E. (Elizabeth) Prentiss

Born in Portland, Maine, on October 26, 1818, Elizabeth Payson Prentiss was the daughter of well-known minister Edward Payson. She later married Presbyterian pastor and theologian George Lewis Prentiss and became known as an author, poet, and hymn writer whose work grew out of family life, Christian devotion, and long periods of illness and grief.

She wrote children's stories, devotional pieces, and popular religious fiction, but she is especially remembered for Stepping Heavenward (1869), a novel that remained widely loved, and for the hymn "More Love to Thee, O Christ." Her writing is often direct, warm, and quietly encouraging, which helps explain why it continued to find readers long after her lifetime.

Prentiss died in Dorset, Vermont, on August 13, 1878. Though much of her work was shaped by suffering, her books and hymns are remembered for their tenderness, honesty, and hope.