Elisha James King was The Sacred Harp’s “junior author,” co-compiling the tunebook in 1844 with Benjamin Franklin White. He was born in 1821 in East Georgia to parents John King and Elizabeth Dubose. He moved with his parents to West Georgia’s Talbot County in 1828. As a young adult, King farmed with his family and taught singing schools. In A Brief History of the Sacred Harp, Joseph Stephen James credits White with training King in music (129–30). King died on August 31, 1844, just after work on The Sacred Harp had been completed.