Holland

who always remained in poor circumstances. As
a boy Josiah worked for a time in a factory, spent
a brief period at the Northampton High School,
which he was forced to leave on account of poor
health, and tried his hand at such gentleman-like
occupations as the times offered to a young fel-
low in his teens—school-teaching, taking daguer-
reotypes, conducting writing-schools. At the age
of twenty-one he began the study of medicine,
not apparently because of any scientific bent. In
1844 he was graduated from the Berkshire Medi-
cal College, and tried, unsuccessfully, to estab-
lish a practice in Springfield, Mass. On Oct. 7,
1845, ne married Elizabeth Luna Chapin of
Springfield. He is said to have employed some
of his leisure in writing for the Knickerbocker
and other magazines, and he founded a weekly
paper which failed after six months. Definitely
abandoning medicine in 1848 he went South and
taught school, first at Richmond, Va., then at
Vicksburg, Miss. In 1850 he returned to Spring-
field and became associated with Samuel Bowles
[g.-z/.] in the editorship of the Springfield Repub-
lican. It was his part to furnish the material of
human interest while Bowles wrote on public
affairs, and under this happy combination of
editors the Republican attained the high position
it long held. It was writings designed for this
newspaper that first brought Holland to notice.
He began with a series of imaginary letters "from
Max Mannering to his sister in the country/' in
which he mildly satirized differences between
town and rural life. He next published serially
a History of Western Massachusetts, issued in
book form in 1855 Jtnen a novel, The Bay-Path;
A Tale of New England Colonial Life, pub-
lished in book form in 1857; and later, over the
signature "Timothy Titcomb," a series of "Let-
ters to Young People" collected in 1858 under
the title Titcomb's Letters to Young People, Sin-
gle and Married (1858). Several of his later
prose works also appeared serially in the Repub-
lican. For a time he was in complete editorial
charge, but in 1857 he sold out his financial in-
terest and ceased to hold a regular desk position,
though he continued as a contributor and had an
undefined editorial connection with the paper. In
1862 when Bowles went to Europe in search of
health, Holland became for a time editor-in-chief.
It was in the decade following his withdrawal
from routine editorial duties that he wrote many
of his most popular works: Bitter Sweet, a Poem
in Dramatic Form (1858) ; Gold Foil Hammered
from Popular Proverbs (1859) ; Miss Gilbert's
Career (1860); Lessons in Life (1861); Letters
to the Joneses (1863); Plain Talks on Familiar
Subjects (1865); Life of Abraham Lincoln

Holland

(1866); Katrina, Her Life and Mine in a Poem
(1867). Soon after the appearance of TitcomVs
Letters he became in demand as a lyceum speak-
er, and lectured in many parts of the country. In
1868-69 he was in Europe, and here in conjunc-
tion with Roswell Smith [q.v."]9 who was also
traveling abroad, he projected a literary maga-
zine. Charles Scribner [q.v."\ had long admired
Dr. Holland and had already suggested to him
the editorship of another periodical, Hours at
Home. On the return of Holland and Smith from
Europe they with Scribner became proprietors,
and Holland editor, of Scribner*s Monthly, which
first appeared in 1870. The well-known publish-
ing house of the Scribners while financially in-
terested did not control the new venture, and
after the death of Charles Scribner some compli-
cations arising out of the use of the name led to
the rechristening of the periodical as the Cen-
tury Magazine. Holland was to continue as edi-
tor. He had, however, long known that he was
suffering from an incurable heart disease, and he
died, suddenly but not unexpectedly, just before
the first number of the Century was given to the
public. After 1870 he lived in New York City,
with a summer home in the Thousand Islands.
In his new residence as in his old he took an
active interest in public affairs, and was for some
time president of the New York City board of
education. The chief writings of his later period
.were three novels, Arthur Bonnicastle (1873),
Sevenoaks(i&7$),B,ndNicholasMinturn (1877);
several volumes of poems, including The Marble
Prophecy and Other Poems (1872), The Mis-
tress of the Manse (1874), The Puritan's Guest
and Other Poems (1881) ; and two series of es-
says, Every-Day Topics (1876,1882). Collected
editions of his poems appeared in 1873 and 1879.
Dr. Holland was not, as has been persistently
stated, a clergyman, and though he was in a sense
a preacher his temper of mind was hardly cleri-
cal. He was rather the intelligent, respected lay-
man who without feeling the responsibility for
mastering and expounding a system of belief
leads the adult Bible class and tries to do what
he can for the good of the community. His
hopeful, somewhat sentimental philosophy grew
out of his knowledge of the ordinary problems of
ordinary people, and a helpful interest in his fel-
low men. He achieved his first marked success
with his TitcomVs Letters to Young People,
Single and Married, and the nature of his mes-
sage may be inferred from this title and from
those of later works like Gold Foil Hammered
from Popular Proverbs, Lessons in Life, and
Plain Talks on Familiar Subjects. In his novels
his purpose is the same as in his moralizing es-

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