Fanny Crosby was the most prolific and perhaps the most popular writer of Sunday school hymns that America has ever produced. She was born in Putnam County, New York in 1820. When only six weeks old she lost her eyesight. Her first poem was written when she was eight.
William Cowper was born in Hertfordshire, England in 1731. His father, Reverend John Cowper, was a chaplain to George II. He spent ten years in Westminster School and then began reading law; abandoning it for literature after a very brief practice. He became the most distinguished poet of the English language in the latter half of the eighteenth century.