Josiah Gilbert Holland Quote

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. 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.
Holland penned the first biography of Abraham Lincoln within months of his death, which was a bestseller. He was said to be the first to publish, in a book, a poem written by an African American.
One of Holland’s novels was among the earliest examples of the genre that became literary realism, and he helped publish 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. His writings are quoted by politicians and people alike though few today recognize Holland’s name.