Landis, Keith

Author & Composer

b 1922. Ordained in the Episcopal Church in N America, he served for some years from 1959 as rector of Anglican parishes in S California; St Bartholomew’s Pico Rivera, St Luke’s Fontana, and Whittier. He has been a prolific writer of texts and tunes since the 1970s. His work is represented in hymnals from the Christian Reformed Ch, the Evangelical Covenant Ch, and collections for students, Anglicans, RCs and others, but is not yet well-known outside N America. In 1994 he almost singlehandedly compiled a full-scale hymn-book, Songs for the People of God, Jeffrey Rickard being the Consulting Music Editor. (Rickard, b 1942, contributed nearly 140 tunes and arrangements.) Of its 675 items, KL provided more than 50 texts and versions and nearly 200 tunes; current British writers are also well-represented. His work with hymns has suffered two major setbacks; one crate of books was somehow lost half-way across the Atlantic; and a fire in his own California rectory in 1987 destroyed many of his possessions. Three rooms of the bungalow were gutted, but having been alerted by a neighbour’s shouts, he was just able to rescue some valued books, files and papers from his study before the flames took over. No.510.