Josiah Gilbert Holland

Josiah Gilbert Holland Poems

Josiah Gilbert Holland Biography

Josiah Gilbert Holland (July 24, 1819 – October 12, 1881) was a novelist and poet who also wrote under the pseudonym Timothy Titcomb. He helped to found and edit Scribner's Monthly (afterwards the Century Magazine), in which appeared his novels, Arthur Bonnicastle, The Story of Sevenoaks, Nicholas Minturn. In poetry he wrote "Bitter Sweet" (1858), "Kathrina", the lyrics to the Methodist hymn There's a Song in the Air, and many others. Born in Belchertown, Massachusetts, on July 24, 1819, Holland grew up in a poor family struggling to make ends meet. After a time, Josiah was forced to work in a factory to help the family. He then spent a short time studying at Northampton (Massachusetts) High School before withdrawing due to ill health. Later he studied medicine at Berkshire Medical College, where he took a degree in 1844. Hoping to become a successful physician, he established a medical practice in Springfield, Massachusetts, but his attempt proved unsuccessful. In 1845 he married Elizabeth Luna Chapin. After giving up medicine in 1848, he left Western Massachusetts and took a teaching position in Richmond, Virginia, and later in Vicksburg, Mississippi. In 1850 Holland returned to the Western Massachusetts and became an editor of the Springfield Republican newspaper, working with the well known editor, Samuel Bowles. Many of the essays he wrote for the paper in the decade before the Civil War were collected and published in book form and established his literary reputation. His first book was a History of Western Massachusetts. He followed in 1857 with an historical novel, Bay Path, and a collection of essays entitled Titcomb's Letters to Young People, Single and Married in 1858. In 1862, when Samuel Bowles took and extended trip to Europe, Holland temporarily assumed the duties as editor-in-chief of the Springfield Republican. After the Civil War he reduced his editorial duties and wrote many of his most popular works, including the Life of Abraham Lincoln (1866), and Katrina (1869). In 1868 Holland traveled to Europe, and while there he met Russel Smith. Together they developed the idea of starting a magazine. And when they returned to the United States in 1869 the two men collaborated with Charles Scribner to publish Scribner's Monthly. The first issue was published in 1870 with Holland as editor. These years in New York were also productive for his own literary efforts. During the 1870s he published three novels: Arthur Bonicastle (1873), Sevenoaks (1875), and Nicholas Miniturn (1877). His poetry volumes included The Marble Faun (1872), The Mistress and the Manse (1874), and The Puritan's Guest (1881). Holland died in 1881, at the age of 62, in New York City. Although his literary products are rarely read today, during the late nineteenth century they were enormously popular, and more than half a million volumes of Holland's writings were sold. He is also remembered today for his contributions as an editor. Holland and his wife were frequent correspondents and family friends of poet Emily Dickinson.)

The Best Poem Of Josiah Gilbert Holland

God, Give Us Men!

GOD, give us men!
A time like this demands
Strong minds, great hearts, true faith and ready hands;
Men whom the lust of office does not kill;
Men whom the spoils of office can not buy;
Men who possess opinions and a will;
Men who have honor; men who will not lie;
Men who can stand before a demagogue
And damn his treacherous flatteries without winking!
Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog
In public duty, and in private thinking;
For while the rabble, with their thumb-worn creeds,
Their large professions and their little deeds,
Mingle in selfish strife, lo! Freedom weeps,
Wrong rules the land and waiting Justice sleeps.

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