Reviews

Fanny Crosby's Life Story by Fanny J. Crosby, Will Carleton

pturnbull's review

3.0

This is the memoir that Fanny Crosby, prolific hymnist and poet, wrote at age 83. Liveliest when it describes her youth, girlhood, and education, her personality is more puckish than I expected. Upon maturation, her story devolves into descriptions of the times that she's met numerous famous persons. There is an amusing anecdote about Grover Cleveland, the brother of the head teacher at the New York Institute for the Blind, where Crosby worked as a teacher. As a young man, he did her the favor of copying out poems for her, but was berated for doing so by the new Superintendent there. Cleveland found this amusing, and advised Crosby what to say the next time it happened, which she did, to excellent effect. Crosby leaves out most of her marriage to Alexander Van Alstyne, though the facts of it are tantalizing, since he was a former student placed into her care by his mother, and eleven years younger than she. Other sources on the web mention Crosby's philanthropy to the poor and her residence on the lower east side, a terrible slum at the time, but she does not mention this either. An author of over 5,000 Christian hymns, including "Blessed Assurance" and "Rescue the Perishing," her poetry is still performed by gospel musicians and choirs. For deeper insight about her life as well as discussion about its historical and cultural context, see Her Heart Can See: The Life and Hymns of Fanny J. Crosby by Edith L. Blumhofer.

Fanny Crosby's Life Story is available in digital form from Open Library.