Background

Fanny Crosby was born on March 24, 1820, in Brewster, New York. She was the daughter of John and Mercy Crosby.

Education

Fanny Crosby attended the New York Institute for Special Education. She studied there for eight years as a student and another two years as a graduate student.

Career

Despite Fanny Crosby's blindness, she nonetheless grew up an active and happy child. Her inclination to versify was encouraged by a visiting Scottish phrenologist, who examined her and proclaimed her a poet.

Fanny Crosby contributed a poetic eulogy on President William Henry Harrison to the New York Herald in 1841 and subsequently published verses in other newspapers. In 1844 she published her first volume, The Blind Girl and Other Poems, and in 1851 her second, Monterey and Other Poems. Besides, she became the first woman who spoke in the United States Senate with her writings. From 1851 Crosby began writing verses to be set to music. With George Frederick Root, music instructor at the school, she wrote a successful cantata, The Flower Queen. Crosby also wrote lyrics for scores of songs, some of which, such as Hazel Dell, There's Music in the Air, and Rosalie, the Prairie Flower, were widely popular. After her graduation, Crosby remained at the New York Institution for the Blind as a teacher of English grammar and rhetoric and ancient history until 1858.

In 1858 Fanny Crosby married Alexander Van Alstyne, also blind, a former pupil, and then a teacher at the school, and she published her third volume, A Wreath of Columbia's Flowers. About 1864, she began writing hymns. Like her poetry, her hymns suffer from cliché and sentimentality, but they also display an occasional gleam of more than ordinary talent. In all, Crosby wrote between 5,500 and 9,000 hymns, the exact count obscured by the numerous pseudonyms she employed to preserve her modesty. As many as 200, according to some sources. The best known of her hymns include Safe in the Arms of Jesus, Rescue the Perishing, Blessed Assurance, The Bright Forever, Savior, More Than Life to Me, and Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior. They were notably popular in the Methodist Church, which for a time, observed an annual Fanny Crosby Day. Most prominent among her many musical collaborators was David Sankey. In 1897 Crosby published a final volume of poetry, Bells at Evening and Other Verses, and she later wrote two volumes of autobiography, Fanny Crosby's Life-Story and Memories of Eighty Years.

Achievements

• Fanny Crosby was best known as a writer. She was one of the most prolific hymnists in history, writing more than 8,000 hymns and gospel songs, with more than 100 million copies printed, despite being blind from shortly after birth. Crosby became the first woman to speak in the United States Senate when she read a poem there.
  
  Additionally, Fanny Crosby graced with several honors. In 1925 The Fanny Crosby Memorial Home in Bridgeport was founded in her honor. Also, in 1925, about 3,000 churches throughout the United States observed Fanny Crosby Day celebrate the 105th anniversary of her birth. In 1934, the Enoch Crosby Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution devoted a historic roadside sign to commemorate Crosby's birthplace on the western side of Route 22 in Doansburg. Fanny Crosby also was posthumously inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 1975. Moreover, in the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church in the United States, the 11th of February is the remembers Crosby's annual feast day.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Memories of Eighty Years

    (Fanny Crosby's Memories of Eighty Years is a delightful r...)

    1906
  • Fanny Crosby Speaks Again: 120 Hymns

    (The book was published after Fanny Crosby's death in 1915.)

    1977
  • The Blind Girl 1844
  • Monterey and Other Poems 1851
  • A Wreath Of Columbia's Flowers 1858
  • Bells at Evening and Other Verses 1897
  • Fanny Crosby's Life Story 1903

Religion

Fanny Crosby was a member of the Bible Baptist Church. Later, she found that something was lacking in her spiritual life and did not have a true love for God in her heart. Crosby began to attend churches of various denominations and finally joined the Cornell Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church in 1887.

Politics

In the period of the 1840 United States Presidential election, Fanny Crosby was an ardent Democrat and wrote verse against Whig candidate William Henry Harrison. By 1852, her views switched from support for the pro-slavery Democrats to the anti-slavery Whigs. Furthermore, Fanny Crosby was an abolitionist and supporter of Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Party. After the Civil War, she also supported the Grand Army of the Republic and its political aims. Additionally, she was a part of a group of lobbyists in Washington and argued for the support of education for the blind.

Views

Fanny Crosby's goal was to attract a million people to Christ through her hymns. When she wrote, she prayed it would bring women and men to Christ and kept careful records of those reported to have been saved through her writings.

Quotations: "It seemed intended by the blessed providence of God that I should be blind all my life, and I thank him for the dispensation. If perfect earthly sight were offered to me tomorrow, I would not accept it. I might not have sung hymns to the praise of God if I had been distracted by the beautiful and interesting things about me."

"From the time I received my first check for my poems, I made up my mind to open my hand wide to those who needed assistance."

"If I had a choice, I would still choose to remain blind for, when I die, the first face I will ever see will be the face of my blessed Saviour."

"Oh, what a happy soul am I, although I cannot see, I am resolved that in this world contented I shall be. How many blessings I enjoy that other people don't. To weep, and sigh, because I'm blind? I cannot, and I won't."

"Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! O, what a foretaste of glory divine! Heir of salvation, purchase of God. Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood."

Personality

Physical Characteristics: Fanny Crosby was blind. She lost her sight to an eye infection and medical ignorance at the age of six weeks.

Quotes from others about the person

• Edith Blumhofer: "The popularity of Fanny Crosby's lyrics, as well as her winsome personality, catapulted her to fame."

Interests

• Politicians

  Henry Clay, Abraham Lincoln

Connections

Fanny Crosby married Alexander Van Alstyne on March 5, 1858. In 1859, they had a daughter, Frances, who died in infancy. By 1880, Fanny and Alexander had separated.

Father:

John Crosby

Mother:

Mercy Crosby

colleague:

Ira David Sankey

Ira David Sankey was an American pioneer in the introduction of a musical style that influenced church services and evangelical campaigns for generations and the hymns that he wrote or popularized continued to be sung well into the 21st century.

Stepsister:

Julia Crosby

Stepsister:

Caroline Morris Crosby

husband:

Alexander Van Alstyne

Alexander Van Alstyne was a teacher of the blind and a church organist.

Daughter:

Frances Alstyne

colleague:

George Frederick Root

George Root was an American songwriter. He found particular fame during the American Civil War, with songs such as Tramp! Tramp! Tramp! and The Battle Cry of Freedom. He is regarded as the first American to compose a secular cantata.

References

• Her Heart Can See
  2005
• Fanny Crosby: The Hymn Writer
  1976
• Fanny Crosby: The Blind Girl's Song
  2013
• Fanny Crosby Still Lives
  2001
• Fanny Crosby: Writer of 8,000 Songs
  1985