Curtis, George Willian Myerson foel has published y Channing X between Emer- tique of Chan respect she noted his in her essay-on of man's "im- GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS ews of human vory of William lanning by any LS the father of nning's moral W. Gordon Milne Unitarians who al clannishness Religionists and group acquired ige (in Bellows ressed in James 1864) and in At the age of eleven, George William Curtis heard Emerson lecture on the "over- of Rev. William soul." He remembered it later as the "cardinal event of our youth," instilling a faith o great intellec- in Transcendentalism that never left him: "How much of the wise and universal gave him "more liberalizing of all views and methods is due to it! The transcendental or spiritual philosophy has been strenuously questioned and assailed. But the life and character On Ripley, who it fostered are its sufficient vindication." The practical idealism and moral enthusiasm ngham, George that Curtis found embodied in the movement served as a constant guide in his political William Henry and literary careers. tes A. Brownson. The doctrine had its strongest impact on Curtis during the period 1842 to 1846, who found Chan- which he spent for the most part at Brook Farm and in Concord. He was drawn to een," see Edwin the former primarily by its educational opportunities, the chance to learn from men almost all the like George Ripley, George Bradford, Charles Dana, and John Sullivan Dwight. He 1 he rivaled Cold also enjoyed, during his eighteen-month sojourn, the community's social activities and collective labor, and he responded enthusiastically to its idealism and individualism. One should examine himself to find the reflection of the ideal," he forthrightly proclaimed. "Every soul is necessary to my soul, but mine is not ripe and matured till it has naturally separated from every other and stands cool and alone." The "wiser man lends himself to no organization." Society is "but the shadow of the single man behind it." Such were the Emersonian notes resounding in his letters to a fellow Brook Farmer, Isaac Hecker (see Gordon Milne, George William Curtis and the Genteel Tradition). These assertions of independence clearly did not harmonize altogether with the associationist'' nature of the Brook Farm experiment, and it is not surprising that 317 318 THE TRANSCENDENTALISTS Curtis left the farm in the spring of 1844 to settle in Concord, with only his brother himself to be Burrill as his "community." To be sure, he continued to enjoy communal experiences Brook Farm in the congenial circle of Concord residents, developing friendships with Ralph Waldo belles lettres Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Margaret Fuller, and others in general terr in the town's orbit, and he shared with them a faith in human perfectibility and in Curtis m the importance of moral insight. As he helped Thoreau build his cabin and listened tions, located to the members of "The Club" converse in Emerson's library he absorbed their key the Aberneth ideas: the importance of nature, the scholar as a man of action, the need for nativism Library, Libra in literature, the value of an intuitive and individualistic approach to literary art. Curtis sity Library, stored all of these away in his mind and used them later in his writings. Historical Soci Curtis afterwards spoke of the Brook Farm stay and its Concord sequel as "the Rutherford B. most unique episode" of his life, and his career demonstrates how assiduously he Other so employed the lessons learned during those formative years. On the lecture platform son and the 1 and in magazine pieces he argued for abolition, the extension of higher education, 1864); and ") GBD? the elimination of child labor, the rights of Indians, and suffrage for women, exempli- Harper's New fying the "practical Transcendentalist' that Emerson and his friends had taught him Easy Chair, 18 to be. Transcendentalist strains-an assertion of the individual will, a demand for Series, 1894) ( the ideal, an insistence on the right of private judgment in the face of orthodoxy and George Willian authority-echo throughout Curtis' works, suggesting the staying power of what he of George Wi. called the purifying and elevating and liberalizing" influence of Emerson ("Mr. Emer- Two unp son and the Dial"). In his political speeches and his Harper's Magazine "Easy Chair" Moralist in Po column, Curtis affirmed the inherent goodness of the individual, the existence of an non, "The In inward guide that permits one to know God and to recognize the moral law. With sources of infc what Walt Whitman called a perpetually "large swing," Curtis went about remind- Chadwick, Ge ing his contemporaries of that "light which God has kindled in you to walk by." Dwight; Edwar We may safely conclude that the Transcendentalist movement did indeed permanently American Phil affect his "ideals of character and culture and modes of living." tion; and Joel : Curtis once described the Transcendentalists in disparaging terms, as sitting pom- articles are Ge pously at their "meetings" seemingly ready to ask, "Who will now proceed to say Ticknor, "Some the finest thing that has ever been said?" As a general rule, however, he displayed William Curtis sympathy and affection for Sophia and George Ripley, Dana, and Bradford, for Brook Inheritor of th Farm visitors like Emerson, Fuller, William Henry Channing, and Theodore Parker, The follow and for correspondents like Dwight, Hecker, Charles King Newcomb, and Christopher Bradford, "Ren Pearse Cranch. His remarks make one fact abundantly clear: Emerson impressed him Thomas Codm: the most and Amos Bronson Alcott the least. Curtis' reflections fall into the category Haraszti, The of charming recollection rather than that of analysis or evaluation, but they nicely 1844-1847, ed. reproduce the impressions of a youthful idealist caught up in an idyllic community Amelia Russell, where unselfish cooperation was pursued in a lively intellectual climate. Even prickly A Girl of Sixt Margaret Fuller seemed, to Curtis, "the noblest and truest of human beings." For Curtis' Books on Transcendentalism mention Curtis fleetingly, if at all, and are apt to Stedling F. Dela concentrate on a special aspect of his relationship. Lawrence Buell, for example, talks of Curtis' travel books, declaring that, in their focus on a self-portrayal of the traveler himself rather than on an objective account of the countries he visited, Curtis revealed GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS 319 is brother himself to be "the child of Transcendentalism" (Literary Transcendentalism). The periences Brook Farm accounts mention such matters as Curtis' preference for discussions of ph Waldo belles lettres rather than Fourierism, and works on his political career simply suggest nd others in general terms his abiding commitment to the principles of Brook Farm and Concord. ity and in Curtis material on the Transcendentalists is to be found first in his letter collec- Ulstened tions, located primarily in the Houghton Library of Harvard University but also in their key the Abernethy Library of Middlebury College, Boston Athenxum, Boston Public r nativism Library, Library of Congress, Longfellow House (in Cambridge, Mass.), Brown Univer- art. Curus sity Library, Fruitlands Museums, Henry E. Huntington Library, Massachusetts Historical Society, New York Public Library, Paulist Fathers Archives (New York City), el as "the Rutherford B. Hayes Memorial Library, and Staten Island Institute of Arts and Sciences. uously he Other sources include his essays: "Ralph Waldo Emerson" (1852); "Mr. Emer- platform and the Dial": "Emerson" (1893); two articles entitled "Hawthorne" (1852, education 864); and "Editor's Easy Chair" (Har, Jan. 1869). His "Easy Chair" columns in exempli- sharper's New Monthly Magazine and the volumes collected from them (From the aught him says Chair, 1893; Other Essays from the Easy Chair, 1893; From the Easy Chair, Third emand for lines, 1894) occasionally provide material as well, as do Orations and Addresses of odoxy and Gerge William Curtis, ed. Charles Eliot Norton (1894), and the unpublished "Notes of what he George William Curtis" (in the New York Public Library). Mr. Emer Two unpublished works on Curtis-Sheldon L. Berens, "The Emergence of a asy Chair Moralist in Politics, George William Curtis: 1824-1849," and Florence Becker Len- ence of an non, "The Influence of Brook Farm on George William Curtis, 1842-1872" law With sources of information. See also Edward Cary, George William Curtis; John White it remind Chadwick, George William Curtis; Early Letters of George Wm. Curtis to John S. walk by Dright; Edward H. Madden, Civil Disobedience and Moral Law in Nineteenth-Century ermanently American Philosophy; Gordon Milne, George William Curtis and the Genteel Tradi- ion; and Joel Myerson, The New England Transcendentalists and the Dial. Helpful tting pom- titicles are George Willis Cooke, "George William Curtis at Concord"; Caroline eed to say Hicknor, "Some Early Letters of George William Curtis"; Edward H. Madden, "George displayed William Curtis: Practical Transcendentalist''; and Milne, "George William Curtis - for Brook inheritor of the Transcendental Mantle." ore Parker The following accounts of Brook Farm provide relevant information: George P. Christopher Bradford, "Reminiscences of Brook Farm"; Katherine Burton, Paradise Planters; John ressed him Thomas Codman, Brook Farm; Edith Roelker Curtis, A Season in Utopia; Zoltán ne category Haraszti, The Idyll of Brook Farm; Marianne Dwight, Letters from Brook Farm they nicely 1844-1847, ed. Amy L. Reed; Myerson, "James Burrill Curtis and Brook Farm" community Amelia Russell, "Home Life of the Brook Farm Association": Ora Gannett Sedgwick, ven prickly Girl of Sixteen at Brook Farm"; and Lindsay Swift, Brook Farm. eings For Curtis' relations with the Dial, see Myerson's book. For the Harbinger, see are apt to Merling F. Delano, "The Harbinger." mple. talks the traveler tis revealed George William Curtis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Page 1 of 4 George William Curtis From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia George William Curtis (February 24, 1824 - August 31, 1892) was an American writer and public speaker, born in Providence, Rhode Island, of old New England stock. Contents 1 Biography 2 Works George William 3 Notes Curtis 4 References 5 External links Biography Curtis was born in Providence on February 24, 1824, [1] and his mother died when he was two. 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. [2] 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 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, GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS obtained a post on the Tribune, became a popular lecturer, started ca. 1900 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). [2] 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, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_William_Curtis 3/30/2011 George William Curtis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Page 2 of 4 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. 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, and made his first important speech on the questions of the day at Wesleyan University in 1856; he engaged actively in John C. Fremont's presidential campaign of that year (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 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 Monthly, 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 Curtis, between 1855 and 1865 National Civil Service Reform League and of the New York Civil Service Reform Association. In 1884 he refused to support James G Blaine 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, 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 Nile Notes of a Howadji (1851) The Howadji in Syria (1852) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_William_Curtis 3/30/2011 George William Curtis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Page 3 of 4 Lotus-Eating (1852) Potiphar Papers (1853) (Project Gutenberg text(http://www.gutenberg.net/etext04/8ptph10.txt)) The Duty of the American Scholar to Politics and the Times (1856) Prue and I (1856) (Project Gutenberg text(http://www.gutenberg.net/etext05/8prue10.txt)) Trumps (1862) Washington Irving: A Sketch (1891) Essays from the Easy Chair (1893) (Project Gutenberg text (http://www.gutenberg.net/etext05/easch10h.htm) ) Orations And Addresses (1894) Literary and Social Essays (1895) (Project Gutenberg text (http://www.gutenberg.net/etext05/8lits10.txt)) Early Letters of George Wm. Curtis to John S. Dwight: Brook Farm and Concord (1898) (Project Gutenberg text (http://www.gutenberg.net/etext05/lcurt10.txt) ) Notes 1. ^ Ehrlich, Eugene and Gorton Carruth. The Oxford Illustrated Literary Guide to the United States. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982: 71. ISBN 0195031865 2. ^ ab Baker, Carlos. "Parke Godwin: Pathfinder in Politics and Journalism", Lives of Eighteen from Princeton (http://books.google.com/books? id=djBWgPsvr6wC&printsec=copyright&dq=Parke+Godwin+journalist#PPP15,M1). . Willard Thorp, editor. Princeton University Press, 1946: 220. ISBN 0836909410 Curtis High School , St George Staten Island is named for him. Built 1904 References @ Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). "Curtis, George William". Encyclopoedia Britannica (Eleventh ed.). Cambridge University Press. George William Curtis, by Edward Cary, in the American Men of Letters series (Boston, 1894), an excellent biography An Epistle to George William Curtis, by James Russell Lowell (1874-1887), in Lowell's Poems George William Curtis, a Commemorative Address delivered before The Century Association, 17 December 1892, by Parke Godwin (New York, 1893) Orations and Addresses by George William Curtis, edited by Charles Eliot Norton (5 vols. New York, 1894). External links Works by George William Curtis (http://www.gutenberg.org/author/George+William+Curtis) at Project Gutenberg Retrieved from !"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_William_Curtis" Categories: 1824 births 1892 deaths | American essayists | American magazine editors | American satirists | New York Republicans | People from Boston, Massachusetts I People from New York City | People from Providence, Rhode Island People from Staten Island Republican Party (United States) This page was last modified on 27 March 2011 at 22:34. 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