J. G. Holland - Springfield Cemetery - Springfield, MA - American Guide Series on Waymarking.com

--- Massachusetts; a guide to its places and people. Page 363; copyright 1937

Josiah Gilbert Holland was an American editor, historian, novelist, and poet. He was born in Belchertown, Massachusetts, on July 24, 1819. He attended Northampton High School and, in 1844, graduated from Berkshire Medical College.

While practicing medicine in Springfield, MA, he wrote for various magazines. He then became editor of the Springfield Republican newspaper, published by abolitionist Samuel Bowles. He gained fame as a writer after the essays he wrote for the paper were collected and published in book form. Following the Civil War he wrote his most popular works, Life of Abraham Lincoln (1866), and Katrina (1869).

His wrote the History of Western Massachusetts and the historical novel Bay Path (1857). In 1858, writing under the pen name Timothy Titcomb, he wrote a collection of essays entitled Titcomb's Letters to Young People, Single and Married and the poem "Bitter Sweet".

In 1869, he moved to New York City and collaborated with Charles Scribner to publish and edit Scribner's Monthly. He continued writing and published three novels: Arthur Bonicastle (1873), Story of Sevenoaks (1875), and Nicholas Minturn (1877). His poetry includes "The Marble Prophecy" (1872), "The Mistress and the Manse" (1874), and "The Puritan's Guest" (1881).

Holland died at age 62 on October 12, 1881, in New York City and is buried in the Methodist section of Springfield Cemetery. His grave is marked by a bas-relief sculpture by Augustus Saint-Gaudens. This was one of Saint-Gaudens earliest commissions.