By Jared TAugust 3, 2009
Just in my email is a notice about a forthcoming publication from Eborn Books. In January the Deseret News had a story about a newly discovered William McLellin manuscript that had been previously known and subsequently lost. Brent Ashworth, the owner of the manuscript has made it available for publication through Eborn Books with Harvard Heath as editor. Details are slim, I don’t know of any set title or timetable for publication, but Brent Ashworth will be presenting on the manuscript this Thursday at the 2nd Annual Eborn Book Event. I will be going back and forth between the Eborn Book Event and the FAIR conference Thursday and will provide notes from selected presentations from each including Brent’s presentation.
Continue Reading
By Edje JeterAugust 1, 2009
In my effort to understand Mormons’ cultural position by studying names applied to them, I recently encountered an unfamiliar epithet:
Bluebeard asks for a seat in the Senate. He stands with one hand locking the door of his chamber of horrors, and with the other he knocks for admission to the supreme legislative assembly of the foremost Christian republic of all time….
How large is the territory over which the Mormon Bluebeard exercises sway? …[two paragraphs describing the Great Basin] …The American Bluebeard rules over the American Potosi. [1]
The flower genus Caryopteris goes colloquially by “bluebeard” (See Figure 1: C. incana). So far as I know, however, no one compared Mormons to vicious flowers. The name “Bluebeard” comes from a French fairy-tale, “La Barbe-bleue [The Blue-beard],” that Charles Perrault published in 1697. [2] In the story, a young woman marries a rich nobleman despite his cerulean whiskers, which make him “frightful and ugly.” [3] Afterwards, he gives her all the keys, forbids her to enter one particular room, and leaves on (supposed) business. Then, as later made into a nursery rhyme (!)
Continue Reading
By Jared TJuly 31, 2009
The Juvenile Instructor will be reviewing the contents of a number of Mormon-related periodicals including BYU Studies, the Journal of Mormon History, the John Whitmer Association Journal, Restoration Studies and others as they come to us. This will be a regular feature on the JI.
Today, it’s BYU Studies 48:1 (2009).
Continue Reading
By ElizabethJuly 30, 2009
I post this because it may be of some value to someone. I strongly believe in sharing faith journeys. Listening forces us to confront the prismatic nature of another person’s spiritual experience and accept that perhaps a multiplicity of paths lead to the same truth or to a different truth entirely. We become less judgemental of others as we learn the ways in which God has worked in their lives, sometimes inexplicably, but usually in ways that are similar to our own.
Continue Reading
By Ben PJuly 30, 2009
[This is third post in the Perspectives of Parley Pratt’s Autobiography series. Matt Grow has a PhD in History from Notre Dame University, where he studied under George Marsden. His first book, a biography on Thomas L. Kane, was published with Yale University Press. He is currently co-authoring a biography of Pratt, tentatively titled Parley Parker Pratt: The Saint Paul of Mormonism, to be published with with Oxford University Press. Matt is an assistant professor of history and director of the Center for Communal Studies at the University of Southern Indiana.]
In late 1853, Orson Pratt, then in Washington, D.C., excitedly wrote to his brother Parley about an effort to publish genealogical information on the descendants of their ancestor William Pratt, a Puritan who migrated from England to Connecticut in the 1630s.
Continue Reading
By matt b.July 29, 2009
This morning, several hundred members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints gathered on the steps of Salt Lake City’s Matheson Courthouse and on the lawn of the Salt Lake City and County Building across the street to express their dismay that District Judge Denise Lindberg was considering ordering the United Effort Plan trust, which contains a great deal of church property, dismantled and sold.
Continue Reading
By Jared TJuly 29, 2009
Continued from Part 1.
The next article, “The Tragic Matter of Louie Wells and John Q. Cannon” by Kenneth Cannon discusses a rather messy series of incidents. Louie Wells, the talented daughter of Emmeline B. and Daniel H. Wells was the sister-in-law of John Q. Cannon, son of George Q. Cannon. John was married to Louis’ sister Annie and all three lived under one roof for a time. After a number of pages of biographical information on Louis and John, Cannon launches into his story.
Continue Reading
By July 28, 2009
A reader has asked that we post the following Call for Papers.
Continue Reading
By Edje JeterJuly 28, 2009
In a previous post, I quoted an entomologist who thought the name “Mormon Fly” was “an insolvable mystery.” [1] He went on to say that “there was somewhat more plausible ground for calling the Chinch bug the ‘Mormon louse;’ for that little pest really did swarm for the first time in Illinois about the same year that the Mormons settled there.”
Continue Reading
By Steve FlemingJuly 28, 2009
As a follow up to Mary Ann Jeffries’s letter that I posted, here is a comment in a letter form Caroline Grant Smith to her brother Jedediah Grant. Grant had been the presiding elder in Philadelphia but was back in Nauvoo.
?You must know the Church one and all are vary ancious to see you. The first inquery when any of the sisters come in is when do you think Brother Grant will come? Have your had any news? What no letter yet and sutch like expressions.? [1]
Continue Reading
Recent Comments
Mark Staker on Legacies in Mormon Studies: “Jenny was always generous in sharing her knowledge. She was not only an exceptional educator (who also taught her colleagues along the way), but she…”
Gary Bergera on Legacies in Mormon Studies: “Jenny's great. Thanks for posting this.”
Kathy Cardon on Legacies in Mormon Studies: “I worked in the Church's Historical department when Jenny was in the Museum. I always enjoyed our interactions. Reading this article has been a real…”
Don Tate on Legacies in Mormon Studies: “Very well done and richly deserved! I am most proud of Jenny and how far she has come with her life, her scholarship, and her…”
Ben P on Legacies in Mormon Studies: “My favorite former boss and respected current historian!”
Hannah J on Legacies in Mormon Studies: “I really enjoyed this! Going to be thinking about playing the long game for a while. Thanks Amy and Jenny.”