Isabel C. (Isabel Coston) Byrum

Born in 1870, Isabel Coston Byrum was an American author whose work was closely connected with the Church of God movement centered in Anderson, Indiana. Reliable catalog and hymn-reference sources identify her as a writer of religious books, children’s stories, and other Christian reading, and several of her works are now in the public domain.

Her most widely known books include The Value of a Praying Mother, The Poorhouse Waif and His Divine Teacher, How John Became a Man, and Bedtime Stories from the Old Testament. Across these titles, she returned again and again to everyday faith, moral growth, prayer, and care for children, writing in a direct style that aimed to encourage ordinary readers.

Byrum died in 1938. The record of her books suggests a writer who cared less about literary showmanship than about comfort, instruction, and spiritual help, which helps explain why her work has continued to find readers through reprints, archives, and audiobook editions.