Mary A. (Mary Artemisia) Lathbury

Born in 1841 and dying in 1913, Mary Artemisia Lathbury was an American poet and hymn writer whose work became especially valued in Protestant devotional circles. Reliable sources available here describe her as a poet and hymn writer in the Methodist tradition, and that combination helps explain her appeal: she wrote with both lyrical feeling and a clear religious purpose.

Lathbury is best known today for the way her words were meant to be used as well as read. Her poems and hymns were shaped for worship and reflection, giving them a directness that made them easy to remember without losing their gentleness or dignity.

Though not as widely known now as some of her contemporaries, her work has endured because it speaks in a calm, sincere voice. For listeners coming to her through an audiobook collection, she offers a window into 19th-century American religious writing at its most graceful and heartfelt.