Conder, Josiah

(1789-1855)

   A London bookseller, blinded in one eye through smallpox, he won two silver medals for his essays to the Monthly Preceptor at the age of ten. He inherited his father's business in 1813. Largely self-educated, he became proprietor of the periodical the Eclectic Review from 1814 until 1837. On Protestant Nonconformity (two volumes) was published in 1818. His Congregational Hymn-Book sold 90,000 copies in its first seven years. In 1810 he published an anonymous volume, The Associate Minstrels, to which Ann and Jane Taylor (see The Taylor Sisters) and others contributed. Around 1824 he started on the series of 30 volumes of the Modern Traveler (1825-1829), this by a man who had never left England. From 1832 he was editor for 23 years of the Patriot newspaper, which represented the principles of evangelical nonconformists. Some of his other publications: The Withered Oak, 1805. The Star in the East, with Other Poems Chiefly Religious and Domestic, 1824. Sacred Poems, Domestic Poems, and Miscellaneous Poems, 1824. The Choir and the Oratory, 1836. The Last Night of Slavery, 1837. Hymns of Praise, Prayer, and Devout Meditation, 1856. His best-known hymn is probably "Day by day the manna fell..."

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition, 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. English Poetry: Author Search. Chadwyck-Healey Ltd., 1995 (http://www.lib.utexas.edu:8080/search/epoetry/author.html). The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Cyber Hymnal (http://www.cyberhymnal.org/index.htm). The National Portrait Gallery (www.npg.org.uk).