Curtiss, Mina Kirstein, 1896-1985

Mina Stein Curtiss was born on October 13, 1896, in Boston, Massachusetts. She graduated from Smith College in 1918, received a M.A. in English from Columbia University in 1920, and returned to Smith, where she was an associate professor until 1934. She was a research assistant for the Mercury Theater from 1935 to 1938, and she worked for the Office of War Information during World War II. She taught at Smith from 1940 to 1941. In 1942, Curtiss wrote and produced a local radio program in Des Moines, Iowa, in which she featured Iowa soldiers' letters home, and interviews with their families. The response inspired her to expand the project and incorporate letters of servicemen from all over the country, and in 1944 she published an anthology of enlisted men's Letters Home . During the next decades, Curtiss spent much time in France, and later Russia. She was the author of many publications, and received the Legion of Honor from the French government for her books on Marcel Proust and Georges Bizet. She married Henry ("Harry") Tomlinson Curtiss on June 1, 1926.

From the guide to the Mina Curtiss Collection, 1910-1945, (Manuscripts and Archives)

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