Curtis, George William

George William (1824-1892), an American editor, lecturer, and author. He was a native of Providence, Rhode, Island. His reputation was first won through his sketches of travel, Nile Notes of a Howadji, written while traveling in Egypt and Syria. For many years, including the period of the Civil War, Curtis was political editor of Harper's Weekly, which he made a powerful supporter of the Union cause. For many years he was editor of the "Easy Chair" in Harper's Magazine. It has been said that in this work "his province and his influence resembled those of Addison and Steele in the best issues of the Spectator." It is by his chatty notes and observances in the "Easy Chair" department that Mr. Curtis is best known. Among his later books are Lotus Eating, Potiphar Papers, Prue and I. Mr. Curtis was also known as a successful lecturer. He delivered notable memorial orations on Burns, Bryant, Irving, Lowell, and others.

In the "Easy Chair" of Harper's Magazine, Mr. Curtis displayed the highest qualities of an essayist. Comment on art, music, literature, current events, politics, society, was here set forth, month by month, in graceful and flexible style, animated by genial humor, often by keen satire, but always regulated by the purest taste. So nice was his sense of literary proportion, that local and ephemeral circumstances, preserved in these monthly records, have keen interest for the reader of to-day.--Shaw.