by Doug Kutilek
The individual Baptist preacher about whom more biographies have been written than any other must surely be Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892). The only possible challenger for this distinction is John Bunyan, the Bedford tinker. Spurgeon, pastor of Metropolitan Tabernacle in South London, a mega-church with a multitude of ministries reaching far and wide, was truly a legend in his own time, and it is affirmed even in our day, nearly a century and quarter after his death, he still exceeds any other single Christian author in the number of different volumes he authored which are currently in print.
Because of the immensity of his ministry, its worldwide influence, and the remarkable accomplishments in his very full 57-plus years, Spurgeon has been the subject of a multitude of biographies. There has been a continuing fascination and interest in this man of God, his up-bringing and training, his remarkable abilities as preacher, writer, and administrator, his doctrinal views and his commitment to biblical truth. But with more than 30 published English biographies of Spurgeon, where should one begin his reading, or which are most worthy of one’s time, attention and money? Having read more than 20 different Spurgeon biographies, and possessing several more, I can characterize them variously as excellent, adequate and just so-so. (Titles will only be given for volumes that don’t have the name “Spurgeon” in them).
Spurgeon’s Autobiography must be counted as the single most important account. Spurgeon himself occasionally penned individual chapters expressly for a projected autobiography, but much of this account is a compilation gleaned from Spurgeon’s voluminous writings by his personal secretary Mr. Joseph Harrald and his widow Susannah Spurgeon. His sons also made contributions. This richly illustrated account was originally published in 1897-1900 in four volumes (1,511 total pages), quarto, by Spurgeon’s longtime London publishers Passmore and Alabaster. Used copies are readily obtainable, and a reduced size facsimile edition in two volumes, octavo, has been published by Pilgrim Publications of Pasadena, TX. The Banner of Truth Trust issued a two-volume abridged edition titled The Early Years (1963; 562 pp.) and The Full Harvest (1973; 520 pp.). Reading this abridged edition as a graduate student was a milestone in my Christian life. In our modern lazy era, perhaps few would be inclined to undertake to read a four-volume biography of anyone, but to neglect this biography of Spurgeon would be a great mistake.
There were a few Spurgeon biographies written while he was still alive. Among these are those by William Walters (1882; 336 pp.); and Geo. C. Needham, published in 1884, to mark Spurgeon’s 50th birthday (631 pp.).
When Spurgeon died in 1892, a torrent of biographies began to issue from the presses. Among the best of these are those penned by people who knew him personally for years, often being students in his college and co-laborers in his many ministries. Two companion volumes are From the Pulpit to the Palm-Branch edited by W. Y. Fullerton (1892; 281 pp.), an official account of Spurgeon’s funeral, followed by From the Usher’s Desk to the Tabernacle Pulpit by R. Shindler (1892; 316 pp.). G. Holden Pike published an account in 1892 (397 pp.) followed by the fullest biography outside the Autobiography, in six volumes (1894; 1,150 pp.; facsimile reprint, bound in two volumes, BOTT, 1991). W. Williams (1895; 288 pp.); W. Y. Fullerton (1920; 358 pp.); and J. C. Carlisle (1933; 312 pp.) all contributed worthwhile accounts. American pastor
Russell Conwell, who had met and interviewed Spurgeon, hastily compiled an adequate but not excellent biography of Spurgeon (1892; 616 pp.) that had an immense sale (over 125,000 copies in four months).
As the advancing years have cast Spurgeon in clearer historical perspective, additional biographers have undertaken to write his life. In the mid- to late-20th century, several single-volume biographies of Spurgeon were written, among them those by Richard E. Day, The Shadow of the Broad Brim (1934; 236 pp.); Ernest Bacon (1967; 184 pp.); Bob Ross, A Pictorial Biography of C. H. Spurgeon (1974; 136 pp.); and Eric Hayden Highlights in the Life of C. H. Spurgeon. These give adequate introductions to the man, and whet the appetite for other, fuller accounts. Arnold Dallimore’s 1984 biography (252 pp.) is among the better modern biographies, and the fullest on the famous tobacco and ale controversies. Lewis Drummond’s 1992 volume is the longest recent Spurgeon biography at 895 pages. It is not well edited and uneven in quality, but has easily the best account of the “Down-grade controversy.”
There are more than a dozen additional published Spurgeon biographies, some old, some recent, some of which I own, a few of which I have read, and some I have never seen. A full accounting of Spurgeon’s biographies and biographers would require a book all by itself.