Joseph Stephen James,[1] of Douglasville, Georgia, was a lawyer, community leader, shape note singer, composer, and a reviser of the tunebook known as The Sacred Harp.
J. S. James married Margaret Elizabeth Maxwell in 1869, and they had seven children: Margaret Odessa, Stephen Edwin, Infant twin sons, Eunice Lettitia, Lois Cleveland, and Joe S., Jr.
In Sacred Harp singing, J. S. James was important as a musical leader, as an author of prose works, and as a tunebook editor.
This edition continued a tradition that stemmed from B. F. White's own time and in turn was extended in the so-called "Denson" revisions, which form the basis of the 1991 Edition, now the most widely used Sacred Harp volume.
[2] James led in organizing the United Sacred Harp Musical Association in 1904, which he hoped would function as a sort of "National Association" of Sacred Harp singings and conventions.