A Man from Maine

Before William Randolph Hearst there was Cyrus Curtis.

This biography, written by his devoted son-in-law is an intimate portrait of the man and his beliefs, a story of business acumen coupled with the passion and desire to succeed. Cyrus Curtis built a business empire that would be estimated at over $50 billion dollars today, from humble beginnings with grit and determination. Although written in 1923, the business lessons displayed and explained in this book are as applicable to today's business environment as ever.

Born in Portland, Maine, Curtis was compelled to leave high school after his first year to start working in 1866. 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 1883, Curtis' wife (Louisa Knapp) contributed a one-page supplement to the Tribune and Farmer, a magazine published by Curtis. The following year, the supplement was expanded as an independent publication with Louisa as the editor. Thus the Ladies' Home Journal was born. It rapidly became the leading magazine of its type, reaching a circulation of one million subscriptions within ten years. It was the first American magazine to do so.

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.