George William Curtis
Early Letters of George Wm. Curtis to John S. Dwight; Brook Farm and Concord
by George William Curtis
From the Easy Chair, Volume 1
by George William Curtis
Trumps
by George William Curtis
The Potiphar Papers
by George William Curtis
From the Easy Chair, Volume 3
by George William Curtis
Ars Recte Vivendi; Being Essays Contributed to "The Easy Chair"
by George William Curtis
From the Easy Chair, Volume 2
by George William Curtis
About the author
Born in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1824, George William Curtis became an American writer, editor, lecturer, and reformer whose career moved easily between literature and public debate. Early in life he spent time at Brook Farm and was associated with the wider circle of New England transcendentalists, experiences that helped shape his thoughtful, idealistic voice.
Curtis wrote essays, travel pieces, and criticism, and he became especially well known through his editorial work and his polished, persuasive speaking style. He also took an active role in public causes, supporting abolition, civil rights, and civil service reform, and he built a reputation as one of the more principled public intellectuals of his era.
He died in 1892, but his work still offers a clear picture of a 19th-century author who believed writing should do more than entertain. In Curtis, readers often find both elegance and earnestness: a man of letters who treated citizenship as seriously as literature.