Holman, Louis A. (Louis Arthur), 1866-1939

Holman was an illustrator, art editor, and print dealer in Boston, Massachusetts. He was an authority on the English poet, John Keats.

From the description of Louis Arthur Holman collection of Keats iconography and related papers, 1752-1963. (Harvard University). WorldCat record id: 612868415

Illustrator, art editor, and print dealer; Boston, Mass.

Holman was born on Prince Edward Island, Canada, and began work in the bookselling and publishing business in Canada. He moved to Boston in 1889, where he attended Cowles Art School and studied with the painter Charles Woodbury. Holman travelled extensively and contributed illustrations and articles to various popular magazines and worked as art editor of New England Magazine and the Youth's Companion. In 1915, he established a print department at Goodspeed's Book Shop, leaving in 1930 to open his own firm, Holman's Print Shop, where he was joined by his son, Richard Bourne Holman, who ran the firm after Louis' death in 1939 until 1977.

From the description of Louis A. Holman papers and Holman's Print Shop records, ca. 1870-1977. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122394258

Holman was an illustrator, art editor, and print dealer in Boston, Massachusetts. Holman was born on Prince Edward Island, Canada, on July 13, 1866 and was the son of James Ludlow Holman and Ada Longmaid Holman. Holman married Edna Lake Bourne Holman in 1898 and they had one son, Richard Bourne Holman. He began work in the bookselling and publishing business in Canada. In 1889 he moved to Boston where he attended Cowles Art School and studied with the painter Charles Woodbury. Holman travelled extensively and contributed illustrations and articles to various popular magazines and worked as art editor of New England Magazine and the Youth's Companion. In 1915, he established a print department at Goodspeed's Book Shop (Boston), leaving in 1930 to open his own firm, Holman's Print Shop, where he was joined by his son, Richard Bourne Holman, who ran the firm after Louis' death (December 14,1939) until 1977.

Holman became an expert on the "life of Keats and the persons, places, things connected with Keats." He began his studies of the poet John Keats around 1908. He described his collection as a "poor man's for no item in it has cost more than five dollars." He went on to describe his collection as "about 500 pieces - contemporaneous Portraits of Keats, his family, teachers, friends, critics, enemies, Places having relation to Keats, facsimile[s] of Mss, pictures & sculpture which influenced his poetry, first printings of his poems, cut from periodicals of his day, etc..."

From the guide to the Louis Arthur Holman collection of Keats iconography and related papers, 1752-1963., (Houghton Library, Harvard College Library, Harvard University)