History Through 26 Hymns and Songs

Companion Publication to Hymns and Songs for Living Recording

This is the companion publication to the recording of Hymns and Songs for Living. It presents historical back stories for events around the time each hymn or song on the companion recording was written that influenced their writing. It's goal is to provide the reader with the context of the times that influenced writing of the hymns and songs. In addition, the book includes various appendicies.

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


• Another provides further history about the American Colony in Jerusalem after the writing of the hymn "It Is Well with My Soul."

Various persons contributed inputs that shaped this book:

• Initially Dr. Nancy Graham recommended adopting an established style manual to impose an established style 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.


• Then Mr. Dave Mather provided an initial set of copy edit comments that assisted in getting the text to conform to the Chicago Manual of Style, thus improving readability. 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 David to do duets with him at Bias recording studio, provided resources for content. He is a bit of an Anglophile. That seems particularly fitting since a portion of the hymn histories involve England over the centuries.


• Ms. Ingrid Bartinique then became the editor for this book and provided detailed editing recommendations on the draft final version.

Returning to work with Ms. Bartinique on the book is somewhat analogous to what occurred with completing the recording. That is where David returned to working with Mr. Bill McElroy. So too, returning to working with Ms. Bartinique on this publication is another example of a full circle and a welcome privilege. We previously worked together as professional colleagues on various projects when I was managing 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

Since opinions can be strong regarding religious subject matter, this book provides numerous footnotes throughout enabling readers with questions or reservations regarding throughness and/or reliability of information presented, to explore supporting source materials.

Because many scholarly reference books are only accessible via libraries, this book chose to dominantly cite 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.

In addition to providing readers with a feel for the history back stories surrounding creation of each individual hymn and song thus shaping them, there are several appendices.

One is an expansive summary appendix of historical highpoints from the past 2 millenia of selected christian religious histories that seem relevant to development of congregational hymn singing. It begins from Christ's death to the 20th century. The history overview appendix provides additional insights into how historical contexts contributed to the development of the current religious landscape.

Another is the extensive history of the America Colony in Jerusalem which took place after the hymn "It Is Well with My Soul" was published.

Note. While popular internet sources are invaluable for easily accessed resources, they can have scholarly limitations.

Two Publication Formats are planned for this book:

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


2. A future audio book. (Initiation of recording that version is projected to begin on release of the ebook.

Projected availability. This website will provide details on how to access this ebook when it becomes available.

NOTE. This TortoiseClimbing.net website will be migrated to the .com website in the future, with automatic referal.

Higlight Materials from Book

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

1. Acknowledgements; and


2. Preface

As technical options are developed for making this book electronically available, additional of the materials from the book may be made available via this website, perhaps in pdf format.

Improving Accuracy of Stories

Comments from readers on inaccuracies and sources for missing materials, etc., are incouraged for improving content of this book. Like all other comments, they can be submitted via the comment page on this website which can be accessed by clicking on the comment button at the bottom of this page.

Note. If you wish to link from this Publication section to the Recording section, you can click on the Recording selection above in the Top Menu.

If you wish to comment on contents of this webpage, Clicking the button below will both transfer you to the Contact/Comment page, and pass along that you were on this webpage when you decided to comment.