{{short description|American journalist}} {{Use mdy dates|date=January 2025}} {{Infobox person | name = Alfred Holman | image = Alfred H. Holman (1857–1930).png | alt = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1857|7|6}} | birth_place = Yamhill County, Oregon, US | death_date = {{Death date and age|1930|12|14|1857|7|6}} | death_place = Bolinas, California, US | burial_place = | occupation = Newspaper owner, editor | awards = | spouse = | children = | education = | signature = | party = }} '''Alfred H. Holman''' (1857–1930) was a prominent newspaper owner and editor in the western United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
== Biography == Both of Alfred Holman's grandfathers were pioneers of the Oregon Country, settling in Yamhill County in the 1840s. Holman was born there on July 6, 1857.<ref name="Who's">{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/whoswhoincalifor192829detw/page/198/mode/1up |title=Who's Who in California: A Biographical Directory, 1928–29 |editor-first=Justice B. |editor-last=Detwiler |publisher=Who's Who Publishing Company |place=San Francisco |page=198 |date=1929 |access-date=2025-01-03 |via=Internet Archive}}</ref> He was hired by ''The Oregonian'' in 1869-70, and he was associated with that newspaper's editor, Harvey W. Scott, for 40 years hence. He published an obituary for Scott in the ''Oregon Historical Quarterly'' in 1913.<ref name=ScottObit>{{cite journal |title=Harvey W. Scott, Editor—review of his half-century and estimate of his work |journal=Oregon Historical Quarterly |first=Alfred |last=Holman |year=1913 }}</ref> Holman had one daughter, Helen.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=MP19210115.2.64&srpos=36 |title=Society |first=Jessie Mary |last=Bryant |newspaper=The Morning Press |publication-place=Santa Barbara, California |page=5 |date=15 January 1921 |access-date=2025-01-03 |via=California Digital Newspaper Collection}}</ref> Oregon Supreme Court justice Thomas A. McBride was his uncle.
Holman worked as a newspaper editor in Seattle, San Jose, and Sacramento prior to purchasing ''The Argonaut'', a highly regarded San Francisco newspaper, in 1907. He served as the ''Argonaut''{{'s}} editor until he sold it in 1924.<ref name=NYTobit>{{cite news |title=Alfred Holman Dies; San Francisco Writer: Editor and Publisher of The Argonaut From 1907 to 1924-On Board of Pulitzer School |newspaper=The New York Times |date=December 15, 1930 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1930/12/15/archives/alfred-holman-dies-san-francisco-writer-editor-and-publisher-of-the.html |page=21 |url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Argonaut Sold to Alfred Holman |work=San Francisco Call |date=January 11, 1907 |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SFC19070111.2.53&srpos=2&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN-Argonaut+alfred+holman-------1 }}</ref><ref name=ChicoRecord07>{{cite news |title=Alfred Holman to Buy Argonaut: Former Editor and Proprietor of Sacramento Union To Enter New Field |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=CR19070104.2.31&srpos=1&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1 |date=January 4, 1907 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | title=History of Oregon Newspapers |first=George Stanley |last=Turnbull |year=1939 |chapter=Trail of the Reporters}}</ref> With several associates, he purchased the ''San Francisco Bulletin'' that year.<ref>{{cite news |title=Bulletin Purchase Formally Announced |newspaper=Healdsburg Tribune |date=June 9, 1924 |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=HT19240609.2.8&srpos=47 }}</ref> He edited the ''Bulletin'' and the ''Oakland Tribune'' prior to his death in 1930.<ref name=HeraldObit>{{cite news |title=Alfred Holman, Editor, Is Dead |newspaper=The Colusa Herald |place=San Francisco |agency=UP |page=2 |date=December 15, 1930 |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=CSH19301215.2.21&srpos=5&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN-Argonaut+alfred+holman-------1 |access-date=2025-01-03 |via=California Digital Newspaper Collection}}</ref> He served on the advisory board of the Columbia School of Journalism in New York, and on in that capacity made recommendations for the Pulitzer Prize.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_new-york-times_1926-04-24_75_24927/page/n16/mode/1up |title=Pulitzer Awards May 3: Recommendations of Board to Be Confirmed by Columbia Trustees |newspaper=The New York Times |page=17 |date=April 24, 1926 |access-date=2025-01-03 |via=Internet Archive}}</ref> He wrote a number of articles for the ''New York Times'' in the 1920s as that newspaper's "Pacific States correspondent."<ref name=NYTobit />
Prosecutor Francis J. Heney singled out Holman and the ''Argonaut'' in 1908 in his criticism of San Francisco newspapers in the context of the Oregon land fraud trials. Heney charged that Holman compromised his reporting in order to protect the wealthy.<ref>{{cite news | title=Heney Grills Defenders of the Higherups: Styles Editor Holman of the Argonaut Sycophant and Parasite Upon the Rich |work=San Francisco Call |date=April 14, 1908 |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SFC19080414 }}</ref>
Holman served on the committee for the 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SFC19091227.2.35&srpos=56 |title=Prominent Men to Act on Exposition Committee |newspaper=San Francisco Call |page=4 |date=27 December 1909 |access-date=2025-01-03 |via=California Digital Newspaper Collection}}</ref>
Holman was invited in 1918 by the British Government to join an American delegation to view the World War I front.<ref>{{cite news |title=Holman to Visit War Front and Study Conditions |newspaper=The Morning Press |publication-place=Santa Barbara, California |page=3 |date=August 15, 1918 |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=MP19180815.2.35&srpos=7&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1 |access-date=2025-01-03 |via=California Digital Newspaper Collection}}</ref> The delegation witnessed the "probable destruction" of a German U-boat by an American warship.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SDDU19181028.2.21&srpos=23&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1 |title=American Warship Destroys a U-Boat |newspaper=The San Diego Union |agency=AP |page=2 |date=28 October 1918 |access-date=2025-01-03 |via=California Digital Newspaper Collection}}</ref> He described his visit to Paris in an ''Argonaut'' column that was republished in his native Yamhill County.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn96088233/1919-01-30/ed-1/seq-1/|title=Newberg graphic. (Newberg, Or.) 1888-1993, January 30, 1919, Image 1 « Historic Oregon Newspapers}}</ref> In 1922 Holman was offered a position as minister to Greece in the Warren G. Harding administration.<ref>{{cite news|title=Editor Considered for Appointment as Minister to Greece |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SDDU19220406.2.8&srpos=6&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN-Argonaut+alfred+holman-------1 |work=San Diego Union | date=April 6, 1922 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn83025138/1922-04-07/ed-1/seq-1/#index=5&rows=20&searchType=basic&sequence=0&page=1|title=Morning Oregonian. (Portland, Or.) 1861-1937, April 07, 1922, Image 1 « Historic Oregon Newspapers}}</ref>
Holman died of a heart attack while visiting Bolinas, California on December 14, 1930.<ref name=HeraldObit/><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SN19301219.2.27&srpos=12&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN-Argonaut+alfred+holman-------1 |title=Holman Dies at Bolinas |newspaper=Sausalito News |page=4 |date=19 December 1930 |access-date=2025-01-03 |via=California Digital Newspaper Collection}}</ref>
== References == {{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Holman, Alfred}} Category:Journalists from California Category:Journalists from Oregon Category:1857 births Category:1930 deaths