View source for Fanny Crosby

{{short description|American mission worker, poet, lyricist, and composer (1820–1915)}}
{{Use American English|date = January 2020}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2020}}
{{Infobox person
| name                = Fanny Jane Crosby
| image               = Fanny Crosby.jpg
| caption             = Crosby in 1872
| birth_name          = Frances Jane Crosby
| birth_date          = {{Birth date|1820|3|24|mf=y}}
| birth_place         = [[Brewster, New York]], U.S.
| death_date          = {{death date and age|1915|2|12|1820|3|24|mf=y}}
| death_place         = [[Bridgeport, Connecticut]], U.S.
| occupation          = [[Lyricist]], [[poet]], [[composer]]
| years_active        = 1844–1915
| spouse              = {{marriage|Alexander van Alstyne, Jr.|March 5, 1858|July 18, 1902|end=died}}
| children            = 1
| signature           = Signature of Fanny Crosby (1820–1915).png
}}

'''Frances Jane van Alstyne''' (née '''Crosby'''; March 24, 1820 – February 12, 1915), more commonly known as '''Fanny J. Crosby''', was an American mission worker, poet, lyricist, and composer. A prolific hymnist, she wrote more than 8,000 [[hymns]] and [[gospel music|gospel songs]],{{efn|One source indicates at least 8,440. See {{cite book |first=Armin |last=Haeussler |title=The Story of Our Hymns: The Handbook to the Hymnal of the Evangelical and Reformed Church |edition=3rd |publisher=General Synod of the Evangelical and Reformed Church by Eden Pub. House |year=1954 |page=613}} and {{harvp|Osbeck|1999|p=12}}}} with more than 100 million copies printed.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hawkinson |first=Don |title=Character for Life: An American Heritage: Profiles of Great Men and Women of Faith who Shaped Western Civilization |publisher=New Leaf Publishing Group |year=2005 |page=35 |isbn=9780892216291}}</ref> She is also known for her teaching and [[rescue mission]] work. By the end of the 19th century, she had become a household name.{{sfnp|Morgan|2003|p=183}}

Crosby was known as the "Queen of Gospel Song Writers"<ref name="Wilhoit1984">{{cite journal |last1=Wilhoit |first1=Mel. R |title=The Music of Urban Revivalism |journal=[[The Hymn (journal)|The Hymn]] |date=October 1984 |volume=35 |page=222 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015012773803&view=1up&seq=240 |publisher=Hymn Society of America}}</ref> and the "Mother of modern congregational singing in America",<ref>{{cite web |url=http://landmarksse.org/fannycrosby.html |title=Fanny Crosby |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180503042012/http://landmarksse.org/fannycrosby.html |archive-date=May 3, 2018 |url-status=usurped |publisher=Landmarks Preservation Society of Southeast, Inc |date=February 11, 2010}}</ref> with most American [[hymnal]]s containing her work.{{sfnp|Church Publishing|2010|pp=216–217}} Her gospel songs were "paradigmatic of all revival music",{{sfnp|Wilhoff|2005|p=92}} and [[Ira Sankey]] attributed the success of the [[Moody and Sankey]] evangelical campaigns largely to Crosby's hymns.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Commire |first1=Anne |author-link1=Anne Commire |last2=Klezmer |first2=Deborah |title=Women in world history : a biographical encyclopedia |title-link=Women in World History |date=2000 |publisher=Yorkin Publications |location=Waterford, CT |page=220 |isbn=9780787637361}}</ref> Some of Crosby's best-known works include "[[Pass Me Not, O Gentle Saviour]]", "[[Blessed Assurance]]", "Jesus Is Tenderly Calling You Home", "Praise Him, Praise Him", "Rescue the Perishing", and "[[To God Be the Glory]]". Some publishers were hesitant to have so many hymns by one person in their hymnals, so Crosby used nearly 200 different [[pseudonym]]s during her career.{{sfnp|Hall|1914|p=41}}{{efn|For a list of 98 of her pseudonyms, see {{cite web |url=http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/c/r/o/s/crosby_fj.htm |title=Frances Jane Crosby (Fanny Crosby) 1820–1915}}  One source indicates that she used approximately 250 pseudonyms; see {{harvp|Neptune|2002|p=91}}}}

Crosby also wrote more than 1,000 [[secular]] poems{{sfnp|Ruffin|1995|p=50}} and had four books of poetry published, as well as two best-selling [[Autobiography|autobiographies]]. Additionally, she co-wrote popular secular songs, political and patriotic songs, and at least five [[cantata]]s on biblical and patriotic themes, including ''The Flower Queen'', the first secular cantata by an American composer. She was committed to Christian rescue missions and was known for her public speaking.

{{TOC limit|limit=3}}

==Early life and education==
[[File:Fanny Crosby birthplace.jpg|thumb|Birthplace of Fanny Crosby]]
Frances Jane Crosby was born on March 24, 1820, in the village of [[Brewster, New York|Brewster]], about {{convert |50|mi|km}} north of New York City.{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|pp=1–13}}<ref>{{Cite news|title=Fanny Crosby {{!}} Biography, Hymns, Poems, & Facts {{!}} Britannica|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Fanny-Crosby|access-date=2021-12-11|newspaper=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en}}</ref> She was the only child of John Crosby and his second wife Mercy Crosby, both of whom were relatives of [[American Revolutionary War|Revolutionary War]] spy [[Enoch Crosby]]. He was a widower who had a daughter from his first marriage.{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=14}} According to [[C. Bernard Ruffin]], John and Mercy were possibly first cousins; however, "by the time Fanny Crosby came to write her memoirs [in 1906], the fact that her mother and father were related... had become a source of embarrassment, and she maintained that she did not know anything about his lineage".{{sfnp|Ruffin|1995|p=20}}
[[File:Fanny Crosby and family.jpg|right|thumb|(l to r) Mercy, Julia, and Caroline Morris and Fanny Crosby]]
Crosby was proud of her [[Puritan]] heritage.{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2006a|p={{page needed|date=September 2021}}}} She traced her ancestry from Anna Brigham and Simon Crosby who arrived in Boston in 1635<ref>{{cite journal|publisher=New England Historic Genealogical Society|journal=The New England Historical & Genealogical Register and Antiquarian Journal|volume=14|title=S.G. Drake, 1860|pages=310–311}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Eleanor Francis (Davis)|last=Crosby|title=Simon Crosby the Emigrant: His English Ancestry, and Some of his American Descendants|publisher=GH Ellis Co|year=1914|pages=45, 98}}</ref> (and were among the founders of [[Harvard College]]);<ref>{{cite book |first=Warren Dunham |last=Foster |title=Heroines of Modern Religion |publisher=Ayer |year=1913 |page=117}}</ref> their descendants married into [[Mayflower|Mayflower families]],{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2006a|p={{page needed|date=September 2021}}}} making Crosby a descendant of Elder [[William Brewster (pilgrim)|William Brewster]], [[Edward Winslow]], and [[Thomas Prence]], and a member of the exclusive Daughters of the Mayflower.{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=11}}

She was also a member of the [[Daughters of the American Revolution]] in [[Bridgeport, Connecticut]],{{sfnp|Ruffin|1995|p=238}} writing the verses of the state song of the Connecticut branch.<ref>{{cite journal|journal=Daughters of the American Revolution Continental Congress|title=Proceedings of the Continental Congress of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution|volume=24|publisher=The Congress|year=1915|page=446}}</ref> Through Simon Crosby, Fanny was also a relative of [[Presbyterianism|Presbyterian]] minister [[Howard Crosby (minister)|Howard Crosby]] and his [[Neoabolitionism (race relations)|neoabolitionist]] son [[Ernest Howard Crosby]],<ref>{{Citation|first=Ralph E.|last=Luker|title=The Social Gospel in Black and White: American Racial Reform, 1885–1912|publisher=UNC Press Books|year=1998|page=242}}</ref> as well as singers [[Bing Crosby|Bing]] and [[Bob Crosby]].{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|pp=ix, 3, 11}}

At six weeks old, Crosby caught a cold and developed inflammation of the eyes. [[Mustard plaster|Mustard poultices]] were applied to treat the discharges.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/08/30/nyregion/westchester-guide-609692.html|title=Westchester Guide: Fanny Crosby's Day|work=New York Times|date=August 30, 1992|first=Eleanor|last=Charles|access-date=May 2, 2010}}</ref> According to Crosby, this procedure damaged her [[optic nerve]]s and blinded her, but modern physicians think that her blindness was more likely congenital and, given her age, may simply not have been noticed by her parents.{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=15}}<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://www.leben.us/index.php/component/content/article/63-volume-4-issue-3/262-fanny-crosby-the-early-years |title=Fanny Crosby: The Early Years |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719124132/http://www.leben.us/index.php/component/content/article/63-volume-4-issue-3/262-fanny-crosby-the-early-years |archive-date=July 19, 2011 |url-status=dead |journal=Leben: A Journal of Reformation Life |volume=4 |issue=3 |date=July–September 2008}}</ref>

Her father died in November 1820 when Fanny was only six months old, so she was raised by her mother and maternal grandmother Eunice Paddock Crosby (born about 1778; died about 1831).{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|pp=14, 27}} These women grounded her in Christian principles, helping her memorize long passages from the Bible, and she became an active member of the [[John Street Methodist Church|John Street Methodist Episcopal Church]] in [[Manhattan]].<!--Pre-NYC, which did not exist until 1898-->
[[File:Peach Pond Meeting House 1917.jpg|right|thumb|Peach Pond Meeting House, North Salem, New York]]
When Crosby was three, the family moved to [[North Salem, New York]], where Eunice had been raised.{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=13}} In April 1825, she was examined by the surgeon [[Valentine Mott]], who concluded that her condition was inoperable and that her blindness was permanent.{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|pp=19–20}}

At age eight, Crosby wrote her first poem which described her condition.{{sfnp|Carleton|1903|p={{page needed|date=September 2021}}}} She later stated: "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 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."<ref name="christianhistorytimeline1">"Fanny Crosby; America's Hymn Queen", ''Glimpses of Christian History'' 198, http://www.christianhistorytimeline.com/GLIMPSEF/Glimpses2/glimpses198.shtml</ref> She also once said, "when I get to heaven, the first face that shall ever gladden my sight will be that of my Savior".<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PqLNAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA302|title=The Sunday-School World|year=1900|access-date=August 20, 2013}}</ref> According to biographer Annie Willis, "had it not been for her affliction she might not have so good an education or have so great an influence, and certainly not so fine a memory".<ref name="autogenerated5">Annie Isabel Willis, "A Blind Hymn Writer", ''Daily True American'', August 1, 1889, p. 2.</ref>

In 1828, Mercy and Fanny moved to the home of a Mrs. Hawley in [[Ridgefield, Connecticut]].{{sfnp|Neptune|2001|p=242}} While residing in Ridgefield, they attended the Presbyterian church on the village green.{{sfnp|Crosby|1906|p=6}} Historian Edith L. Blumhofer described the Crosby home environment as sustained by "an abiding Christian faith".{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=16}} Crosby memorized five chapters of the Bible each week from age 10, with the encouragement of her grandmother and later Mrs. Hawley; by age 15, she had memorized the [[Canonical gospels|four gospels]], the [[Pentateuch]],<ref name="autogenerated5"/> the [[Book of Proverbs]], the [[Song of Songs|Song of Solomon]], and many of the [[Psalms]].<ref name="christianhistorytimeline3"/> From 1832, a music teacher came to Ridgefield twice a week to give singing lessons to her and some of the other children.{{sfnp|Crosby|1906|p=8}} Around the same time, she attended her first Methodist church services at the Methodist Episcopal Church, and she was delighted by their hymns.{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=25}}

Crosby enrolled at the [[New York Institute for the Blind|New York Institution for the Blind]] (NYIB) in 1835, just before her 15th birthday.{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=30}} She remained there for eight years as a student, and another two years as a graduate pupil,{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=71}} during which time she learned to play the piano, organ, harp, and guitar, and became a good soprano singer. While she was studying at NYIB in 1838, her mother Mercy remarried and the couple had three children together.{{sfnp|Neptune|2001|p=8}} Mercy's husband abandoned her in 1844.{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|pp=118–21}}

==Early career (1843–1858)==
After graduation from the NYIB in 1843, Crosby joined a group of [[lobbying|lobbyists]] in [[Washington, D.C.]], arguing for support of education for the blind. She was the first woman to speak in the [[United States Senate]] when she read a poem there.{{sfnp|Hall|1914|p=38}} She appeared before the joint houses of [[United States Congress|Congress]] and recited these lines:

{{blockquote|<poem>O ye, who here from every state convene,
Illustrious band! may we not hope the scene
You now behold will prove to every mind
Instruction hath a ray to cheer the blind.<ref>[http://yesteryearsnews.wordpress.com/2009/06/19/fanny-crosby-blind-hymn-writer "FANNY CROSBY IS DEAD AT HER HOME: Noted Hymn Writer, Blind Since Youth, Lives To Age of Ninety-Five"], ''The Lincoln Daily Star'', February 12, 1915.</ref></poem>}}

Crosby was among the students from the NYIB who gave a concert for Congress on January 24, 1844. She recited an original composition calling for an institution for educating the blind in every state<ref>For words, see "An Address" (January 24, 1844), {{harvp|Crosby|1844|pp=149–151}}</ref> which was praised by [[John Quincy Adams]], among others.{{sfnp|Spann|Williams|2008|p=43}} Two days later, she was among a group of Blind Institution students who gave a presentation to notable people at [[Trenton, New Jersey]], where she recited an original poem calling for the aid and education of the blind.<ref>For words, see "An Address", January 24, 1844, {{harvp|Crosby|1844|pp=152–154}}</ref> President [[James K. Polk]] visited the NYIB in 1845 and Crosby recited a poem that she composed for the occasion which praised "republican government".{{sfnp|Spann|Williams|2008|p=74}} In 1851, she addressed the New York state legislature.<ref>Fanny Crosby, New York Institution for the Blind, ''An Address to the Legislature of New-York: On the Occasion of their Visit as Guests of the Common Council of the City, to the New-York Institution for the Blind'' (Lambert & Lane, Stationers, 69 Wall Street, New York, NY; 1851)</ref>

In April 1846, Crosby spoke before a joint session of the United States Congress, with delegations from the Boston and Philadelphia Institutions for the Blind,{{sfnp|Crosby|1906|p=19}} "to advocate support for the education of the blind in Boston, Philadelphia, and New York".<ref name=Congressional>"Congressional", ''The Hartford Times'', May 9, 1846, p. 2.</ref> She testified before a special [[congressional subcommittee]], and she performed in the music room at the [[White House]] for President Polk and his wife.<ref name=Congressional/> Among the songs that she sang as she accompanied herself on the piano was her own composition:

{{blockquote|<poem>Our President! We humbly turn to thee –
Are not the blind the objects of thy care?{{sfnp|Spann|Williams|2008|p=74}}<ref>Frances Jane Crosby, ''Monterrey and Other Poems'', rev. ed. New York: R. Craighead, 1856, pp. 60–61.</ref></poem>}}

In 1846, Crosby was an instructor at the NYIB and was listed as a "graduate pupil".<ref name="autogenerated5"/> She subsequently joined the school's faculty, teaching grammar, rhetoric, and history;<ref name="autogenerated6">Annie Isabel Willis, "A Blind Hymnwriter", ''Daily True American'', August 1, 1889, p. 2.</ref> she remained there until three days before her wedding on March 5, 1858. While teaching at the NYIB, she befriended future US president [[Grover Cleveland]]<ref>Fanny Crosby, "Cleveland as a Teacher in the Institution for the Blind", ''McClure's Magazine'', March 1909, pp. 581–83.</ref> then aged 17.{{sfnp|Spann|Williams|2008|p=152}} The two spent many hours together at the end of each day, and he often transcribed the poems that she dictated to him.{{sfnp|Spann|Williams|2008|p=152}}<ref>George Frederick Parker, ''Recollections of Grover Cleveland'', 2nd ed. (The Century Co., 1911): 22–25. {{ISBN?}}</ref> He wrote for her a recommendation which was published in her 1906 autobiography.{{sfnp|Spann|Williams|2008|p=152}} She wrote a poem that was read at the dedication of Cleveland's [[birthplace]] in [[Caldwell, New Jersey]], in March 1913, being unable to attend due to her health.{{sfnp|Spann|Williams|2008|p=152}}<ref>[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1913/02/22/100389189.pdf "$18,000 Fund to Buy Cleveland's Home; His Birthplace at Caldwell, NJ, Will Be Dedicated as a National Memorial"], The New York Times (February 22, 1913)</ref>

==Christian faith==
Crosby was a longtime member of the Sixth Avenue Bible Baptist Church in [[Brooklyn, New York]], which has been in existence continuously since 1867. She served as a consecrated Baptist missionary, deaconess, and lay preacher. She wrote hymns together with her minister Robert Lowry, such as "[[All the Way My Savior Leads Me]]" and many others.

There was a [[cholera]] epidemic in New York City from May to November 1849, and she remained at the NYIB to nurse the sick rather than leaving the city. Subsequently, according to Blumhofer, "Crosby seemed worn, languid, even depressed" when the Institution re-opened in November, forcing her to teach a lighter load.{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|pp=78–79}} According to [[C. Bernard Ruffin|Bernard Ruffin]]:
{{Blockquote | In this atmosphere of death and gloom, Fanny became increasingly introspective over her soul's welfare.  She began to realize that something was lacking in her spiritual life. She knew that she had gotten wrapped up in social, political, and educational reform, and did not have a true love for God in her heart.}}
[[File:Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, New York.jpg|thumb|Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims, Brooklyn]]<!-- not Brooklyn, NY -- misleading as this is long before NYC was consolidated in 1898. -->

In the Fall of 1850, after being troubled by a dream, Crosby went to revival meetings at the thirteenth Street Methodist Church in New York city where she twice vainly sought the peace with God she craved, but which she finally realized on November 30 during a congregational hymn of consecration while seeking God alone at the altar. Crosby stated that she then felt "flooded with celestial light."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hearn |first1=Chester |title=Fanny Crosby: Safe in the Arms of Jesus |date=2013 |publisher=CLC Publications |location=Fort Washington, PA |isbn=978-1936143931 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-Zcn003G7ZYC&dq=1850++thirteenth+Street+Methodist+Church&pg=PT16 |access-date=16 December 2023}}</ref>{{sfnp|Neptune|2002|p=58}}

Crosby attended churches of various denominations until spring 1887, including the [[Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims]] in [[Brooklyn Heights]] led by Congregationalist [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionist]] [[Henry Ward Beecher]] who was an innovator with church music.{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2006b|p={{Page needed |date=August 2015}}}} She attended the [[Trinity Church (Manhattan)|Trinity Episcopal church]],{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=115}} and liked to worship at the North West [[Dutch Reformed church]] and the Central Presbyterian Church (later known as the Brooklyn Tabernacle). In later life, she said that one of her favorite preachers was [[Theodore L. Cuyler|Theodore Ledyard Cuyler]], minister of the North East [[Sea and Land Church|Dutch Reformed Church]].{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=115}}

Tradition insists that she was a member in good standing of the [[John Street Methodist Church|John Street Methodist Episcopal Church]] in Manhattan,{{sfnp|Hall|1914|p=34}} but there are no contemporaneous records to confirm this.{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=350}} By 1869, she attended the Chelsea Methodist Episcopal Church.{{sfnp|Dunlap|2004|pp=32–33}}

Crosby was not identified publicly with the American [[holiness movement]] of the second half of the 19th century and left no record of an experience of [[entire sanctification]]. She was, however, a [[fellow traveler]] of the Wesleyan holiness movement, including prominent members of the American Holiness movement in her circle of friends and attending Wesleyan/Holiness [[camp meeting]]s.<ref name = Schwanz1998>{{Citation|first=Keith|last=Schwanz|title=Satisfied: Women Hymn Writers of the 19th Century Wesleyan/Holiness Movement|place=Grantham, PA|publisher=Wesleyan/Holiness women Clergy|year=1998|url=http://www.whwomenclergy.org/booklets/satisfied.php|access-date=March 14, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120213134130/http://www.whwomenclergy.org/booklets/satisfied.php|archive-date=February 13, 2012|url-status=dead}}.</ref> For example, she was a friend of Walter and [[Phoebe Palmer]], "the mother of the holiness movement"<ref>{{Citation|contribution=Phoebe Palmer: Mother of the Holiness Movement|title=Christian History|year=2004|url=http://www.christianbook.com/phoebe-palmer-mother-the-holiness-movement/pd/6010361/1192780471?item_code=WW&netp_id=759975&event=ESRCN&view=details#curr}}.</ref> and "arguably the most influential female theologian in Christian history",<ref>{{Citation|first=Charles Edward|last=White|title=Phoebe Palmer and the Development of Pentecostal Pneumatology|journal=Wesleyan Theological Journal|issue=Spring-Fall|year=1988|volume=198|url=http://wesley.nnu.edu/fileadmin/imported_site/wesleyjournal/1988-wtj-23.pdf|access-date=June 25, 2017}}</ref> and their daughter [[Phoebe Knapp]], with whom she wrote "[[Blessed Assurance]]"; she often visited the Methodist camp grounds at [[Ocean Grove, New Jersey]],<ref name="autogenerated2000">{{Citation|first=Wayne|last=Bell|title=Ocean Grove: Images of America|publisher=Arcadia|year=2000|page=30}}</ref> as their guest.<ref name=Schwanz1998/> She vacationed each summer at Ocean Grove between 1877 and 1897 (and possibly longer),<ref name="autogenerated2000"/> where she would speak in the Great Auditorium and hold receptions in her cottage to meet her admirers.<ref name="nytimes2">{{Citation|title=A Unique Hymn Writer|newspaper=The New York Times|date=August 22, 1897|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1897/08/22/100431555.pdf}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|first=Troy|last=Messenger|title=Holy Leisure: Recreation and Religion in God's Square Mile|publisher=Temple University Press|year=2000|page=114}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.oceangrovehistory.org/HeritageTrails/womansinsert.htm|title=Women's Heritage Trail|publisher=Ocean grove History|access-date=August 20, 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141109140410/http://www.oceangrovehistory.org/heritagetrails/womansinsert.htm|archive-date=November 9, 2014}}</ref>
[[File:Cornell Methodist Episcopal Church 1906.jpg|thumb|right|Cornell Methodist Episcopal Church (1906)]]
In 1877, Crosby met [[William J. Kirkpatrick]], one of the most prolific composers of gospel song tunes<ref name="Ian C. Bradley 1997">{{Citation|first=Ian C.|last=Bradley|title=Abide with Me: The World of Victorian Hymns|publisher=GIA|year=1997|page=172}}.</ref> and "the most prominent publisher in the Wesleyan/Holiness Movement".<ref name=Schwanz1998/> She called him "Kirkie"{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=129}} and wrote many hymns with him.<ref name = Schwanz1998/> Some of her hymns reflected her Wesleyan beliefs, including her call to consecrated Christian living in "[[I Am Thine, O Lord]]" (1875):<ref>{{Citation|title=I am Thine, O Lord|publisher=Hymn time|url=http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/i/a/t/iatolord.htm|access-date=June 25, 2017|archive-date=July 12, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110712233739/http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/i/a/t/iatolord.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>

{{blockquote|<poem>Consecrate me now to Thy service, Lord,
By the power of grace divine.
Let my soul look up with a steadfast hope,
And my will be lost in Thine.<ref>Stanza 2, "I Am Thine, O Lord"</ref></poem>}}

In 1887, she joined the Cornell Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church by "confession of faith".{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=115}}

==Early writing career (1841–1865)==
===Poetry===
[[File:Fanny Crosby young.jpg|right|thumb|A young Fanny Crosby]]
Crosby's earliest published poem was sent without her knowledge to [[P. T. Barnum]], who published it in his ''[[The Herald of Freedom]]''.{{sfnp|Crosby|1906|pp=31–32}} She was examined by [[George Combe]], a visiting Scottish [[phrenology|phrenologist]], who pronounced her a "born poetess".{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=129}} She had experienced some temporary opposition to her poetry by the faculty of the Blind Institution, but her inclination to write was encouraged by this experience. The Institution found Hamilton Murray to teach her poetic composition, though he admitted his own inability to compose poetry.{{sfnp|Ruffin|1995|p=41}}

In 1841, ''[[New York Herald]]'' published Crosby's [[eulogy]] on the death of President [[William Henry Harrison]], thus beginning her literary career. Her poems were published frequently in ''[[The Saturday Evening Post]]'', the ''Clinton Signal'', the ''Fireman's Journal'',<ref name="Clifford E. Rhinehart 1974">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rVLOhGt1BX0C| first =Clifford E | last = Rhinehart | contribution = Fanny Crosby profile | title = Notable American Women: A Biographical Dictionary | publisher = Harvard University Press | year = 1974 | page = 411| isbn =9780674627345 | format = Google books |access-date=August 20, 2013}}</ref> and the ''Saturday Emporium''.{{sfnp|Smucker|1981|p=176}}
[[File:The Blind Girl frontspiece 1844.jpg|thumb|[[Book frontispiece|Frontispiece]] of ''The Blind Girl'' (1844)]]

Crosby was reluctant to have her poems published, as she considered them to be "unfinished productions", but she acquiesced eventually because it would publicize the Institution and raise funds for it.{{sfnp|Crosby|1906|p=17}} (She had had an illness that caused her to leave the NYIB in order to recuperate.) Her first book ''A Blind Girl and Other Poems'' was published in April 1844 after encouragement by the Institution, including "An Evening Hymn" based on Psalm 4:8, which she described as her first published hymn.{{sfnp|Carleton|1903|pp=77–78}} In 1853, her ''Monterey and Other Poems'' was published which included poems focusing on the recent [[Mexican–American War]],{{sfnp|Carleton|1903|p=78}} and a poem pleading for the US to help those affected by the [[Great Famine (Ireland)|Great Famine of Ireland]].<ref>{{Citation | first = Frances Jane | last = Crosby | author-link = Fanny Crosby | contribution = An Appeal for Erin in her Distress | title = Monterrey and Other Poems | edition = rev. | place = New York | publisher = R. Craighead | year = 1856 | pages = 61–62}}.</ref> She stated in her 1903 autobiography, edited by [[Will Carleton]], that she "was under a feeling of sadness and depression at this time".{{sfnp|Carleton|1903|p=78}}

In 1853, Crosby's poem "The Blind Orphan Girl" was included in Caroline M. Sawyer's ''The History of the Blind Vocalists''.<ref>Sawyer (1853), pp. 31–37.</ref> Her third book ''A Wreath of Columbia's Flowers'' was published in 1858 at about the time when she resigned from the Blind Institution and got married. It contains four short stories and 30 poems.<ref>{{Citation | first = Frances Jane | last = Crosby | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=9fcBAAAAYAAJ | title = A Wreath of Columbia's Flowers | place = New York, NY | publisher = H. Dayton | year = 1858}}.</ref>

===Popular songs===
Crosby had been inspired by the success of the melodies of [[Stephen Foster]],{{sfnp|Crawford|2000|p=157}} so she and [[George F. Root]] wrote at least 60 secular "people's songs" or [[Parlour music|parlour songs]]<ref name="Root 1891, p. 83">Root (1891), p. 83.</ref> between August 1851 and 1857, some for the popular [[minstrel show]]s. (Root had taught music at the Blind Institution from 1845–50).{{sfnp|Neptune|2001|p=108}} The minstrel shows had a negative reputation among some Christians and classical musicians, so their participation in these compositions was deliberately obscured.{{sfnp|Carder|2008|p=38}} "Like many cultured people of the day," writes Bernard Ruffin, "[Root] considered native American music rather crude."{{sfnp|Ruffin|1995|p=75}} He chose to "Europeanize" his name (like many American artists and musicians of that era) to "George Friederich Wurzel" (German for Root),<ref name = "Root 1891, p. 83"/> while Crosby's name was sometimes omitted altogether.{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=154}}

For many years, Crosby was usually paid only $1 or $2 per poem, with all rights to the song being retained by the composer or publisher of the music.<ref name="christianhistorytimeline3">{{Citation|publisher=Christian History timeline|contribution-url=http://www.christianhistorytimeline.com/GLIMPSEF/Glimpses/glmps030.shtml|contribution=Fanny Crosby; Queen of American Hymn Writers|last=Severance|first=Diane|title=Glimpses of Christian History|volume=30}}</ref>
[[File:Fare Thee Well Kitty Dear cover.jpg|left|upright|thumb|"Fare Thee Well, Kitty Dear" (1852)]]
In the summer of 1851, George Root and Crosby both taught at the North Reading Musical Institute in [[Reading, Massachusetts|North Reading, Massachusetts]].{{sfnp|Smucker|1981|p=201}} Their first song was "Fare Thee Well, Kitty Dear" (1851){{sfnp|Neptune|2001|p=108}} which evoked old-South imagery. Crosby's lyrics were based on a suggestion by Root,<ref name=autogenerated18>{{Citation|first=Karen|last=Linn|title=That Half-Barbaric Twang: The Banjo in American Popular Culture|publisher=University of Illinois Press|year=1994|page=55}}</ref> which she described as "the grief of a colored man on the death of his beloved."{{sfnp|Carder|2008|p=44}} It was written for and performed exclusively by Henry Wood's Minstrels{{sfnp|Carder|2008|pp=44–45}} and published by John Andrews, who specialized in printing "neat, quick & cheap,"<ref>{{Citation|first=George Frederick|last=Root|title=New Song: Fare Thee Well, Kitty Dear: Composed Expressly for Wood's Minstrels|place=New York|publisher=J. Andrews|year=1852}}</ref> according to Karen Linn. "This song was not a hit, and had no lasting influence," according to Linn, as "its style is far too literary, the words not in dialect, the cause of sorrow seems to be a lover (rather than 'massa', or Little Eva, or homesickness: all more appropriate causes for slave sorrow according to the popular culture)".<ref name=autogenerated18/> In 1852, Root signed a three-year contract with William Hall & Son.{{sfnp|Carder|2008|p=49}}

Despite this initial setback, Crosby continued to teach at North Reading during her vacations in 1852 and 1853, where she wrote the lyrics for many of her collaborations with Root.{{sfnp|Hall|1914|p=37}} Among their joint compositions were "Bird of the North" (1852) and "Mother, Sweet Mother, Why Linger Away?" (1852).{{sfnp|Carder|2008|p=49}}

Crosby and Root's first successful popular song was "The Hazel Dell" (1853),{{sfnp|Spann|Williams|2008|p=152}} a sentimental ballad described by its publisher as "a very pretty and easy song, containing the elements of great popularity," released as the work of G.F. Wurzel toward the end of 1853.<ref name=autogenerated21>{{Citation|first=David|last=Ewen|title=American Songwriters: A Biographical Dictionary|publisher=HW Wilson|year=1987|page=339}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|title=Wm. Hall & Son's Column|journal=New-York Musical Review: A Journal of Sacred and Secular Music|volume=5|number=2|date=January 19, 1854|page=31}}</ref> It was a hit{{sfnp|Crawford|2000|p=157}} that was "one of the most popular songs in the country"{{sfnp|Carder|2008|p=38}} because of its performance by both Henry Wood's Minstrels and [[Christy's Minstrels]],<ref>{{cite journal|title=New Music Reviews|journal=New-York Musical Review: A Journal of Sacred and Secular Music|volume=5|number=25|date=December 7, 1854|page=425}}</ref> selling more than 200,000 copies of [[sheet music]].<ref name=autogenerated2>{{cite news |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1895/08/08/102468103.pdf |title=Dr. George F. Root Dead |work=The New York Times |date=August 8, 1895}}</ref> It is described as being on "the fringes of blackface minstrelsy, although it lacks dialect or any hint of buffoonery",{{sfnp|Crawford|2000|p=162}} about a beautiful girl who died young.{{sfnp|Carder|2008|p=38}}

An article in the December 1854 issue of ''New York Musical Review'' proclaimed the death of "Negro minstrelsy." It listed "Hazel Dell," along with [[Stephen Foster]]'s songs "[[Old Folks at Home]]" (1851) and "[[My Old Kentucky Home]]" (1853), as popular songs that were evidence of the "''bleaching'' process... observable in the gradual rejection of the plantation, and the adoption of sentiments and poetic forms of expression, characteristic rather of the intelligent Caucasian".<ref>{{cite journal |title=Obituary, Not Eulogistic |journal=New-York Musical Review: A Journal of Sacred and Secular Music |volume=5 |number=25 |date=December 7, 1854 |page=418}}</ref>
[[File:Music in the Air sheet music cover.jpg|upright|thumb|"There's Music in the Air" (1857)]]
Toward the end of 1853, William Hall & Son released "Greenwood Bell" at the same time as "Hazel Dell", but credited it to Root and Crosby.<ref>[http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=mussm&fileName=sm2/sm1853/720000/720080/mussm720080.db&recNum=0&itemLink=D?mussm:2:./temp/~ammem_c0nz::&linkText=0 Music for the Nation: American Sheet Music], loc.gov; accessed June 25, 2017.</ref><ref>[http://www.pdmusic.org/root-gf/gfr53tgb.txt "The Greenwood Bell" (1853)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727170339/http://www.pdmusic.org/root-gf/gfr53tgb.txt |date=July 27, 2011 }}, New York: William Hall & Son, 1853.</ref> "Greenwood Bell" describes the funerals of a child, a young man, and an aged person, and the tolling of the bell at the [[Green-wood Cemetery|Greenwood Cemetery]].<ref name=autogenerated6/> Other songs written by Crosby and Root included "O How Glad to Get Home"{{sfnp|Crosby|1906|p=112}}<ref>Sarah M. Maverick, "A Reminiscence of Fanny Crosby", ''The Christian Work and the Evangelist'' 73 (1902): 63.</ref> and "They Have Sold Me Down the River (The Negro Father's Lament)" (1853).<ref>[https://jscholarship.library.jhu.edu/handle/1774.2/28042 "They've Sold Me Down the River. The Negro Father's Lament. Song and Chorus"], jscholarship.library.jhu.edu; accessed June 25, 2017.</ref> Their song "There's Music in the Air" (1854) became a hit song{{sfnp|Carder|2008|loc=n.57, p. 215}} and was listed in ''Variety Music Cavalcade'' as one of the most popular songs of 1854;<ref>[[Julius Mattfeld]], [http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/sm2html/sm2great4.html ''Variety Music Cavalcade, 1620–1969'' (3rd ed.)], Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1971.{{ISBN?}}</ref> it was in songbooks until at least the 1930s{{sfnp|Carder|2008|p=58}} and became a college song at [[Princeton University]].<ref name=autogenerated21/>
[[File:Rosalie the Prairie Flower.gif|right|upright|thumb|"Rosalie, the Prairie Flower" (1855)<br />Lyrics: Fanny Crosby Music: Wurzel (George F. Root)]]
Crosby-Root songs were published by other publishers after the expiration of Root's contract with William Hall & Son in 1855 (and after being rejected by Nathan Richardson of Russell & Richardson of Boston), including ''Six Songs by Wurzel'' published in 1855 by [[S. Brainard Sons|S. Brainard's Sons]] of Cleveland, Ohio.{{sfnp|Carder|2008|loc=pp. 62–65; 196; n.75, 215}} These six Root-Crosby songs were "O How Glad to Get Home,"<ref>"Glad to Get Home" (1855), Words and Music attributed to Wurzel (G. F. R.) [pseud. for George Frederick Root, 1820–1895] from [http://www.pdmusic.org/root-gf/gfr55gtgh.txt ''Six Songs by Wurzel''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727170359/http://www.pdmusic.org/root-gf/gfr55gtgh.txt |date=July 27, 2011 }}, Cleveland, OH: S. Brainard's Sons [Source: 1883-24139@LoC]</ref> "Honeysuckle Glen,"<ref>{{cite web|url=https://jscholarship.library.jhu.edu/handle/1774.2/26599|title=Six Songs by Wurzel. No. 2. The Honeysuckle Glen|publisher=Jscholarship.library.jhu.edu|access-date=August 20, 2013}}</ref><ref>"The Honeysuckle Glen" (No. 2 from Six Songs by Wurzel), [http://www.pdmusic.org/root-gf.html The Music of George Frederick Root (1820–1895)]</ref><ref>For lyrics, see Crosby & Lowry (1899), pp. 134–35.</ref> "The Church in the Wood," "All Together Now,"<ref>{{cite web|url=https://jscholarship.library.jhu.edu/handle/1774.2/23105|title=Six Songs by Wurzel. No. 5. All Together Again|publisher=Jscholarship.library.jhu.edu|access-date=August 20, 2013}}</ref> and "Proud World, Good-by."<ref>[http://www.pdmusic.org/root-gf.html "Proud World Good Bye! I'm Going Home"], ''Six Songs by Wurzel'', Cleveland, OH: S. Brainard's Sons.</ref> The most popular of these songs was "Rosalie, the Prairie Flower",<ref>[https://jscholarship.library.jhu.edu/handle/1774.2/24509  "Seven Popular Songs by Wurzel"], jscholarship.library.jhu.edu; accessed December 11, 2014.</ref><ref>For lyrics, see [http://www.pdmusic.org/root-gf/gfr55f.txt "Rosalie the Prairie Flower"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727170300/http://www.pdmusic.org/root-gf/gfr55f.txt |date=July 27, 2011 }} by George Frederick Root (1855), or Crosby & Lowry (1899), pp. 132–33.</ref> about the death of a young girl.{{sfnp|Carder|2008|loc=n.75, p. 215}} It was popularized in the 1850s by the Christy Minstrels;<ref name="contemplator1975">[http://www.contemplator.com/america/rosalie.html "Rosalie, The Prairie Flower"], ''Best Loved Songs of The American People'',  Denes Agay (ed.), Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, 1975.{{ISBN?}}</ref> it sold more than 125,000 copies of [[sheet music]] and earned nearly $3,000 (~${{Format price|{{Inflation|index=US|value=3000|start_year=1975}}}} in {{Inflation/year|US}}) in [[royalties]] for Root{{sfnp|Carder|2008|loc=n.82, p. 215}} — and almost nothing for Crosby.{{sfnp|Koskoff|1989|p=184}} Crosby also wrote the words for popular songs for other composers, including "There is a Bright and Sunny Spot" (1856) for Clare W. Beames.<ref>"The Popular Musical Compositions of Clare W. Beames", ''New York Musical Review and Gazette'' 7:3, February 9, 1856, p. 63.</ref>

===Cantatas===
Between 1852 and 1854, Crosby wrote the [[libretto]]s of three [[cantata]]s for Root. Their first was ''The Flower Queen; The Coronation of the Rose'' (1852),{{sfnp|Carder|2008|p=35}} often described as "the first secular cantata written by an American."<ref>Richard F. Selcer, ed., ''Civil War America, 1850 to 1875'', rev. ed. (Infobase Publishing, 2006): 352</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Stopp |first1=Jacklin Bolton |title=James C. Johnson and the American Secular Cantata |journal=American Music |date=2010 |volume=28 |issue=2 |pages=228–250 |doi=10.5406/americanmusic.28.2.0228 |s2cid=190982547 |id={{Project MUSE|379949}} }}</ref> It is an opera "in all but name,"<ref name=autogenerated13>"Wm. Hall & Son's Column", ''New-York Musical Review: A Journal of Sacred and Secular Music'' 5:9, April 27, 1854, p. 144.</ref> described as a "popular [[operetta]]"<ref>"Mason Brothers' Column", ''New-York Musical Review: A Journal of Sacred and Secular Music'' 5:10, May 11, 1854, p. 159.</ref> which "illustrated nineteenth-century [[American romanticism]]."{{sfnp|Carder|2008|p=36}} In her 1906 autobiography, Crosby explained the theme of this cantata:
{{blockquote|an old man becoming tired of the world, decides to become a hermit; but, as he is about to retire to his lonely hut, he hears a chorus singing, "Who shall be queen of the flowers?" His interest is at once aroused; and on the following day he is asked to act as judge in a contest where each flower urges her claims to be queen of all the others. At length the hermit chooses the rose for her loveliness; and in turn she exhorts him to return to the world and to his duty.{{sfnp|Crosby|1906|p=28}}}}

''The Flower Queen'' was written as "a work for teenage girls (scored for first and second [[soprano]] and [[alto]])."<ref>Jacklin Bolton Stopp, "James C. Johnson and the American Secular Cantata", ''American Music'' 28:2 (Summer 2010):228.</ref> It was performed first on March 11, 1853, by the young ladies of [[Jacob Abbott]]'s Springer Institute,<ref>Deane L. Root, ''American Popular Stage Music, 1860–1880'' (UMI Research Press, 1977): 13.{{ISBN?}}</ref> and almost immediately repeated by Root's students at the Rutgers Female Institute; it was praised by R. Storrs Willis.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Vera Brodsky |last1=Lawrence |title=Strong on Music: Reverberations, 1850–1856 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=1995 |page=433 |isbn=9780226470115}}</ref> It was performed an estimated 1,000 times throughout the United States in the first four years after its publication.{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|pp=149–50}} The success of ''The Flower Queen'' and subsequent cantatas brought great acclaim and fortune to Root, with little of either for Crosby.{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=150}}

The second Root-Crosby cantata was ''Daniel, or the Captivity and Restoration'', based on the Old Testament's story of [[Daniel (biblical figure)|Daniel]]. It was composed in 1853 for Root's choir at the Mercer Street Presbyterian Church in Manhattan.{{sfnp|Carder|2008|p=53}}<ref>Jonathan Greenleaf, ''A History of the Churches, of All Denominations, in the City of New York, from the First Settlement to the Year 1846'' (E. French, 1846): 194.</ref> This cantata comprised 35 songs, with music composed with [[William Batchelder Bradbury]] and words by Crosby and [[Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York|Union Theological Seminary]] student [[Root & Cady|Chauncey Marvin Cady]].<ref>For lyrics, see [http://www.pdmusic.org/root-gf/gfr53-c02.txt "DANIEL: or the Captivity and Restoration. A Sacred Cantata in Three Parts"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304000026/http://www.pdmusic.org/root-gf/gfr53-c02.txt |date=March 4, 2016 }}, Words selected and prepared by C[hauncy]. M[arvin]. Cady, Esq., [1824–1889], assisted by Miss F[rances]. J[ane]. Crosby. [Mrs. Van Alstyne] [1820–1915]. Music composed by Geo[rge]. F[rederick]. Root [1820–1895] and W[illiam]. B[atchelder]. Bradbury [1816–1868].</ref> Some of its principal choruses were first performed on July 15, 1853, by the students at Root's New York Normal Institute.<ref name=autogenerated14>Vera Brodsky Lawrence and George Templeton Strong, ''Strong on Music: Reverberations, 1850–1856'' (University of Chicago Press, 1995): 432.{{ISBN?}}</ref>

In 1854, Root and Crosby collaborated to compose ''The Pilgrim Fathers'', described as an "antebellum landmark" in dramatic cantatas.<ref>Richard F. Selcer (ed.), ''Civil War America, 1850 to 1875'', rev. ed., Infobase Publishing, 2006, p. 352.{{ISBN?}}</ref> According to Blumhofer, it "featured the contemporary evangelical reading of American history."{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=149}} Crosby wrote the libretto for a cantata entitled ''The Excursion'',<ref>Probably found in {{Citation | editor-first = Theodore E | editor-last = Perkins | title = The Mount Zion Collection of Sacred and Secular Music | place = New York, NY | publisher = AS Barnes & Co | year = 1869}}. See {{Citation | title = Musical | newspaper = American Literary Gazette and Publishers' Circular | number = 13–14 | date = September 15, 1869 | page = 302}}.</ref> with music by Baptist music professor Theodore Edson Perkins, one of the founders of New York music publishing house Brown & Perkins.<ref>{{Citation | first1 = David W | last1 = Music | first2 = Paul Akers | last2 = Richardson | title = "I Will Sing the Wondrous Story": A History of Baptist Hymnody in North America | publisher = Mercer University Press | year = 2008 | page = 325}}.</ref>{{sfnp|Hall|1914|p=6}} In 1886, Crosby and William Howard Doane wrote ''Santa Claus' Home; or, The Christmas Excursion'', a [[Christmas cantata]] published by Biglow & Main.<ref>{{Citation | first1 = Fanny | last1 = Crosby | author1-link = Fanny Crosby | first2 = William Howard | last2 = Doane | title = Santa Claus' Home; or, The Christmas Excursion: A Christmas Cantata for the Sunday School and Choir | publisher = Biglow & Main | year = 1886}}.</ref>

===Political songs===
In addition to poems of welcome to visiting dignitaries, Crosby wrote songs of a political nature, such as about the major battles of the [[Mexican–American War]] and the [[American Civil War]].{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2006b|p=229}}

By the [[1840 United States presidential election|1840 US Presidential election]], she was "an ardent [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrat]]" and wrote verse against Whig candidate (and ultimate winner) [[William Henry Harrison]].{{sfnp|Ruffin|1995|p=43}} By 1852, she switched her political allegiance from support for the pro-slavery [[Jacksonian democracy|Democrats]] to the [[Abolitionism in the United States|anti-slavery]] [[Whig Party (United States)|Whigs]],{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=94}} writing the poem "Carry Me On" for them in 1852.<ref name="autogenerated1915">Ralph Hartsock, "Crosby, Frances Jane "Fanny" (1820–1915)," in ''Women in the American Civil War'', Vol. 2, ed. Lisa Tendrich Frank (ABC-CLIO, 2008): 193.{{ISBN?}}</ref> After the election of Democrat [[Franklin Pierce]] as US President in November 1852, she wrote:

{{blockquote|<poem>The election's past and I'm pierced at last
The locos have gained the day.<ref>Spann & Williams (2008), p. 95.</ref></poem>}}

Though she considered herself a Democrat at the time, Crosby was a keen admirer of the leading [[Whig Party (United States)|Whig]], [[U.S. Senator]] [[Henry Clay]] of [[Kentucky]], who in 1848 made a tour of large eastern cities. He visited the New York Institution for the Blind in [[New York City]], where Crosby lived. The visit came two years after the death of [[Henry Clay Jr.]], in the [[Mexican–American War]]. Crosby recalled that "the great statesman was never quite himself after his son's death, and I purposely avoided all mention of it in the address of welcome on the day he came to visit us, lest I mighty wound the heart of the man whom I had learned not only to venerate but to love; for Mr. Clay was always an especial favorite among public men. There was a strength in his character and an earnestness in his speeches that appealed to me more than I can tell. ... I would have challenged any person, whether Whig or Democrat, Northerner or Southerner to come within range of the man's eloquence without being moved to admiration and profound respect; for his personal magnetism was wonderful."<ref>''Fanny J. Crosby: An Autobiography'' ([[Peabody, Massachusetts]]: Hendrickson Publishers Marketing, 2013 printing), p. 86, {{ISBN|978-1-59856-281-1}}.</ref>

Crosby was a strict [[Abolitionism|abolitionist]] and supported [[Abraham Lincoln]] and the newly created [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]].<ref name="autogenerated1915" /> After the Civil War, she was a devoted supporter of the [[Grand Army of the Republic]] and its political aims.{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2006b|p=229}}

===Patriotic songs===
[[File:Dixie for the Union (Crosby).jpg|right|upright|thumb|"Dixie for the Union" (1861)<br />Lyrics: Fanny Crosby<br />Music: Dan D. Emmett]]

During the American Civil War, according to Edith Blumhofer, Crosby "vented patriotism in verse," and it evoked "an outpouring of songs—some haunting, some mournful, some militaristic, a few even gory", but "her texts testified to her clear moral sense about the issues that fomented in the war years."{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=94}} She wrote many poems supporting the [[Union (American Civil War)|Union cause]], including "Dixie for the Union" (1861),<ref>{{Citation | first = Coleman | last = Hutchison | title = Whistling 'Dixie' for the Union (Nation, Anthem, Revision) | journal = American Literary History | volume = 19 | number = 3 | year = 2007 | pages = 603–28| doi = 10.1093/alh/ajm027 | s2cid = 145289752 }}.</ref> written before the outbreak of hostilities to the tune of [[Dixie (song)|Dixie]]<ref>{{Citation | first1 = Irwin | last1 = Silber | first2 = Jerry | last2 = Silverman | title = Songs of the Civil War | publisher = Courier Dover | year = 1995 | page = 52}}.</ref> (the tune adopted later by the [[Confederate States of America]] as a patriotic anthem).<ref>{{Citation|first=Fanny|last=Crosby|url=https://archive.org/stream/NewYorkInstituteForSpecialEducationMuseumAndArchiveWalkthrough/Museumwallkthrough4.1#page/n23/mode/2up|title=Dixie for the Union|year=2009|publisher=New York Institute for Special Education Museum and Archive|type=Walkthrough|edition=4.1|page=24}}</ref> The first of the five [[stanza]]s is:
[[File:1864 A Sound Among the Forest Trees songsheet.jpg|upright|thumb|"A Sound Among the Forest Trees" (1864)]]

{{blockquote|<poem>On! ye Patriots, to the battle
Hear Fort Moultrie's cannon rattle:
Then away, then away, then away to the fight!
Go, meet those Southern traitors, with iron will,
And should your courage falter, Boys,
Remember Bunker Hill&nbsp;— Hurrah.
:Chorus: Hurrah&nbsp;— Hurrah, The Stars and Stripes forever Hurrah&nbsp;— Hurrah, Our Union shall not sever.</poem><ref>{{Citation|url=https://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/patc/dixie/lyrics.html#union|title=Dixie For the Union|publisher=NPR|access-date=December 11, 2014}}</ref>}}

Crosby wrote the words and [[William B. Bradbury]] composed the music, soon after they met in February 1864,{{sfnp|Ruffin|1995|p=90}} for the popular patriotic Civil War song "There is a Sound Among the Forest Trees".<ref>{{Citation|title=Civil War|contribution=There's A Sound Among the Forest Trees|year=1864|first=Fanny Jane|last=Crosby|url=http://www.pdmusic.org/civilwar2/64tasatft.txt|publisher=PD music|others=Wm. B. Bradbury (composer)|access-date=March 20, 2011|archive-date=March 4, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304112754/http://www.pdmusic.org/civilwar2/64tasatft.txt|url-status=dead}}.</ref><ref name="autogenerated58">{{Citation|url=https://jscholarship.library.jhu.edu/handle/1774.2/20462|title=A Sound Among the Forest Trees. A New Rallying Song and Chorus|year=1864|first=Fanny|last=Crosby|others=Wm. B. Bradbury (composer)}}.</ref>{{sfnp|Neptune|2001|p=66}}<ref>"New Music", ''The Round Table'', June 18, 1864, p. 13.</ref> Her text encourages volunteers to join the Union forces and incorporates references to the history of the United States, including the [[Pilgrim Fathers]] and the [[Battle of Bunker Hill]].<ref>{{Citation|first1=Georgia B.|last1=Barnhill|first2=Andrew W.|last2=Mellon|url=http://www.newsbank.com/readex/index.cfm?content=276|title=Poignant Songs and Poems Took the Civil War to the Home Front|newspaper=Ephemera News|publisher=Ephemera Society of America|access-date=March 20, 2011|archive-date=July 23, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723182341/http://www.newsbank.com/readex/index.cfm?content=276|url-status=dead}}<!-- date and/or year needed --></ref>

Also during the American Civil War, Crosby wrote "Song to Jeff Davis" directed at [[Jefferson Davis]], the president of the Confederate States of America, which expressed her belief in the morality of the Union cause: "Our stars and stripes are waving, And Heav'n will speed our cause".{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=95}} She also wrote "Good-By, Old Arm," a tribute to wounded soldiers with music by Philip Philips,<ref name="autogenerated1915"/> "Our Country,"{{sfnp|Neptune|2002|pp=67–68}} and "A Tribute (to the memory of our dead heroes)."<ref name="autogenerated1915"/>{{sfnp|Neptune|2002|pp=68–69}}

As late as September 1908, Crosby wrote patriotic poems for the [[Daughters of the American Revolution]],{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|pp=320–21}} including "The State We Honor"<ref>{{Citation|last=Crosby|first=Fanny|author-link=Fanny Crosby|title=Daughters of the American Revolution Magazine|volume=35|publisher=National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution|year=1909|page=51}}</ref> which extolls the virtues of her adopted state of Connecticut.{{sfnp|Crosby|1909|pp=51, 704, 1080}}

==Marriage and family==
In the summer of 1843, Crosby met Alexander van Alstyne Jr. (sometimes spelled van Alstine or van Alsteine), called "Van" by his friends.{{sfnp|Ruffin|1995|p=80}} He also was blind and enrolled at the NYIB, where he was a casual acquaintance of Crosby and sometimes a student in her classes.<ref name="autogenerated18"/>{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=69}} He was a teacher at NYIB for two years from 1855;<ref name="autogenerated18"/> during this time, the couple were engaged to be married, necessitating her resignation from NYIB three days prior to their wedding at [[Maspeth, New York]], on March 5, 1858.<ref name="autogenerated18"/>{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=90}}
[[File:Crosby & Van Alstyne edited.jpg|left|thumb|upright|Fanny and Alexander van Alstyne]]
After their wedding, the van Alstynes lived in a small home in the rural village of [[Maspeth, New York]], with a population of about 200 people—present-day [[Queens, New York|Maspeth, Queens, New York]], and no longer rural.{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=93}}<ref name="autogenerated52">Crosby (1903), p. 94.</ref>

At her husband's insistence, Crosby continued to use her maiden name as her literary name,<ref>Crosby (1903), pp. 92–93.</ref> but she chose to use her married name on all legal documents.{{sfnp|Neptune|2001|p=78}} However, according to biographer Edith Blumhofer: "Despite her education, her handwriting was barely legible, and on legal documents she signed her name with an X witnessed by friends".{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=200}}

In 1859, the van Alstynes had a daughter named Frances who died in her sleep soon after birth.{{sfnp|Neptune|2001|p=86}} Some believe that the cause was [[typhoid fever]],<ref>For example, see Eleanor Charles, [https://www.nytimes.com/1992/08/30/nyregion/westchester-guide-609692.html "Fanny Crosby's Day"], ''The New York Times'', August 30, 1992.<!-- page(s) needed --></ref> although Darlene Neptune speculates that it may have been [[Sudden infant death syndrome|SIDS]], and that Crosby's hymn "Safe in the Arms of Jesus" was inspired by her death.{{sfnp|Neptune|2001|pp=86–87}}

After the death of their daughter, Van became increasingly reclusive;{{sfnp|Neptune|2001|pp=79, 87}} Crosby never spoke publicly about being a mother, aside from mentioning it in a few interviews towards the end of her life: "Now I am going to tell you of something that only my closest friends know. I became a mother and knew a mother's love. God gave us a tender babe but the angels came down and took our infant up to God and to His throne".{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=98}} In late 1859, the van Alstynes moved frequently, "establishing a pattern that continued for the rest of their lives", and never owned their own home, living in rented accommodation without a lease.{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=98}}

In addition to Crosby's income as a poet and lyricist, Van played the organ at two churches in New York City, and gave [[Private Music|private music]] lessons.{{sfnp|Neptune|2001|p=78}} The couple could have lived comfortably on their combined income, but Crosby "had other priorities and gave away anything that was not necessary to their daily survival".<ref name="christianhistorytimeline1"/> Van and Fanny organized concerts with half the proceeds given to aid the poor, in which she gave recitations of her poems and sang, and he played various instruments.{{sfnp|Neptune|2001|pp=76, 78}} Van provided the music for some of her poetry,<ref>For example, see three songs in {{harvp|Knapp|1869}} and "Stay Thee, Weary Child", in W. H. Doane and Robert Lowry (ed.), ''Pure Gold'', New York, NY: Biglow and Main, 1871, p. 44 [http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=sm1870&fileName=sm/sm1871/03200/03266/mussm03266.db&recNum=0&itemLink=S?ammem/mussm:@FILREQ(@OR(@field(TITLE+@od1(Stay+thee,+weary+child++))+@field(ALTTITLE+@od1(Stay+thee,+weary+child++)))+@FIELD(COLLID+sm1870))&linkText=0 Music for the Nation: American Sheet Music, 1870–1885], memory.loc.gov; accessed December 11, 2014.</ref> although Fanny indicated that "his taste was mostly for the wordless melodies of the classics".<ref name="autogenerated18"/> The van Alstynes collaborated on the production of a hymnal featuring only hymns written by them, but it was rejected by Biglow and Main—ostensibly because the directors believed that the public would not buy a hymnal featuring only two composers, but probably due to the complexity of the melodies.{{sfnp|Ruffin|1995|pp=107, 110}} In 1874, Crosby was reported to be "living in a destitute condition".<ref>J.W. Neighbor (ed.), ''Neighbor's Home Mail: The Ex-soldiers' Reunion and National Camp-fire'', Issue 2 (s.n., 1874), p. 62.</ref>

For many years, the van Alstynes had "a most unusual married life",{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=313}} and lived together only intermittently.{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=204}} By 1880, they had separated,<ref>Lynn Japinga, "Crosby, Frances ("Fanny") Jane", ''The Westminster Handbook to Women in American Religious History'', Susan Hill Lindley and Eleanor J. Stebner (eds.), Westminster John Knox Press, 2008, p. 51.<!-- ISBN needed --></ref> living both separately and independently due to a rift in their marriage of uncertain origin.{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=310}} At one point soon after, Crosby moved to a "dismal flat" at 9 Frankfort Street, near one of Manhattan's worst slums on the [[Lower East Side]].{{sfnp|Ruffin|1995|p=132}} Thereafter, she lived at several different addresses in and around Manhattan.{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=310}}

Van Alstyne rarely accompanied Crosby when she traveled, and she vacationed without him.{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=314}} Despite living separately for more than two decades, Crosby insisted that they "maintained an amiable relationship", kept in contact with one another, and even ministered together on occasions in this period.{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=314}} For example, Alexander played a piano solo at the third annual reunion of the Underhill Society of America on June 15, 1895, in [[Yonkers, New York]], while Crosby read an ode to [[Captain John Underhill]], the [[progenitor]] of the American branch of the Underhill family.<ref>[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1895/06/16/102462273.pdf "A FEW OF THE 7,000 UNDERHILLS; They Meet for Their Third Annual Reunion and Honor the Memory of Captain John"], ''The New York Times'', June 16, 1895.</ref> Her only recorded admission of marital unhappiness was in 1903, when she commented on her late husband in [[Will Carleton]]'s ''This is My Story'': "He had his faults—and so have I mine, but notwithstanding these, we loved each other to the last".{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=314}}

In 1896, Crosby moved from Manhattan to an apartment in a poor section of Brooklyn,<ref name="Ranelda Mack Hunsicker 1991">Ray Beeson and Ranelda Mack Hunsicker, ''The Hidden Price of Greatness'', Tyndale House Publishers, 1991: 242.<!-- ISBN needed  --></ref> living with friends at South Third Street, Brooklyn, near the home of [[Ira D. Sankey]] and his wife Fannie,{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=310}} and near the mansion owned by Phoebe Knapp.<ref name="Ranelda Mack Hunsicker 1991"/>

==Career in writing hymns (1864–1915)==
[[File:A Hymn of Thanksgiving sheet music cover.jpg|thumb|upright|"A Hymn of Thanksgiving" sheet music cover – November 26, 1899]]
Crosby was "the most prolific of all nineteenth-century American sacred song writers".<ref name="Ian C. Bradley 1997"/> By the end of her career she had written almost 9,000 hymns,<ref name= "christianhistorytimeline1" /> using scores of [[pen name]]s assigned to her by publishers who wanted to disguise the proliferation of her compositions in their publications.{{sfnp|Hall|1914|p=41}}<ref>{{Citation | first = Ian C | last = Bradley | title = Abide with Me: The World of Victorian Hymns | publisher = GIA | year = 1997 | page = 172}} asserts that Crosby used 216 different pen names.</ref>

It is estimated that books containing her lyrics sold 100 million copies.<ref>{{Citation | first = Marie A | last = Asner | title = Fanny Crosby: Music Poet | journal = The American Organist | volume = 22 | publisher = American Guild of Organists | year = 1988 | pages = 7–12, 19}}.</ref> However, due to the low regard for lyricists in the popular song industry during her lifetime,{{sfnp|Hobbs|1997|p=146}} and what June Hadden Hobbs sees as "the hypocrisy of sacred music publishers" which resulted for Crosby in "a sad and probably representative tale of exploitation of female hymn writers",{{sfnp|Hobbs|1997|p=146}} and the contemporary perception that "Crosby made a very profitable living off writing songs that were sung (and played) by the masses",<ref>{{Citation | editor-first = Richard F | editor-last = Selcer | title = Civil War America, 1850 to 1875 | edition = rev. | publisher = Infobase | year = 2006 | page = xix}}.</ref> "like many of the lyricists of the day, Crosby was exploited by copyright conventions that assigned rights not to the lyricist but to the composer of the music... Crosby was paid a flat fee of one or two dollars a hymn".<ref>{{Citation | first = David Ware | last = Stowe | title = How Sweet the Sound: Music in the Spiritual Lives of Americans | publisher = Harvard University Press | year = 2004 | page = 103}}.</ref> In her 1906 autobiography, Crosby insisted she wrote her hymns "in a sanctified manner", and never for financial or commercial considerations, and that she had donated her royalties to "worthy causes".<ref>{{Citation | first = Candy Gunther | last = Brown | title = The Word in the World: Evangelical Writing, Publishing, and Reading in America, 1789–1880 | publisher = UNC Press Books | year = 2004 | pages = 197–98}}.</ref>

Crosby set a goal of winning a million people to Christ through her hymns, and whenever she wrote a hymn she prayed it would bring women and men to Christ, and kept careful records of those reported to have been saved through her hymns.<ref>{{Citation | first = Robert J | last = Morgan | title = 100 Bible Verses Everyone Should Know by Heart | publisher = B&H | year = 2010 | page = 38}}.</ref>

Referring to Crosby's songs, the ''Dictionary of American Religious Biography'' indicated: "by modern standards her work may be considered mawkish or too sentimental. But their simple, homey appeal struck a responsive chord in Victorian culture. Their informal [[ballad]] style broke away from the staid, formal approach of earlier periods, touching deep emotions in singers and listeners alike. Instead of dismissing her words as maudlin or [[saccharine]], audiences thrilled to them as the essence of genuine, heartfelt Christianity".<ref>{{Citation | first = Henry Warner | last = Bowden | contribution = Crosby, Frances Jane | title = Dictionary of American Religious Biography | edition = 2nd | publisher = Greenwood | year = 1993 | page = 132}}.</ref> Crosby's hymns were popular because they placed "a heightened emphasis on religious experiences, emotions, and testimonies" and reflected "a sentimental, romanticized relationship between the believer and Christ", rather than using the negative descriptions of earlier hymns that emphasised the sinfulness of people.<ref>{{Citation | first = Edith | last = Blumhofer | editor-first = Debra Lee Sonners | editor-last = Stewart | title = Music in the Ministry of Evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson | type = Master of Arts thesis | publisher = California State University | place = Fullerton, [[California|CA]], [[United States of America|US]] |id={{ProQuest|<!-- insert ProQuest data here -->}} | year = 2006 | pages = 149, 262}}.</ref>

[[Ann Douglas (historian)|Ann Douglas]] argues that Crosby was one of the female authors who "emasculated American religion" and helped shift it from "a rigorous Calvinism" to "an anti-intellectual and sentimental mass culture".<ref name="Blumhofer">{{Citation|first=Ann|last=Douglas|title=The Feminization of American Culture}}, in {{harvp|Blumhofer|2005|p=xiv}}</ref> Feminist scholars have suggested that "emphases in her hymns both revealed and accelerated the feminizing of [[American evangelicalism]]".<ref name="Blumhofer"/>

Her hymns were published by many notable publishers and publishing companies:
* [[William B. Bradbury]] published her hymns in his ''Golden Censer'' (1864),<ref>{{Citation|first=William Batchelder|last=Bradbury|title=The Golden Censer: A Musical Offering to the Sabbath Schools, of Children's Hosannas to the Son of David|publisher=William B. Bradbury|year=1864}}.</ref>{{Page needed|date=August 2015}} a book of Sunday School hymns that sold three million copies.<ref>{{Citation|first=WK|last=McNeil|contribution=Bradbury, William Batchelder|title=Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music|editor-first=WK|editor-last=McNeil|publisher=Routledge|year=2005|page=48}}</ref>
* For several years Crosby contracted to write three hymns a week for [[Hubert Main]], whose Biglow and Main Co. was formed after Bradbury's death.{{sfnp|Neptune|2001|p=91}} The company purchased 5900 poems from her for use in the [[Sunday School]] publications, and published nearly 2000 of them.<ref name="christianhistorytimeline3"/> By 1889, Crosby may have written over 2500 hymns for the combined publishing houses of Bradbury, and Biglow and Main.<ref name="autogenerated6" />
* Methodist song publisher Philip Phillips, for whom Crosby wrote a cycle of forty poems based on the ''[[Pilgrim's Progress]]'',{{sfnp|Koskoff|1989|p=184}} and the lyrics for an estimated 525 hymns.<ref name= Crosby1903p93>Crosby (1903), p. 93.</ref>

Many publishers were hesitant to include a large number of hymns by one singular author. This led Crosby to begin writing under various pseudonyms. These false names included Mrs. C.M. Wilson, Lizzie Edwards, Ella Dale, Grace J. Frances, Rose Atherton, Maud Marion, Leah Carlton, Henrietta E. Blair, and nearly two hundred others.<ref>{{cite web |title=Fanny Crosby |url=https://www.hymnologyarchive.com/fanny-crosby#:~:text=Van%20Alstyne%2C%20but%20quite%20a,nearly%20two%20hundred%20different%20names. |website=Hymnologyarchive.com |publisher=Hymnology Archive}}</ref>

===Musical and lyrical collaborators===
William Howard Doane was an industrialist who became Crosby's principal collaborator in writing gospel music,<ref>{{Citation | url = http://www.womenofchristianity.com/?p=1597 | title = More Love To Thee by Elizabeth Prentiss | type = hymn story | publisher = Women of Christianity | date = February 18, 2011}}.</ref> composing melodies for an estimated 1,500 Crosby's lyrics.<ref name=Crosby1903p93/> Doane and Crosby collaborated through Biglow and Main, and also privately through Doane's [[American Baptist Churches USA|Northern Baptist]] endeavours.{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=196}} Eventually Crosby entrusted to Doane the business aspects of her compositions.{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=308}}

In early 1868 Crosby met wealthy Methodist [[Phoebe Knapp|Phoebe Palmer Knapp]],{{sfnp|Crosby|1906|p=180}} who was married to Joseph Fairchild Knapp, co-founder of the [[MetLife|Metropolitan Life Insurance Company]].<ref>{{Citation | title = Joseph Fairchild Knapp, Second President | publisher = Metropolitan Life Insurance Company}}.</ref> The Knapps published hymnals initially for use in the Sunday School of Saint John's Methodist Episcopal Church in Brooklyn, which was superintended by Joseph F. Knapp for 22 years,{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=226}} while Phoebe Knapp took responsibility for 200 children in the infants' department.<ref>{{Citation | contribution = Women Hymn Writers | title = Encyclopedia of Women and Religion in North America | volume = 1 | publisher = Indiana University Press | year = 2006 | page = 983}}.</ref> They first collaborated on ''Notes of Joy'',{{sfnp|Ruffin|1995|p=96}} the first hymnal edited by Knapp,{{sfnp|Koskoff|1989|p=182}} who also contributed 94 of the 172 tunes, and published by her brother, Walter C. Palmer Jr., in 1869.{{sfnp|Knapp|1869}} Of the 21 hymns Crosby contributed to ''Notes of Joy'', including eight as "The Children's Friend",{{sfnp|Knapp|1869|pp=8, 29, 34–35, 54, 69, 93, 101}} Knapp provided the music for fourteen of them. Their best-known collaboration was "[[Blessed Assurance]]", for which Crosby wrote words in the Knapps' music room for a tune written by Knapp,{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=229}} while Crosby was staying at the Knapp Mansion in 1873.{{sfnp|Morgan|2003|p=183}}

From 1871 to 1908, Crosby worked with [[Ira Sankey]], who helped make her "a household name to Protestants around the world".{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=233}} While Sankey was "the premier promoter" of gospel songs, "Crosby ranked first as their provider".{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=98}} The evangelist team of Sankey and [[Dwight L. Moody]] brought many of Crosby's hymns to the attention of Christians throughout the United States and Britain.<ref name="christianhistorytimeline3"/> Crosby was close friends with Sankey and his wife, Frances, and often stayed with them at their home in [[Northfield, Massachusetts]], from 1886 for the annual summer Christian Workers' Conferences,{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=314}} and later in Brooklyn.{{sfnp|Carder|2008|p=38}} After Sankey's eyesight was destroyed by [[glaucoma]] in March 1903,<ref>{{Citation |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1903/03/20/101983195.pdf |title=Ira D Sankey is blind. Slight Hope of Sight for the Singing Evangelist |newspaper=The New York Times |date=March 20, 1903 |at=front page 6 |access-date=December 11, 2014}}.</ref> their friendship deepened and they often continued to compose hymns together at Sankey's [[Pump organ|harmonium]] in his home.{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|pp=333–34}}

===Crosby's process===
[[File:Crosby Blood-Washed Throng.jpg|right|upright|thumb|"The Blood-Washed Throng" (1906)]]
Crosby described her hymn-writing process: 'It may seem a little old-fashioned, always to begin one's work with prayer, but I never undertake a hymn without first asking the good Lord to be my inspiration.'<ref name="christianhistorytimeline1"/> Her capacity for work was prodigious, and she could often compose six or seven hymns a day.<ref name="wheaton.edu">{{Citation|contribution=Biography|title=Papers of Fanny Crosby|id=Collection 35|place=Wheaton, IL|publisher=Billy Graham Center Archives|url=http://www.wheaton.edu/bgc/archives/GUIDES/035.htm|access-date=March 17, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110816184856/http://www2.wheaton.edu/bgc/archives/GUIDES/035.htm|archive-date=August 16, 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref> Her poems and hymns were composed entirely in her mind, and she worked on as many as twelve hymns at once before dictating them to an [[amanuensis]]. On one occasion, Crosby composed 40 hymns before they were transcribed.<ref>"Next Sunday Will be 'Fanny Crosby' Day", ''The Pittsburgh Press'' (March 19, 1905): 40.</ref> Her lyrics would usually be transcribed by "Van" or later by her half-sister, Carolyn "Carrie" Ryder or her secretary Eva C. Cleaveland, as Crosby herself could write little more than her name. While Crosby had musical training, she did not compose the melodies for most of her lyrics.<ref name="wheaton.edu"/> In 1903, Crosby claimed that "Spring Hymn" was the only hymn for which she wrote both the words and music.{{sfnp|Carleton|1903|p=137}}

In 1906 Crosby composed both the words and music for "The Blood-Washed Throng", which was published and copyrighted by gospel singer Mary Upham Currier,{{sfnp|Crosby|1906|p=198}} a distant cousin who had been a well-known concert singer.{{sfnp|Ruffin|1976|p=189}} While teaching at the NYIB, Crosby studied music under [[George F. Root]], until his resignation in November 1850.{{sfnp|Carder|2008|p=32}}

In 1921, Edward S. Ninde wrote: "None would claim that she was a poetess in any large sense. Her hymns... have been severely criticised. Dr. Julian, the editor of the Dictionary of Hymnology, says that 'they are, with few exceptions, very weak and poor,' and others insist that they are 'crudely sentimental'. Some hymn books will give them no place whatever".<ref name="wholesomewords.org">Edward S. Ninde, [http://www.wholesomewords.org/biography/bcrosby4.html ''The Story of the American Hymn''], New York, NY: Abingdon Press, 1921.</ref> According to ''Glimpses of Christian History'', Crosby's "hymns have sometimes been criticized as 'gushy and mawkishly sentimental' and critics have often attacked both her writing and her theology. Nonetheless, they were meaningful to her contemporaries and hymn writer [[George C. Stebbins]] stated, 'There was probably no writer in her day who appealed more to the valid experience of the Christian life or who expressed more sympathetically the deep longings of the human heart than Fanny Crosby.' And many of her hymns have stood the test of time, still resonating with believers today".<ref name="christianhistorytimeline1"/>

==Rescue missions and later life==
[[File:Crosby The Rescue Band 1895.jpg|thumb|upright|Manuscript of Crosby's "The Rescue Band" (1895)]]
Crosby will probably always be best known for her hymns, yet she wanted to be seen primarily as a rescue mission worker. According to Keith Schwanz: 
{{blockquote|At the end of her life, Fanny's concept of her vocation was not that of a celebrated gospel songwriter, but that of a city mission worker. In an interview that was published in the March 24, 1908, issue of the ''New Haven Register'', Fanny said that her chief occupation was working in missions.<ref name=Schwanz1998/>}}

Many of Fanny's hymns emerged from her involvement in the city missions,<ref name=Schwanz1998/> including "More Like Jesus" (1867),{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=217}} "[[Pass Me Not, O Gentle Saviour]]" (1868),{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=245}} and "Rescue the Perishing" (1869),{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=286}} which became the "theme song of the home missions movement"{{sfnp|Hobbs|1997|p=100}} and was "perhaps the most popular city mission song", with its "wedding of personal piety and compassion for humanity".<ref>{{Citation | first = Rodney L.|last=Reed|url=http://wesley.nnu.edu/fileadmin/imported_site/wesleyjournal/1997-wtj-32-2.pdf|title=Worship, Relevance, and the Preferential Option for the Poor in the Holiness Movement|journal=Wesleyan Theological Journal|volume=32|number=2|date=Fall 1997|page=98}}.</ref> She celebrated the rescue mission movement in her 1895 hymn "The Rescue Band".<ref>{{Citation|first=Robert|last=Shuster|url=http://www.wheaton.edu/bgc/archives/treasure/tr99/rescuetalka.htm|title='Lord, When Did We See You A Stranger': Scenes of City Rescue Work from the BGC Archives|publisher=Wheaton|date=May 8, 1999|access-date=March 27, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110606205956/http://www.wheaton.edu/bgc/archives/treasure/tr99/rescuetalka.htm|archive-date=June 6, 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|type=lyrics on original manuscript|first=Fanny|last=Crosby|url=http://www.wheaton.edu/bgc/archives/treasure/tr99/035.jpg|title=The Rescue Band|date=December 27, 1895|format=JPEG|access-date=March 27, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110607040335/http://www.wheaton.edu/bgc/archives/treasure/tr99/035.jpg|archive-date=June 7, 2011|url-status=dead}}.</ref>

Crosby had lived for decades in such areas of [[Manhattan]] as [[Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan|Hell's Kitchen]], the [[Bowery]], and [[Tenderloin, Manhattan|the Tenderloin]]. She was aware of the great needs of immigrants and the urban poor, and was passionate to help those around her through urban [[rescue mission]]s and other compassionate ministry organizations. "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".{{sfnp|Burger|1997|p=89}} Throughout her life, she was described as having "a horror of wealth", never set prices for her speaking engagements, often refused [[honoraria]], and "what little she did accept she gave away almost as soon as she got it".{{sfnp|Ruffin|1995|p=182}} She and her husband also organized concerts, with half the proceeds given to aid the poor.{{sfnp|Neptune|2001|pp=76–77}} Throughout New York City, Crosby's sympathies for the poor were well-known, but consisted primarily of indirect involvement by giving contributions from the sale of her poems, and by writing and sending poems for special occasions for these missions to the dispossessed, as well as sporadic visits to those missions.{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=285}}

===1865–1880===
[[File:American Female Guardian Society NYC 1868 (cropped).jpg|thumb|American Female Guardian Society and Home for the Friendless]]
Crosby supported the [[American Female Guardian Society]] and Home for the Friendless (founded in 1834) at 29 East 29th Street,<ref>"An Early Member of the Board of Managers of the A.F.G.S.", ''Wrecks and Rescues'' (2nd ed.), American Female Guardian Society, 1859.</ref> for whom she wrote a hymn in 1865 that was sung by some of the Home's children:
{{blockquote|<poem>O, no, we are not friendless now,
For God hath reared a home.<ref>{{Citation|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1865/05/08/news/american-female-guardian-society-annual-report-and-interesting-exercises.html|title=American Female Guardian Society Annual Report and Interesting Exercise|newspaper=New York Times|date=May 8, 1865}}</ref></poem>}}

[[File:Howard Mission pre1870.jpg|right|thumb|Howard Mission (1860s)]]
She wrote "More Like Jesus Would I Be" in June 1867 expressly for the sixth anniversary of the Howard Mission and Home for Little Wanderers,{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=217}}<ref>{{Citation|first=Henry S.|last=Burrage|contribution-url=http://www.wholesomewords.org/biography/bdoane2.html|contribution=William H. Doane|title=Baptist Hymn Writers and Their Hymns|place=Portland, ME|publisher=Brown Thurston & Co|year=1888}}.</ref> a [[nondenominational]] mission at New Bowery, Manhattan.{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=217}}

She was inspired to write "[[Pass Me Not, O Gentle Saviour]]" after speaking at a service at the [[The Tombs|Manhattan prison]] in spring 1868,{{sfnp|Neptune|2001|p=100}} from comments by some prisoners for the Lord not to pass them by. Doane set it to music and published it in ''Songs of Devotion'' in 1870.<ref>{{Citation|url=http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/p/a/s/passment.htm|title=Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior|publisher=Hymntime.com|access-date=December 11, 2014|archive-date=December 11, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141211084933/http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/p/a/s/passment.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> "Pass Me Not" became her first hymn to have global appeal, after it was used by Sankey in his crusades with Moody in Britain in 1874.{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=256}} Sankey said, "No hymn was more popular at the meetings in London in 1875 {{sic}} than this one."<ref>{{Citation|contribution-url=http://www.canecreekchurch.org/index.php/what-is-your-legacy/20-fanny-j-crosby|title=What is your legacy|contribution=Fanny J. Crosby|publisher=Cane Creek church|access-date=March 25, 2011|archive-date=September 11, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110911171530/http://www.canecreekchurch.org/index.php/what-is-your-legacy/20-fanny-j-crosby|url-status=dead}}.</ref>

In April 1868, Crosby wrote "Fifty Years Ago" for the semi-centennial of the New-York Port Society, which was founded in 1818 "for the promotion of the Gospel among the seamen in the Port of New-York".<ref>[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1868/04/03/78911843.pdf "The New-York Port Society"], ''The New York Times'', April 3, 1868.</ref>

By July 1869, Crosby was attending at least weekly meetings organized by the interdenominational New York City Mission. A young man was converted through her testimony, and she was inspired to write the words for "Rescue the Perishing" based on a title and a tune given to her by [[William Howard Doane]] a few days earlier.{{sfnp|Crosby|1906|p=145}}<ref>{{Citation|url=http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/r/e/s/rescuetp.htm|title=Rescue the Perishing|publisher=Hymntime.com|access-date=December 11, 2014|archive-date=December 11, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141211084815/http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/r/e/s/rescuetp.htm|url-status=dead}}.</ref>

Ira Sankey recalled the origins of "Rescue the Perishing" in his 1907 book ''My Life and the Story of the Gospel Hymns'':
{{Blockquote|Fanny Crosby returned, one day, from a visit to a mission in one of the worst districts in New York City, where she had heard about the needs of the lost and perishing. Her sympathies were aroused to help the lowly and neglected, and the cry of her heart went forth in this hymn, which has become a [[battle cry]] for the great army of Christian workers throughout the world. It has been used very extensively in temperance work, and has been blessed to thousands of souls.<ref>{{Citation|first=Ira D.|last=Sankey|url=https://archive.org/stream/cu31924021638014#page/n263/mode/2up/search/crosby|title=My Life and the Story of the Gospel Hymns|year=1907|pages=258–59}}</ref>}}

===1880–1900===
In 1880, aged 60, Crosby "made a new commitment to Christ to serve the poor"{{sfnp|Burger|1997|p=86}} and to devote the rest of her life to home missionary work.{{sfnp|Hobbs|1997|p=100}} She continued to live in a dismal flat at 9 Frankfort Street, near one of the worst slums in Manhattan, until about 1884.{{sfnp|Ruffin|1995|pp=132, 158}} From this time, she increased her involvement in various missions and homes.{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=285}}

During the next three decades, she dedicated her time as "Aunty Fanny" to work at various city rescue missions, including the McAuley [[New York City Rescue Mission|Water Street Mission]],<ref>{{cite book|author=[[Joyce Mendelsohn]]|title=The Lower East Side Remembered and Revisited: A History and Guide|year=2009|quote=The Bowery Mission, opened by Reverend and Mrs. A. G. Ruliffson at 36 Bowery in 1879, is the third rescue mission established in America. (Jerry McAuley's Water Street Mission, dating to 1872, is the first and, as the New York Rescue ... |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9FmQLYB4h6MC&pg=PA261|page=261|publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=9780231519434}}</ref> the [[Bowery Mission]], the Howard Mission, the Cremore Mission, the Door of Hope, and other [[skid row]] missions. She spoke at [[YMCA]]s, churches, and prisons about the needs of the urban poor.{{sfnp|Burger|1997|p=87}} Additionally, she was a passionate supporter of [[Frances Willard (suffragist)|Frances Willard]] and the [[Women's Christian Temperance Union]] and its endeavors to urge either abstinence or moderation in the use of alcohol.{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=286}}

For example, Crosby wrote the words for the song "The Red Pledge" before 1879,<ref>{{Citation|first=George W.|last=Ewing|title=The Well-Tempered Lyre: Songs & Verse of the Temperance Movement|publisher=[[Southern Methodist University|SMU Press]]|year=1977|page=123}}</ref> which advocated total abstinence from imbibing alcohol.{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=294}}
[[File:316 Water St Mission House.jpg|thumb|upright|316 Water Street Mission]]
From about 1880, Crosby attended and supported the Helping Hand for Men in Manhattan (better known as the [[Water Street Mission]]),{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=291}} "America's first rescue mission",<ref name="christianhistorytimeline1"/> which was founded by a married couple to minister to alcoholics and the unemployed. [[Jerry McAuley]] was a former alcoholic and thief who became a Christian in [[Sing Sing]] prison in 1864, and his wife [[Maria McAuley|Maria]] (c. 1847 – September 19, 1919) was a self-described "river thief" and "fallen woman".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.citygatenetwork.org/agrm/Default.asp|title=Citygate Network – Home|website=www.citygatenetwork.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://library.cityvision.edu/|title=City Vision University &#124; Online Library|website=library.cityvision.edu}}</ref><ref>https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1886/01/04/109311820.pdf {{Bare URL PDF|date=March 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.nycrescue.org/413019.ihtml|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20111107144623/http://www.nycrescue.org/413019.ihtml|archive-date = November 7, 2011|title = New York City Rescue Mission}}</ref><ref>Duane V. Maxey (ed.), [http://wesley.nnu.edu/wesleyctr/books/1801-1900/HDM1855.pdf ''The Story of Jerry McAuley, His Conversion, Establishment in Grace, and His Water Street Mission Work By Jerry McAuley''], Holiness Data Ministry, 2000, p. 7.<!--ISSN/ISBN needed, if any--></ref><ref name="voluntaryist.com">Carl Watner, [http://www.voluntaryist.com/backissues/061.pdf "The Most Generous Nation on Earth: Voluntaryism and American Philanthropy"], ''The Voluntaryist'' 61, April 1993, p. 4.<!-- ISSN/ISBN needed if any --></ref> Crosby often attended the Water Street Mission, "conversing and counseling with those she met".<ref name="christianhistorytimeline1"/>
[[File:Boweryrm.jpg|right|thumb|upright|Bowery Mission]]
Crosby supported the [[Bowery Mission]] in Manhattan for two decades, beginning in November 1881.<ref name="1timothy4-13.com">[http://www.1timothy4-13.com/files/hymns/homegoing.html "Fanny Crosby's Wonderful Life Ended"], ''The Christian Herald'', March 3, 1915, p. 205.</ref>{{sfnp|Crosby|1906|p=161}} The Bowery Mission welcomed the ministry of women and she worked actively, often attending and speaking in the evening meetings.{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=286}} She addressed large crowds attending the anniversary service each year until the building was razed in a fire in 1897.<ref name="ch1904">[http://hymntime.com/tch/bio/b/e/n/benke_vh.htm "Victor H. Benke: 1872–1904"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120509193504/http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/b/e/n/benke_vh.htm |date=May 9, 2012 }}, hymntime.com; accessed December 11, 2014.</ref> She would also recite a poem which she'd written for the occasion, many of which were set to music by Victor Benke, the Mission's volunteer organist from 1893–97.{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|pp=286–287}} Among the songs that she and Benke collaborated on were six published in 1901: [http://hymntime.com/tch/htm/h/h/a/hhasprom.htm "He Has Promised"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110816005258/http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/h/h/a/hhasprom.htm |date=August 16, 2011 }}, [http://hymntime.com/tch/htm/t/a/c/tachorus.htm "There's a Chorus Ever Ringing"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110816000754/http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/t/a/c/tachorus.htm |date=August 16, 2011 }}, [http://hymntime.com/tch/htm/g/b/o/gbostday.htm "God Bless Our School Today"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110815231944/http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/g/b/o/gbostday.htm |date=August 15, 2011 }}, [http://hymntime.com/tch/htm/i/t/s/itsicado.htm "Is There Something I Can Do?"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110816004733/http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/i/t/s/itsicado.htm |date=August 16, 2011 }}, [http://hymntime.com/tch/htm/o/n/j/onjoyful.htm "On Joyful Wings"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110816000808/http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/o/n/j/onjoyful.htm |date=August 16, 2011 }}, and [http://hymntime.com/tch/htm/k/n/kowatchg.htm "Keep On Watching"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110816025016/http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/k/n/kowatchg.htm |date=August 16, 2011 }}.
[[File:Cremorne Mission 1891.jpg|thumb|upright|Cremorne Mission<br />104 West 32nd Street, Manhattan]]
Jerry and Maria McAuley started the Cremorne Mission in 1882<ref>[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1883/01/08/103433991.pdf "JERRY M'AULEY'S WORK.; THE SUCCESS OF THE CREMORNE MISSION IN THIRTY-SECOND-STREET"], ''The New York Times'', January 8, 1883.</ref> in the Cremorne Garden<ref name="autogenerated1906">John Wilbur Chapman, ''S. H. Hadley of Water Street: A Miracle of Grace'', New York, NY: Fleming H. Revell, 1906, p. 45.</ref> at 104 West 32nd Street,<ref>[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1897/01/11/105941233.pdf "Cremorne Mission: Celebration of the Fifteenth Anniversary of Its Founding"], ''The New York Times'', January 11, 1897.</ref> as a "beachhead in a vast jungle of vice and debauchery known as Tenderloin" (near Sixth Avenue). Crosby attended the nightly 8 pm services, where gospel songs were often sung that were written by her and Doane, including "ballads recalling mother's prayers, reciting the evils of intemperance, or envisioning agonizing deathbed scenes intending to arouse long-buried memories and strengthen resolves".{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|pp=291–293}} She was inspired to write a prayer after the death of Jerry McAuley in 1884<ref>Duane V. Maxey (ed.), [http://wesley.nnu.edu/wesleyctr/books/1801-1900/HDM1855.pdf ''The Story of Jerry McAuley, His Conversion, Establishment in Grace, and His Water Street Mission Work By Jerry McAuley''] Holiness Data Ministry, 2000, p. 7.<!-- ISBN/ISSN needed, if any --></ref> which was later included in rescue song books:

{{blockquote|<poem>Lord, behold in Thy compassion
Those who kneel before Thee now;
They are in a sad condition
None can help them, Lord, but Thou.
They are lost, but do not leave them
In their dreary path to roam;
There is pardon, precious pardon
If to Thee by faith they come.{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|pp=291–293}}</poem>}}

After McAuley's death, Crosby continued to support the Cremorne Mission, now led by Samuel Hopkins Hadley.<ref name="autogenerated1906"/>

Some of the city missions with which Crosby worked were operated by proponents of [[Wesleyan|Wesleyan/Holiness doctrine]],<ref name=Schwanz1998/> including the Door of Hope rescue home founded by socialite Emma Whittemore on October 25, 1890<ref>Dan Graves, [http://www.christianity.com/ChurchHistory/11630626 "October 25, 1890: Emma Whittemore Opened Door of Hope"], October 2006; accessed December 11, 2014.</ref><ref>Emma M. Whittemore, ''Records of Modern Miracles'', F.A. Robinson (ed.), Toronto, Ontario: Canada: Missions of Biblical Education, 1947.<!--ISSN/ISBN needed, if any--></ref> in a house belonging to [[A.B. Simpson]],<ref name="christianity.com">[http://www.christianity.com/ChurchHistory/11630627/page2 "Emma Whittemore and Door of Hope"], christianity.com, 2.</ref> intended as "a refuge and a home for girls of the better class who have been tempted from home and right",<ref>Norris Magnuson, ''Salvation in the Slums'', Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1977, p. 82.<!--ISSN/ISBN needed--></ref><ref>Emma Whittemore. ''Record of Modern Miracles'', pp. 18–31.<!--year needed; ISBN needed, if any--></ref> and to rescue "fallen girls".<ref>Mae Elise Cannon, ''Social Justice Handbook: Small Steps for a Better World'', InterVarsity Press, 2009, pp. 64–65.<!--ISBN/ISSN needed--></ref><ref>[http://www.christianhistorytimeline.com/GLIMPSEF/Glimpses2/glimpses196.shtml "Diamond Dust Socialite Lands on Skid Row; Emma Whittemore and Door of Hope"], ''Glimpses of Christian History'', p. 196.<!--ISSN/ISBN needed, if any--></ref>

===Later years (1900–1915)===
Crosby's hymn writing declined in later years, but she was active in speaking engagements and missionary work among America's urban poor almost until she died.<ref name="christianhistorytimeline3"/> She was well known, and she often met with presidents, generals, and other dignitaries. According to Blumhofer, "The popularity of Fanny Crosby's lyrics as well as her winsome personality catapulted her to fame".{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2006b|p=215}}

Some of her wealthy friends contributed often to her financial needs, such as Doane, Sankey, and Phoebe Knapp,{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|pp=213, 223}} although she still tended to give generously to those whom she saw as less fortunate than herself.{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=321}} Her longtime publisher The Biglow and Main Company paid her a small stipend of $8 each week in recognition of her contributions to their business over the years, even after she submitted fewer lyrics to them.{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|pp=321, c 325}} However, Knapp and others believed that Biglow and Main had made enormous profits because of Crosby without compensating her adequately for her contributions, and that she should be living more comfortably in her advanced years.{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=321}}

She had been ill with a serious heart condition for a few months by May 1900,{{sfnp|Ruffin|1995|p=193}} and she still showed some effects from a fall,<ref name="living1904">"Fanny Crosby Still Living", ''The Pittsburg Press'', July 10, 1904, p. 28.</ref> so her half-sisters traveled to Brooklyn to convince her to move from her room in the home of poet [[Will Carleton]]<ref>{{Citation|first=James H.|last=Ross|title=Fanny Crosby|newspaper=Boston Evening Transcript|date=March 18, 1905|page=26}}</ref> in [[Brooklyn]] to [[Bridgeport, Connecticut]]. They urged her to live with her widowed half-sister Julia "Jule" Athington and with Jule's widowed younger sister Caroline "Carrie" W. Rider.<ref>Crosby (1903), p. 183.</ref>{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|pp=319–320}}{{sfnp|Neptune|2001|p=81}} She and Rider rented a room together,{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=320}} before moving to a rented apartment where they lived until 1906.{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=320}} She transferred her church membership from Cornell Memorial Methodist Church in Manhattan to the First Methodist Church of Bridgeport in 1904, after moving to Bridgeport.{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=320}} Her husband "Van" died on July 18, 1902; he had been living in [[Brooklyn]]. She did not attend the funeral due to her own poor health.{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=311}} Phoebe Knapp paid for his burial at Mount Olivet Cemetery, Queens County, New York.{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|pp=313–314}}

===Passing of friends, public appreciation===
Crosby and Rider moved to 226 Wells Street, [[Bridgeport, Connecticut]], in summer 1906 because of Rider's cancer.{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|pp=332, 342}} Carrie died of [[intestinal cancer]] in July 1907, and Phoebe Knapp died on July 10, 1908.{{sfnp|Carder|2008|p=38}} Weeks later, Ira Sankey died having just sung "Saved by Grace", one of Crosby's most popular compositions.<ref>[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1908/08/15/104748178.pdf "Ira D. Sankey Dies, a Song on his Lips"], ''The New York Times'' (August 15, 1908).</ref>

On May 2, 1911, Crosby spoke to 5,000 people at the opening meeting of the Evangelistic Committee's seventh annual campaign held in [[Carnegie Hall]], after the crowd sang her songs for thirty minutes.<ref>{{Citation|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1911/05/03/105025956.pdf|title=5,000 Sing with blind hymn writer; Fanny Crosby, Now 91, Rouses Evangelistic Rally in Carnegie Hall|newspaper=The New York Times|date=May 3, 1911}}.</ref> On Crosby's 94th birthday in March 1914, Alice Rector and the King's Daughters of the First Methodist Church of [[Bridgeport, Connecticut]], organized a Violet Day to honor her,<ref>"Thrift and Beauty in the Home", ''The Washington Post'', March 24, 1914, p. 7.</ref> which was publicized nationally by Hugh Main.{{sfnp|Ruffin|1995|p=231}} In 1912, at the age of 92, Fanny Crosby visited Harvard college, telling professors about her ancestor Simon Crosby, who was one of its founders.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Farrance |first1=E.H |title=Fanny Jane Crosby |url=https://www.wholesomewords.org/biography/bcrosby18.html |website=wholesomewords.com |publisher=Wholesome Words |access-date=April 29, 2025}}</ref>

==Carleton controversy (1904–1905)==
[[File:Cover Fanny Crosby Life Story 1903.jpg|right|upright|thumb|''Fanny Crosby's Life-Story'' (1903)]]
American poet, author, and lecturer Will Carleton was a wealthy friend<ref>{{Citation|editor-first=Caryn|editor-last=Hannan|contribution=Carleton, Will|title=Michigan Biographical Dictionary|volume=A–I|edition=rev.|publisher=North American Book Dist|year=1998|pages=123–24}}</ref> with whom Crosby had lived in her last years in Brooklyn. He had been giving lectures on her hymns and life, and had published a series of articles about her in his ''Every Where'' magazine in 1901 (which had a peak circulation of 50,000 copies a month), for which he paid her $10 (~${{Format price|{{Inflation|index=US|value=10|start_year=1901}}}} in {{Inflation/year|US}}) an article.<ref>{{Citation|first=Amos Elwood|last=Corning|url=https://archive.org/details/willcarletonabi00corngoog|title=Will Carleton: A Biographical Study|publisher=Lanmere|year=1917|page=75}}</ref> In 1902, he wrote a tribute to her that was published in his ''Songs of Two Centuries''.<ref>{{Citation|first=Will|last=Carleton|title=Songs of Two Centuries|publisher=Harper|year=1902|pages=142f}}.</ref>

[[File:Publisher's Statement Fanny Crosby's Life-Story edited.jpg|upright|thumb|right|Publisher's Advertisement in <br />''Fanny Crosby's Life-Story'']]
At Knapp's instigation, Carleton revised those articles and wrote ''Fanny Crosby's Life-Story'', a biography which she authorized initially; it was published by July 1903 and reviewed favorably by ''The New York Times'' on July 25.<ref>{{Citation |first=Lillian Snow |last=Kimball |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1903/07/25/102015618.pdf |title=Fanny Crosby's Life Story |department=Saturday Review of Books and Art |newspaper=The New York Times |date=July 25, 1903 |page=BR10}}</ref> Carleton's book sold for $1 a copy.<ref>{{Citation|title=Baptist Missionary Magazine|volume=83|publisher=American Baptist Missionary Union|year=1903}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=August 2015}}

This was the first full-length biographical account of Crosby's life, although [[Robert Lowry (hymn writer)|Robert Lowry]] had written a 16-page biographical sketch that was published in 1897 in her last book of poems ''Bells of Evening and Other Verses''. In the advertisement at the front of the book, the following statement from "the author" was signed with a facsimile of Crosby's signature: "'Fanny Crosby's Life-Story' is published and sold for my benefit, and I hope by its means to be a welcome guest in many homes".<ref>Crosby (1903)</ref>{{Page needed|date=August 2015}} Carleton added:{{Blockquote | It is sincerely hoped by the publishers that<!---"that" was formerly "of" which appears to be typo; if it is an accurate quotation, then "sic" is required here, as the publishers themselves clearly made a typo---> this book may have as large a sale as possible, in order that the story of its loved author may be an inspiration to many people, and that she may be enabled to have a home of her own, in which to pass the remainder of her days.{{sfnp|Hobbs|1997|p=146}}}}

===Publishers' reaction===
According to Ruffin, Carleton's book "went over like a lead balloon with Fanny's publishers." There was nothing negative written explicitly about Biglow and Main, but there was also little praise for the firm and its members.<ref>Ruffin  (1985), p. 211.</ref> Crosby is quoted, referring to Biglow and Main: "with whom I have maintained most cordial and even affectionate relations, for many years past".{{sfnp|Carleton|1903|p=79}} The book did not use any of her hymns that were owned by Biglow and Main. Hubert Main believed that "Will Carleton wanted to ignore the Biglow & Main Company and all its writers as far as possible and set himself up as the one of her friends who was helping her". Biglow and Main believed that Carleton and Phoebe Knapp were guilty of "a brutal attack on Fanny", and that they were plotting to "take over" Crosby.{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=325}} Knapp was not invited to the 40th anniversary reception and dinner held in Manhattan in February 1904 to celebrate Crosby's association with Bradbury and Biglow and Main; according to Blumhofer, she was ''[[persona non grata]]'' at Biglow and Main.{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|pp=325–326}}

Biglow and Main were concerned that the book would diminish sales of Crosby's ''Bells at Evening and Other Verses'', which they had published in 1897 and which contained Lowry's biographical sketch of Crosby.{{sfnp|Ruffin|1976|p=182}} They convinced Crosby to write to both Carleton and Knapp, and to threaten to sue Carleton in April 1904. The threatened lawsuit was to obtain information regarding sales of the book, for which she had been promised a royalty of 10 cents per copy, and to seek an [[injunction]] preventing further publication. The proposed injunction was on the grounds that she had been misrepresented by Carleton; she believed that he had described her as living alone in poor health and extreme poverty, when in fact she was receiving $25 a week from Biglow and Main and was living with relatives who cared for her.<ref name= "living1904"/><ref>{{Citation|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1904/04/07/101389906.pdf|title=Will Carleton sued; Miss Fanny Crosby Demands an Accounting of Book Sales|newspaper=The New York Times|date=April 7, 1904|page=2}}.</ref>{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|pp=324–325}} Crosby indicated she had no desire to be a homeowner, and that if she ever lived in poverty, it was by her own choice.{{sfnp|Ruffin|1995|p=212}}

===Controversy goes public===
In response to Crosby's letter and threats, Carleton wrote in a letter to ''The New York Times'' that he was motivated to write his "labor of love" for Crosby in order to raise money that she might have a home of her own for the first time in her life. He stated that he had:
*interviewed Crosby and transcribed the details of her life
*paid her for her time and materials
*secured her permission to publish the material in his magazine ''Every Where'' and in a book
*paid all the expenses for publishing and printing out of his own pocket
*promoted the book in his own time and at his own expense
*remitted $235.20 to her for the royalties owing for the previous eight months at the agreed rate
*sent her additional contributions given by admirers at his lectures<ref>{{Citation|first=Will|last=Carleton|type=letter to the editor|newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1904/04/08/117939913.pdf|title=Mr Carleton's side of the Crosby affair; Blind Poetess Was Really Poor, Ballad Poet Says|date=April 8, 1904|page=8}}</ref>
 
Sankey paid the rent on the Bridgeport house where Crosby lived with her half-sister Carrie.{{sfnp|Ruffin|1976|p=210}} He implied in an article in ''The Christian'' that "the Carleton business had been of Satanic origin and commented, echoing the [[Parable of the Tares|wheat and tares passage in scripture]], 'An enemy hath done this'".{{sfnp|Ruffin|1976|p=213}}
[[File:Charles Cardwell McCabe.jpg|right|thumb|upright|Charles Cardwell McCabe]]
In 1904, Phoebe Knapp contacted Methodist Episcopal Church Bishop [[Charles Cardwell McCabe]] and enlisted his assistance in publicizing Crosby's poverty, raising funds to ameliorate that situation.{{sfnp|Ruffin|1976|p=210}} They secured Crosby's permission to solicit funds for her benefit, and the religious press (including the ''[[Christian Advocate]]'') carried McCabe's request for money on her behalf in June 1904, under the heading "Fanny Crosby in Need".{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=323}} McCabe indicated that Crosby's "hymns have never been copyrighted in her own name, she has sold them for small sums to the publishers who hold the copyright themselves, and the gifted authoress has but little monetary reward for hymns that have been sung all over the world".{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=323}}

By July 1904, newspapers reported that Crosby's publishers had issued a statement denying that she was in need of funds, indicating that she never would be, "as they have provided abundantly for her during her entire life", and stating that "Bishop McCabe ... has been grossly deceived by somebody".<ref>"Fanny Crosby Does Not Need Aid", ''Newburgh Daily Journal'', Newburgh, NY, July 2, 1904, p. 2.</ref>

Crosby also wrote a letter to Bishop McCabe in response to his fundraising on her behalf. This letter was published at her instigation, permitting him to solicit funds from her friends as "a testimonial of their love", but reiterating that she was not living in poverty, nor was she dying or in poor health.{{sfnp|Ruffin|1976|pp=212–213}} Crosby and her representatives contacted him a week later, and McCabe wrote to ''The Christian Advocate'' explaining his rationale for raising funds for her, but stating that he was withdrawing the appeal at her request.<ref>{{Citation|journal=The Christian Advocate|volume=79|publisher=Hunt & Eaton|year=1904|page=1111}}.</ref>

The matter was still not settled in July 1904;<ref name="living1904"/> however, it came to an end before Fanny Crosby Day in March 1905{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=325}} after Carleton's wife Adora died suddenly.<ref>{{Citation|publisher=Michigan Dept. of State. Bureau of History, Michigan Historical Commission|journal=Michigan History Magazine|number=65–66|year=1981|page=39}}<!--ISSN/ISBN needed, if any--></ref>

===New Carleton edition===
In 1905 Carleton issued a new edition of ''Fannie Crosby, Her Life Work'', which was both expanded and "newly illustrated", and despite "the greater expense of production, the price remains One Dollar a copy", with Crosby to "receive the same liberal royalty", as the book was "<small>SOLD FOR THE BLIND AUTHOR'S BENEFIT</small>".<ref>{{Citation|editor-first=Will|editor-last=Carleton|title=Every Where|volume=17–18|publisher=Every Where Publishing Co.|year=1905|pages=123, 187, 381}}.</ref>

In December 1905 Crosby issued a card protesting the continued sale of Carleton's book, again denying she was "in distress", as she was in "comfortable circumstances and very active", giving lectures nearly once a week.<ref>[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1905/12/05/120280049.pdf  "Miss Fanny Crosby Protests"], ''The New York Times'', December 5, 1905.</ref> She indicated she had received less than $325 from the sale of the book, that her "requests had been disregarded", but that "when these facts are fully known to all, the publishers can sell the book as they desire; only I have no wish to increase its sale for my own benefit, which, of course, is very small".{{sfnp|Ruffin|1976|p=213}}

Despite Crosby's efforts, Carleton continued to advertise the book for sale until at least 1911.<ref>{{Citation|editor-first=Will|editor-last=Carleton|title=Every Where|volume=29–30|publisher=Every Where|year=1911|page=248}}.</ref> In 1911, Carleton serialised and updated Crosby's life story in ''Every Where''.<ref>"An Afternoon with Fanny Crosby", {{harvp|Carleton|1911|pp=283, 299}}.</ref> The 1906 publication of Crosby's own autobiography, ''Memories of Eighty Years'', which, in contrast to Carleton's book, focused on Crosby's hymn-writing years, was sold by subscription and door-to-door, and promoted in lectures by Doane, raised $1,000 for Crosby.{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=326}} For a period Crosby and Knapp were estranged because of the Carleton book,{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|pp=324–325}} but by early 1905 they had reconciled.{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|pp=324, 332–333}}
[[File:Fanny Crosby cph.3b17084.jpg|thumb|upright|right|Crosby in later years, 1906.]]

==Death and legacy==
Crosby died at Bridgeport of [[Atherosclerosis|arteriosclerosis]] and a [[cerebral hemorrhage]] on February 12, 1915, after a six-month illness, aged 94.<ref name="Clifford E. Rhinehart 1974"/> She was buried at [[Mountain Grove Cemetery, Bridgeport|Mountain Grove Cemetery]] in Bridgeport, CT<ref name="1timothy4-13.com"/> near her mother and other members of her family.<ref>Writers of the Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration of the State of Connecticut, ''Connecticut: A Guide to Its Roads, Lore and People'', Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1938, p. 124.</ref> Her family erected a very small [[tomb stone|tombstone]] at her request which carried the words: "Aunt Fanny: She hath done what she could; Fanny J. Crosby".<ref>For Fanny Crosby's tombstone, see {{harvp|Neptune|2001|p=222}}; [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pv&GRid=4173&PIpi=1914932 Frances J. "Fanny" Crosby (1820–1915)], findagrave.com; accessed December 11, 2014.</ref>

Crosby said that her interest in "public affairs has never abated. There are not many people living in this year of grace who had the privilege of meeting such statesmen as Henry Clay, [[Winfield Scott|General Scott]], and [[James K. Polk|President Polk]], but the names of these heroes are recorded with indelible letters among the annals of our national history, and their imperishable deeds are chronicled in characters that no person living should wish to efface. They were men of sterling worth and firm integrity, of whom the rising generation may well learn wisdom and the true principles of national honor and democracy that all of them labored so faithfully to inculcate. ..."<ref>Crosby Autobiography, pp. 91–92.</ref>

===Fanny Crosby Day===
On Sunday, March 26, 1905, Fanny Crosby Day was celebrated in churches of many denominations around the world, with special worship services in honor of her 85th birthday two days earlier.<ref>{{Citation | title = Fanny Crosby Day | newspaper = The New York Times | date = March 27, 1905 | url = https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1905/03/27/101411090.pdf}}.</ref> On that day, she attended the First Baptist Church in Bridgeport where Carrie Rider was a member; she spoke in the evening service and was given $85.{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=328}}

In March 1925, about 3,000 churches throughout the United States observed Fanny Crosby Day to commemorate the 105th anniversary of her birth.<ref>Fanny Crosby Day coverage, ''The New York Times'', March 20, 1925.</ref>

===Fanny Crosby Memorial Home for the Aged (1925–1996)===
Crosby left money in her will for "the sheltering of senior males who had no other place to live, with these men to pay a nominal fee to the home for their living expenses".<ref>Connecticut State Senate Finance Committee Hearing Transcript for March 18, 2003.</ref> In 1923, the King's Daughters of the First Methodist Church of Bridgeport, Connecticut honored Crosby's request to memorialize her by beginning to raise the additional funds needed to establish the Fanny Crosby Memorial Home for the Aged.<ref name="autogenerated1977">"Familiar Names Appear In Social News of 1877", ''[[Bridgeport Sunday Post]]'', January 9, 1977, p. D-6.</ref> The non-denominational home was established in the former Hunter house at 1008 Fairfield Avenue, Bridgeport;<ref>Lewis Carlisle Granniss, ''Connecticut Composers'', Connecticut State Federation of Music Clubs, 1935, p. 23.</ref> it opened on November 1, 1925, after a national drive by the Federation of Churches to raise $100,000 to operate it.<ref>"Fanny Crosby Home To Be Refuge For Old People", ''The Norwalk Hour'', October 20, 1925, p. 5.</ref> It operated until 1996 when it was given to the Bridgeport Rescue Mission.{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=342}}

The Enoch Crosby chapter of the [[Daughters of the American Revolution]] dedicated a historic roadside marker on October 8, 1934, commemorating her birthplace on the western side of Route 22 in Doansburg, New York, just north of Brewster.<ref>[http://fultonhistory.com/newspaper%2010/Carmel%20NY%20Putnam%20Country%20Courier/Carmel%20NY%20Putnam%20Country%20Courier%201934%20Grayscale/Carmel%20NY%20Putnam%20Country%20Courier%201934%20Grayscale%20-%200419.pdf "Fanny Crosby and Chancellor Kent Markers Dedicated Monday"], ''The Putnam County Courier'', October 12, 1934, pp. 1, 12.</ref>

A large memorial stone was dedicated on May 1, 1955, by Crosby's "friends to whom her life was an inspiration"—a stone that "dwarfed the original gravestone"{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=343}}—despite her specific instructions not to erect a large marble monument.{{sfnp|Blumhofer|2005|p=342}}<ref>"Fanny Crosby Monument Comes 40 Years Too Late", ''Sunday Herald'', April 17, 1955, p. 48.</ref> It contained the first stanza of "[[Blessed Assurance]]".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pv&GRid=4173&PIpi=78383|title=Frances J. "Fanny" Crosby (1820–1915)|publisher=Findagrave.com|date=October 8, 2001|access-date=August 20, 2013}}</ref>

===Other honors===
Crosby was posthumously inducted into the [[Gospel Music Hall of Fame]] in 1975.<ref>[http://hymntime.com/tch/bio/c/r/o/crosby_fj.htm "Frances Jane Crosby (Fanny Crosby) 1820–1915"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110712233701/http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/c/r/o/crosby_fj.htm |date=July 12, 2011 }}, hymntime.com; accessed December 11, 2014.</ref> Known as the "Queen of Gospel Song Writers",<ref name="Wilhoit1984"/> During 2010 songwriter [[George Hamilton IV]] toured Methodist chapels celebrating Fanny's outstanding contribution to gospel music. His presentation included stories of her productive and charitable life, some of her hymns, and a few of his own uplifting songs. While she is not mentioned in [[The Hymnal 1982]], her hymns are included in several more recent hymnals, including ''Lift Every Voice and Sing II''<ref>Horace Boyer (ed.) ''Life Every Voice and Sing II: An African American Hymnal'', New York, Church Hymnal Corporation, 1993; {{ISBN|978-0-89869-194-8}}.<!--page(s) needed--></ref> and the ''African American Heritage Hymnal''.<ref>Delores Carpenter (ed.) ''African American Heritage Hymnal'', Chicago, GIA Publications, 2001; {{ISBN|978-1579991241}}.</ref>

== Works ==
{{Main list|List of works by Fanny Crosby}}

== References ==
===Footnotes===
{{notelist}}

=== Citations ===
{{Reflist}}

=== Sources ===
{{Refbegin}}
* {{cite book |last = Blumhofer |first = Edith L. |year=2005 |title = Her Heart Can See: The Hymns and Life of Fanny Crosby |publisher = Wm. B. Eerdmans |location = Grand Rapids, MI |isbn = 978-0-8028-4253-4 |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=9LWkw81bRXwC }}
* {{cite book |last = Blumhofer |first = Edith L. |year = 2006a |chapter = Fanny Crosby, William Doane, and the Making of Gospel Hymns in the Late Nineteenth Century |title=Sing Them Over Again to Me: Hymns and Hymnbooks in America |editor1-first=Mark A. |editor1-last = Noll |editor2-first= Edith L. |editor2-last=Blumhofer |publisher= University of Alabama Press |author-mask = 3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zMg0AWS9c38C |isbn=9780817352929}}
* {{cite book |last = Blumhofer |first=Edith L. |year= 2006b |chapter = Fanny Crosby in Protestant Hymnody |title = Music in American Religious Experience |url = https://archive.org/details/musicinamericanr00bohl |url-access = registration |editor1-first=Philip Vilas |editor1-last=Bohlman |editor2-first = Edith Waldvogel |editor2-last= Blumhofer |editor3-first = Maria M. |editor3-last = Chow |publisher= Oxford University Press |author-mask = 3 }}
*{{cite book |last = Burger |first=Delores T. |chapter= Home Missionary: Fanny Crosby |title=Women Who Changed the Heart of the City: The Untold Story of the City Rescue Mission Movement |url = https://archive.org/details/womenwhochangedh0000burg |url-access = registration |publisher=Kregel |year = 1997 |isbn=9780825421464 }}
* {{cite book |last = Carder |first= Polly |title = George F. Root, Civil War Songwriter: A Biography |publisher=McFarland |year=2008 }}
* {{cite book |last = Carleton |first=Will |title= Fanny Crosby's Life Story |year=1903 |location = New York, NY |publisher=Every Where Publishing Co |url = https://archive.org/details/cu31924022206894 }}
* {{cite book |title=Holy Women, Holy Men: Celebrating the Saints |date=1 January 2010 |publisher=Church Publishing, Inc. |isbn=978-0-89869-678-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CZqabeZvNaMC |language=en |ref={{sfnref|Church Publishing|2010}}}}
* {{cite book |last = Crawford |first=Richard |chapter=George Frederick Root (1820–1895) and American Vocal Music |title = The American Musical Landscape: The Business of Musicianship from Billings to Gershwin |publisher = University of California Press |year = 2000 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Crosby |first1=Fanny |title=The Blind Girl: And Other Poems |date=1844 |publisher=Wiley & Putnam |location=New York |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RRcTAAAAIAAJ |language=en}}
* {{cite book |last = Crosby |first= Fanny |title = Fanny Crosby's Life-Story |location = New York, NY |publisher = Every Where Publishing Co. |year = 1905 |url = https://archive.org/details/fannycrosbyslife00cros }}
* {{cite book |last = Crosby |first = Fanny | year = 1906 | title = Memories of Eighty Years | location = Boston, MA |publisher = James H. Earle & Co. |url = https://archive.org/details/memorieseightyy01crosgoog | author-mask = 3 }}
* {{cite book |last1 = Crosby | first1= Fanny |first2 = Robert | last2 = Lowry |title = Bells at Evening and Other Verses; with Biographical Sketch by Robert Lowry |edition = 3rd |location = New York, NY; Chicago, IL |publisher = Biglow & Main |year=1899 |url = https://archive.org/details/bellsateveningot00crosiala |author-mask = 3 }}
*{{cite book |last = Dunlap| first= David W. |title = From Abyssinian to Zion: A Guide to Manhattan's Houses of Worship |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=2004 }}
*{{cite book |last = Hobbs |first= June Hadden |year= 1997 |title = I Sing for I Cannot Be Silent: The Feminization of American Hymnody, 1870–1920 |publisher=University of Pittsburgh Press }}
*{{cite book |last = Hall |first=Jacob Henry |chapter=Dr. W. H. Doane: Composer of Hymns |title = Biography of Gospel Song and Hymn Writers |location = New York, NY |publisher=Fleming H. Revell |year=1914 |url = https://archive.org/details/biographyofgospe00hall }}
* {{cite book |last = Knapp |first = Phoebe Palmer (Mrs Jos. K. Knapp) |title = Notes of Joy |url = https://archive.org/details/forsab00knap |location = New York, NY |publisher= W.C. Palmer, Jr. |year=1869 |hdl = 2027/mdp.39015024127469 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Koskoff |first1=Ellen |title=Women and Music in Cross-cultural Perspective |date=1989 |orig-date=1987 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn=978-0-252-06057-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LVaT02NNw7oC |language=en}}
* {{cite book |last = Morgan |first = Robert J. |title = Then Sings My Soul: 150 of the World's Greatest Hymn Stories| publisher= Thomas Nelson |year = 2003 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=4fJLL2VXuSUC |isbn = 978-1-41857824-4 }}
*{{cite book |last = Neptune |first=Darlene |title= Fanny Crosby Still Lives |publisher=Pelican |year=2001 |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=EUzk2CVl_kgC |isbn= 978-1-931600-00-2}}
* {{Citation |last = Neptune |first=Darlene |title = Fanny Crosby Still Lives |publisher=Pelican |year=2002 |orig-year = 2001 |author-mask = 3 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Osbeck |first1=Kenneth W. |title=Amazing Grace: Illustrated Stories of Favorite Hymns |date=August 1999 |publisher=Kregel Publications |isbn=978-0-8254-3433-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aeC4m6XzVowC |language=en}}
* {{cite book |editor-last= Phillips |editor-first = Philip | title = Hallowed Songs (Newly Revised): for Prayer and Social Meetings: Containing Hymns and Tunes, Carefully Selected from All Sources, Both Old and New |edition = rev. |publisher = Philip Phillips |year = 1870 }}
*{{cite book |last = Root |first=George Frederick |title=The Story of a Musical Life: An Autobiography |publisher=John Church Co. |year= 1891 |url = https://archive.org/details/cu31924022255784 }}
* {{cite book |last = Ruffin |first=Bernard |title= Fanny Crosby |url = https://archive.org/details/fannycrosby00bern |url-access = registration |publisher = United Church Press |year= 1976 }}
* {{cite book |last = Ruffin |first=Bernard |title=Fanny Crosby: The Hymn Writer |url = https://archive.org/details/fannycrosbyhymnw00bern |url-access = registration |publisher=Barbour |year=1995 |isbn = 978-1-55748-731-5 |author-mask = 3 }}
*{{cite book |last = Sawyer |first=Caroline Mehetabel |title=The History of the Blind Vocalists |location= New York, NY |publisher = J.W. Harrison |year = 1853 |url = https://archive.org/details/historyofblindvo00sawy }}
* {{cite book |last = Smucker |first = David Joseph Rempel |title = Philip Paul Bliss and the Musical, Cultural and Religious Sources of the Gospel Music Tradition in the United States, 1850–1876 |publisher=Boston University |year= 1981 }}
* {{cite book |last1 = Spann |first1 = C. Edward |first2 = Michael Edward |last2 = Williams |title= Presidential Praise: Our Presidents and their Hymns |publisher = Mercer University Press |year = 2008 }}
* {{cite book |last = Wilhoff |first= Mel R. |chapter = Crosby, Fanny Jane |title = Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music |editor-first= W.K. |editor-last=McNeil |publisher=Routledge |year= 2005 }}
* {{cite book |last = Farrance |first= E.H |title= Fanny Jane Crosby|editor=Wholesome Words }}
{{Refend}}

== External links ==
{{Sister project links|b=no|commons=Category:Fanny Crosby|s=no|wikt=no|v=no|n=no|species=no}}
{{wikisource|works=or}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20110816184856/http://www2.wheaton.edu/bgc/archives/GUIDES/035.htm Papers of Fanny Crosby]

; Articles
* [http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/c/r/o/crosby_fj.htm Fanny Crosby at HymnTime] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100209100927/http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/c/r/o/crosby_fj.htm |date=February 9, 2010 }}
* [http://www.hymnary.org/person/Crosby_Fanny Fanny Crosby at the Hymnary]
* {{Find a Grave|4173}}

; Books
* {{Internet Archive author |sname = Fanny Crosby }}
* {{Librivox author |id = 8863 }}

; Discography
* [https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/names/102169 Fanny Crosby recordings] at the [[Discography of American Historical Recordings]].

; Sheet music
*[http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/hasm/?facet=Lyricist=Crosby%2C%20Fanny%2C%201820-1915 Fanny Crosby] at [[Duke University]]
*[http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/inharmony/search.do?nameFacet=Crosby,%20Fanny,%201820-1915 Fanny Crosby] at [[Indiana University]]
* [https://archive.today/20130217142905/http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mussm:@OR(@field(AUTHOR+@3(Crosby,+Fanny++))+@field(OTHER+@3(Crosby,+Fanny++))) Fanny Crosby 01] at the [[Library of Congress]]
* [https://archive.today/20130217145605/http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mussm:@OR(@field(AUTHOR+@3(Crosby,+Frances+Jane+))+@field(OTHER+@3(Crosby,+Frances+Jane+))) Fanny Crosby 02] at the [[Library of Congress]]
* {{IMSLP|id=Crosby,_Fanny}}

; Streaming audio
*[https://www.loc.gov/jukebox/artists/detail/id/1674 Fanny Crosby] on [[Victor Talking Machine Company|Victor Records]]
*[http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?query=Fanny+Crosby&queryType=%40attr+1%3D1016 Fanny Crosby] on [[Edison Records]]

{{Authority control}}

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