Josiah Holland

Josiah Gilbert Holland (July 24, 1819 – October 12, 1881) was an American 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 began a medical practice with classmate Dr. Bailey in Springfield, Massachusetts. While trying to establish the practice, he wrote for periodicals such as Knickerbocker Magazine and even tried to make a go publishing a newspaper, The Bay State Weekly Courier, but this attempt proved unsuccessful, as did his medical practice. 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, followed by one in 1849 in Vicksburg, Mississippi.

In 1850 Holland returned to western Massachusetts and became an editor of the Springfield Republican newspaper, working with the well known editor Samuel Bowles. Many of the essays Holland wrote for the paper in the decade before the Civil War were collected and published in book form, which helped to establish his literary reputation.

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