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Cyrus Hermann Kotzschmar Curtis (June 18, 1850 – June 7, 1933) was an American publisher of magazines and newspapers, including the ''Ladies' Home Journal'' and the ''Saturday Evening Post''.〔Ingham, John N. Biographical Dictionary of American Business Leaders: A-G. Greenwood Publishing Group, 1983, pp. 230-234.〕 ==Biography== Born in Portland, Maine, Curtis was forced to leave high school after his first year when in 1866 his family lost their home in the Great Fire of Portland. He held a variety of newspaper and advertising jobs in Portland and Boston before starting his first publication, a weekly called the ''People's Ledger'', in Boston in 1872. In 1876, he moved to publishing center Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to reduce his printing costs.〔〔Hatch, Louis Clinton. Maine: A History, volume 4. Published by The American historical society, 1919.〕 Curtis's first wife was Louisa Knapp. In 1883, Knapp contributed a one-page supplement to the ''Tribune and Farmer'', a magazine published by Curtis. The following year, the supplement became an independent publication with Louisa as the editor. Its original name was ''The Ladies Home Journal and Practical Housekeeper'', but Knapp dropped the last three words in 1886.〔()〕 ''The Ladies' Home Journal'' rapidly became the leading magazine of its type, reaching a circulation of one million within ten years. Louisa Knapp remained its editor until she was succeeded by Edward William Bok in 1889. Bok became Louisa and Cyrus Curtis's son-in-law in 1896 when he married their daughter, Mary Louise. Bok retired from the magazine in 1919 but the changes he made vastly increased circulation. Curtis founded the Curtis Publishing Company in 1891; it would eventually publish ''Ladies' Home Journal'', the ''Saturday Evening Post'', ''Holiday'', and others. A separate company founded by Curtis, Curtis-Martin Newspapers, controlled several newspapers, including for a time the ''Philadelphia Public Ledger'', the ''Philadelphia Inquirer'', and the ''New York Evening Post''. Management mistakes at the newspapers led to poor financial returns, and eventually they were sold. While Curtis was alive, his businesses, excepting the newspapers, were generally extremely successful. ''The Ladies Home Journal'' was for decades the most widely circulating women's magazine in the US, and ''The Saturday Evening Post'' enjoyed the highest circulation of any weekly magazine in the world. In 1929, the ''Post'' and the ''Journal'' together ran fully forty percent of all US magazine advertising.〔 One source lists Curtis as the 51st richest person ever, with a fortune of $43.2 billion adjusted for inflation (to 2008 dollars), which according to this source made him richer than J. P. Morgan.〔Gladwell, Malcolm. Outliers. Little, Brown, New York, 2008.〕 Curtis built ''Lyndon'', a Renaissance revival estate in Wyncote, Pennsylvania, with landscaping designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. Two of Curtis's yachts, built 1907 and 1920, were named ''Lyndonia''. Curtis was more than an occasional sailor, however, noting in a 1922 ''New York Times'' interview, "Yachting is not a hobby with me. It is a necessity. 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. Curtis had three large yachts built at Charles L. Seabury Co.: the 115-foot ''Machigonne'' in 1904;〔Not to be confused with the ''Machigonne'' built by the same builder in 1909 for William L. Douglas and later USS ''Machigonne'' (SP 507).〕 the 163-foot ''Lyndonia'' in 1907; and the 228-foot ''Lyndonia'' in 1920.〔Both yachts named ''Lyndonia'' saw later service. ''Lyndonia'' of 1907 as the World War I ''Vega'' (SP 734) and ''Lyndonia'' of 1920 as Pan American World Airways' ''Southern Seas'' until it was commandeered by the US armed services for use in the Pacific theater during World War II.〕〔 Curtis was a founding member of the Camden Yacht Club in Camden, Maine, and its Commodore from 1909 to 1933, later donating the club's facilities to the town. In the summer of 1932, Curtis suffered a heart attack while aboard his yacht, the second ''Lyndonia''. 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, less than two weeks before his eighty-third birthday, and he was interred at West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania.〔(Cyrus Herman Kotzschmer Curtis ), Find A Grave. Accessed August 29, 2007.〕 Soon after his death, most of the buildings on Curtis's estate were demolished, and his daughter founded the ''Curtis Hall Arboretum'' on the site. After the Curtis Publishing Company moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1982, the company's former headquarters on Independence Square in downtown Philadelphia became the ''Curtis Center'', home to a conference center, offices, a health club, retail shops, and restaurants. Cyrus Curtis was among the first ten inductees in the American Advertising Federation's Advertising Hall of Fame (1999).〔Anonymous. "Ad Hall of Fame Opens with 10 Industry Giants" Advertising Age; 06/14/99, Vol. 70 Issue 25, p77.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Cyrus Hermann Kotzschmar Curtis」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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