Poet John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892) became best known for his protestant hymns - since 1843, more than 2,100 hymnals published in the United States have included adaptations of all or portions of his works - despite the fact that Whittier never considered himself a hymnist. This book compares and contrasts Whittier’s original published texts with those versions that were adapted as hymns, exhibiting the hymnodic elements of his poetry and allowing the reader to observe the methods and results of textual changes to Whittier’s lines by hymnal editors from a variety of denominations. After a catalog of Whittier’s poems that became hymns, it offers in-depth comparative studies of many of his poems and their resultant hymns. It includes a chronology of Whittier’s life and works.