The Sacred Harp is the most famous of the shape-note hymnals, a collection of over five hundred four-part a cappella hymns dating back over a hundred and fifty years. Shape-note singing itself is seeing a resurgence in popularity with sings being organized all over the country. And yet, George Pullen Jackson's groundbreaking history of the first hundred years of the hymnal has been out of print and hard to come by for decades. But now, The Story of the Sacred Harp, 1844-1944 is back in print and available for music lovers, historians, and librarians alike.

George Pullen Jackson (1874-1953) was a professor of German at Vanderbilt University, music critic for the Nashville Banner, and president and manager of the Nashville Symphony Society. He was the author of many books, including White Spirituals in the Southern Uplands: The Story of the Fasola Folk, Their Songs, Singings, and "Buckwheat Notes."