J. A. (Juho August) Hollo was a versatile cultural figure who studied in Paris, Leipzig, Geneva and Vienna. Outside the university and science community, he was an influential literary critic, essayist and fiction writer. Hollo translated hundreds of classic works into Finnish, including texts by Goethe, Dostoevsky, Flaubert, Voltaire and Tolstoy.

In the academic world, Hollo built his career in pedagogy. He also worked as a professor of pedagogy and didactics at the University of Helsinki.