U.S. author, editor, and leader in civil service reform.

Early in life Curtis spent two years at the Brook Farm community and school, subsequently remaining near Concord, Mass., for a time, to continue his association with Emerson. Later he travelled in Europe, Egypt, and Palestine. In 1850 he returned and joined the New York Tribune, to which he had sent some letters from Europe. As a result of his travels, he became a popular lecturer and published Nile Notes of a Howadji (1851) and The Howadji in Syria (1852). As an associate editor of Putnam's Monthly Magazine and author of “The Lounger” column in Harper's Weekly and “The Easy Chair” column in Harper's Magazine, he wrote prolifically. Many of his essays were collected, chiefly in The Potiphar Papers (1853), a satire on fashionable society, and Prue and I (1856).

Curtis was active in the 1856 presidential campaign for Republican candidates. In 1863 he became political editor of Harper's Weekly. In succeeding years he was frequently offered nominations and appointments by the Republican Party but refused them all, until he finally accepted the chairmanship of the commission on civil service reform offered by President Ulysses S. Grant in 1871. From then until his death he led this movement; progress in reform was mainly due to his sound judgment and forceful presentation of the evils of the political patronage system. In 1884 he refused to support James G. Blaine as candidate for the presidency and left the Republican Party to become an independent. In 1890 he became chancellor of the University of New York.