In her work, Her Heart Can See: The Life and Hymns of Fanny J. Crosby, Edith L. Blumhofer details the life of the beloved
blind songwriter. This book is a fascinating
account of a fascinating woman, who was, despite her disability, well-known and influential in nineteenth-century Protestant America. The early chapters cover her family heritage, early family life, education, and personal faith in order to establish the foundation that supported her lifelong ministry, on which the remainder of the book elaborates. Crosby’s influence was far-reaching, not only through her association with the likes of Dwight L. Moody, Ira Sankey, George Root, and P.T. Barnum, but also though her nearly universally-known gospel hymns, which formed the heart of the American Sunday School movement and many of which are still known, loved, and used in evangelical circles today. Past biographical work on Crosby appears to have been largely centered around her hymn writing, which obviously was a significant part of her life story. After all, she wrote over nine thousand hymns during her lifetime, many filled with apparent personal testimony and sentimentality. Instead of directly following in the footsteps of previous biographers, Blumhofer presents a unique account in this work, uncovering some previously unexamined historical material besides her hymns to formulate her account, such as school
records, poems, personally-dictated autobiographical material, and other records from organizations with which she associated. Crosby the hymnwriter is certainly present, but she is portrayed as much more. Blumhofer discusses her upbringing, in which her family, particularly her mother and grandmother, taught her to be outgoing, self-sufficient, and independent in spite of her blindness. These characteristics evidently were put into practice throughout her entire ninety-five years. Crosby knew the massive city of New York well and was known to navigate its streets on her own, with perhaps a bit of assistance from a few friendly strangers. She participated in corporate worship at a large number of area churches, never belonging to a single church. Her marriage appears to have been less than ideal. She frequently spoke in public, often in church or para-church organizations, where women did not normally actively participate in leader ship during that time, though she did seem to favor Methodist circles, where she associated in the same tradition as Phoebe Palmer and Phoebe Palmer Knapp. There do not appear to be any records of staunch feminist leanings or activism, so perhaps one can assume that Crosby, to a certain extent, was merely following in the path of her upbringing, rather than actively holding on to a revolutionary agenda.