Josiah Gilbert Holland

Josiah Gilbert Holland
Born	(1819-07-24)July 24, 1819 Dwight, Belchertown, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died	October 12, 1881(1881-10-12) (aged 62) Park Avenue, New York, New York, U.S.
Resting place	Springfield Cemetery, Springfield, Massachusetts, U.S.
Pen name	Timothy Titcomb J.G. Holland
Occupation	Writer editor poet publisher lecturer physician teacher superintendent
Language	American English
Period	Modern
Genres	Romantic poetry fiction journalism Fireside poets travelogue Self-help book opinion journalism literary criticism polemic essay spiritual literature advice column autobiography correspondence oration
Literary movement	Romanticism, Transcendentalism and Literary realism
Years active	from 1844
Employers	Springfield Republican Scribner’s Monthly
Notable works	Life of Abraham Lincoln Miss Gilbert’s Career Bitter-sweet
Spouse	Elizabeth Luna Chapin ​ ​ (m. 1845)​
Children	5, including Arthur Gilbert, Annie Elizabeth H. Howe, Kate Melia H. Van Wagenen, Julia and Theodore
Parents	Harrison Holland and Anna Gilbert
Signature

Josiah Gilbert Holland (July 24, 1819 – October 12, 1881) was an American novelist, essayist, poet and spiritual mentor to the Nation in the years following the Civil War.^[1] Born in Western Massachusetts, he was “the most successful man of letters in the United States” in the latter half of the nineteenth century and sold more books in his lifetime than Mark Twain did in his.^[2][3]

Known often by his initials “J.G.,” Holland penned the first biography of Abraham Lincoln just months after his assassination, which was a bestseller. Holland was the first to publish a poem written by an African American.

One of Holland’s novels was among the earliest examples of the genre that became literary realism. He published a few poems of Emily Dickinson’s in the newspaper that he edited. Holland and his wife, Elizabeth Chapin Holland, were close friends with her.

Holland became a popular Lyceum lecturer and wrote advice essays under the pseudonym Timothy Titcomb as well as lyrics to hymns, including the beloved Methodist Christmas tune "There's a Song in the Air.” He helped establish and was editor of the middle-class flagship magazine Scribner's Monthly.

Though Holland was a contemporary of the canonical and more renowned poet Walt Whitman and the novelist Herman Melville, neither “ever tasted the sweets of success as Holland did, perhaps, because neither wrote what the nation’s readers cared so much about.”^[4] His writings are quoted by politicians and pastors alike though few today recognize Holland’s name.