Publications:
History Through 26 Hymns and Songs

Companion Histories to Hymns and Songs for Living Album

This is the companion publication to the album Hymns and Songs for Living. This extensive eBook presents historical information for the time each hymn or song was published. It provides historical context of times that shaped each of the hymns and songs.

(This eBook will be the basis of advanced podcasts beginning in last 2023, followed by an audiobook later in 2024.)

In addition to histories around each hymn and song, additional supporting information is included in several appendicies:

• Appendix I provides an overview of historical highpoints of the past 2 millenia that impacted Christian congregational hymn singing, from the death of Christ in the 1st century to the 20th.


• Appendix II provides the continuation of the American Colony history after publication in 1876 of the hymn "It Is Well with My Soul" while the Spafford's were still in Chicago. The family and friends abruptly departed from Chicago for Jerusalem in 1881. The additional appendix II information provides a fuller presentation of the family's activities for readers to make their own judgements about the Spafford's actions.


• Additional appencices provide:
  • Lyrics for each hymn and song on the companion album;
  • List of hymn books used as references for selection of the hymns;
  • Bibliography; and
  • Index.

Various persons contributed to shaping this book:

• Dr. Nancy Graham recommended adopting an established style manual for structure on the book. (The Chicago Manual of Style was selected.) A short credit page for her is included on the dropdown local submenu above.


• Mr. Dave Mather provided an initial set of copy edit comments that assisted in putting the text into the style of the Chicago Manual of Style. He has a wide variety of experiences dealing with various different types of publications. A bio for him is included on the dropdown local submenu above.


• Mr. Terry Hamilton, the freind who initially asked the author to record some duets with him at Bias recording studio, provided resources for content. He is a bit of an Anglophile, which seems particularly fitting, since portions of the hymn histories involve England over the centuries. (A discussion and illustrations of duets recorded with Terry including under the heading of About.)


• Ms. Ingrid Bartinique became the indepth editor for this eBook and provided valuable recommendations for creation of the final version.

The opportunity to return to working with Ms. Bartinique on this book is somewhat analogous to what occurred with completing the album Hymns and Dongs for Living. For the recording David returned to working with Mr. Bill McElroy. For this eBook, he returned to working with Ms. Bartinique. Both are examples of full circles and are welcome privileges, again illustrating the World can be quite small. David previously worked with Ms. Bartinique as a professional colleague on various projects when he was a manager of research projects with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. A bio for Ms. Bartinique is included on the dropdown local submenu above.

Structure of Book

Each of the 26 hymns and songs are separate chapters, with subsections as appropriate. They provide historical contexts of events surrounding creation of each hymn and song providing readers insights into how those histories shaped the hymns and songs.

The histories follow the hymn and song order on the companion album, which are not chronological. However, the material in each history is chronological. If readers wish to skip to other referenced historical materials, a number of internal bookmarks are provided enabling electronically skipping to related history discussions in other histories within the eBook.

In addition, there is additional information given in several appendices.

Appendix I gives an expansive summary of historical highpoints from the past 2 millenia of selected christian religious histories relevant to development of congregational hymn singing. It begins from Christ's death, and goes to the 20th century.

Appendix II is a rather extensive history of the America Colony in Jerusalem after the hymn "It Is Well with My Soul" was published in 1876. While that extended history is not germane to shaping of the hymn, it is germane to the reader deciding how to judge actions of the family.

Other appendices present:

• Lyrics of each of the hymns and songs;
• Resource hymnals used to select the hymns;
• Bibliography;
• Index.

Since opinions can be strong regarding religious subject matter, extensive footnotes are provided throughout to enable readers in exploring supporting source materials.

Because many scholarly reference books are only accessible via libraries, this book dominantly cites reference materials accessible via the internet to facilitate readers in accessing them. The goal is to facilitate readers being able to easily follow up on topics of interest to them.

Note. While popular internet sources are invaluable for easy access, they can have scholarly limitations, plus they can disappear.

Two Publication Formats are planned for this book:

1. The initial publication format will be a fixed format eBook to ensure footnotes are presented at the bottom of the page where they are cited; and


2. It is planned to offer advance podcasts of chapters from the eBook, followed by an audiobook. (Initiation of recording the advance podcasts is projected to begin with release of the eBook in latter 2023, with availabilty of the completed audiobook in latter 2024.

Higlight Materials from Book

Draft finals of two selections from the front material of this extensive history book are accessible on this website via the dropdown local submenu above for:

1. Acknowledgements; and


2. Preface

Improving Accuracy of History Stories

Readers are encouraged to provide comments on inaccuracies, plus sources for missing materials, etc., for improving content of this book. Communication with TortoiseClimbing Publishing™ should be submitted via the comment page on this website. You can access it by clicking on the comment button at the bottom of this and every page on this website.

Note. If you wish to link to the Recording section of this website to check on the companion recording, Hymns and Songs for Living you can either:

• Click on the Recording selection above in the Top Menu,
• Then on Hymns and Songs for Living on the dropdown menu;

or click here Hymns and Songs for Living.

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