Smith, Hanna Whitall

(1832–1911)

   Devotional Writer and Conference Founder.

   Smith was born Hanna Whitall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She and her husband Robert Pearsall Smith were members of the Society of Friends. In the United States of America, she was a wellknown speaker at interdenominational Higher Christian Life meetings, which were dedicated to Bible study and testimony. Today she is remembered as the author of The Christian Secret of Happiness and as a founder of the Keswick Convention. This is an annual gathering of evangelical Christians. It was started in England in 1875 with the aim of promoting ‘practical holiness’ and it continues to attract a wide attendance.

   S. Barabas, So Great Salvation: The History and Message of the Keswick Convention (1952);

   C.F. Harford (ed.), The Keswick Convention (1907).