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Three New Books Announced

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

We are pleased to announce final arrangements for the publication of three books in the first part of 1994. The papers from the 1992 F.A.R.M.S. Symposium on the olive in the ancient world will be co-published by F.A.R.M.S. and Deseret Book early in 1994. Two books will be published in the spring: papers on temples in the ancient world presented at the 1993 F.A.R.M.S. Symposium, and the next volume in The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, featuring Nibley' s writings on Brigham Young.

Nibley Teams Up With Brigham Young To Look At Politics, Education, Leadership, And The Environment

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

As those who have read much Brigham Young know, the combination of this pioneer prophet's insight, articulateness, and candor is little short of stunning. Nibley calls him a "monumental figure," perhaps (after Joseph Smith), the most prominent mind of his century.

Msi Technology Reveals Provenance Of Rare Brigham Young Portrait

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

An important research technology, whose application to ancient research FARMS has helped pioneer, has recently been applied successfully in the field of Mormon studies.

Sally In Three Worlds: An Indian Captive In The House Of Brigham Young, By Virginia Kerns (Salt Lake City: University Of Utah Press, 2021), Julia Harrison

BYU Studies Quarterly

In Sally in Three Worlds: An Indian Captive in the House of Brigham Young, Virginia Kerns relates the story of the settlement of Utah through the life of Sally, a Pahvant Ute woman who lived in Brigham Young’s household. On its surface, the book is a narrative of the life of one woman, but Kerns argues that “a single life can illuminate an entire cultural and social world, or reveal an unremarked but vital part of the human story.”

Brigham Young’S Newly Located February 1874 Revelation, Christopher James Blythe

BYU Studies Quarterly

Brigham Young dictated few dialogic revelations (that is, revelations in the voice of the Lord) while he was prophet, seer, and revelator of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Only one of the revelations found in the 138 sections of the Doctrine and Covenants was received under his ministry. Young was often willing to share visions, dreams, and impressions, but he hesitated to place these types of revelations in the language of the Lord, and when he did so verbally, he was even more hesitant to place them in writing.

The Prophet And The Reformer: The Letters Of Brigham Young And Thomas L. Kane, Alexsandra Foster

BYU Studies Quarterly

The Prophet and the Reformer: The Letters of Brigham Young and Thomas L. Kane, edited by Matthew J. Grow and Ronald W. Walker (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015)

Brigham Young: Sovereign In America, Roger Terry

BYU Studies Quarterly

David Vaughn Mason. Brigham Young: Sovereign in America.

Routledge Historical Americans Series. New York: Routledge, 2015.

Design And Construction Of The Great Tabernacle Arches, Elwin C. Robison, W Randall Dixon

BYU Studies Quarterly

Brigham Young desired to build a place where thousands of Saints could meet and a speaker could be heard. The Great Tabernacle in Salt Lake City was built using trussed arches. The genesis of this type of construction was the lattice truss, patented in 1820. The design was brought to Utah by Henry Grow. Brigham Young hired Grow to design and build a road bridge made of straight wooden lattice trusses over the Jordan River in 1860. Trusses could also be built as arches, and the Tabernacle was built as a long barrel vault with half-arch ends. This design allowed …

Brigham Young, Pioneer Prophet, John G. Turner, Thomas G. Alexander

BYU Studies Quarterly

John G. Turner, an assistant professor of religious studies at George Mason University, used a novelist's convention by beginning his scholarly biography of Brigham Young near the end of the story. The opening paragraphs take the reader to St. George in 1877 and the dedication of Utah's first temple with the author summarizing Young's sermon.

From the St. George Temple dedication, the author essays on the founding of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The summary includes Joseph Smith's discovery of the gold plates, their translation, and the controversy generated by his ministry.

I recommend this book for …

My Dear Friend: The Friendship And Correspondence Of Brigham Young And Thomas L. Kane, David J. Whittaker

BYU Studies Quarterly

This article, originally a lecture given at Brigham Young University in 2009, was published as part of a special issue of BYU Studies featuring Thomas L. Kane. Although Kane was not a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he was an advocate for the Mormon cause and a trusted friend of Mormon leaders for almost forty years. This article focuses on the correspondence between Kane and the Mormon prophet Brigham Young. There are about 125 known letters exchanged between Young and Kane, beginning the year they met in 1846 and extending to 1877, the year Young …

Forty Ways To Look At Brigham Young: A New Approach To A Remarkable Man, By Chad M. Orton And William W. Slaughter, Kimberly Webb Reid

BYU Studies Quarterly

Forty Ways to Look at Brigham Young: A New Approach to a Remarkable Man, by Chad M. Orton and William W. Slaughter (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2008)

"I Long To Breathe The Mountain Air Of Zion's Peaceful Home": Agnes O'Neal's Letter To Brigham Young From War-Torn Virginia, Fred E. Woods

BYU Studies Quarterly

As the Civil War raged in America, thousands of Latter-day Saints hazarded the trip west through this war-torn land. For a variety of reasons, however, some Saints did not reach their desired haven in the Salt Lake Valley, which lay safely within the borders of Utah Territory. One was a Scottish sister named Agnes, who, at age thirty, embarked from her native town of Paisley. Accompanied by her husband, Hugh Campbell, and their three sons, Agnes crossed the Atlantic in the fall of 1845, bound for Zion.

A Superlative Image: An Original Daguerreotype Of Brigham Young, Richard Neitzel Holzapfel, Thomas R. Wells

BYU Studies Quarterly

In July 2005, the Deseret Morning News in Salt Lake City published a story with the punning headline "Old Young Photo donated to BYU." Even though Mark and Suzanne Richards had donated the rare 1850s daguerreotype of Brigham Young to BYU in December 2004, the donation did not draw media attention until just days before the July 24 pioneer holiday in Utah. For historians, especially photographic historians, the story was compelling—one of those rare moments when something thought to have vanished suddenly reappears. It was known that this particular precious daguerreotype had been created because a later photographic copy of …

Brigham Young's Word Of Wisdom Legacy, Paul H. Peterson, Ronald W. Walker

BYU Studies Quarterly

During the thirty-three years that Brigham Young led The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1844-77, he set the Church on a course of following the Word of Wisdom to the letter. While most Church members failed to obey the revelation's proscriptions during Brigham's lifetime, he set the goal that members would eventually comply with the Word of Wisdom. During his tenure, he changed the standard from moderate use of tobacco, alcohol, tea, and coffee to full abstinence.

Blood Of The Prophets: Brigham Young And The Massacre At Mountain Meadows Will Bagley, Lawrence Coates

BYU Studies Quarterly

Will Bagley. Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2002.

Blood Of The Prophets: Brigham Young And The Massacre At Mountain Meadows Will Bagley, Paul H. Peterson

BYU Studies Quarterly

Will Bagley. Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2002.

Blood Of The Prophets: Brigham Young And The Massacre At Mountain Meadows Will Bagley, Thomas G. Alexander

BYU Studies Quarterly

Will Bagley. Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2002.

A Mysterious Image: Brigham Young With An Unknown Wife, Richard Neitzel Holzapfel, Robert F. Schwartz

BYU Studies Quarterly

Of the hundreds of images of Brigham Young, until recently only two were known that show Brigham posing with one of his wives. While rumors of a third such images have existed for some time, no one could find a copy of it until this year. What we found was a photograph of the original daguerreotype (fig. 1); the original itself, printed on a small coper plate, is still missing. This rumored image was mysterious not only because it had disappeared but also because the wife's face on the daguerreotype had been completely obliterated. Unanswered questions regarding its damage make …

The Lion And The Lioness: Brigham Young And Eliza R. Snow, Jill Mulvay Derr

BYU Studies Quarterly

He was born in 1801, she in 1804. He was a man known for his humor and gruffness, she a woman known for her sobriety and refinement. He preached unforgettable sermons, though he never learned to spell. She wrote reams of poetry and songs. He provided her a home as one of his wives for thirty years, but she never took his name. Both he and she were passionately devoted to the Prophet Joseph Smith and his expansive vision of eternity. President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and presidentess of its Relief Society, Brigham Young and …

“A Man Of God And A Good Kind Father”: Brigham Young At Home, Dean C. Jessee

BYU Studies Quarterly

On January 31, 1857, Brigham Young (fig. 1) walked into the Church Historian's Office in Salt Lake City and gave instructions that he wanted very little about his family included in the history of the Church. His reticence no doubt stemmed form people's curiosity about the Mormon leader's polygamous lifestyle, which subjected his family to an inordinate amount of scrutiny and ridicule in the public press. Consequently, during his lifetime, the story of Brigham Young's family remained largely untold. Even now, the literature about Brigham Young focuses disproportionately on his public life, his accomplishments as Church President, colonizer, governor of …

Leopold Bierwirth's Impressions Of Brigham Young And The Mormons, 1872, Donald Q. Cannon

BYU Studies Quarterly

Tourists frequently passed through Salt Lake City after the trans-continental railroad was completed in 1869. Many visitors recorded their impressions of the city and its inhabitants. One visitor, Leopold Bierwirth, a New York City merchant, kept a diary during his 1872 railroad journey from New York to San Francisco. The diary is similar to other travel narratives but contains much more detail and insight than most others. Bierwirth's observations are particularly valuable because they were written during his visit rather than later. The portion of Bierwirth's diary reporting his visit to Salt Lake City, including his impressions of Brigham Young, …

Brigham Young And The Mission Of Mormonism, Jed Woodworth

BYU Studies Quarterly

For the most part, Brigham Young chose to ignore his critics, but on occasion he personally responded to them. The letter printed below contains Brigham Young's 1869 answer to a newspaper editor's question, "What is the mission of the Mormons?" Mormonism's fruits, Brigham attested, substantiated its faith claims.

Father Brigham In His Western Canaan, John K. Carmack

BYU Studies Quarterly

If you were to paint a word picture of Brigham Young by comparing him to an earlier spiritual leader, to whom would you compare him? Maybe the most dramatic comparison comes from that pivotal moment when he spoke to nearly five thousand Saints gathered in Nauvoo to select those who would take the reins of leadership in the restored Church. To many, including my own forbears, as he delivered his address he looked and sounded like Joseph Smith. Or perhaps, as Leonard Arrington did, you would compare him to Moses leading the children of Israel on a long and perilous …

“Cows To Milk Instead Of Novels To Read”: Brigham Young, Novel Reading, And Kingdom Building, Richard H. Cracroft

BYU Studies Quarterly

To read true books in a true spirit, is a noble exercise.

—Henry David Thoreau

Read the true and the wise. The perusal of the rest is worse than time wasted, it is time abused.

—Brigham Young

New Photograph Of The Granite Shaft For The Brigham Young Monument, Richard Neitzel Holzapfel, J. Michael Hunter

BYU Studies Quarterly

In July 1987, Latter-day Saints from throughout the Intermountain West gathered for a five-day celebration honoring the fiftieth anniversary of the arrival of Brigham Young to the Great Basin. On the first day of the celebration, a large crowd gathered at the intersection of Main and South Temple to dedicate an unfinished monument (fig. 1). A lone statue of Brigham Young stood upon a tall granite shaft taken from Little Cottonwood Canyon in June 1897, just weeks before. A rare photograph recorded the scene after the shaft was loaded onto a wagon for the first leg of it journey to …

East To West Through North And South: Mormon Immigration During The Civil War, Fred E. Woods

BYU Studies Quarterly

When LDS immigrants on their way to Utah crossed the Atlantic Ocean or the Eastern United States between 1861 and 1864, they encountered the difficulties of traveling in a nation at war. Their first-person accounts paint a vivid picture of the obstacles faced by these Saints as they journeyed to Utah during the U.S. Civil War. The narratives also depict an effective immigration system directed by Brigham Young and operated by dedicated immigration agents and other faithful Mormons who assisted immigrants along their journey.

Wayward Saints: The Godbeites And Brigham Young Ronald W. Walker, Dean L. May

BYU Studies Quarterly

Ronald W. Walker, foreword by Jan Shipps. Wayward Saints: The Godbeites and Brigham Young. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1998. 399 pp. Illustrations, bibliography, notes, index. Hardback, $49.95; paperback, $25.00.

Letters Of A Missionary Apostle To His Wife: Brigham Young To Mary Ann Angell Young, 1839-1841, Ronald O. Barney

BYU Studies Quarterly

The Quorum of the Twelve's mission to the British Isles impacted not only the Church, but also the personal lives of the missionaries. Brigham Young creates a tender personal portrait in nine never-before-published letters to his wife.

The Lion Of The Lord: Essays On The Life And Service Of Brigham Young Susan Easton Black And Larry C. Porter, Thomas G. Alexander, Lemuel Hardison Redd Jr.

BYU Studies Quarterly

Susan Easton Black and Larry C. Porter, eds. The Lion of the Lord: Essays on the Life and Service of Brigham Young. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1995. xii; 462 pp. Index, notes. $19.95.

The Mantle Of The Prophet Joseph Passes To Brother Brigham: A Collective Spiritual Witness, Lynne Watkins Jorgensen, Byu Studies

BYU Studies Quarterly

After the death of Joseph Smith, many of the Saints reported that they received a strong spiritual witness that convinced them the mantle of Joseph had fallen on Brigham Young.