George William Curtis (February 24, 1824 – August 31, 1892) was an American writer, reformer, public speaker, and political activist. 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.
Early life and education
George William Curtis was born in Providence, Rhode Island on February 24, 1824. His father was also named George Curtis. His mother, Mary Elizabeth (Burrill) Curtis, was the daughter of former United States Senator James Burrill Jr. and died when the infant George was two years old.
At six, George was sent with his elder brother James Burrill Curtis to school in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, where he remained for five years. In 1835, his father having remarried happily, the boys were brought home to Providence, where they stayed until around 1839, when they moved with their father to New York. Three years later, George and James fell in sympathy with the spirit of the transcendental movement and joined the Brook Farm communal experiment from 1842 to 1843. After leaving Brook Farm, George spent two years in New York and Concord, Massachusetts to be close to Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Career
From 1846 to 1850, Curtis travelled through Europe, Egypt and Syria. His travels formed the basis for his first work as an author. He returned in 1850 and settled on Staten Island and began work as a lecturer. He obtained a post on the New-York Tribune and started work on Nile Notes of a Howadji (1851), a journal of his travels on the Nile. He became a favorite in New York City 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).
