Fanny Crosby

Frances Jane Crosby (1820–1915), known as Fanny Crosby, was an American hymn writer, poet and rescue mission worker — one of the most prolific hymn lyricists in history. Blind from shortly after birth, she wrote the texts to thousands of gospel hymns, publishing under some 200 pen names. Her best-known songs include “Blessed Assurance” (1873), “To God Be the Glory” and “Safe in the Arms of Jesus,” and her words remain staples of congregational singing more than a century later.

Crosby’s partnership with composers such as Phoebe Knapp and Ira Sankey helped shape the Sunday-school and gospel-song movement of nineteenth-century America, and her work is recognized as a foundational bridge between traditional hymnody and modern gospel music.