Her Heart Can See

<DIV><I>Her Heart Can See</I> offers an intimate informed look at Fanny J. Crosby (1820-1915) the most prolific of all American hymn writers. Having lost her sight in infancy through a doctor's negligence Fanny went on to compose more than 9000 hymns as well as various other songs cantatas and lyrical productions. Crosby's hymns including such all-time favorites as Blessed Assurance Pass Me Not O Gentle Savior Jesus Keep Me Near the Cross Rescue the Perishing Safe in the Arms of Jesus and I Am Thine O Lord continue to be sung around the world.<br><br>Celebrated in her own day for her gospel hymns Crosby was also very publicly involved with New York City's rescue missions and with other benevolent efforts. She rubbed shoulders with the likes of Henry Clay Grover Cleveland Winfield Scott Dwight L. Moody Ira Sankey Jenny Lind P. T. Barnum and many other famous figures who people these pages. More than two dozen black-and-white photographs depict the people and settings among which Crosby moved.<br><br>Drawing on primary sources -- including thousands of unpublished Crosby manuscripts -- Edith Blumhofer sorts fact from fiction in the life of this remarkable woman. Blumhofer responsibly limns Crosby's life as a gifted nineteenth-century northeastern Protestant woman in the process showing why this diminutive woman was -- and is -- so beloved.</DIV>