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Holland's Life of Abraham Lincoln
Soon after the assassination of President Lincoln in April 1865, newspaper editor Josiah Gilbert Holland traveled to Illinois to talk with people who had known Abraham Lincoln “back when.” In 1866 Holland published the earliest full-scale life of the fallen leader.
A great popular success, Holland’s biography introduced American readers who were hungry for personal information about Lincoln’s early life to some of the most famous and enduring Lincoln stories. From Holland the reader learned about Lincoln making restitution for a ruined book, the railsplitter earning his first silver dollar, the millhorse’s kick to his head, the wrestling match with Jack Armstrong. Holland relayed homey stories about the young Illinois legislator and lawyer and poignant ones about the president during the dark days of the Civil War.
Holland was one of the earliest biographers of Lincoln to insist that Lincoln had always opposed slavery and had planned consistently for emancipation. Most debatable, from the viewpoint of some later historians, Holland demonstrated that Lincoln was “eminently a Christian President.” To understand the sixteenth president and the making of his public image, it is necessary to begin with Holland’s Life of Abraham Lincoln .
A great popular success, Holland’s biography introduced American readers who were hungry for personal information about Lincoln’s early life to some of the most famous and enduring Lincoln stories. From Holland the reader learned about Lincoln making restitution for a ruined book, the railsplitter earning his first silver dollar, the millhorse’s kick to his head, the wrestling match with Jack Armstrong. Holland relayed homey stories about the young Illinois legislator and lawyer and poignant ones about the president during the dark days of the Civil War.
Holland was one of the earliest biographers of Lincoln to insist that Lincoln had always opposed slavery and had planned consistently for emancipation. Most debatable, from the viewpoint of some later historians, Holland demonstrated that Lincoln was “eminently a Christian President.” To understand the sixteenth president and the making of his public image, it is necessary to begin with Holland’s Life of Abraham Lincoln .
536 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1866
About the author
J.G. Holland
296 books4 followersJosiah 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.
Holland died on October 12, 1881, at the age of 62, in New York City. Holland is buried in Springfield Cemetery in Springfield, Massachusetts. His gravestone includes a bas-relief portrait sculpted by eminent American 19th-century sculptor, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, and includes the Latin inscription "Et vitam impendere vero" meaning "to devote life to truth".
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.
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.
Holland died on October 12, 1881, at the age of 62, in New York City. Holland is buried in Springfield Cemetery in Springfield, Massachusetts. His gravestone includes a bas-relief portrait sculpted by eminent American 19th-century sculptor, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, and includes the Latin inscription "Et vitam impendere vero" meaning "to devote life to truth".
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.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 10, 2011
This is one of those books that give testament to the truth just because a book is old doesn't mean it doesn't deserve a place on the shelf. I discovered this hidden treasure while visiting a small-town library where often, to maintain a semblance of completeness to their shelves, it is required for them to keep books donated to the library when it first opened a century earlier.
Browsing their shelves, I picked it up; I saw the copyright of 1866; I connected it to the year 1865 (when Lincoln was assassinated); and being the history buff I am, knew I had to discover what the people of that era said of the man we only know from the past.
I was not disappointed. I discovered why Abraham Lincoln was Abraham Lincoln. Prior to reading this wonderful study of his life, I was only familiar with the generic record one would learn in school. Yes, he was president during the American Civil War, but why would that fact make him more significant than Woodrow Wilson (president during WWI), Franklin Roosevelt (president during WWII), or any president who presided over wartime. This is not to diminish any of the other presidents and their service. Each man has his own place. It is merely to state Abraham Lincoln was clearly a man called to the purpose for what his life became, and this excellent book demonstrates that reality. I learned a lot.
What still stuns me about the book (outside of its treatise on Lincoln from the people who knew him in his time) was the reality that I held in my hands not merely a book from that era, a physical object from his time; but that I held something in my hands that was older and more lasting than anything else I knew in my own existence. One hundred and forty-five years. It outlasted all the buildings erected, all the roads laid, all the people who were born. Everything else from that time period was good, but the book was still there. Books outlast everything.
Browsing their shelves, I picked it up; I saw the copyright of 1866; I connected it to the year 1865 (when Lincoln was assassinated); and being the history buff I am, knew I had to discover what the people of that era said of the man we only know from the past.
I was not disappointed. I discovered why Abraham Lincoln was Abraham Lincoln. Prior to reading this wonderful study of his life, I was only familiar with the generic record one would learn in school. Yes, he was president during the American Civil War, but why would that fact make him more significant than Woodrow Wilson (president during WWI), Franklin Roosevelt (president during WWII), or any president who presided over wartime. This is not to diminish any of the other presidents and their service. Each man has his own place. It is merely to state Abraham Lincoln was clearly a man called to the purpose for what his life became, and this excellent book demonstrates that reality. I learned a lot.
What still stuns me about the book (outside of its treatise on Lincoln from the people who knew him in his time) was the reality that I held in my hands not merely a book from that era, a physical object from his time; but that I held something in my hands that was older and more lasting than anything else I knew in my own existence. One hundred and forty-five years. It outlasted all the buildings erected, all the roads laid, all the people who were born. Everything else from that time period was good, but the book was still there. Books outlast everything.
Displaying 1 of 1 review