Will Lamartine Thompson

Will Lamartine Thompson was a prolific American composer and publisher of gospel hymns. He was born on November 7, 1847, in East Liverpool, Ohio, to Josiah Thompson, a businessman and state legislator, and Sarah Jackman Thompson. After graduating from Mount Union College in 1870, he continued his musical studies at the New England Conservatory of Music and later in Leipzig, Germany.

Following initial rejections from commercial publishers, Thompson founded his own publishing house, the W. L. Thompson Music Company, in the 1880s. The business later expanded to include the retail sale of pianos, organs, and sheet music. He wrote both secular and sacred music, eventually focusing his efforts on gospel hymns.

Thompson maintained a disciplined creative process, immediately recording musical and lyrical ideas whenever they occurred to him. He married Elizabeth Johnson in 1891, and the couple had one son, William Leland Thompson.

Thompson died on September 20, 1909, in New York City and is buried in Riverview Cemetery in East Liverpool, Ohio. His catalog includes enduring hymns such as "Softly and Tenderly Jesus Is Calling," "Jesus Is All the World to Me," "Lead Me Gently Home, Father," and "There's a Great Day Coming." He also compiled "The New Century Hymnal" in 1904 and contributed to the compilation "Sparkling Gems Nos. 1 and 2."