Edward McKendree (E. M.) Bounds, a Methodist minister and devotional writer, born in Shelby County, Missouri in 1835. After studying law, he was admitted to the bar at the age of twenty-one years. After practicing law for three years, Bounds began preaching for the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. At the time of his pastorate at Brunswick, Missouri, war was declared, and he was made a prisoner of war for refusing to take the oath of allegiance to the Federal Government. After release he served as chaplain of the Fifth Missouri regiment [for the Confederate Army] until the close of the war. At that time he was captured and held as prisoner at Nashville, Tennessee. After the war ended, Bounds served as pastor of churches in Tennessee, Alabama, and St. Louis, Missouri. He spent the last seventeen years of his life with his family in Washington, Georgia, writing his 'Spiritual Life Books.'