The complete online text of From the Easy Chair — Volume 01 by George William Curtis.

George William Curtis (24 February 1824-31 August 1892), critic and social commentator, was born at Providence, Rhode Island. After failing the entrance examination for Brown University in 1838, Curtis worked in a New York importing house but soon tired...

American writer, orator, and, especially, civil service reformer, George William Curtis (1824-1892) was a patrician whose ideals and causes are blurred in historical retrospect by a personal elitism that bordered on priggishness and was out of step even...

George William Curtis was celebrated in his day as a best-selling author, literary journalist, editor, critic, and popular public speaker. A representative of the genteel tradition, he worked diligently for the democratization of culture and learning. To...

It seems puzzling that the English, whose idea of comfort historically excludes central heating, are the same race of people that invented the easy chair. That was in the late 17th century. After that, people of means sat around in lumpy horsehair splendor...

In an effort to avoid a boardroom brawl and salvage what's left of the troubled merger of AOL and Time Warner, Steve Case announced he was stepping down as chairman and visionary-in-chief. Case's rise and fall is a near-perfect metaphor for the boom...