He was forced to leave high school after his first year to start working after his family lost their home in the Great Fire of Portland.

[citation needed] In 1876, he moved to Philadelphia, then a major publishing center, to reduce his printing costs.

[4] The Ladies' Home Journal rapidly became the leading magazine of its type, reaching a circulation of one million subscriptions within ten years.

[citation needed] Louisa Knapp continued as editor until 1889 when she was succeeded by Edward William Bok.

Bok introduced business practices such as: low subscription rates, inclusion of advertising to off-set costs, and reliance on popular content.

[6] Curtis built Lyndon, a Renaissance revival estate in Wyncote, Pennsylvania, with landscaping designed by Frederick Law Olmsted.

I spend half my time on this ship," and further noting that most of his meetings with staff or board members were held in the second Lyndonia's dining room.

While he was recuperating at Jefferson Hospital in Philadelphia, his second wife, Kate Stanwood Cutter Pillsbury Curtis, died suddenly.

Curtis then remained in frail health until his death on June 7, 1933, at age 82, and he was interred at West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania.

[15] In Thomaston, Maine, he funded the 1927–29 recreation of Montpelier, the demolished 1795 mansion of Revolutionary War general Henry Knox.