Annual

of the
Association for Mormon Letters
2002

The Association for Mormon Letters

Provo, Utah

 2002 by the Association for Mormon Letters. After publication herein, all rights revert to the authors. The
Association for Mormon Letters assumes no responsibility for contributors statements of fact or opinion.
Editor: Lavina Fielding Anderson
Production Director: Marny K. Parkin
The Association for Mormon Letters
P.O. Box 51364
Provo, UT 84605-1364
(801) 714-1326
irreantum2@cs.com
www.aml-online.org
Note: An AML order form appears at the end of this volume.

Contents

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS
Girl in Transition: An Authentic Mormon
Marilyn Brown

Chieko N. Okazaki

VISITING WRITER
Expressing Faith: A Literary Legacy

A History of the Association for Mormon Letters Literary Awards

Gideon O. Burton 19
A Historical Survey of LDS Fiction: The Lee Library Collection
Connie Lamb and Robert S. Means 29
Imagining Mormon Marriage, Part 2:
Toward a Marriage Group of Contemporary Mormon Stories
B. W. Jorgensen 37
The Holy Cords Too Intrinse to Unloose: Mormon Families in Life and Fiction
Bruce W. Young with Remarks by Margaret Blair Young 53
LDS Picture-Book Authors and Illustrators Publishing in the National Market
Rick Walton 65
Then and Now: A Survey of Mormon Young Adult Writers
Jesse S. Crisler and Chris Crowe 73
Emerson as Radical Restorationist
John-Charles Duffy 81
Virginia Sorensens A Little Lower Than the Angels and John A. Widtsoe:
A Lesson in Literary History
Susan Elizabeth Howe 87
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AML Annual 2002

Unto The Third and Fourth Generations: The Influence and Community of Families in
Virginia Sorensens The Evening and the Morning
Kelly Thompson

95

The Inner Other: Sharing Testimony through Personal Experiences

Kristen Allred 103
Louise Plummer: Local Grasshopper Makes Good
Anne Billings 109
Job Revisited: Discussion of a Tim Slover Story
Cherry B. Silver 113
Writing Dixie: Marilyn Arnolds Desert Trilogy
Douglas D. Alder 119
God-Finding in the Twenty-First Century:
Alan Rex Mitchells Angel of the Danube and John Bennions Falling toward Heaven
Richard H. Cracroft 125
The Last American Refuge of Religious Literature: Card and Science Fiction
Valerie Buck 137
Pastwatch: The Redemption of Orson Scott Card
Eugene England 143
The Lost Tribes of Mormon Science Fiction Literature:
Battlestar Galactica in Books and Comics
Ivan A. Wolfe 157
Socrates Stretched on Ions Racke
Harlow Sderborg Clark 165
Sunstone Magazine and Twenty Years of Contemporary Mormon Poetry
Susan Elizabeth Howe 171

Unless otherwise noted, the papers in this issue of the Annual of the Association for Mormon Letters were presented
at the annual critical/creative meeting held 24 February 2001, at Westminster College in Salt Lake City.
It was themed Zion and New York: Bridges and Innovations. Ken and Ann Edwards Cannon hosted an evening
buffet and reading by award winners.

iv

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

Girl in Transition: An Authentic Mormon

Marilyn Brown

y husband just played Oscar in The Odd

Couple at the Villa. In a hilarious moment,
Felix tells Oscar, We are what we are.
I dont necessarily agree with the finality of
Felixs absolute. But I do believe I am what I am
especially if I choose to be. And thats the way I feel
about being a Mormon. I am what I am. A Mormon person.
Because it holds me fastened to the ideals of
Christ, I choose to hold to my commitments. It
has served me well as a human being. And if its a
virtue to be standing for something, I love
standing up for it.
When I was ten years old, I read Eliots Adam
Bede. I asked, Where are the Mormon novels as
good as this one? For the last fifty-two years I have
studied to make those books happen for the Mormons. Mormons didnt believe much in literature
other than scripture, and the world was not much
interested in Mormon literature.
If I couldnt make a book as good as Adam
Bede, I wanted to help others do it. And the AML
has been a wonderful organization to continue
encouraging excellence in writing. I hope youll
polish your novel for the contest that closes July 1.
We had tremendous success in 2000. Alan Mitchells
work is being reviewed today by Dr. Cracroft. Jack
Harrell, who won the first prize of $1,000 in 2000,
the first year it was offered, will see his novel published by Signature Books soon.
What it is that makes us uniquely Mormon is
sometimes an enigma. But it is definitely perceptible. My ninety-year-old friend, Maxine Adams

Miller, to whom I dedicated my Wine-Dark Sea of

Grass, lamented that it was so Mormon. I wish the
outside world would have a chance to experience
your writing. That was a nice compliment. On
the other hand, my Mormon sister Elaine Flake
declared, Oh no. There are lots of books for
national people. You keep writing for Mormons.
Are we presuming that Mormons have some
different experiences, different dialogue, different
language being Mormon than many other people
have just being people? I say yes. And some
knowledgeable outsiders frequently look down
on our Mormon experiences. They dont really care
about understanding them, and sometimes they
find them humorous.
As a result, some of our best, most sophisticated, and well-intentioned Mormon writers do
all they can do to create their art as a bridge toward
the approval of those outsiders. For whatever reason they seem to make fun of Mormon experiences. They do seem to select as characters crazy
cowboys, fanatics, gays, immoral lovers, or stupid
snot-nosed missionaries.
I know the conference theme is Zion and
New York: Bridges and Innovations. And Im glad
that some of our writers have connected with New
Yorkespecially our young peoples writers who
have been so successful with juvenile literature. But
the connection with New York still seems to stop at
traffic barriers if we write a mainstream piece about
our lives as believing Mormons. I still want to read
well-written novels I can trust from writers who are
aware of my experiences as a Mormon.
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AML Annual 2002

Right now were rehearsing the Diary of Anne

Frank at the Villa. Its wonderful. If there were ever
an authentic piece about the Jews, that has to be it.
So, in the spirit of Anne Frank, I decided to read
bits of my authentic Mormon diary from 1956.
When we dragged our trunk up from storage
recently and I found it, I was thrilled! I believe
these diary entries truly catch a young girl off
guard being a real Mormon.
She doesnt make a transition from being a
Mormon to being a skeptic, an intelligent philosopher, a hippie, a Moonie, or a sophisticated New
Yorker. Maybe youll say, Darn! Nothing that
interesting! Like Anne Frank, she makes a transition from being a girl to being a wiser girl.
Granted, this girl may be closer to being a character in juvenile literature than mainstream, and
there isnt the tragedy of the Anne Frank story. But
it does exactly what I wanted to doassure you
that there is Mormon life and Mormon letters.
Its a love story. She falls in love with a young
man who is not a Mormon. And that is the conflict. I know this scenario has been done by the
Mormon romance writers. But I wanted to emphasize some of the qualities that make it Mormon
youll recognize themand I thought using something authentic was better than using fiction.
What seems to distinguish us on the page as
Mormons is probably language more than anything else. But it is also our obsessions and our
activities. And at first there is the very act of keeping a diary.
January 1, Sunday, 1956. Nuts, we didnt get
diaries [for Christmas] so I will have to use paper for
a while.
Mormons, more than most, keep journals. This
girl (me) is so religious about it that she keeps it on
scraps until she can purchase a notebook. Then she
transfers more than a week of chicken scratches to
the notebook she purchased. I dont know what
well do with all these records. I remember that
Wayne Booth told us at Eugene Englands culture
conference last year, I have shelf after shelf of journals. What will anyone do with them? I firmly
believe that keeping giant shelves of journals is a
way to guarantee no one will look at your life.
2

This January 1st was a holiday, but of course

the Mormons still held church.
What a wonderful New Years day this was! Golly
gee! (Im including warts and all.) Went to church
this morning and attended an impressive testimony
meeting. . . . We went to the hospital where Don is
and . . . talked to him. Everyone was there. Don looks
so cuteand not very sick.
The visit of the young peoples group to the
sick is not exclusively Mormon, but typical.
I had the wonderful opportunity of going to
church at Engelwood ward tonight.
No one but the Mormons will use the word
ward for church.
This story takes place in Denver. (By the way,
President Hinckley was our Gospel Doctrine
teacher.) In those days we still had sacrament meeting in the evening. The girl goes to a different ward
to hear her boyfriend speak. In what other religions
do young men give talks in their major meetings
and bring girls so they can show off?
Sam took me and he gave the talk and it was
really good. He talked about getting up enthusiasm
for the new chapel. Then he took me to his mothers
house where she was having a turkey dinner for her
house-mates friends and he introduced me. I was
surely glad to meet his mother, except that I felt like a
newly wed or a fiance being shown around. Then
Sam drove me to our house for fireside. He really likes
me, I guess. Hes such a great guy, but I still have no
intentions of getting serious. Fireside was neat.
Doreen Frost talked about her mission and showed
some slides.
A missionary with slides is certainly Mormon.
On the following Sunday, the girl teaches a Sunday
School class.
We went to a neat Sunday School this morning.
I taught my brother Davids class and he wasnt the
sweetest thing in the world either!. . . After Youth
Chorus Elaine went with Leon and I with Jim to
Third ward and saw Herb Pingrees farewell testimonial. It was wonderful! Then we went to a fireside at
Brent Hollingsworths house and we played some neat
recordsabout Joseph Smith. Then Leon and Jim
took us home, wow, and sang with us. Wow! Wow!
Jim likes me I guess. Wow!

Girl in Transistion: An Authentic Mormon

Well, I promised you a love story. When she

returns to school after the holidays, she becomes
involved with the Voice of Youth, a program
organized by city leaders for student writers and
speakers to promote awareness of foreign and current affairs. It is in Voice of Youth that the girl
begins to work closely with a young Lutheran student from her class in East High School by the
name of John Metzger. The first mention of this
Lutheran boy is on January 9.
Well, school was fine. I turned in my term paper.
John got a better grade on a test than I did. Nuts. But
he was so happy, my word! I called the Latvian girl to
speak at FTA Thursdayand John will just love me
for it, I know!
[Wednesday, January 11, 1956.] There was a
terrif Voice of Youth meeting tonight. I got to report
on our Europe panel and it is the best of all so far.
Johns doing a great job. Hes such a sweetie and I
adore him. We are going to be on Television first, our
panel, Jan. 29, we hope.
Wednesday, Jan. 18. We had a voice of Youth
meeting tonight. John picked me up at about ten of
seven and we went out to west first avenue and picked
up Brigida Larans, the girl from Latvia. It was so
interesting. Each girl told something of the country she
was from and there was discussion and it was very
good and worthwhile. Then on the way home, we
began to be in a very deep religious discussion. At
Brigidas house we discussed (Johnny Metzger and I
and Brigida outside her house) all about Mormonism
and peoples ideals and ways of belief. I got in at 1:00.
(By the way, I remember how concerned my very
Mormon mother was.) We had talked until 12:30
and John brought me home. I have never had such a
lively and interesting and testimony-strengthening
discussion. Golly, it was just wonderful!
By the middle of January, this girl and her
friend were into the thick of Voice of Youth
activities. The NEATEST NEATEST thing is this:
Johnny Metzger and I went down to the U.S. Post
Office and up to the Imigration Office. We had called
from school before we went. And low and beholdwe
got into the Chief Officers office! Tremendous! He was
fabulous! He even offered our panel his office for our

next meeting! Johnny and I were so happy we went

and celebrated with a rootbeer float and a hot fudge
sundae. No kiddingwe were just so doggone pleased
it tickled us pink. I love Johnnyhe is such a doll
just like a brother! Mmmmmmm!
On Saturday, February 4, she writes: Today was
honestly one of the most fabulous days in all history.
Johnny Metzger came and got me in his brand new
1956 Mercury convertible, black and white Montclair and we went to see the horses! Fabulous fabulous!
We walked through the pastures and up to the upper
irrigation ditch. Was it ever neat! I talked to John
about just everythingreligion, music. Just had
MORE fun! Hes such a terrific guy, no kidding! I just
adore him! I hope Ill know him forever ever, hes so
terrific.
After the first blush of romance, however, some
conflicts arise. First, John already has a girlfriend
by the name of Janice. They called her Dilly. In a
moment of abandonment, he tells Marilyn that
if she will get her octet to sing at one of his
Lutheran church programs, he will take her out on
a real date!
She writes: [H]e made a deal with me that he
would take me out! I was so flabbergasted I just nearly
died of flips! I love the boy, but I had to explain to him
the crucialities of going out with him.
The crucialities, my friends, had to do with
being a Mormon. Disparities are older than Romeo
and Juliet. Im aware of that; but in the context of
being Mormon, it comes with the package.
It was so hard. Im wondering now just what I
should dobut I simply adore himjust adore him!
Sad sigh! Oh well. Dilly will just have him!
A few days later. Feb. 9. Well, I talked to everyone and they DO want me to go out with John. So I
guess Id better. Golly I love him. Almost too much for
even words.
To cut a novel into a few paragraphs, she begins
to hope that John will ask her to the Senior Prom.
However, he reluctantly admits that he had made
plans in the fall to take Dilly to the prom and has
discovered that Dilly still wants to keep the date.
On February 13 she writes: John and I are
Valentines complete, I love him and I hope . . . well,
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AML Annual 2002

anyway . . . today after school he took me all around

and we went down to the library and gathered information on trade and economic relations to use for
our article.
Now thats romance.
Soon she writes: I love John with very deepI
must be going crazyhe has the neatest blue eyes!
Oooo!
Later she talks about the song performance. I
got home and called all the kids. . . . We all wore
bobby socks, loafers and flats and dark sweaters and
skirts! Then we went to sing for the crusaders. We did
it a capella, even neatier than ever! We did Oh Baby
Mine, Red Red Robin, and Memories are Made of
This. Susy was scared before and so was MA, but everything turned out miraculous! No kidding! I love John!
Feb. 17. After the game everyone went to the
Gallillee Baptist Church. We sang and had a real neat
party. There was good food and just loads of fun. Our
octet sang three songs. We did the hula hop. NEVER
have I had such neat fun! Then Dilly took me home
and Johnny and Dean chased us all the way! Neat!
Then there was a snowball fight while I got ready for
the dance, and then I went. (Its a double date.)
Johnny and Dean took me to the dance . . . I really do
love them both, but especially Johnny. Hes so neat.
Cant stand Don and Jim at all anymore.
Tuesday, March 13: Oh dear! Everyone knows
about me and Johnny and its just sort of awful in a
way. And in another way its so neatsorta. I dont
know. Im just so mixed up! (Shes a Mormon girl,
remember?) Johnny brought me home. We had more
fun talking and discussing. (Now I left this one in so
you could laugh.) In mutual we had a neat time and
had a good lesson and then talked about a fashion
show which we are going to call Mormon Mode.
Thursday, March 15. Studied too hard and its
too late. Dean Truog asked me to the Senior Prom.
Oh hateful hateful doomful day. I didnt accept yet.
Friday, March 16. I was going to let this day go
by but I simply cant at all. Dilly found out about
Johnny and me. She knows were going out tomorrow
night. Ive never seen anyone so sweet in my life. She
just sort of handed him to me on a silver platter. (This
one act by a Protestant girl may have begun my life
mission to conquer jealousy!)
4

Sunday, March 18. Johnny wanted to talk to me

so he picked me up after school and we went to the
park. We had a big old long discussion about Dilly
and he asked me to the Senior Prom. However, he still
has an obligation to Dilly, he says. And so he plans to
have a conference with her. Im not sure. I like Johnny
SO much, and she doesnt. I hope I get to go with him.
I really do. I LOVE Johnny almost!
Tuesday, Mar. 20. Dean and I had a long talk
today. I still love Johnny, and I hope Dean knows.
Whether we can get Dean and Janice together is still
a big problem. I want to go with John Metzger
SO BAD!!
Wednesday, Mar. 21. My little world I have
builtlike Napoleanit has come crashing around
my poor head. And my golden halo is all that is warding off the worst of blows. Dilly does like Dean and
would go with him to the Senior Prom. But shed
rather stick to the commitment she and John made
months ago. Im sick. The Voice of Youth meeting was
neat. The Denver Post had us in headlines tonight.
I love Johnny more than anyone in the whole school
except maybe my sister Elaine. I love Johnny and Im
sad, very, awfully.
Saturday, Mar. 24. Guess what happened today!
Sam came! No kidding! It was really a surprise. First
time Ive seen him since Jan. 1. He came and got me
and we just went riding around and got a sundae. He
actually is going on a mission in a couple of weeks,
and also he practically proposed to me! He really does
want to marry me in two and a half years! Id never
marry Sam, though. Never! Hes great, but not that
great. Johnny called and is taking me to church
tomorrow. (This is the first time she puts church
and John in the same sentence.)
Tuesday, Mar. 27. Johnny called and Im so
happy he did. I love to hear his voice, even. I wonder
if Im not even getting too serious? Thats really dangerous. Im actually living in another world. A sort of
dream where Metzger is. I wonder if its right.
Tonight is mutual. I was just only in a sort of daze.
Id better wake up and realize quick that there are
other people in this great wide wonderful world. Im
sure I love Johnny, but how can I tell? Mustnt get too
bad! [Only I can tell you what that meant. NO
NECKING!]

Girl in Transistion: An Authentic Mormon

Wednesday, Mar. 28. Sam and I saw

CAROUSEL tonight and it was just wonderful, no
kidding. I just loved it! Cant stand Sam.
Sunday, April 1. I bore my testimony this morning in church testimony meeting and it was really a
marvellous experience. Strengthened me so much.
Then all afternoon I did my publicity for the prom.
Johnny came with me to church, although I had to sit
up front and sing. The program was good. When we
drove home, Mommy fed us hot dogs and rootbeer
floats and cake and it was fabulous! We all laughed
until we cried. Elaine was so funny.
April 9, 1956. The most wonderful thing all day
that happened I think was tonight when talking with
Sam and Jerry about BYU. Sam and I tried to convince Jerry that BYU would be just the thing for him.
I am convinced that its a most wonderful wonderful school.
April 11, 1956. A neat day! Wore a pony tail.
Some people didnt like it very much. Barb Woodward didnt. But I dont care. Johnny did, no kidding
at all at all! Well, we painted posters. I did an ancient
history play rehearsal. We had the daggone neatest
Voice meeting ever ever! Metzger was the big wheel
love him! Dean asked Dilly to the April 20th dinner
so Johnny asked me. Right in front of Dilly! I was so
embarrassed. Lost two years growth right there.
Friday, April 13. Unlucky day! Ive done all the
[publicity] work for the senior prom and I cant go
with Johnny!
April 14, Saturday. Yes, another unlucky day.
Johnny and I are unhappy because of the Senior
Prom, but we went for the neatest picnic! Walked a
mile up to a cave. Built a fire that almost smoked
us out. We had fried chicken and salad and
brownies and just everything. I must apologize to
Johnny today for my acting so sad over nothing at
allthe Senior Prom!
April 15. Guess what! The inevitable happened!
I AM GOING TO THE PROM WITH JOHNNY!
The switch hurt Dilly. She will have to go with Dean.
John called me and told me all. . . . Everythings confusing. Dilly was really upset and angry. Oh well.
Shes so sweet nothing will happen. Im happy.
Thursday, April 19. Today was fabulous. I was
Antigone. It was fun! Guess What! Our Antigone won

first place out of all the plays. We were so happy. The

refreshments were delicious.
Friday, April 20. Today was the wonderful Voice
of Youth day program! It was absolutely fabulous!
Johnny gave a really wonderful outstanding speech
and I was so proud of him. Everyone was. He was SO
terrific! We had dinner at Bauers and went to the
inspection ceremony at Buckley. The navy choir was
grand. John presented Governor Johnson and Admiral Gallery with honorable membership. It was in all
the magazines, on two tv stations, twice. Metzger was
really terrific. I absolutely adore him.
Saturday, April 21. The very biggest day in history! Golly, too fabulous to even describe! Senior Prom
night! Neat. I worked on my formal all afternoon and
did an all-city orchestra rehearsal in the morning.
The dance was the greatest! John and I met Jan and
Jerry at the DAC and we had dinner. I had turkey.
Jan and Jerry T-bone steaks. Johnny prime ribs. The
dance was wonderful! A real fountain and just everything! We had a fabulous time! Janice and Dean were
there, too. Then a whole bunch of everyone went up to
El Rancho and we ate and then we all went to Johns
house and danced till four. Then I got home at 4:15.
Love Johnny so much more. Yes!
Continuing to date, they happened to end one
of their evenings at Dolly Madisons where they
had wine sundaesjust one scoop of vanilla ice
cream topped by a few spoonsful of red wine. The
very fact that this Mormon girl has a wine sundae
is impulsive conduct! So I want you to pay close
attention here! In perhaps the most literary
moment of the entire document, she has an
authentic Mormon dream. Listen closely. I promise, this is actually written in pencil in her spiral
notebook!
Monday, May 22. By gollyI had my first nightmare last night in years! Was it the wine, I wonder? I
dreamed about dead popes in glass cases. Pope Leo IX
was very handsome, and chased me and kissed me. He
came alivehis dead corpseit was odd. Then I
woke up, screamed, slept again and dreamed that
I got a $25 music award from the BYU! Oddity!
Oddity! Told Mr. Anderson about the popes. They do
have them in cases! Johnny and I went and had our
pictures taken for the Denver Post. It was quite exciting.
5

AML Annual 2002

Sunday, Tonight I got to talk with Johnny about

the church. We went to City Park and had a big long
discussion about ways of thinking, etc., etc., and then
we got into the word of wisdom, which was really
quite a wonderful discussion. I love Johnny so much!
The resourceful Mormon high school girl has a
problem, of course. And in typical Mormon style,
she enlists the missionaries and tries to convert
Johnny to the church.
Its a longer story, but on Sunday, June 10,
when stake conference is being held, she writes:
George Q. Morris was the speaker from Salt Lake. In
the morning I took Johnny and Dean to conference.
We went in Deans car. We had a great time. Then in
the afternoon I thought conference was better. But
neither Johnny nor Dean could come.
The last sentence almost summarizes the transition in tone. The young men couldnt come along
to that final wonderful conference.
I think Ive read enough to convince you that
there is such a thing as authentic Mormon life.
However, I will add a couple of paragraphs about
leaving high school and going to BYU. First, I
didnt come to school with friends and unfortunately drew three party girls for roommates. When
they kept me awake every night, I plunged into
despair and homesickness. I got letters from
Johnny, but were they the solution?
Saturday. . . . . Johnny wrote me another letter
and Im glad. But he spells so awful.
October 16, Tuesday. Got a letter from Johnny.
He attended church finally. It made me so happy! Hes
so wonderful! Then I enjoyed Brother Ellsworths class
today. We talked about the Book of Mormon. Then
tonight at mutual we were very lucky to see the movie
of Martin Luther. He was a marvellous man moved
by the spirit of God. If it werent for the so-called
Heretics it would have been harder to restore this
gospel on the eartheven impossible. How thankful
I am for a testimony of this gospel!
October 18, 1956. Today I prayed for several
things. First of all for our beloved president, Brother
Wilkinson, who is ill. Then for Johnny! I love him SO
much! He is the most wonderful person in the world
to me and though hes far away, I love him more and
more each day. And my family. I pray for their safety
6

and health. Oh, and about Johnny, that maybe someday, sometime, he might receive the strength that
comes with accepting the gospel! That he might realize the truth. I love him so much and want him to
have a testimony. My testimony grew today while I
fasted. I felt the spirit of the Holy Ghost many times.
I am grateful for this marvellous gospel.
November 6, Tuesday. This has been about the
most exciting day in history so far at BYU! The presidential election day and ALL!! It was my birthday.
Im 18 now. I called my mommy and daddy and the
family sat around the kitchen table listening to me.
Mom got a long extension on the telephone! I was so
thrilled to hear all their voices I just cried. And then I
got to talk to JOHNNY! Oh, I was so happy! He was
upset because I told him I might not be coming home
for Thanksgiving. He still loves me. And he was terribly upset. Eisenhower WON!
Ive skimmed the surface, of course. (Elect a
novelist as your president, and youll get a novel!)
But the faith this girl has learned from her religious
orientation manages to carry her into a positive
transition. It takes place especially when she is
elected AWS (Associated Women Students) secretary and has the opportunity of asking a campus
big wheel to the Preference Ball!
Its a long story, of course, but heres what happens at the Preference Ball. November 9. Friday,
Preference Ball Day! What a terrific time did I have
ever! Brother. Was that ever a most fabulous dance!!
We went to Eldreds hall. . . . and it was really terrific!
Boy, Tracy is one of the most fabulous characters in
this whole entire world! Hes a skin diver, swimmer,
skier, ice-skater, EVERYTHING! And he plays the
ukelele! Wow. Is he ever fabulous! What was so neat
was that he had fun, too. I think. For sure! We had a
really terrific time!!
Saturday. Today was one of the happiest days of
my life! I woke up and received a letter from Mom
telling me she was EXPECTING me to come home
for Thanksgiving! I was thrilled! Norma took me
downtown to buy my ticket at the Railroad station.
And I have moved in with my new roommates today!
Oh, Im just so thrilled with them! Theyre so wonderful. And Im SO happy all the way around.

Girl in Transistion: An Authentic Mormon

Thats all I can read of this Mormon girls life

in 1956.
A man named Peter Bart tried to write a
national best-seller about Mormons. He was sure
everybody would buy it. Well, he was wrong. It
was a terrific flop. The title of the book was Thy
Kingdom Come (New York: Simon & Schuster,
1981). Why did it bomb? Because he wasnt a Mormon. He understood nothing of our point of view,
our foibles, our ways of looking at things. Yes, our
ways are different. And I celebrate that. We dont
need to be ashamed to write them. We dont need
to impress New York especiallyalthough of
course it would be nice. There is nothing that says
we cannot become more excellent writers as we
become more excellent Mormons.
Marilyn Brown, president of the Association for Mormon Letters for 2000, is author of The Earthkeepers,
which won the first AML novel award (1982).
Covenant divided it into Thorns of the Sun and Shadows
of Angels, completed by a sequel, Royal House (1994).
Statehood appeared in 1995 and The Wine-Dark Sea of
Grass, the story of the Mountain Meadows Massacre, in
2000. Among her honors are BYUs first Mayhew prize,
several first prize awards from the Utah League of
Writers, Randall Book, and two novel awards from the
Utah Fine Arts Council (first place in 1991).

VISITING WRITER

Expressing Faith: A Literary Art

Chieko N. Okazaki

My dear brothers and sisters, aloha!

You remember the story of Groucho Marx who
attended a party in Hollywood? At the end, he
found his hostess, shook her hand, and said very
sincerely, Ive had a wonderful evening. But this
wasnt it. I hope that you will not leave after our
time together here feeling the same way, but rather
that you will feel weve shared something important from our hearts and our spirits.
Im greatly honored to be here at the invitation
of the Association for Mormon Letters, to thank
you once again for finding in the books that have
been published from my talks something worthy
of being honored. In 1998 when you awarded me
the a prize in devotional literature for the second
timeI think this means that Im tied with Elder
Maxwell, doesnt it?I said:
I am truly honored to receive this award in
devotional literature from the Association for
Mormon Letters and I want to thank all of you
who have given your efforts to build this
organization and make it healthy. I think a
group like this is fulfilling the scriptural
injunction to be anxiously engaged in a
good cause.
As a teacher, I know that there are dimensions of the human spirit that will be forever
crippled unless they can find expression in the
arts and humanities. I cant think of very many
aspects of human life that are not covered by
either the good news of the gospel or the bad
news of its absence. So, in the words of President Hinckley, Carry on!

Im glad to have the opportunity to extend

those remarks tonight, but the first thing I need to
tell you is that Im here under false pretenses. Im
not a writer, and thats why its a real joke for me to
say, even in fun, that Im tied with Elder Maxwell,
who has also received the same award twice, if Im
not mistaken. Elder Maxwell is a writer.
But Im a teacher. The fact that there are books
at all is really thanks to Sheri Dew, who first saw
the possibilities in collecting some of my talks, and
then Cory Maxwell, when he was with Bookcraft.
The people who deserve the credit for shaping the
talks into books are people like Emily Watts and
Suzanne Brady of the editorial staff at Deseret
Book, who have figured out ways of letting my
voice speak on paper in some of the same ways that
it does in person. Its really important to me that the
people who buy the books understand that theyre
getting the downstream effect of a process that, as
far as Im concerned, existed for the talk itself,
nearly always to a group of Relief Society sisters.
Thats why Ive insisted that each chapter in the
book be identified by where and when and to
whom and under what title it was originally given.
My dear friend Cherry Silver suggested this
title, and its really a spiffy one. And she also asked
me a whole bunch of questions, questions that are
so provocative and so stimulating that Im going to
use them as the outline for my talk.
Listen to these questions from Cherry: What
are you reading for background and whom do
you quote? How do you select your metaphors?
What goes into converting life experiences into
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AML Annual 2002

philosophical parables? How did you dare take

visual metaphors to the pulpit in the Salt Lake
Tabernacle at general conference and general
womens meeting? Talk about the passion that
motivates your work. Whom do you visualize as
your audience? What have been some of your most
rewarding talks? (sexual abuse in Portland? Eds
death? cancer survival?) What complications have
you overcome on your way to this powerful level of
writing and speaking? To what do you attribute
your powerful insights into grace and glory?
Arent those terrific questions? I hope you all
have friends who are good question-askers. Id
much rather talk to people who know how to ask
good questions than people who have all the
answersand I hope that, as a teacher, I ask good
questions too. But I have to say that these questions also scare me a little bit. They all assume that
Im the one who is doing these things and having
these effects.
Im going to say this first because I dont want
anyone to misunderstand me. Ive wanted to be a
teacher since I was a little girl. I spent twenty-three
years as an elementary school teacher and another
ten as a principal, and I cant tell you what satisfaction this profession brought me. But at the time of
my calling into the Relief Society general presidency, I received a special blessing from President
Hinckley when he set me apart that I would be
able to speak across barriers of culture and nationality. That blessing was literally fulfilled during all
the time I served in that calling and it has not been
removed with the end of my calling.
This kind of teaching wasnt something that I
did or caused to happen. Cherry can tell you all
about that. My first international assignment was
with her. We had to go together on very short
notice to New Zealand and Samoa because Elaine
Jack, the Relief Society president, was unexpectedly invited to meet with President Benson at the
time she was supposed to have gone. Cherry can
tell you how scary it was to go with very little
preparation and very little orientation about the
needs of the sisters in those countries and have any
kind of hope that we could bring something of
value to them.
10

In fact, we took very little besides our love for

those sisters and our faith that the Lord could do
great things if we gave him a chance. What we
found was that those sisters had prepared a place
for us in their minds and in their hearts from their
own faith, and that experience of feeling our faith
meet their faith in a ratification of the Holy Ghost
was so powerful an experience that I dont think we
ever looked back.
What Im saying, brothers and sisters, is that
this kind of teaching to the women of the Church
was a gift. It still is a gift. I feel that my part of
accepting the gift is to say yes just as often as I can,
to ask good questions about the sisters needs and
work just as hard as I can to understand those needs,
then work as hard as I possibly can to research, to
understand the scriptures, to pray for understanding, and to teach a few simple principles in a vivid
way so that there is a space where fear and fatigue
and frustration get pushed aside, where faith and
love can enter, and where the joy of feeling the Saviors love can enfold and surround all of us.
I always speak from a prepared text. You may
know that English isnt my first language. Its actually my third language. I spoke Japanese in my
home with my family, of course; and outside my
home in our village I spoke pidgin with the Hawaiians, haoles, and people of other nationalities who
lived there. When I write a talk, I go over and over
it, practicing how to say it. Sometimes I tape it and
listen to it as Im driving. I pray all the time, and I
always have a prayer in my hearta prayer about
the people Ill be speaking to, a prayer that this
message is what the Lord wants them to hear.
Then, when its time to speak and I stand at the
pulpit, I can feel a swelling within me, a power upwelling, that makes my heart expand with joy and
makes my mind clear, and that carries my words to
the minds and hearts of the people who are sharing
that space with me and the Spirit.
Brothers and sisters, that power is not me. Ive
never thought it was me. I never want to be so
arrogant or foolish as to think its me. Without that
power, Id be maybe a cute little old lady, maybe
funny and maybe interesting, but I would not be
the kind of teacher that I have been called to be by

Expressing Faith: A Literary Art

the Spirit. And I know that the Lord still has a message that he can deliver through me because that
Spirit is there.
I dont know how it works and I dont exactly
know why. And to tell you the truth, Im not sure I
want to understand that process or scrutinize it too
closely. What if I began thinking that I understood
it totally and could produce it whenever I wanted
to? What kind of arrogance and self-deception
might it lead me into? No, I prefer to be grateful
and reverent before it.
So, will you please remember that today? As
the scriptures say, And if ye have not the Spirit, ye
shall not teach. And I hope that therell be some
teaching here today.
VISUAL AIDS
Well, Cherry asked how I dared to take visual
aids to general conference and to the womens general meeting. How else do teachers teach but with
visual aids? And since Im a teacher, lets have a
little quiz. I have a few of the visual aids Ive used
in the past, and what Id like to do is show them to
you. And if you remember the visual aid or the talk
I used them in, will you please raise your hand? Im
especially interested in knowing if, after all these
years, part of the concept stuck in your mind. You
Relief Society sisters may be at a greater advantage
then the brothers, in this case.
Okay, here we go! First, here are two oars or
paddles for a boat. One is labeled Faith and the
other is labeled Works. How many of you remember this talk? What was it about?
Right. That it takes both faith and works
that if we rely just on one but not both, well just
go around in circles.
Heres the second onea bottle of peaches and
a basket of fruit. Does this ring any bells? Thats correct! The point I was making here is that the doctrines of the gospel are indispensable but the
packaging is optional. The Utah homemaker cans
peaches to provide food for her family, but the
Hawaiian mother doesnt need to can food since
fruit ripens all year long. The bottle and the basket
are different containers, but the content is the

samefood. Is the bottle right and the basket

wrong? No, they are both right. They are appropriate to the cultural needs of the people, and appropriate for their content.
Heres the last one: a cats cradle. What about it?
Rightthat were all connected to each other
and to the Savior and that maybe even the spaces
between are important in the same way that the
light of Christ is important in connecting us.
I also showed a crazy quilt in one talk to show
that you dont have to look like everybody else to
make something that would be beautiful and that
would do its job of keeping you warm. I didnt
actually have a visual aid for one of the talks I gave
about hope, but I used the story of the pansy in my
garden that kept growing even though it was under
a brickand guess what, somebody sent me this
terrific rock with a painting of a pansy on it. [show]
Guess what, you all passed! What a terrific
audience! And you get the point? Some of you
could remember things I said five, six, or seven
years ago. Do we need any more evidence about
the important role of visual aids in teaching?
USING THE SCRIPTURES
Cherry asked what I read for background.
Well, thats easy. The scriptures, first and foremost.
Especially the stories in the scriptures and especially the stories about Jesus and the stories that he
told. I have two or three translations of the scriptures besides the King James version for the reason
Ive already explained about my language background. I read commentaries and analyses and
other books too that illuminate the scriptures. One
of the books I just love about the scriptures is Jeni
Broberg Holzapfels and Richard Neitzel Holzapfels book Sisters at the Well, which is about women
in the Bible. Understanding the culture of women
at the time of the New Testament was so enlightening for me.
But I think the most important thing I can bring
to the scriptures is my own questions. When I dont
understand something, sometimes its because I
dont understand the language. Thats where
another translation comes in handy. Sometimes its
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AML Annual 2002

because I dont understand the principle involved.

Thats where the commentaries come in handy.
But sometimes I just plain dont get it. And my
own questionings and wrestlings and struggles to
understand nearly always produce the kind of
insight that makes that story or that episode or that
teaching valuable and personal to me. Im not saying that my insight is correct. What I am saying is
that Ive found a way to claim and understand that
part of the scriptures.
Let me give you an example. You remember a
few years ago when we were cranking through the
Old Testament again in Sunday School? I dont
know what your Sunday School class is like, but
mine, right here in the heart of Zion, sometimes
is not very satisfying to me. Sometimes I think,
I think Ive heard this lesson before, presented in
exactly the same way to make exactly the same
point, since 1942. (1942 is the year I joined the
Church.) I know the gospel is more interesting
than this! Well, I remember one Sunday when,
during the lesson on Abrahams sacrifice of Isaac,
the point of the lesson seemed to be that Abrahams
willingness to sacrifice Isaac was a foreshadowing
of Heavenly Fathers willingness to allow Jesus to
die on the cross and that Abrahams obedience was
a model of how obedient we should be. Okay, both
of these points go back to 1942, so Id heard them
literally dozens of times. Ive also noticed that it
seems to be the men in the class who seem to think
that sacrificing your son is such a great idea. In
fact, most of the time during this lesson, I notice
that the women look at their laps or read ahead in
their scriptures.
I have to tell you the truth. Since 1942, its
bothered me that we dont know what Sarah
thought of all this and whether she would have
been as enthusiastic as Abraham about tying up her
only son, putting him on an altar, and cutting his
throat, even as a sacrifice to God, even to show her
willingness to obey him, and even if God commanded it.
So I raised my hand; and when the teacher called
on me, I asked the question Id been struggling with
since 1942 without finding a good answer: Do
you think Abraham talked this over with Sarah?
12

Suddenly, there were hands waving all over the

room, and they were mostly womens hands. It
turned out that the women in my ward had a lot of
thoughts they wanted to share on this topic. At
first the teacher was frustrated because the lesson
wasnt gliding smoothly along the path that he had
marked out for it any more, but within a few minutes, he got involved in the topic too. That was the
most interesting lesson Ive heard since 1942 about
the sacrifice of Isaac, and I didnt say another word
during the whole lesson. I was just listening to the
others sharing their ideas. And people were talking
about it afterwards in the hall, and women were
calling each other during the week to continue the
discussion. Maybe some of the men were, too. It
was certainly interesting!
There wasnt room for me to get a word in
edgewise; but because I asked the question that was
closest to my heart and listened carefully to what
everyone else was saying, my own mind kept working too. If Id had time to say something else before
the bell rang, I would have said something like this,
We keep talking about the sacrifice of Isaac as a
test of Abrahams faith, and Im sure it was; but I
wonder if maybe it could have been a test with more
than one right answer. I think of my husband, Ed,
who was the best, most compassionate, most loving, most spiritual, most faithful man I know
and that includes presidents of the Church and
General Authorities. We have two sons, Ken and Bob.
If a revelation had come to Ed to take one of our
boys and sacrifice him, I know two things. First,
Ed would have never made a decision regarding
our children without consulting me. And I would
probably have had an opinion on whether this was
a good idea or not.
But second, I know what Ed would have said.
He would have said, If you want a sacrifice, take
me. Im ready right now. I know thats what Ed
would have said because he lived a self-sacrificing
life, and he literally risked death to save the lives of
others. He served in Italy in the U.S. Army during
World War II in a Japanese-American division made
up of the sons, brothers, grandsons, and nephews
of men and women who were incarcerated in
internment camps for the duration of the war just

Expressing Faith: A Literary Art

because they were Japanese. He joined that division,

going into combat, to preserve American liberties
when his own relatives were being denied those
same liberties as Americans. He chose to be a minesweeper, crawling on his hands and knees ahead of
American forces over territory that the Germans
had withdrawn from, leaving mines behind. Sometimes he would work all night in the dark, feeling
for the little wires sticking out of the ground that
would cause a mine to detonate if a man stepped
on it if or a tank or another vehicle ran over it. He
would jam the firing mechanism in the darkness,
then dig up the mine and disarm it, and then move
on, never knowing if he was going to put a hand
wrong or make a miscalculation out of fatigue or
awkwardness that would cost him his life.
He was awarded the Silver Starthe highest
military award next to the Congressional Medal of
Honorbecause he made exactly this kind of selfsacrificing decision. Hed worked all night with his
squad to clear a mine field. It was raining. Hed
slept for just a few minutes, leaning against a tree
in his poncho. Just after dawn he got the message
that the colonel needed someone to disarm a
booby-trapped motorcycle.
Ed thought, All of my men have worked all
night, too. Ill go myself. He was slogging through
the rain up the hill with seven other men when the
first shell of the morning from the German side, a
big 88 mm, came flying over their heads and exploded
among them. Three were killed outright. Ed and
the other four were wounded, but he dragged them
to the shelter of a building in the midst of the barrage and gave them first aid. He refused first aid
from the corpsmen until they had helped the
others first. When all the others had been helped,
the corpsmen discovered that Ed had three wounds,
one in his arm and two in his left leg. It took him a
full year to recover from these wounds.
We know from the scriptures that Abraham
knew what it was like to be stretched on an altar
under the knife of a priest. We know that he also
knew the Lords abhorrence of human sacrifice. So
I agree that Abraham received a severe test and that
his obedience was great when he agreed to sacrifice
his birthright son. But I wonder if the Lord would

have been just as pleased if he had thought of

another alternative, such as offering his own life
instead? I wonder if the Lord would have been just
as pleased if Abraham had thought of himself, not
as a representative of the Father who was willing to
let Jesus be crucified, but of the Savior who was
willing to take that act of sacrifice upon himself?
Well, of course we dont know. And its important to recognize that we dont know. We cant say
whether Abraham talked it over with Sarah or not
because the scriptures just dont say one way or the
other. But we can think about the possibilities of
what might have happened if he did. We cant say
whether the Lord would have been equally pleased
if Abraham had offered himself as a sacrifice as the
Lord was pleased with his willingness to sacrifice Isaac
because thats not one of the alternatives in the
scriptures. But we can think about the possibilities.
So I pay attention to the questions I have when
I read the scriptures. Ive never thought that questions are bad because they show that the person is
a doubter. What kind of a teacher would I be if
I communicated to the children in my classroom
that questions were wrong or bad? And God is an
even better teacher than I am. Doubt isnt the
opposite of faith. Unbelief is the opposite of faith.
My questions are an important part of my faith.
When we have a Savior and a Heavenly Father who
respect our agency totally, how can they get us to
ask for things that will bring us blessings? I think
questions are one of the ways.
STORIES OF FAITH FROM OTHER FAITHS
Well, in addition to the scriptures, Cherry
wanted to know what else were sources for me.
Thats easy. I read everything I can get my hands
on. I read all the Church magazines, of course, and
tons of Church books; but I also subscribe to
maybe a dozen magazines that are published by
other religious denominationsevangelical,
Catholics, Seventh-day Adventist, Billy Graham,
Norman Vincent Peale, Christian womens publications. Im not particularly interested in the doctrinal articles in these magazines. I read doctrinal
articles in the Ensign because I know that its
13

AML Annual 2002

important to understand the doctrine, but the part

of the Ensign that I read with real eagerness is
Mormon Journal, where people report their real
experiences in living the gospel. I love these stories.
I feel connected to the people who tell them.
And thats what I look for as I read the magazines and publications of other faiths. I read
through them listening for the voice that is singing
the same song of faith that I recognize. That way,
even if I dont know the exact words, I certainly
recognize the tune and I can sing along. I look for
stories of people who take prayer seriously, who
love God, who feel gratitude welling up within
them at the thought of the Saviors sacrifice for
them, who feel an outpouring of love toward
others as a result of their love for God. Ill have to
admit that I really dont care a whole lot for theological arguments about whether the Sabbath day
is Saturday or Sunday, and I also dont care very
much about distinctions between the light of
Christ and the Spirit of Christ or what proves that
Jehovah is Jesus. What I care about are the very
simple truths of the gospel. Our Heavenly Parents
live. They love us. Prayer works. The Saviors love
has more power than TNT to get us off the couch
and into good works. The purpose of life is joy.
Our neighbors are to love and serve
In fact, just last week I read a marvelous article
in Christian Reader, that referred to Gods 911
number (Parachin). By that, the author meant
Psalm 91:1, followed by the rest of its sixteen
verses. My heart leaped up, since I have always
loved that psalms comforting and powerful message. Let me read it to you.
He that dwelleth in the secret place of the
most High shall abide under the shadow of
the Almighty.
I will say of the Lord, he is my refuge and
my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.
Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare
of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.
He shall cover thee with his feathers, and
under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall
be thy shield and buckler.
Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by
night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;
14

Nor for the pestilence that walketh in

darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth
at noonday.
A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten
thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not
come nigh thee.
Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold
and see the reward of the wicked.
Because thou hast made the Lord, which is
my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation;
There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall
any plague come nigh thy dwelling.
For he shall give his angels charge over
thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.
They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest
thou dash thy foot against a stone.
Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder:
the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.
Because he hath set his love upon me,
therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on
high, because he hath known my name.
He shall call upon me, and I will answer
him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver
him, and honour him.
With long life will I satisfy him, and shew
him my salvation.

Isnt that beautiful? The article relates the stories of several people for whom this psalm had particular meaning, including Jimmy Stewart, whose
father gave it to him before he left to fly combat
missions in World War II. But I was particularly
touched by the story of Charles Haddon Spurgeon,
a devoted minister in England. In 1854, a great
cholera epidemic devastated London. For days, he
went from bedside to chapel, comforting the
dying, conducting funerals, and consoling the survivors. Surrounded by death, Spurgeon became
emotionally and physically exhausted, sure that it
was only a matter of time before the epidemic
claimed him too. He says that he was sick at
heart. But this psalm changed that feeling for him:
As Spurgeon was returning from conducting
yet another funeral service, a flyer posted in a
shoemakers shop window got his attention.

Expressing Faith: A Literary Art

The flyer contained sections of Psalm 91,

including these heartening words:
Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by
night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;
Nor for the pestilence that walketh in
darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth
at noonday.
A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten
thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not
come nigh thee. (Psalm 91:57)
The impact . . . [was] dramatic. [Spurgeon]
wrote: The effect upon my heart was immediate. I felt secure, refreshed, girt with immortality. I went on with my visitation of the dying in
a calm and peaceful spirit; I felt no fear of evil
and I suffered no harm. The providence which
moved the tradesman to place those verses in
his window I gratefully acknowledge, and in the
remembrance of its marvelous power, I adore
the Lord, my God.

Now that account didnt come out of the

Ensign, but I have the feeling that everybody who
reads the Ensign can also benefit from thinking of
Psalm 91 as Gods 911 number.
LISTENING TO STORIES
Another indispensable source for my ideas is
that many friends share wonderful ideas and stories
with me because I am willing to listen. My dear
Cherry here has consistently done this ever since
we were associated in the Relief Society work. She
was on the historical committee at a time when we
asked individual sisters and ward Relief Societies to
write their history as a sesquicentennial project.
Cherry would go through these pages and pages of
accounts and find stories that other sisters could
relate to. I used many of them in my talks and still
have some of them, waiting for the right occasion.
Ive listened as women have talked about the
challenges and struggles of being single or divorced
in this very married Church. Ive been stirred to
admiration repeatedly as Ive heard women share
the problems of trying to blend families with virtually no help from the institutional Church and no
resources provided by it since the only model is the

one-time married couple. Ive learned so much

from listening to gays and lesbians who are working so desperately to find a place in this very
straight Church that will accommodate both their
sexual identity and their religious identity. Ive
been honored as survivors of sexual abuse have
shared their stories with me.
Brothers and sisters, we have so much to learn
from these usually silent members who almost
never find anyone to listen to them because, basically, they often get the message they really arent
the kind of members the Church wants. As my
heart has swelled to encompass with compassion
people who are dealing with situations that I have
never been presented with; and as my mind has
been enlightened by their willingness to share their
stories with me, I thank God for them and for their
courage and faith. It increases my own.
In 1993 I was invited to speak in Portland to a
Relief Society conference. As usual, I asked the
stake Relief Society president to share with me
some of the difficulties that her sisters were dealing
with. On the list was sexual abuse. I immediately
felt a strong message from the Spirit that I should
address that issue directly, not just with a sentence
or two embedded in my talk, but deeply and thoroughly. And the next feeling I had was fear. I had
never experienced sexual abuse. I had never studied
about sexual abuse. I wasnt even sure I knew anyone who had been sexually abused. What on earth
would be helpful? And what on earth could I possibly say that would be helpful? In fact, wasnt I
running an immense risk of actually doing harm
and causing more damage? I knew exactly how
Jonah felt when he decided hed rather run away to
Tarshish than take ship for Ninevah.
But I couldnt turn away from the burden that
the Spirit had laid upon my heart. I began praying
without ceasing for help. Amazingly, a woman who
was a close friend and who had been working her
way out of an abyss of recovered memories had
written about her experiences. She shared these
experiences with me. I consulted with the stake
president in Portland, and he eagerly and gratefully
encouraged me to continue. People were led to my
office, to my telephone, and to my home with
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AML Annual 2002

material I needed. I felt the faith and prayers of

many peopleincluding women in the congregationupholding me as I spoke.
And afterwards, I understood why the Spirit
had not released me from this burden. Overwhelmingly, surviving sexual abuse is a problem
women must deal with, even though men are also
sexually abused and I have sat with many of them
and heard their stories. But the Church as an institution has typically dealt with sexual abuse in two
ways. First, someone at general conference will
make a statement for a few sentences denouncing
sexual abuse as a terrible sin and saying that it is
unacceptable to the Lord. Everything they say is
true; but as these general statements of denunciation and rebuke shove the sin away, they also sometimes shove the survivor away with the sin. Even
though, with a couple of exceptions, these conference talks do not blame the survivor, there is no
message of consolation for the survivor. She or he
is simply stranded way out there with the sin that
Church is repudiating.
Second, the institutional Church provides some
training for bishops and stake presidentsnot very
muchbut more than they used to. But once again,
because this training is administered by men to
men, the sisters are again left stranded. They have
a problem that needs to be fixed, and its very easy,
in that situation, to feel as if they are a problem
that needs to be fixed.
As a result, for a woman in the Relief Society
presidency to stand up in public and speak for
forty-five minutes on healing from sexual abuse
had a validating and comforting effect out of all
proportion to that forty-five minutes. I was a
woman speaking to other women. I was a woman
with about as much authority as a woman can have
in the LDS Church, and I was speaking in my calling. I think perhaps the most important effect of
that talkand I humbly give our Heavenly Father
thanks and gratitude for letting the sisters hear the
message they needed to hearwas to say that
abuse was everybodys problem.
That talk in Portland was seven years ago. Sheri
Dew heard about it and asked me to make a tape
recording of it for Deseret Book. It sold over nine
16

thousand copies and then was reprinted in Disciples.

To this day, I never go to a conference or speak to a
womens groupand thats between ninety and
a hundred times a yearthat at least one woman
doesnt quietly say, Thank you so much for your
tape. It made such a difference to me. Men have
told me the same thing.
CONCLUSION
Our time together is just about over, but I want
to talk about you for a few minutesyou, the
readers, the writers, the scholars, and the literary
critics of Zion. Lets play two games, one about
competition and the other about cooperation.
This first game is a game of competition. We
called it Jung Ken Po in Hawaii, but you probably know it as Paper, Rock, Scissors?
[Sister Okazaki called up Scott Parkin and
demonstrated the game with him. She won all
three times and smacked his hand each time he lost.]
All right, find a partner and lets see some playing.
Now, lets play the second game. This is a game
of cooperation, not competition. How many of
you know Pease Porridge Hot? Good. I know
there are some variations, so let me demonstrate
the one Im using.
Okay, go to it. Lets see some Pease Porridge
Hot. Repeat it a couple of times. See if you can
pick up your speed. Now faster!
Now, Id like some reports on what you discovered. What did you like about Paper, Scissors, Rock?
[Scott: I didnt like it at all!]
Did you win or lose? Whos somebody who
won all the time? How did you do it? What skills
did it take? Now, whats the difference with Pease
Porridge Hot? Who is someone who already knew
how to play it? Have you ever played this game
with your partner before? What did you discover
about the experience? What helped you do it well?
(being able to laugh, the rhythm established by the
rhyme even if the rhyme didnt make much sense,
and practice).
The point of these two games is that they bring
people into relationship in different ways. The
point of competition is to win, so you tell youre

Expressing Faith: A Literary Art

doing a good job if someone else loses. But the

point of a cooperative game like Pease Porridge
Hot is to do it right, and you cant do it right
unless your partner also does it right. In our families and in the church and in the Association for
Mormon Letters, we should all be playing Pease
Porridge Hot. Theres no room for the priesthood
leader who feels like a winner by making everybody else feel like a loser. Marriage is not about
power but about service and about helping each
other grow. A friendship based on competition and
struggle is not a safe and happy relationship. Colleagues who are engaged in the creative work to
bring stories and characters and the raw stuff that
helps us understand what it means to be human
beings into existence need to cooperate. You need
to be a network of knowledge and support and
sharing and encouragement for each other.
Ive told you a lot of stories todayand its
been a privilege to have you listen to me with such
attentiveness and supportiveness because I can feel
the Spirit connecting us. I learn from stories. I learn
from the stories that other people tell me about
their lives. I learn from the stories in the scriptures
about Jesus and from the stories that he told and
from the experiences that other people have with
him. I learn from understanding my own life as a
story. As a teacher, I think my teaching happens
when I tell stories.
Isnt the same true of you? The Association for
Mormon Letters is by and about and for people who
tell stories. All kinds of stories. Creative writers create stories. Critical writers help us understand stories and see more deeply into them. Stories are the
oars that we need to move our boats forward without going around in circles. Do these have to be
Mormon stories? Some of them do. Gerry Lund
seems to have done a pretty good job at telling the
Mormon saga from New York to Nauvoo to Salt
Lake City, but there are many other Mormon stories that havent been told yet. Ive been so interested in Margaret Youngs retelling, with Darius
Gray, of the stories of black Mormons in Standing
on the Promises. Think of the stories of those silent
members of the Church from whom Ive learned so
muchmany of them have yet to be told.

What form can these stories take? My brothers

and sisters, use any form you can find. Historical
fiction, romances, murder mysteries, satires, serious fiction, sonnets, epics, folk songs, domestic
comedies, political tragedies, science fiction and
fantasywhy exclude anything? How many times
does Joseph Smith need to walk into the Sacred
Grove in creative literature? As many times and in
as many ways as it takes until each one of us goes in
there with him and comes out knowing that God
lives and answers our prayers.
So tell stories. Be good story-tellers. Find new
stories to tell, and new ways to tell the old stories.
Be learners. Be teachers. Be story-tellers, and may
the Lord bless you in your endeavors, I pray in the
name of his son, Jesus Christ, whose story gives
meaning to all of our stories. Amen.
Chieko N. Okazaki, an elementary school teacher and
principal, is the only woman to have served on the general boards of all three organizationsthe Young
Women, the Primary, and the Relief Society. In this last
position, she was first counselor from 1990 to 1997.
She and her husband, Edward Yukio Okazaki, who died
in 1992, are the parents of two sons and the grandparents of four grandsons. Twice honored for devotional
literature by the Association for Mormon Letters, she
has published five compilations of her addresses:
Lighten Up!, Cats Cradle, Aloha, Sanctuary, and Disciples.

WORK CITED
Parachin, Victor. Gods 911. Christian Reader, September/October 2000. 6668. I use the King James
Translation for the verses quoted from Ps. 91.

17

A History of the Association for Mormon Letters

Literary Awards
Gideon O. Burton

Over the last quarter century the Association

for Mormon Letters has presented 130 awards in a
dozen categories. Perhaps the awards have affected
publishing, since more than one golden AML Award
Winner sticker has been placed on book covers to
attract buyers. More likely, these awards have affected
authors. The modest monetary prize is a token, but
the vindication of ones private writing in a public
setting provides priceless encouragement.
The AML awards also reveal much about the
nature of this association as it has changed over
time. New genres of awards have been added, and
some seem to have fallen by the wayside. I have
studied the awards with the theme of the 2000 AML
conference in mindbridging Zion and New York.
Though the literature that has received attention
by AML in its conferences and awards has largely
been generated from LDS or regional presses,
many pioneers have braved the national scene,
epitomized by the New York publishing industry.
I do not mean to suggest that national publishing
is always superior to regional publishing; but in
some respects it is an indicator of how serious the
ambitions and the careers of our writers are and of
how much Mormon literature has bridged the
divide to the mainstream literary world.
This will be a bibliographic tour through AML
history as I review each category of award in turn.
The accompanying charts list all of the awards, presidents, and lifetime memberships; more complete
bibliographic details can be found for each work
and author at the Mormon Literature Website (http:
//humanities.byu.edu/MLDB/mlithome.htm).

Since records were spotty and memories faint for

some of the associations years, I apologize for omissions and invite corrections.
SHORT FICTION
Of the 12 story collections to receive the AML
Award in short fiction, two, those by Walter Kirn
and Brady Udall, were published by renowned
New York publishers, Knopf and Norton, respectively. Six of the award-winning story collections
were published by university presses. The authors
are Levi S. Peterson (University of Chicago); Pauline
Mortensen (University of Arkansas); Margaret
Young (University of Idaho); Darrell Spencer (University of Missouri), Paul Rawlins, and Mary Clyde
(both University of Georgia). A second awardwinning collection by Darrell Spencer was published by an independent press in Washington
State. The remaining three collections were published by LDS or Utah regional presses, including
the now defunct Orion Press, which put out collections by Douglas Thayer and Bla Petsco. A single award-winning collection came from Deseret
Book, Donald Marshalls Frost in the Orchard.
Individual stories earning awards from AML
show a clear regional bias. Of these 12, only two
debuted in national literary journals: Levi Petersons The Confessions of Augustine in Denver Quarterly (a nationally respected press, not a regional
outlet) and [Bruce] Wayne Jorgensens Who Jane,
Who Tarzan in High Plains Literary Review. The
other 10 appeared in LDS or regional outlets,
19

AML Annual 2002

including stories first published in Dialogue by

Levi S. Peterson, Karen Rosenbaum, Robert A.
Christmas, Linda Sillitoe, Neal C. Chandler, and
Tory C. Anderson. Award-winning stories by
Michael Fillerup and by Helen Walker Jones first
appeared in collections published by LDS-market
publishers Aspen and Signature, respectively.
THE NOVEL
AML has given an award in the novel to 19
books. Those coming off national presses include
three novels by Orson Scott Card (two from TOR,
one from HarperCollins); two others by Judith Freeman (Norton and Pantheon), one by Anne Edwards
Cannon (Delacorte) and one by Anne Perry (Fawcett Columbine). The other 12 award-winning novels
are from LDS or regional presses, with only one
title, Franklin Fishers Bones, from a university press.
Interestingly, several AML-award winning novels
have come not from large regional presses, but from
small presses: Marilyn Browns Earthkeepers (Provo,
Utah: Art Publishers), for instance, and Doug Thayers
Summer Fire (Midvale, Utah: Orion Books).
By genre, the AML award-winning novels have
varied from more literary to more popular, from
mainstream national (such as Cards Lost Boys) to
genre fiction: Cards science fiction, Perrys mysteries, and Anne Cannons Young Adult fiction. And
historical fiction has earned not just dollars at
Deseret Book, but esteem from this body: Browns
Earthkeepers, Dean Hughess Far from Home, two
books from Gerald Lunds The Work and the Glory
series, and Orson Scott Cards Woman of Destiny
(retitled Saints). Each of these genres could readily
become a separate awards category for AML, as
Young Adult literature did in 1991, especially the
speculative fiction category.
DRAMA
Drama has been underrepresented at AML in
frequency of awards given, the paucity of LDS playwrights, and, until recently, the lack of critical discussion. An award in drama has been presented in
only 7 out of 25 years and to only four playwrights:
20

Tom Rogers, Neil Labute, Eric Samuelsen, and

Tim Sloverall of whom have written for the
BYU stages. This does not mean that LDS drama
has not had its thriving periods, nor that Mormon
women playwrights are unknown.
Susan E. Howes drama about Liberty Jail,
Burdens of Earth, is currently (February 2001) sold
out at BYUs Margetts Theater, and Carol Lynn
Pearson, who has authored such dramas as The
Order Is Love and My Turn on Earth, received a
general award from AML in 1983 for her work in
various genres. Another successful woman playwright is Margaret Young, whose I Am Jane, based
on the experiences of African-American Latter-day
Saints, was staged in 2000 with great success in
Utah and Chicago.
But AML, like LDS culture at large, has not
reviewed, discussed, or encouraged LDS theater to
the extent that it might, a topic playwright Eric
Samuelsen has eloquently addressed. However,
Tony Kushners Angels in America, so prominently
featuring Mormon characters, did receive much
discussion at our 1996 conference (Austin Theology; Duffy; S. Straubhaar; and Stout, J. Straubhaar, and Newbold).
PERSONAL ESSAY
The personal essay is a signature LDS genre,
closely tied to the personal testimony and diary.
AML has given awards in this category for
13 years. Only three award-winning collections of
personal essays have had national publishers
Terry Tempest Williamss Refuge and Desert Quartet and national bestseller Expecting Adam by
Martha Beck. All other award-winning personal
essays appeared in Sunstone, Dialogue, or regional
LDS presses. Sadly, these collections are mostly out
of print along with Mary Lythgoe Bradfords
groundbreaking anthology, Personal Voices. For
those of us weaned on Eugene Englands Dialogues
with Myself or Ed Gearys Goodbye to Poplarhaven,
it seems a great pity that future generations may
not have access to them.
It is difficult to sell personal essays in national
or LDS markets, but perhaps AML could do more

History of the AML Literary Awards

to promote this genre both within and outside

LDS culture. AML conference sessions in which
authors such as Doris Dant, John S. Harris, or
Marian Nelson have shared their personal experiences in essay form have been among the strongest
and most memorable AML events.
The AML announced a new award in Personal
and Family History in 1986, but it has been awarded
only once. Such histories certainly do have a literary dimension, and BYUs Don Norton has given
invaluable guidance to writers of such histories in
our last two years AML writers conferences. Perhaps AMLs Irreantum will carry chapters from personal or family histories to promote personal
nonfiction and life writing generally.
BIOGRAPHY
Recognition of the literary dimensions in writing biography was one of the original motives for
forming AML. The award in biography was first
given in 1991 to Laurel Thatcher Ulrich for A Midwifes Tale. Both Ulrich and her recreation of
Martha Ballards life have received great national
attention, and we might learn from her style and
approach how to better market Mormon biography to a national audience.
It is possible that national audiences will be
more receptive to Mormon biographies than Mormons, who typically consider biography only as a
devotional genre. An indication of its status is that
inspirational but ultimately impersonal or superficial biographies of Church leaders by authors
such Francis Gibbons sell as much as more significant literary investigations of a life, such as the
landmark biography of Spencer W. Kimball by
Edward L. Kimball and Andrew E. Kimball Jr.
Mormon biography is, of course, as much a
historical as a literary concern, and AML has benefitted enormously from the work and input of
Mormon historians such as Leonard J. Arrington
(I dont understand why his Brigham Young: American Moses was not given AMLs award in biography
for 1985) and more recently from Jesse L. Embry,
who shed light on the historicity of polygamy in
Maureen Whipples Giant Joshua. It seems logical

that AML would have a strong stake in sponsoring

scholarly sessions at the Mormon History Association, but there is much less cross-over than we
might expect. AML has established formal scholarly ties to the Rocky Mountain Modern Language
Association and has an AML session at nearly every
meeting of the RMMLA, yet no such arrangement
has been made with MHA. We have fewer excuses
than ever to remain aloof from our historian counterparts, especially given their ongoing attention to
and awards for high-quality Mormon biographies.
THE SERMON AND DEVOTIONAL LITERATURE
One of the best innovations of recent years has
been the creation of two new AML awards in the
sermon and in devotional literature. These awards
recognize popular and familiar genres to Mormons
and call overdue attention to their literary qualities. While Neal Maxwell and Chieko Okazaki
have been clear pioneers in these fields, my hope is
that we can broaden the scope to recognize and
analyze other kinds of public speaking or devotional writing. When Jeffrey R. Holland was president of BYU, for example, one of his addresses was
picked up and published by Vital Speeches of the
Day. Perhaps it should have been picked up on
AMLs radar as well.
As for our AML conferences, critics have been
shamefully reticent in analyzing Mormon speaking, with the exception of humorous speaking,
which has received attention from a folklore point
of view. Richard Cracroft and Neal Lambert recognized the viability of the sermon as a genre in their
early literary anthology, A Believing People, but so
far no one has given scholarly study to a field of
discourse that in other religious traditions is much
studied and treasured.
POETRY
AML awards in poetry have celebrated the rich
outpouring of verse of the 20th century; but with a
single exception, these awards have gone to publications in Dialogue, Sunstone, BYU Studies, or to
collections from regional LDS presses. The single
21

AML Annual 2002

exception is Leslie Norriss Collected Poems, shoehorned into the LDS tradition because of the
Welsh poets fame and his few very fine poems
about Utah. The editors of Harvest: Contemporary
Mormon Poems looked more broadly, reprinting
the poetry of tens of poets published in nationally
renowned literary reviews.
I do not mean to suggest that Dialogue or Sunstone are not viable and important outlets for Mormon expression, but we would do better to be
cognizant of those Mormons who are publishing
nationally (such as Lance Larsen, Susan Howe, or
Dixie Lee Partridge) and not just those who are
famous but tenuously connected to the culture
(such as Norris or May Swenson).
As for our annual conferences, we have looked
quite broadly at poetry from the present and the
past, though many Mormon poets who achieved
national reputations in the churchs first century
have been overlooked (such as Ina Coolbrith). While
I do not wish to undermine the significance of the
contributions of the poets to whom AML awards
have been given, I call us to task for not better
acknowledging those who are publishing nationally and for not employing more rigorous aesthetic
standards.
CHILDRENS AND YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE
Since 1991 AML has given eight awards in
childrens and young adult literature, a pattern that
reflects the important evolution of this association
toward popular genres. With few exceptions, these
titles have come out of national presses, a testament both to the strength of LDS writers in the
childrens and YA markets, and the weakness of
those genres within LDS markets. Writers such as
Dean Hughes, Louise Plummer, and Lael Littke
are more successfully introducing Mormon characters and themes in this genre of fiction than are
more mainstream authors aiming for national publishing. On the other hand, award winners for childrens literature may have received the award as
successful Latter-day Saint writers; but picture
books, as we might expect, seldom reflect Mormon
culture or themes overtly.
22

CRITICISM
Literary criticism is the mainstay of this annual
conference and of this organization, and the
awards that have been given reflect the breadth of
genres and critical approaches that have characterized our meetings and publications. I would like to
single out two in particular for the way in which
they have charted the course for Mormon letters.
Eugene Englands The Dawning of a Brighter
Day: Mormon Literature after 150 Years identifies
periods of Mormon literature and theorizes about
both LDS writing and criticism with reference to
Mormon theology. England has updated his essay
as he has retooled his own critical methods, and
the way in which he has aligned contemporary
theories about language with core LDS beliefs
should prove an inspiration to both practical and
theoretical writers of criticism. As Neal Kramer
and I sifted through many years of AML proceedings to cull out a few for inclusion in the 1999
AML issue of Dialogue, we began to realize we have
not lived up to our critical privileges (Burton and
Kramer).
A strong exception to this general pattern has
been the work of Michael Austin, for which he
has been honored with the Association for Mormon Letters Award in Criticism. In his How to Be
a Mormo-American, he urges LDS critics to follow other minority literatures in their move toward
national recognition. Todays literary theory
accommodates minority positions. If we will learn
and use its rhetoric, we can become more openly,
unapologetically ourselves, less incestuously selfaddressing, more able to share our ways of being
and seeing with the world.
Of the 15 articles or books of criticism represented by these AML Awards in criticism, only one
appeared in a national literary review: Bruce Jorgensens analysis of romantic lyric form in the stories of Douglas Thayer. We could do better.
Indeed, non-Mormon critics are already coopting
our history and our literature for us, as Harold
Blooms laudatory and erudite analysis of Joseph
Smith shows.

History of the AML Literary Awards

EDITING AND PUBLISHING

AML has given several special awards over the
years to editors of significant anthologies and to
publishers who have invested the time to select,
shape, perfect, print, publish, and market the
works of LDS writers. Though we ought to be
thankful for local presses such as Signature that
have pioneered the publishing of literary LDS
writing, we ought also to look more broadly to university presses, such as University of Illinois press
or University of Georgia Press, that continue to
take chances on Mormon-related titles.2
And there are national presses as well. TOR, of
course, has carried Orson Scott Cards work for
years. Times Books has published LDS nonfiction,
including President Hinckleys Standing for Something. Currently Simon & Schuster publishes two
nonfiction LDS works, and Norton, Pantheon,
Ballentine, and other New York firms carry LDS
literary titlesnot to mention national publishers
of childrens and YA books. We should circulate
this knowledge better, as I think we are beginning
to at the annual AML Writers Conference in
November.
AWARDS TO COME
At this moment of reflection on our history,
perhaps the AML should consider inaugurating
several new awardsin genre fiction, as Ive mentioned, and perhaps in electronic publication to
acknowledge and encourage on-line efforts to support the mission of AML. Excellent websites, online bibliographies, on-line writers groups, and
other web resources are springing up and we ought
to critique and encourage these as they grow. As
writers and publishers grow, so will the important
act of criticism and judgment that AML has
assumed in both its awards and in brokering
reviews and conferences.
The AML board would also do well to improve
the management of the awards process so that important works and thriving genres (like childrens and
YA literature) do not get passed over from year to
year. As AML grows, so does the significance of its

awards and so should the thoroughness of its procedures for collecting and adjudicating nominees.
* * *
I would like to close with a quotation and a
reflection. What a perfectly absurd ideaan Association for Mormon Letters! So said an anonymous resident of New York City in a 1979 letter to
the editor of Dialogue, shortly after the organization of AML had been announced. In a somewhat
highbrow yet sarcastic tone, the letter continued
as follows:
The creation of great literature is a solitary act,
an independent and a thoroughly honest one:
three qualities anathema to Mormondom. So
in defense we organize to hold meetings to cooperatively document the mediocrity of whats
been written so far. . . . [Such meetings and
busywork just] cover the guilt we feel at not
having the nerve to pursue that solitary, independent and honest obligation. (Anonymous)

I do not believe that we gather here to document our communal mediocrities. As I have
reviewed 25 years of AML historyimmersing
myself in its past newsletters, conference programs,
proceedings, e-mail discussion list archives, and award
citationsI have come to respect and admire the
enormous amount of thoughtful writing, critical
reflection, and good-spirited exchange this association has fostered among authors, critics, and readers. Mormon literature is a more defined and
refined field for scholars and publishers, authors
and readers, for Mormons and non-Mormons
alike, than it might have been if AML had never
been organized. Thank you for being here today,
for reading LDS literature, and for discussing it
thoughtfully both informally and formally. This is
a good place to be.
Gideon Burton is Assistant Professor of English at
Brigham Young University where he teaches Renaissance literature, rhetoric, and Mormon literature and
now serves as president elect of the Association for Mormon Letters. The 2000 AML awards are included in the
accompanying summary of awards, but this article, written prior to their presentation, does not refer to them.
23

AML Annual 2002

NOTES
1. The most recent version of this oft-updated essay
can be found on-line under the title Mormon Literature:
Progress and Prospects at http://humanities.byu.edu/
MLDB/progress.htm. It first appeared as The Dawning
of a Brighter Day: Mormon Literature After 150 Years.
BYU Studies 22 (Spring 1982): 13160, reprinted in After
150 Years: The Latter-day Saints in Sesquicentennial Perspective, ed. Thomas G. Alexander and Jessie L. Embry
(Provo, Utah: Charles Redd Center for Western Studies,
1983): 97146. Augmented and retitled, it was published
as Mormon Literature: Progress and Prospects, Mormon
Americana: A Guide to Sources and Collections in the
United States, ed. David J. Whittaker (Provo, Utah: BYU
Studies, 1995): 455505. This version was condensed to
supply the introduction to Eugene England and Lavina
Fielding Anderson, eds., Tending the Garden: Essays on
Mormon Literature (Salt Lake City: Signature, 1996):
xiiixxxv.
2. For example, the University of Illinois Press just
published Mormons and Mormonism: An Introduction to
an American World Religion by Eric Eliason (2001) and has
published numerous works on Mormon history and
culture in recent years by authors such as Jan Shipps,
Thomas G. Alexander, and Leonard J. Arrington.

WORKS CITED
Anonymous letter to the editor. Dialogue 11.4 (1979): 7.
Austin, Michael. How to Be a Mormo-American. First
presented at the 1994 Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association Conference and published in the
1995 AML Annual under this title, it was expanded
and printed as The Function of Mormon Literary
Criticism at the Present Time, Dialogue 28.4 (Winter 1994): 13144. It is also available at http://
humanities. byu. edu/mldb/austin01. htm.
. Theology for the Approaching Millennium: Angels in
America, Activism, and the American Religion. AML
Annual 1997. Salt Lake City: Association for Mormon Letters, 1997. 3440.
Bloom, Harold. American Religion: The Emergence of the
Post-Christian Nation. New York: Simon & Schuster,
1992.
Burton, Gideon, and Neal Kramer. The State of Mormon Literature and Criticism. Dialogue 32.3 (Fall
1999): 112.
Duffy, John-Charles. Casserole Myth: Religious Motif
and Inclusivity in Angels in America. AML Annual
24

1997. Salt Lake City: Association for Mormon

Letters, 1997. 2733.
Embry, Jesse L. Overworked Stereotypes or Accurate
History? Images of Polygamy in The Giant Joshua.
AML Annual 1994. 1:10513.
Jorgensen, Bruce W. Romantic Lyric Form and Western
Mormon Experience in the Stories of Douglas
Thayer. Western American Literature 22 (1987):
3349.
Samuelsen, Eric. Whither Mormon Drama? Look First
to a Theatre. BYU Studies 35.1 (1995): 80103.
Straubhaar, Sandra Ballif. Sea-Changed Iconography:
Tony Kushners Use and Abuse of Mormon Images
and Traditions in Angels in America. AML Annual
1997. Salt Lake City: Association for Mormon
Letters, 1997. 4145.
Stout, Daniel, Joseph D. Straubhaar, and Gail Andersen
Newbold. Through a Glass Darkly: Mormons as
Perceived by Critics Reviews of Tony Kushners
Angels in America. AML Annual 1997. Salt Lake City:
Association for Mormon Letters, 1997. 4658.

APPENDIX
ASSOCIATION FOR MORMON LETTERS
AWARDS HISTORY, 19782000
Short Fiction
1977
1977
1978
1978
1979
1981
1981
1983
1985

1988
1989
1990
1991
1992

Douglas H. Thayer, Under the Cottonwoods

Donald Marshall, Frost in the Orchard
Levi S. Peterson, The Confessions of Augustine, Road to Damascus
Karen Rosenbaum, Hit the Frolicking, Rippling Brooks
Bela Petsco, Nothing Very Important and Other
Stories
Robert A. Christmas, Another Angel
Linda Sillitoe, Demons
Levi S. Peterson, The Canyons of Grace
Neal C. Chandler, Benediction; The Only
Divinely Authorized Plan for Financial Success
in This Life or the Next
Darrell Spencer, A Woman Packing a Pistol
Pauline Mortensen, Back before the World Turned
Nasty
Walter Kirn, My Hard Bargain
Michael Fillerup, Lost and Found
Margaret Blair Young, Elegies and Love Songs

History of the AML Literary Awards

1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000

Wayne Jorgensen, Who Jane, Who Tarzan

Darrell Spencer, Our Secrets Out
Tory C. Anderson, Epiphany
Paul Rawlins, No Lie Like Love: Stories
Brady Udall, Beautiful Places in Letting Loose
the Hounds
Helen Walker Jones, The Six-Buck Fortune in
In Our Lovely Deseret: Mormon Fictions
Mary Clyde, Survival Rates
Darrell Spencer, CAUTION: Men in Trees

Drama
1983
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1999
2000

Thomas F. Rogers, Gods Fools: Plays of the Mitigated Conscience

Neil Labute, In the Company of Men
Eric Samuelsen, Accommodations: A Play in Three Acts
Tim Slover, A March Tale
Tim Slover, Joyful Noise
Eric Samuelsen, Gadianton
Eric Samuelsen, The Way Were Wired
Margaret Young, I Am Jane

Novel
1980
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991

1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1998
1999
2000

Personal Essay
1984
1985
1987
1989
1990
1991
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999

Criticism
1977
1979
1980

Marilyn McMeen Miller Brown, The Earthkeepers

Douglas H. Thayer, Summer Fire
Orson Scott Card, A Woman of Destiny [Saints]
Herbert Harker, Circle of Fire
Levi Peterson, The Backslider
Linda Sillitoe, Sideways to the Sun
A. E. Cannon, Cal Cameron by Day, Spider-Man
by Night
Judith Freeman, The Chinchilla Farm
Franklin Fisher, Bones
Orson Scott Card, Xenocide
Gerald Lund, Like a Fire Is Burning Vol. 2, The
Work and the Glory
Orson Scott Card, Lost Boys
Gerald Lund, Thy Gold to Refine Vol. 4, The
Work and the Glory
Leslie Beaton Hedley, Twelve Sisters
Anne Perry, The Sins of the Wolf
Mackey Hedges, Last Buckaroo
Judith Freeman, A Desert of Pure Feeling
Dean T. Hughes, Far from Home
Anne Perry, Tathea
Margaret Young and Darius Gray, One More
River to Cross Vol. 1, Standing on the Promises

Eugene England, Dialogues with Myself: Personal

Essays on Mormon Experience
Edward Geary, Goodbye to Poplarhaven
Mary Lythgoe Bradford, Leaving Home
Emma Lou Thayne, As for Me and My House
Elouise Bell, Only When I Laugh
Terry Tempest Williams, Refuge
Eugene England, Monte Cristo
Richard D. Poll, A Liahona Latter-day Saint
Terry Tempest Williams, Desert Quartet
Kenneth O. Kemp, 3/4" Marine Ply
Holly Welker, What You Walk Away From
Tom Plummer, Eating Chocolates and Dancing in
the Kitchen: Sketches of Marriage and Family
Martha Beck, Expecting Adam

1981
1982
1983
1985
1987

1989

1990
1992
1994

1995

Clifton Holt Jolley, The Martyrdom of Joseph

Smith: An Archetypal Study
Steven P. Sondrup, Literary Dimensions of
Mormon Autobiography
Cindy Lesser Larsen, Whoever Heard of a Utah
Poet? An Overview of Poetry in the Early
Church
Linda Sillitoe, New Voices, New Songs: Contemporary Poems by Mormon Women
George S. Tate, The Typology of the Exodus
Pattern in the Book of Mormon
Eugene England, The Dawning of a Brighter
Day: Mormon Literature after 150 Years
Steven Walker, Seven Ways of Looking at Susanna
Bruce W. Jorgensen, Romantic Lyric Form and
Western Mormon Experience in the Stories of
Douglas Thayer
Michael Hicks, Mormonism and Music: A History
Dennis Clark, Mormon Poetry Now (series of
four articles)
William A. Wilson, In Praise of Ourselves:
Stories to Tell
Marden J. Clark, Liberating Form: Mormon Essays
on Religion and Literature
Gideon O. Burton, Towards a Mormon Criticism: Should We Ask Is This Mormon
Literature?
Michael Austin, How to Be a Mormo-American; Or, The Function of Mormon Criticism at
the Present Time
25

AML Annual 2002

1996

1997
2000

B. W. Jorgensen, Heritage of Hostility: The

Mormon Attack on Fiction in the 19th Century; Roughly One of the Rs: Some Notes of a
BYU Fiction Teacher
Richard Dilworth Rust, Feasting on the Word: The
Literary Testimony of the Book of Mormon
Benson Parkinson, AML-List

The Sermon and Devotional Literature

1983
1994
1997
1998
1999
2000

Neal A. Maxwell, Special Commendation for

Sustained Excellence in the Mormon Sermon
Chieko N. Okazaki, Lighten Up!
Chieko N. Okazaki , Sanctuary
Clark L. Kidd and Kathryn H. Kidd, A Converts
Guide to Mormon Life
Neal A. Maxwell, One More Strain of Praise
Patricia Terry Holland, A Quiet Heart

Children's and and Young Adult Literature

1991
1992
1993
1993
1994
1995
1996
1998

Louise Plummer, My Name is Sus5an Smith. The

5 is Silent (YA)
Barbara J. Porter, Dilleen Marsh, Some Answers
Are Loud, Some Answers Are Soft (Childrens)
Martine Bates, The Dragons Tapestry; The Prism
Moon (Childrens)
Michael O. Tunnell, The Jokes on George; Beauty
and the Beastly Children; Chinook! (Childrens)
Dean Hughes, The Trophy (YA)
Louise Plummer, The Unlikely Romance of Kate
Bjorkman (YA)
Rick Walton, Thats What You Get (Childrens)
Pat Bezzant, Angie (YA)
Martine Bates, The Takers Key (Childrens)

Poetry
1978
1978
1979
1979
1979
1980
1981
1982
1982
1983
1983

1985
1987
1989
1990

1991
1992

1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998

Biography
1980
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996

26

Frank W. Fox, J. Reuben Clark: The Public Years

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, A Midwifes Tale
Rudi Wobbe and Jerry Borrowman, Before the
Blood Tribunal
Phyllis Barbar, How I Got Cultured: A Nevada
Memoir (Autobiography)
William G. Hartley, My Best for the Kingdom:
John Lowe Butler, A Mormon Frontiersman
Maureen Ursenbach Beecher, The Personal Writings of Eliza Roxcy Snow
Marian Robertson Wilson, Leroy Robertson: Music
Giant from the Rockies

Linda Sillitoe, The Old Philosopher; Letter to

a Four-Year-Old Daughter
Arthur Henry King, The Field Behind Holly
House
Clinton F. Larson, The Western World
Marden J. Clark, Gods Plenty
Marilyn McMeen Miller Brown, Grandmother
Marden J. Clark, Moods: Of Late
Emma Lou Thayne, Once in Israel
Robert A. Rees, Gilead
Linda Sillitoe, Lullaby in the New Year
Clinton F. Larson,A Romaunt of the Rose:
A Tapestry of Poems
Holly Ann Welker, Feet; Patience; On My
Fathers 50th Birthday; The Birthday Present
(Young Poets Award)
Emma Lou Thayne
Robert A. Christmas, Self-Portrait as Brigham
Young
Susan Elizabeth Howe, Things in the Night Sky
Loretta Randall Sharp, Doing It; The Table;
Blood Poem; The Slow Way Home; In Late
September
Philip White, Island Spring; The Perseids
Kathy Evans, Wednesday Morning; Midweek; Eight Windows; Vows; Love to the
Second Power; from Imagination Comes to
Breakfast: Poems
Linda Sillitoe, Crazy Living
Pamela Porter Hamblin, Magi
Marden J. Clark, Snows
Leslie Norris, Collected Poems
Susan Elizabeth Howe, Stone Spirits
Alex Caldiero, Various Atmospheres: Poems and
Drawings

Editing and Publishing

1983

1983

1984

Levi S. Peterson, editor, Special Award for Short

Story Anthology Greening Wheat: Fifteen Mormon Short Stories
Editors of Exponent II, Special Achievement
Award for Sustained Excellence For providing
the opportunity to read and write for and about the
Latter-day Saint woman
Scott Kenney, Signature Books, For his outstanding efforts in fostering the publication of Mormon
literature

History of the AML Literary Awards

1989
1989
1991

1993

1993

Sunstone, Special Recognition For its continual

contribution to the publication of Mormon drama
Signature Books, Special Recognition For its continual support to Mormon letters
Signature Books, publisher; Ron Schow, Wayne
Schow, and Marybeth Raynes, editors, Peculiar
People: Mormons and Same-Sex Orientation
Neila Seshachari and Weber State University,
Award for Service to Mormon Letters For Weber
Studies Tenth Anniversary Issue
M. Shayne Bell, Special Award in Editing,
Washed by a Wave of Wind: Science Fiction from
the Corridor

Humor
1983
1983

Calvin Grondahl, Special Award for Mormon

Humor, Freeway to Perfection
Clifton Holt Jolley, Special Award for Mormon
Humor, Selling the Chevrolet: A Moral Exercise

Special Awards and Recognitions

1983

1984

Jack Weyland, Special Award for Popular Mormon Fiction For his many contributions to the
body of Mormon literature
Carol Lynn Pearson For her sustained and distinguished contributions to a variety of genresthe
novel, the short story, poetry, drama and musical
drama, humor, and the essay

AML Presidents
1977
1978
1979
1980
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994

Mareen U. Beecher
Neal E. Lambert
Richard J. Cummings
Eugene England
Levi S. Peterson
Lavina Fielding Anderson
Candidai Seshachari
Edward A. Geary
Edward L. Hart
John S. Tanner
John S. Tanner
William A. wilson
Levi S. Peterson
Bruce W. Jorgensen
Richard Cracroft
Ann Edwards Cannon
Linda Brummett
Susan Howe

1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000

Robert Hogge
MaryJan Munger
Neal Kramer
Neal Kramer
John S. Bennion
Marilyn Brown

AML Honorary Lifetime Membership Awards

Elouise Bell
Wayne Booth
Marden J. Clark
Richard H. Cracroft
Eugene England
Edward L. Hart
Clinton F. Larson
Gerald Lund
William Mulder
Hugh Nibley
Levi Peterson
Richard Scowcroft
Steven P. Sondrup
Virginia Sorensen
Helen Cardland Stark
Emma Lou Thayne
Douglas Thayer
Laurel Ulrich
Maurine Whipple
Terry Tempest Williams
William A. Wilson
For more complete detail, visit http://humanities.byu.
edu/MLDB/amlaward.htm
Please submit any corrections or questions to Gideon Burton
at MormonLit@byu.edu

27

A Historical Survey of LDS Fiction:

The Lee Library Collection
Connie Lamb and Robert S. Means

This paper reports on an on-going project and

statistical study about one aspect of Mormon fiction. As reference librarians at Brigham Young
University, we have, over the years, received many
questions about Mormon fiction and authors and
have been impressed by the steady increase in the
amount of fiction being written by LDS authors.
We decided to study this phenomenon and
began by making a list of all the authors and their
works we could find that had been published since
1900. For the purposes of this study, we define fiction as novels and collections of short stories,
excluding childrens and young adult books. We
also limited it to works by LDS authors whether or
not the books included Mormons or Mormon
themes. We began with an assessment of the Lee
Librarys holdings but have since expanded our
original list to include titles the library does not yet
hold. We also expanded the study itself from just a
title list to include resource information about and
analysis upon various aspects of those works. We
have also done a statistical analysis to provide a historical perspective.
In August 2000, we presented our statistics and
charts at a library meeting; because of the interest
shown there and to aid our work at the library, we
plan to continue the project into the future. This
research is useful to BYU librarians for two reasons:
1. Collection development. This project allows
us to be familiar with the existing collection and
identify what the Lee Library needs to purchase.
2. Reference. This data will aid us in assisting
patrons. We hope that other librarians and those
interested in creative writing will also benefit.

METHODOLOGY
Sources for the basic list of authors and works
included the BYU Library catalog, lists from Provo
Public and Salt Lake County Libraries, and local
bookstores. We entered bibliographical data into a
ProCite database using the following fields: author,
title, and imprint (publisher, place, date). From
this database, we generated three lists: an alphabetical author list, an alphabetical publisher list, and a
chronological list by publication date. (We gratefully acknowledge Larry Draper of the Lee Library
Special Collections Department for his technical
expertise in creating the ProCite database and producing the lists.)
We entered the publication dates into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet program from which charts
were created, showing the number of books published per year from 1900 to 1999. Elements we
specifically focused on in this study are the total
number of books and authors, the publishers,
publication dates, and gender of authors. We separated the data by male and female authors and generated comparative charts. Research was required
to verify whether some authors are/were LDS
because non-Mormonauthored Christian fiction is beginning to appear on traditionally Mormon booksellers shelves.
RESULTS
The paper identifies several products and study
results. The first is the ProCite database which
contains the bibliographical information for the
29

Chart 1: Fiction Published by LDS Authors (190099)

Chart 2: Fiction Published by LDS Authors (197099)

30

Historical Survey of LDS Fiction: The Lee Library Collection

980 books. ProCite allows items to be sorted by

various fields; these field sorts produced our three
printed lists: author, publisher, and date.
Another database using ProCite is being developed for author biographies. We created our own
worksheets to include pertinent information about
the authors. This database will continually be
added to and updated.
We have produced several charts of statistical
information to provide a historical overview. We
were interested in total numbers of authors and
books and also in a comparison of female and male
authors. It appears that fictional writing by Mormons in the 20th century can be arbitrarily divided
into three time periods: 190039, 194069, and
197099. Chart 1 shows the number of books per
year with a total number of 980. This chart
demonstrates the dramatic increase of fiction since
the 1970s and Chart 2 provides a better view of the
last 30 years. Charts 36 provide numbers of male
and female writings over time for both the whole
century and for the last 30 years while Chart 7 is a
bar graph comparing the number of books produced by men and women each year. Few novels
were published in the early 1900s by either men or
women; but since the 1970s, the numbers have
steadily risen for both genders with more publications by women in some years and more by men in
other years. (See Table 1.)
The number and distribution of publishers is
very interesting. The total number of publishers in
the database at this time is 195. Most are local Utah
publishers; however, several national publishers
have also produced LDS authors works. A small
number of books have been self-published. The list
by publisher shows that the most prolific local
publishers are Bookcraft, Covenant Communications, Deseret Book, and Horizon Book Publishers, while a sample of national publishers includes
Bantam, Doubleday, Dutton, Fawcett Columbine,
Houghton Mifflin, Random House, St. Martin,
and Viking.
DISCUSSION
This is an ongoing project which will have
value for the BYU Library and, we hope, for

others. It will always need corrections and additions because the landscape keeps changing. New
authors, more books, new publishers, new
approaches, and new information will continue to
come to our attention.
Despite this future of change, however, we
present here a snapshot of this project as of 24 February 2001. About 1,000 books have been published during the 20th century, but over 900 of
those have appeared since 1970. There are probably several reasons for this tremendous increase,
but perhaps one important impetus was the talk by
President Kimball at BYU in 1967 titled, Education for Eternity which dealt with all forms of
art and creativity. This talk was adapted for the
Ensign and published in July 1977 as the First Presidency message in an issue devoted to the arts. In
this article, he encourages members of the Church
to produce great art including creative writing.
Other Church leaders and critics have also
encouraged creative writing, sometimes referring
to Orson F. Whitneys comment made in 1888
that we should yet have Shakespeares and Miltons
among LDS members. Richard Cracroft agrees
with this statement in his 1981 review of Mormon
fiction, also published in the Ensign.
The comparison of authors gender is striking
because the numbers are about equal; furthermore,
the total number of books produced by men and
by women is also very close. For this study, we have
limited our data to the 20th century, but we are
aware of LDS men and women novelists writing in
the late 1800s. We will add them to our database in
subsequent revisions.
Some LDS fiction has always been published
for a national market, but the number of such
works has increased recently and will undoubtedly
continue. Authors are scattered around the nation
and publish both in Zion and New York, reflective
of the theme for this conference. Early Mormon
literature had a local publishing base and a readymade market of Latter-day Saint readers; but as
Mormon literature becomes more diversified and
sophisticated, the market will grow and the number and location of publishers will probably
expand as well. As Richard Cracroft predicted:
31

Chart 3: Fiction Published by LDS Men (190099)

Chart 4: Fiction Published by LDS Women (190099)

32

Chart 5: Fiction Published by LDS Men (197099)

Chart 6: Fiction Published by LDS Women (197099)

33

Chart 7: Fiction Published by LDS Authors (197099)

Table 1
Books
Number of books published
Number of books published
Total number published

19001969 ................................................................................ 60
19701999 .............................................................................. 920
19001999 .............................................................................. 980

Authors
Number of male authors
Number of female authors
Total number

158 ............................................................................................ 51%

153 ............................................................................................ 49%
311 .......................................................................................... 100%

Male / Female Comparison

Books Published
during Years
19001939
19401969
19701999
Total
(19001999)

34

Number of Books
Authored by Men

Percentage of
Mens Total

14
20
454

3%
4%
93%

Number of Books
Authored by
Women
0
26
466

488

100%

492

Percentage of
Womens Total

100%

0%
5%
95%

Historical Survey of LDS Fiction: The Lee Library Collection

Thus we will have more faith-promoting fiction. And we probably will have still more fiction
dealing with LDS history and with characters
in the Book of Mormon and the Bible. But,
above all, we will have more fiction about Latterday Saints endowed with real, human problems,
problems which can be overcome as well as problems which can defeat and destroy. The effect
of the gospel in the lives of such characters
afford great fictional possibilities. (Pt. 2, 61)

The research and lists resulting from this current project are important to library personnel who
will use them to identify missing items to be purchased and added to the collection because of the
librarys mission to collect all materials possible by
and about Mormons. The results of the study may
also be used by scholars and researchers who study
Mormon literature and perhaps by other libraries
and the general public. Besides maintaining the
databases, future plans include studies of categories
of fiction, the publishing market, circulation statistics, and changes in writing approaches over
time. We also plan to do more analysis and correlation of the various elements that are only described
in this paper.
The interest shown by students and other
members of the Church in Mormon fiction has
risen along with the output of writings. Many of
the novels deal with Mormon themes but others do
not; however, there is a definite market for good
Latter-day Saint fiction and it will undoubtedly
continue to grow.

WORKS CITED
Cracroft, Richard H. Seeking the Good, the Pure, the
Elevating: A Short History of Mormon Fiction,
Ensign, Pt. 1, 11 (June 1981): 5662, and Pt. 2, 11
(July 1981): 5661.
Kimball, Spencer W. Education for Eternity. BYU
Speeches of the Year 196768. Pre-school Address,
12 September 1967. Bound at the back of 196768
volume and paginated separately.
. The Gospel Vision of the Arts, Ensign, 7 (July
1977): 25.
Whitney, Orson F. Home Literature. Contributor, 9.8
(June 1888): 297302.

Connie Lamb is a librarian at the Harold B. Lee

Library at Brigham Young University. Her specialties
include anthropology, Near Eastern studies, and
womens studies. She currently works in the Social Sciences Department but previously worked in the History/Religion Department. Connie has a masters
degree in International and Area Studies (Near East)
and a Master of Library Science degree.

Robert S. Means is the English and American Literature Librarian at the Harold B. Lee Library at BYU. He
holds masters degrees in English and Library Science
from BYU, enjoys hiking in Utah with his family, and
literature from the Great War.
35

Imagining Mormon Marriage, Part 2:

Toward a Marriage Group of
Contemporary Mormon Stories
B. W. Jorgensen

This paper is part of an intermittent ongoing

project that I call imagining marriage, provoked
partly by a remark of the literary critic Carolyn
Heilbrun: The truth is that marriage is difficult to
imagine . . . (91). A branch of that project became
imagining Mormon marriage; and in 1996 I
pruned one twig off that branch, an essay on Jack
Weylands Charly, which I called Imagining Mormon Marriage, Part 1.
Some of you at least will have heard the term
marriage group applied to a subset among
Chaucers Canterbury Tales. A now-canonical
article in 1912 by George Lyman Kittredge,
Chaucers Discussion of Marriage, focused on
the tales of the Wife of Bath (and her polemic and
confessional prologue), the Clerk, the Merchant,
and the Franklin as a coherent and sustained discussion of the sexual politics and ethical structure
of marriage. Later critics sometimes enlarged the
group or questioned the inclusion of various tales,
but it has persisted as a cohesive unit for critical
attention.
Obviously, in proposing a marriage group of
contemporary Mormon stories, I cannot expect to
discover the kind of conversation or debate that
Chaucerians from Kittredge to Kaske and beyond
have analyzed. Any list I make will be, as the present
list is, both tentative and incomplete, as well as
subject to augmentation as more stories of Mormon
marriage are written and published. And though I
cant suppose that these stories are talking to one
another as Chaucers marriage tales clearly do, yet
still they might be listened to as statements in an

ongoing implicit conversation in Mormon fiction

about one of the cultures central concerns.
At the end of my essay on Charly, I quoted the
philosopher-critic Martha Nussbaum urging the use
of novels in thinking about ethics. In the Introduction to her book Loves Knowledge, she proposed that
there may be some views of the world and how
one should live in itviews, especially, that
emphasize the worlds surprising variety, its
complexity and mysteriousness, its flawed and
imperfect beautythat [can] be fully and adequately stated . . . only in a language and in
forms themselves more complex, more allusive,
more attentive to particulars. . . . only in a form
that itself implies that life contains significant
surprises, that our task, as agents, is to live as
good characters in a good story do, caring about
what happens, resourcefully confronting each
new thing. . . .

And what, she asked, if it is love one is trying to

understand . . . ? (34). What, I echoed, if it is
marriage? We would need novels, I suggested, to
imagine Mormon marriage in ways that could help
us endure it and flourish in it; long ones, . . . to
tell the long stories of marriages (136).
Here I propose rather to take up short stories,
and I also want to stress the plural: Mormon marriages. I feel compelled to nominalism: There is
no one ideal or archetype or model of a modern
Mormon marriage, even if all or most of them
might share certain minimal traits or conditions.
We can suppose that they will all be (as the Proclamation on the Family describes or prescribes)
37

AML Annual 2002

heterosexual and monogamous; yet we cant suppose that all will be temple marriages (though
clearly the Proclamation would prefer that). And
however eternal they may be in wish, intention,
or sanction, the ones we can watch and write
about, here and now, will be temporal, however
long they last.
All I hope to do in this essay is begin to
describe what Mormon short story writers, so far,
appear to have done with the subject. In some stories, such as Doug Thayers Under the Cottonwoods (and several others in his collection with
that title), the marriage looks like background circumstance rather than foreground action: the story
takes place in the marriage, as within a space the
marriage defines, but may not be about the marriage and may not materially alter it. This will not
be an easy distinction to maintain. Even in Thayers
story, the marriage is a circumstance that threatens
its own continuance or at least weakens its own
chances of flourishing. In Don Marshalls somewhat similar The Wheelbarrow, the marriage
itself has rather clearly created the protagonists
perplexity and near-despair, and is at risk because
of these.
It has sometimes bothered me that, in Mormon
life as Ive watched it, once certain major choices
have been madewife, work, worship, if you like
alliterative (and gender-biased) triadsthere seems
to be no story, only routine and habit (and, alas for
these latter latter days, the culture of the planner);
Ive thought of trying an essay titled Life Without
Story. But perhaps it is not entirely a bad thing to
think of marriage as circumstance rather than
story; perhaps it is meant at least partly to be the
circumstance within which other (and mercifully
short) stories play out. As anyone learns who has
children, other protagonists soon take center stage;
and man and wife, father and mother, begin to
play little more than walk-on roles: cook, laundryman, chauffeur, answering service, tutor, good cop
or bad. Perhaps one reason marriage is difficult to
imagine is that, once underway, it is indeed, and
even should be, rather resistant to storyif by
story we mean the nonhabitual or nonroutine,
the significantly life-altering event or act that
38

happens only once, and not the common run of

days. Elizabeth Tallent, one of the finest contemporary American writers of short stories (and so far
one novel) about marriage, used as an epigraph to
one of her collections this beautifully ambiguous
sentence from the Irish writer Edna OBrien:
They chopped wood, they lit the stove, they kept
busy; there is always something to do in a house.
Is that a curse or a blessing?
Marriage for the most part is a prosaic rather
than a poetic circumstancea sequence of terribly time-bound days, in a memorable phrase from
Marden Clark (138). I have in mind here the literary theory proposed by Gary Saul Morson,
strongly derived from the work and thought of
Tolstoy and Bakhtin, which Morson calls Prosaics. He stipulates two closely related meanings
for his neologism:
It is, first of all, a way of thinking about human
events that focuses on the ordinary, messy,
quotidian facts of daily lifein short, on the
prosaic. As it happens, this form of thinking
also offers a reason to take novels with renewed
seriousness: of all literary forms, novels are best
able to capture the messiness of the world.
Thus the second meaning of prosaics, which
is opposed to poetics, suggests an approach
to verbal art that focuses not on epics or lyrics
or tragedies, but on the novel and other forms
of prose. Prosaic facts have been best represented in prosaic art. (516)

Prosaic prose fiction, whether at novel or short

story length, may have the best chance of grasping
the prosaic circumstance of marriage. And this fiction will require a finely attuned prosaic reading
(which Morson exemplifies, and which I also find
in Nussbaums readings of fiction), a continuously
attentive moral alertness (Prosaics 525) to tiny
alterations (521, 523) in characters thoughts,
speeches, and actions; a reading alert not to the
overt message of a story or the moral it might
be supposed to illustrate, but to the emotional
and moral judgments we readers practice moment
to moment while reading it (527), the tiny, tiny
alterations in [our] consciousness in process, the
moment-to-moment decisions we make in reading

Marriage Group of Contemporary Mormon Stories

(528). I have only a beginners sense of how to do

this, and will not attempt it in this survey; my
attention to any stories I discuss here will simply
be too hurried, too impatient, for serious prosaic
reading.
* * *
I want some rough heuristic categories or
phases to sort the stories on my listnothing more
elegant than echoes of Aristotle. Let Beginnings
refer to stories set anywhere in marital time from
the honeymoon to a first childs birth, or, say, a first
half-dozen childless years. Let Middlesor as I
will prefer prosaically to say, Middlings refer
broadly and vaguely to any time between the
Beginning and the Ending of any marriage even
nominally intact; we might at times want to distinguish Early Middlings from Middle and Late Middlings. And let Endings refer to any temporal
dissolutions, separations (which might not prove
an ending), divorces, or deaths.
Adultery or estrangement might occur in any
of these phases but, like separation, would not necessarily prove an ending. John Fowles has remarked
that Adultery is the disproof of a marriage rather
than its betrayal (167); yet some marriages rebut
that refutation and survive it. Second marriages, as
in Robert Christmass Another Angel, Judith
Freemans Family Attractions, Mary Clydes
A Good Paved Road, and some stories by Margaret Young, would by definition follow an Ending, yet would also pass through their own
Beginnings, Middlings, and Endings.
And Endings themselves will often entail
Aftersnot always happily ever afters, but
times into which an ended marriage still intrudes
its ghostly presence, welcome or not, as in Margaret Youngs edgy and tender Hanauma Bay, in
which the wifes ex-husband visits and sleeps in the
basement of her present household: Later, in my
husbands arms, I could hear Gus downstairs, moving around; could hear the bed creak as he climbed
into it; could imagine him in the dark, curled up
like a comma, a lonely, angry man. Hiding in places
Id never suspect (165). Like a comma: a pause
in a sentence that is not over yet.

All five of the stories in the Exes section of

Margaret Youngs second collection, Love Chains,
seem to me to belong to this odd inevitable (and
un-Aristotelian) category, Afters. So does Phyllis
Barbers award-winning Idas Sabbath, in which
Ida, after nearly twenty years as ward organist, comes
to church one Sunday morning without her temple
garments on because she was washing every pair
the night before and was stopped mid-cycle by the
same electrical storm that destroyed the steeple of
the chapel. Blushing in places no one could see (37)
and feeling that something in her was set adrift,
something was loose (41), she still does her duties,
distracted by recollections of her marriage and her
husband Louis leaving her some years ago and by a
vision (fantasy, if you like) of climbing onto the
chapel roof for a colloquy with the Lord.
Given the brevity of short stories, and the historically persistent habit of the genre to subtend
only a brief interval of time (a scene, an episode, a
Sunday morning like Idas), we might very seldom
see a short story try to dilate across the full span of
a long or even a short marriage. Metaphoric condensation, extended summary, perhaps in retrospect from somewhere in the Middle or from near
or after an Ending, or a chronological series of
snapshots seem the most likely narrative strategies.
Phyllis Barbers Almost Magnificence uses the
first tactic to figure the marital career of a woman
who leaked at the edges (15) and finally dwindled
down to a few powdery body parts, which her pets
mistook for catnip (16). Barbers White on White
uses the third strategy, as does Neal Chandlers anxious and perplexed Roger Across the LookingGlass, which frames its snapshots of the history of
Roger and Ellens nineteen-year marriage within a
single (and on Rogers part deliberately controlled)
act of marital intercourse (roger in the 18thcentury sense of the word, as in William Byrds
reiterated diary note, I rogered my wife). Helen
Walker Joness Six-Buck Fortune and my unaccountable twin Waynes Two Years Sunday use
retrospection (Waynes from after the husbands
death, Joness from the middle of the marriage but
up against a gypsy fortunetellers predicted twelveyear limit).
39

AML Annual 2002

Ill pigeonhole and comment on some instances

in each of my broad phases.
BEGINNINGS
No Mormon writer I can think of comes near
the power, the beauty and terror, of D. H. Lawrences
imagining of the beginning of the marriage of Will
Brangwen and Anna Lensky in Chapter 6 of The
Rainbow: a great steadiness, a core of living eternity near the supreme center (135), but also
continually, the recurrence of love and conflict
between them (155); some endless contest, an
unknown battle (156). Virginia Sorensen did give
us an idyllic marital beginning, the sheep-camp
honeymoon of Call Kels and Cloie Roe in the
penultimate chapter of her tragicomic novel The
Neighbors (1947). Lawrences novel set a daunting
high mark; and after all, Lawrence, more than simply a writer about sex, is, in English fiction, the
great anguished poet of relation, who said in a letter to Edward Garnett in 1913, After all, it is the
problem of today, the establishment of a new relation, or the readjustment of the old one, between
men and women (54).
In this latter day of Mormon literary history,
John Bennions A House of Order reaches in
Lawrences direction; and now (for another day,
another essay, maybe another critic) we may read
the novel for which that story seems a forestudy,
Falling toward Heaven. In A House of Order,
Howard and Sylvia Rockwood, married three
years, have gone three weeks since they last made
love, and Howard thinks it will now take singular effort; if he wasnt careful the cultivated green
which was his life would slide away into the desert
and dissipate in the dry heat (69). If he could just
keep his patience and humor. They had sacrificed
too many days to tension, too many nights of her
lying still on her side of the bed (75). The almost
30-page story details their singular effort, tangled
and difficult and painfully funny, and they do
make love near its end. But although Howard
strain[ed] toward comprehension of the gifts she
lavished on him and which he waited and waited
to return to her (96), its not quite clear at the end
40

that the distance or barrier between them (which

Howard has created by fantasizing about his old
girlfriend: adultery of the heart?) is yet crossed. No
wonder John Bennion wrote a whole novel to
imagine the Beginning of Howard Rockwoods
marriage, and its a novel in the line of succession
from Thomas Hardy through D. H. Lawrence.
Im not yet twenty-one. Pattys just turned
twenty, says the narrator of Darrell Spencers The
12-Inch Dog. Isnt there a grace period? Arent
we underage? Dont we get a couple of years during
which the good times roll? (80). Maybe not.
Maybe. At the end of the story this couple, six
months married, sit on their redwood deck in the
sunset, and he asks her, We doing all right? and
she answers, Only time will tell (89). Quoting
who? he tacitly wonders. Her mother? Her
grandmother? That Victorian lady whos taken up
housekeeping in one corner of her mind? She tells
him aloud, No more peace at any price (89).
This doesnt look like a grace period. It looks like
difficulty. And they look as if they mean to go
through it. The edgy movements and sometimes
edgier endings of Spencers stories leave you wondering if his characters will make it, knowing they
dont quit easily.
One of my favorite stories of marital beginning
by a Mormon writer is Myrna Marlers Leaving
the Farm, which wryly and comically rewrites the
Beginning of Beginnings, Genesis itself. The story
says, perhaps, what all stories of Beginnings say:
beginnings middle and end; you wont stay long in
Paradise. Teenagers Bud and Eve elope, and Buds
wealthy father threatens to annul the marriage
unless they live on his summer estate, a small
banana and papaya farm in the back woods of
Panaluu and have no babies until they can support them (35). On the farm, theyll have nothing
much more to worry about than coming in out of
the rain (37); but you guessed it: Eve, abetted by
Buds renegade older brother Stan, develops a terminal case of baby fever, and Bud and Eve do have
to leave the farm, with no real idea at all what
theyd gotten themselves into (53).
Or as a better maker put it, Rough winds do
shake the darling buds of May, / And summers

Marriage Group of Contemporary Mormon Stories

lease hath all too short a date. In John Miltons

rewriting of Genesis, Paradise Lost, when Satan first
sees the primal couple, he apostrophizes:
Ah! Gentle pair, ye little think how nigh
Your change approaches, when all these delights
Will vanish, and deliver ye to woe,
More woe, the more your taste is now of joy.
(4.36669)

As he turns away he says, [E]njoy, till I return, /

Short pleasures, for long woes are to succeed!
(4.53435).
Zina Petersens pair of young Provo escapees in
Now Lets Dance are nominally in a Beginning,
married at nineteen and twenty-two, now three
years and counting; yet the wife protagonist Liza
has begun to feel like . . . someone in the background of a grocery store commercial. I consume.
All I do is buy things and find a use for them and
use them up and buy some more. And if I werent
there it would not distract from the message any
(239). Liza is just doing some of what there is to do
in a house, keeping busy (chopping wood, lighting
the fire); but She wanted to say to her counselor,
My marriage is fine, sort of. It hurts, but so does
being alone (246). We dont get far into these stories, or far into the marriages they imagine, before
the cries or sighs of distress start suspiring.
Denis de Rougemont wrote (in Love in the
Western World ) that Happy love has no history
(15). But stories are about trouble, and some of the
trouble Mormon short story writers have to tell us
about comes in marriage, and comes early. At the
end of her story, Liza, hearing pain and music, is
laughing in bed with her husband Jay: [T]hey
laughed together, in their ancient embrace . . .
they laughed at all of it, through it, because of it,
with it (248)yet this can be only a temporary,
temporal respite, no full resolution. The story of
marriage, Rilke wrote, is of two people who were
making life difficult for each other (21).
Joanna Brookss second-marriage young couple
in Badlands seem still Beginning but edging into
Middling, as their marriage has got dark and
sinewed, like plums past season (179), and theyve
learned, Theres nothing nice about love in these

parts. Its farther than nice and more dangerous

(183). Theyre at an edge of temporary separation
too, and the wife narrator is sure that hell never
come back completely, that well be sitting at the
breakfast table reading the paper with toast and
the morning radio and part of him will be far, far
away. And that far away part I cant have is what Ill
fall in love with, desperate and despairing (185).
To her, and maybe to us too, Whats shocking is
this next thought: Im not horrified (185).
MIDDLINGS
Obviously, marital Beginnings can modulate
swiftly into Early Middlings, and sometimes rather
directly toward Endings. The largest portion of stories on my list fall into the Middling phase; and not
surprisingly, since the middle is where (and middling is how) most of us live most of our lives, neither beginning nor yet quite ending. We live, in
the archaic phrase Frank Kermode used, in the
middest (17, 58, 64). Among Mormon writers of
marriage stories, Darrell Spencer looks most prolific to me and looks like our most abundant writer
of Middlings. His characters, like the narrator in
As Long as Lust Is Short (actually a Beginning
story, a marriage of one year), might always be asking one another Hank Williamss cowboy questions about why and howWhy dont you love
me like you used to do? How come you treat me
like a worn-out shoe?and they might also, like
this narrator, talk hard and sad about love and
tears (126). You might think Spencers stories
shouldnt all count, since only a few are manifestly
about characters who are or might be or have been
Mormon. But the medieval Catholic Chaucer wrote
about ostensibly pagan characters, so I wouldnt
be too quick to dismiss Spencers stories from the
conversation.
The news from stories of Middlings is much
like the news from Beginningspretty sobering,
though perhaps one hopeful sign is that there are
still marriages to write about. The British critic
Tony Tanner once quoted Roland Barthes: If we
managed to suppress the Oedipus complex and
marriage, what would be left for us to tell? (277).
41

AML Annual 2002

Every culture will always have something to tell

about marriage; in Mormon culture, Ive begun to
suspect it may vie with missions as one of our top
topics, something about which nearly everybody,
participant or spectator, could a tale unfold (in
Falling toward Heaven, John Bennion takes up both).
It might also be true that, as with missions, the
guardians of the culture might rather we not unfold
much; in the post-Proclamation era this suspicion
might prove increasingly true: Mormon marriages
as too sacred to tell stories about. Still, though we
have a Church Missionary Committee, we dont
yet have a Church Marriage Committee. (Stay tuned.)
In Michael Fillerups Bowhunter, the marriage is background for the hunters story, but also
one large reason why the hunter hunts:
[E]very trip now he drove further and further
from home and hiked deeper and deeper into
unfamiliar territory, as if intentionally trying to
lose himself inside the forest labyrinth. At nightfall when he should have been heading home,
he would continue his aimless wandering as
the full moon stalked him from tree to tree. . . .
Sometimes he would . . . imagine himself falling
asleep and waking up like Rip Van Winkle, with
a beard to his knees. The thought always enticed
him, but, ultimately, he would hike back to his
truck by moonlight and drive on home, stumbling into bed at 3:00 or 4:00 a.m. Carmen?
She was out. Zonked. Slipping in beside her,
he always wondered if he hadnt made a mistake. (64)

Later in the story, waiting out a hailstorm, Jack

wonders: What had happened to Carmen? To
himthem? Had they become dumb statistics,
victims of the life-cycle: boy meets girl, they fall in
love, get married, have children: they grow old,
they die. And he muses about
[a] universal lament among men. Maybe the
Italians had the right ideaor polygamy. Then
again . . . one wife was plenty. If they only realized their holding power, what just an occasional
surprise, to wake up in the middle of the night
to her hand stroking you. Yes. No. Go. It wasnt
just the raw thrill of it either, but her, your wife,
with you and no one else. A stroke of righteous
42

wickedness once in a while. If they only realized.

But maybe it was better they remained stale.
On ice. Easier to get out the door. (7677)

Before the inconclusive end of the story, Jack has

curled up on the ground in fetal position and
prayed Dear God, Father, and lost and found
himself in a momentarily paradisal aspen grove and
felt Light as air and then seen two buck elk, one
slightly larger than the other, like a mature father
and son (79); but at the end he is listening to the
sound of twilight, of the wind. . . . [T]he sound of
the rock he had tossed over the great canyons rim
whistling all the way down to the bowels of the
earth. A bird, a falcon falling (80).
Living in the middest, trying to write stories of
middling marriage (of midlife crisis, if you like),
how shall we end our stories? How shall we go on
to tell them out? The final image here looks oddly
like that at the end of Thayers Under the Cottonwoods: in the hunters or fishers mind, the hunter
or fisher letting something go; or, more clearly
here, an image of entropic decline, a fall strictly
subject to inexorable natural law. It feels as though
Jack will go home again and this time maybe
before midnight; and maybe if he does, he will not
find that Carmen has already slipped off to bed to
play possum (78). Who can tell?
Divine intervention may have helped this storys
protagonist to go on in what the narrator of another
Fillerup story calls a game of inches. Divine or
angelic or three-Nephite intervention appears to
resolve Margaret Youngs story Zoo Sounds too:
a vagrant . . . preaching near the seals (3) who
conveys guilty and angry runaway Martha back
to her husband Ross and, at the end, makes a
simple, graceful gesture with his arms, . . . upward
and out, and Theres a sound like wind. Or
wings (20). Are the vibrations or (Lawrences
word) tremulations starting to come through?
Are we hearing the still sad music of humanity, the
faint, keen songs of heartbreak, the gasped prayers
for deliverance from the body of this death, from
devouring time?
But after all, this is nothing new in the literature of marriage. In Chapter 20 of Middlemarch

Marriage Group of Contemporary Mormon Stories

(1874), one of the great English novels on the subject, George Eliot interrupts her account of Dorothea Brookes very early marital misery in Rome:
Nor can I suppose that when Mrs Casaubon is
discovered in a fit of weeping six weeks after
her wedding, the situation will be regarded as
tragic. Some discouragement, some faintness of
heart at the new real future which replaces the
imaginary, is not unusual, and we do not expect
people to be moved by what is not unusual.
That element of tragedy which lies in the very
fact of frequency, has not yet wrought itself
into the coarse emotion of mankind; and perhaps our frames could hardly bear much of it.
If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the
grass grow and the squirrels heart beat, and we
should die of that roar which lies on the other
side of silence. As it is, the quickest of us walk
about well wadded with stupidity. (135)

Mormon writers of marriage stories, beginning, middling, or ending, are trying to hear the
roar on the other side of our pervasive cultural
silence about what the Wife of Bath called wo that
is in mariage (3), and the rumors they bring back
will not likely thicken the cultural wadding of our
encouraging rhetoric about celestial marriage
and eternal families. Every celestial marriage works
out its eternity in fear and trembling here on earth,
in the teeth of devouring time.
In an AML meeting two decades ago, Marden
Clark invited us to
consider the potential for tragedy that is built
into the Mormon vision of eternal marriage
and eternal family, surely one of the most sublime parts of the total vision of our destiny.
Most of us catch at least part of the vision,
respond to the marvelous promise, and willingly accept the responsibility. But having
done so, having made those covenants in the
joy and flow of young love, we find ourselves in
our time-bound bodies and time-bound wills
having to work out that eternal destiny in a
sequence of terribly time-bound days, in the
routine of home and work and child bearing
and child raising with their joys, to be sure, but
also with their frustrations and disappointments

and sorrows and sometimes downright

tragedies. (138)

Clark went on to regret that as a people we have

implicitly denied the tragic implications of what I
have been outlining, largely because we have kept
our eyes so firmly fixed on the ultimate resolution
in Heaven that we have denied the earthly paradox (139). He suggests that the heavenly resolution makes of our earthly suffering and tragedy
divine comedy, to be sure. But much of it cannot
be easy comedy (139).
Uneasy comedy makes a good rubric for
many of the stories Ive surveyed about marital
Middlings. What I like about the word middling
is its sense of the not unusual, the average or
ordinary, its noise of a ball bouncing faster but
ever lower, its rimes with fiddling, diddling,
twiddling, piddling, and riddling, its cousinlike semblance to earthling (children of this
world, who marry and are given in marriage), its
near-pun with muddling, its hint of a ghostly
revenant verb, to middle.1 Lovely word. (My dad
used it, as in fair-to-middlin, his answer to
How you doin?) True word. Were middling
through, here in the middest.
So its not surprising if stories of middling
Mormon marriage are often uneasy comedies, like
Darrell Spencers Theres Too Much News (a temporary separation) or his earlier Planet of Surprise
and Nothing Sad, Once You Look at It, which
might be an Ending to a five-year second marriage
(unless these two are just living together), since the
narrators wife Francie was flying the coop because
Francie was flying the coop. Nothing could stop
her (51); her leaving grew into a God-given stubborn fact (52). She has told him Ive got to go,
for good, as if that could mean something between
two human beings, something other than a fist
crammed down your throat, a fist squeezing the
shit out of your heart while it beats (55). Im a
forty-five-year-old roofer, the narrator tells us at
the end, and I sat there amazed. What did you
expect? (68). For all the headspin and heartbruise
in Spencers stories, I think he is one of our least
desperate writers; uneasy, yes, but resiliently comic.
43

AML Annual 2002

The unease of Middlings may become acute,

dangerous, even horrific, as in Brian Evensons Bodies of Light, in which a young husband wakes to
find his infant dead in its bassinet, cleans it of the
vomit which has apparently suffocated it, and does
not tell his wife before he leaves the house, tragically denying and evading the monstrous bad luck
of the infants death. The unease might be milder,
temporary and funny, as in John Bennions Breeding Leah, with its last line like the ending of a
sitcom, when the husband whose hog-farming
project has failed conceals pamphlets on beef
cattle (26) under his side of the bed.
In Pauline Mortensens brief monologue Woman
Talking to a Cow, the unease feels keener, or
jaggeder, than in Bennions story, though its occasion is similar: a husbands failed scheme to make
money raising Karakul sheep.
So we got those six sheep over there eating
us out of house and home, and we got a fistful
of black curly hides drying hard in the barn,
and we got two kids in the house breaking
everything I got and waiting to be fed, and we
havent got enough of those black curly hides
to make one coat.
And he goes off like that to crack one more
deal. (161)

The unease may be mostly implicit, covered over

with tenderness, as in my twin Waynes A Song for
One Still Voice, in which a husband lets his wife
sleep despite his desire for her and reflects: There
is no loneliness like the body, nor any delight (5).
His lit-up moment of solitary grace at the storys very
end, like Fillerups bowhunters vision, might help
him go on, though it also seems to cover or try to
compensate for something he misses in his marriage.2
The universal lament among men may not
be universal (a word I habitually mistrust) and it is
not heard solely among men. (In Mormondom,
consistent with our general silence, I dont think its
much heard among men, mostly just within them.)
Its sometimes a womans lament too, as in Linda
Sillitoes Susanna in the Meadow. The story is
about a good deal more than sexual deferment
for one thing, a womans sense that her husband
44

presumes the privilege of naming her; for another,

a separation of the spaces in which men and
women can share spiritual camaraderie (her husband Finn has high council meetings, and Susanna
has her womens dream group [80]). This night,
while Finn is gone to a disciplinary council,
Susanna takes a perfumed bubble bath by candlelight to summon up Lilaa sensual, inner self
to bring her closer to Finn (83):
Oh, she had denied Lilas existence for a
long time, even as a teenager, certainly as a bride,
then as a young mother. She could remember
lying in bed one Sunday night wondering if
a pregnant Primary president could or should
ever be sexy. Most of the women in her dream
group had trouble admitting they had a Lila in
them somewhere, but, Susanna confessed, she
had been rather eager to discover her. Someone, after all, let that top button slip open and
her skirt creep above her knee. When Susanna
noticed, she hurriedly adjusted her clothing,
her eyes as innocent as dawn. (83)

By the time Finn comes home, late, tired after

excommunicat[ing] two people, disfellowshipp[ing] one. Adultery, homosexuality, and heresy
(85), and talking in his car with another high
councilor, Susanna has fallen asleep, and when
wakened she cant recover her mood, her body
lay stiff as a fork in a satin case (85). A dream has
shown her the ground cracking between her and
Finn, and [r]emorsefully, she gave Lila the night
off (8687).
Is the lurking narrative question, the subtext
underneath a lot of these Middling stories none
other than When do we make love?? Its not a
bad question. Not frivolous at all. The act of love
(as weve learned euphemistically to call it) is the
body of marriage, the one flesh a man and wife
may graciously make; the only one flesh they
might sustain eternally (unless you think its logically possible for each and every eternal family to
inhabit its own celestial mansion just like a late
20th century American nuclear family in its suburban split-level: which eternal family unit do you
and your spouse figure to live with, and which does
each of your kids?). We might take our euphemism

Marriage Group of Contemporary Mormon Stories

make love seriously and suppose that making

love or even making the beast with two backs
(or whatever-you-call-it, since no name really comprehends it; we just talk as if we knew what we
were talking about) really does make something;
and that what this act, this deed of two, makes
really is something: a symbol and a sacrament,
as Jeffrey R. Holland said, yes (and sacrament
means something made holy); but still more than
those. Call it Love. Call it Marriage. Suppose that
making it might help it persist, endure.
This seems to happen between Tom and Lydia
Brangwen at the end of Chapter 3 in Lawrences
Rainbow: At last they had thrown open the doors,
each to the other, and had stood in the doorways
facing each other, whilst the light flooded out from
behind on to each of their faces, it was the transfiguration, the glorification, the admission; When
at last they had joined hands, the house was finished, and the Lord took up His abode. And they
were glad (9091). There could be some hope in
that. So, no wonder if a marital embrace seems
(alas for the pun) a fit climax for a story; or, as in
Waynes Who Jane, Who Tarzan, the terminus and
telos the story aims at, but which we must suppose
it reaches (as in old-fashioned romantic movies) somewhere past the closing lines, offstage, off-camera.
We might be of several minds about whether it
is fit to present marital sex in fiction. I think it is,
and Id rather see more than lessif for nothing
else, to balance the overabundant nonmarital varieties. My twin Wayne has tried this obliquely in his
recent Measures of Music, a decidedly Middling
story (if it is a story and not just a middle, an evocation of incipience or inchoateness, in which
nothing either quite begins or ends). But still, one
cannot deny the wisdom of both Chaucers Franklin
and the American philosopher Stanley Cavell.
Who coude telle but he had wedded be, the
Franklin asks near the start of his marriage tale,
The joye, the ese, and the prosperitee / That is
bitwixe an housbonde and his wyf? (7577); near
its end, when Dorigen and Arveragus have happily
rejoined, he says it were inpossible for him to
wryte (821), and thus Of thise two folk ye gete of
me namore (828). And Cavell with less charming

music takes the marriage bed to stand for everything in marriage that is invisible to outsiders,
which is essentially everything, or everything
essential (195).
The dazzling philosopher-critic and fiction
writer William H. Gass alludes to that dangerous
feeling we have in reading fiction, that through
that thin partition [the page] we can hear a world
at love (54). But do we indulge that feeling
because ours is not a world at love? Reading fiction
does feel a bit like eavesdropping or like windowpeeping, though I prefer to say it is like the kindly
knowledge of the angels. Shannon in Linda Sillitoes (likely Ending) story Coyote Tracks, like
perhaps a lot of us, couldnt help herself looking
through lit windows of houses driven by at night:
Shed never seen anything obscene or unusual,
just a head bent over a desk, graceful arms reaching
into high cabinets, children whirling to silent
music, old people criss-crossing a golden dining
room. It did her good, that lamplit domesticity
(45). Our hunch that it does us good might be one
reason we read fiction: people in their lighted windows, so peaceful as they went through the tired
motions of living (45).
Perhaps it does us some good even when the
world we listen in on is not at love, as in Wayne
Carvers searing story of a Middling marriage in its
tenth year, Benvenuto ad Anzio. An American
academic couple staying in Rome on foundation
grants drive to what was not the site of the husbands wartime experiences: on 22 January 1944
he was flat on [his] rosy red rump on [his] bunk at
Fort Benning when more than sixty thousand
men left their face-prints in the sands of time on
that beachhead (56). This pairs scorched quarrel,
Ive long thought, is literarily fit to stand beside
Katherine Anne Porters Rope as a story of a man
and woman at war. Its not clear if these two will
survive their Roman holiday. The wife has told
assorted drunks at the shipboard bar, Were not
going to Italy to visit the ruins. Were going to Italy
to reconstruct one! (49). But at the end the husband reflects that they were separated by all the
years that nothingabsolutely nothinghe knew
it nowcould ever span (58).
45

AML Annual 2002

For a slightly kinder, gentler case, put Lewis

Hornes What Do Ducks Do In Winter? alongside Carvers story: this Later-Middling academic
couple go to a conference dinner where the husband
does his old standup comic routine, and she slips
and falls on the icy sidewalk as they leave and gets
furious when he tries to help her up. They come to
words, then to blows, and end in an ambiguous,
unnameable gesture: His knuckles touched her
temple at the hairline. He moved them back and
forth briefly, not in a caressthe bone was too
hard, the skull too prominentbut as a reflex of a
purer and older act (89). Uneasy comedy again.
Another joker husbandWhy had she married him? Why hadnt he told her she was in for
this kind of humiliation? (108)makes for uneasy
comedy, too, in Linda Sillitoes The Spiral Stair,
though at the end of that story it looks as if Gina
might begin to be won over by Kens antics that
likely have cost him a chance of being asked to
serve in a bishopric (104). Shes probably right
that Ken would happily teach the Blazers forever
(94), and she may be discovering at the end how
lucky she is in that.
Janet, wife of a punster husband named Everard Cormier in Dennis Clarks Answer to Prayer,
is so tired of middling and mothering that she
warns him shes about to turn into a witty jello
salad; and shes understandably put off by his
jokey feeling of [her] from behind (163) at the
kitchen sink. Hes desperately seeking divine help
and guidance in deflecting his erotic attention
from a woman co-worker in a black jumpsuit and
overcoming occasional masturbation. One sort of
answer to his candid prayer precedes it in his punning scramble of mens magazines whose names
formed a litany of reproach in his mind: Playhouse, OuiPent, Boy (152). Another sort arrives
when his co-worker starts to make friends with
him; beginning to know her, he forgets to notice
what she wears, cant just abstract her into his fantasies. That, we might say, was Gods move; the
next move is Everards. The ending is open, uneasy,
guardedly and ironically hopeful.
Michael Fillerups Family Plantation Day might
be an explosive Ending for one of its Middling
46

couples, Floyd and Charlene Fairbanks, the couple

with the proverbial everything (3), except children,
in an Arizona Mormon ward where everybody else
seems pregnant and prolific and the final verdict
was family (8). Were not, after all, talking hardcore tragedy (4). But at the wards family plantation day, Floyd cracks and drives a rented John
Deere tractor across the ward garden, through the
picket fence, across Brother Guillermos weed field,
through another fence, across the dirt highway, and
into the irrigation canal (3). For its more fortunate
narrator, a partaker of the fulness (6) with his
wife Jenene and four kids, it looks like Middling
marriage will go on more or less as usual after that
startling afternoon. Theyve agreed theyve reached
their limit of kids, but cant agree yet on whose surgery will set that limit once and for all. Their story
ends that night in unprotected sex on the bathroom floor before Jenene can find her diaphragm.
When do we make love? And how and why?
ENDINGS
In this world, Mormon marriages are supposed
to middle till death temporally suspends them. Eternal marriagehowever it carries on in the world
beyondby definition would be all Middling, no
Ending. That story will be difficult indeed to imagine or tell, and the better part of this-worldly narrative and marital wisdom might be to try to
imagine temporal marriages that do middle until
death. Still, Beginnings and Middlings do sometimes come (sadly but sometimes gladly) to other
Endingsto finalities / Besides the grave, in
Robert Frosts line, and some of our writers have
imagined those.
The Beginning marriage in Margaret Youngs
Grandpas Growth is tearing apart from the husbands cruelty; his wifes second pregnancy (she
miscarried the first and tried to leave him then)
parallels the growth of his grandfathers stomach
cancer; at the end, after Grandpa has died, [t]he
future kicked at Lindas womb. Wanting, wanting,
wanting out (44). In Grandmas Dying a similar
marriage has ended, and the ex-wife tends her exhusbands dying grandmother: I get her one of my

Marriage Group of Contemporary Mormon Stories

nightgowns. One I kept in this room for nights

when I wanted to sleep alone. She puts her arms
out to accommodate the sleeves. And when her
face is covered and my gown half on her, I shudder
deep and beg God to finish his work. I tell him I
will not last the night. Some things, I say, are too
hard to be borne (134).
Early Middling comes to early Ending in
Judith Freemans Going Out to Sea, in which a
very young Utah Mormon couples marriage fails
in the Midwest under the pressures of graduate
school, a heart-damaged child, and the husbands
infidelity. Driving to Minnesota, Marva feels that
shes headed for the most unfamiliar place on
earth (181). Once there she discovers that [s]o
many things were uncontrollable, even when you
thought you had control (188) and, at the end,
that [t]he shoddy, provisional fragility of chance
brought her here, kept her here, made all things
possible, resulted in the terrible as well as the good
(202). Another of Freemans stories, Clearfield,
imagines the After to this Ending.
In Darrell Spencers I Am Buzz Gaulter, LeftHander, Buzz has, for some reason, kicked his
wife Lois out of the family home they stole from
her brother for $60,000, and ripped [their] kingsize bed in two from baseboard to headboard with
a McCulloch 510 chain saw and burned her side
of it (66). West of Orem, Utah Lake rises and
encroaches (this is floodtime, 1983); elsewhere on
the Wasatch Front [p]olygamists were shooting
each other in the head. Obeying a revelation
from God, two crazies slit the throats of a twentyfour-year-old mother and her one-year-old daughter (69). This might be an Ending; Buzz feels it
might be The End: Leland Freeborn the Parowan
prophet has warned, Say your goodbyes (63);
and behind Buzz the Wasatch Fault grins (74).
It looks as if an Ending might have come
albeit a less apocalyptic onein Linda Sillitoes
Coyote Tracks too. Married in the temple at twenty
to twenty-year-old Don but not going back to the
temple after that, and having suffered with Don
the crib death of their first child, a son, then fighting and silence between them (38), Shannon has
left him after discovering his affair with a young

clerk in his law office; she has renewed her teaching

certificate and relocated from Salt Lake City to the
Navajo reservation with her small daughter Marci.
Yet when Don calls her, his voice, as familiar as a
warm hand on her skin, lock[s] the tension into
her bones (39); and she admits to a friend in
Monument Valley, Maybe Im more married than
I think (51). Shes separated, an amputation that
leaves her maimed (40), and expects soon to make
her divorce final, though Don has now broken up
with his girlfriend Heidi and wants Marci to stay
with him through the winter holidays. Yet when
her friendship with her colleague and neighbor
Stan Yazzie, the Navajo football coach and son and
grandson of Navajo medicine men (41), becomes
sexual, she finds herself thinking more kindly of
Don and thinking more seriously about home
(57). Stans friendship, including his sexual tenderness, begins to heal her grief and anger, even her
guilt, to the point that she can imagin[e] Don and
Heidi together . . . and for the first time [feel] no
pain. If Don had found solace even temporarily
a possibility that had struck her as terribly unfair at
the timeshe could almost be happy someone had
given him what she could not. Not then (63). At
this storys somewhat uneasy open end, the trickster coyote is still at large, yet hozros (Navajo harmony and wholeness) might be reconfiguring, as
Shannon turn[s] north up the highway toward
Salt Lake City for the holidays, watching for livestock and creatures, confident that they could all
share the unfenced road (64).
MIDDLING TILL DEATH
E. M. Forster somewhere remarked that one of
the greatest achievements of civilization was the silver wedding anniversary.3 Long marriages,
writes Louise Erdrich, are beyond anyones explanation, perhaps most especially those who live
within the bonds (490). What are the great or
even good stories in the English languageor for
that matter, any languageabout long marriages?if it is not indeed the case that long happy
marital love has no history and is simply too difficult to imagine.
47

AML Annual 2002

We need a good syllabus here. Maybe it starts with

Virginia Woolf s Mrs. Dalloway, and might include
Wendell Berrys The Memory of Old Jack, Reynolds
Prices Good Hearts, and (thanks be to Oprah)
Robert Morgans Gap Creek. Few Mormon writers
that I know of have written stories, long or short,
about long marriages, or stories focused on Late
Middling. But I can mention three.
In Darrell Spencers Park Host, Red and Rose
Cogsby have been park hosts at Canyon Glen in
Provo Canyon every summer for twenty-three years,
and they get into these one-on-ones where they
lock horns; these give-and-takes, push-and-shoves
(1). Red and Rose, their talks turned basic. You up.
Im up. Good. Do this. Do that. Curt and fundamental, thats Red and Rose Cogsby. Red misses their
pillow talk, their comparing of notes, but also
[h]es a man who relishes the bones they pick (3).
This summer, right after the fifth of July, a man
broken by Alzheimers asks Red to shoot him and
Red wont take the gun (19) though the mans
sadness cuts up Red (20). Later he and Rose read
the mans obituary and Red puts in a few phone
calls to find out how he died: Accidental, he is
told. While Earl was cleaning his guns (22). The
day of the funeral, the O. J. Simpson trial is in
recess, and Red talks Rose into driving up to Bountiful with him (22) for the graveside service, full
military honors. After the service, Red starts telling
lies to family members about military service with
Earl; and Rose, disgusted, heads for a cemetery
exit: Its an eighty-mile walk if thats her plan
(24). Red thinks, He could have shot Earl Tall. He
could have done that favor for his friend; and he
thinks Maybe hell get in the truck and just drive.
Let Rose walk. Get a lift. Do whatever she can.
But he wont. He sees himself overtaking her and
talking a mile a minute, lay[ing] down a ladder
of logic, rung after rung, on which Rung two is
love never dies. Shell trudge on, and Redll beg.
Redll court her (25).
Yet in the storys last moment Red is thinking
(and the narrator is guessing):
Maybe, when [he] locates the truck, hell head
east. Or west. . . . America was built on the concept that this is a big country. . . . There are places
48

where no one knows Red and he can stop . . .

and tell any story he wants. He can tell the one
about how Red Cogsby shot a man as a favor
simply because the man asked him to. (25)

It comes down to this: Red could try another life.

Will he? Wont he? Willy Wonty? Reader: choose:
any story you want.
Wayne Carvers cluster of Plain City stories all
deal with one family in northern Utah, one longmarried couple, Josiah and Louisa, though With
Voice of Joy and Praise takes place in the Salmon
River country of Idaho. Here, sixtyish Jos and Lou
take a side-trip from an Idaho Falls Temple excursion
into memory, nature, and myth. To Jos, it just sort
of seems like something in [him] today wants to
reach out to this country here (32). But to Lou,
[a] temple excursions one thing and its our duty
to do the work for the dead, but tramping through
all Gods green earth is another. And following
some fool river called the River of No Return
appears somewhat out of the way. . . . (33).
The story assesses the cost their conventional
lives have exacted in terms of youthful passion,
adventurousness, and hope but also reveals the
tired, kindly, habitual devotion with which they
bear that cost. As they prepare for bed in a motel
room in Salmon, Josiah hears Louisas voice
behind him, Jos? oh Jos (33), and we recognize
how this raises in his mind the echo (or persistent
dream) of her young voice stricken and crying
with desire (23). But here and now she just tells
him, Jos, I just dont know when I been so wore
out, and he answers, Well, Lou . . . I guess we
better get to bed. If we dont want to fall asleep on
the road tomorrow and kill ourselves. Then [h]e
stood up, reached down for the road map, and
began to fold it up as he walked over to flip off the
light so they could undress in the dark (33).
Wallace and Zelva Rucklestead, in Levi Petersons A Wayne County Romance, had unwittingly, in the front seat of a car in 1946, forged a
marriage from uncircumspect disrobings and acrobatic couplings (17374) that has lasted forty-two
years, till Wallace feels their friends think of him
not as an individual but as an indispensable component of an entity known as Wallace and Zelva

Marriage Group of Contemporary Mormon Stories

(171). The story covers just a few days, beginning

on a Monday morning in August when Zelva is set
to depart for a week of supervising girls at camp,
and Wallace asks her to get back in bed after
breakfast . . . for just a little quick one (144). True
to her good-natured habit, Zelva tells him, Well,
gosh, yes, if you really want to; but then the phone
rings for Wallace: a load of lumber to deliver to a
construction crew waiting at a ranch. Zelva is still
cheerfully ready to go upstairs and do one of your
little slam-bam jobs and get you on your way in ten
minutes; but Wallace has lost [his] spirit for it
(171) and suggests they wait till she gets home Saturday night. He hated to concede to age, hated to
admit the fire in his stove was dying down to a few
banked embers (172). When do we make love?
Wallace secretly reads romances and wants to
express his love to Zelva with tender, solicitous
words (144); he likes romances because in them
things get said that should be said (160). Wallace
is scheduled to stand guard at the girls camp
Wednesday night and spends three days dealing
with other obligations. Monday, on a fast trip to
Salt Lake and back for parts to repair a log loader,
he stops to visit their daughter in Springville and
tells her, It has weighed on me lately . . . and made
me somewhat depressed that I have never, not once
in our entire marriage, told Zelva I love her. I got
that trait from my old daddy. Father would have
rather had his tongue jerked out than say something personal (151).
At the airport in Salt Lake, Wallace longed to
be made a new man. As for the fresh, novel, virgin
setting of his transformation, it could be any of the
great coastal cities. . . . (152). Tuesday he substitutes for Zelva driving the county library bookmobile; that evening he delivers a book to the
California newcomer Judith Swaner at the ranch
where hed delivered lumber, stays for dinner with
her, admits to her hes puked on Wayne County. It
bores me. It has always bored me. It hasnt bored
me just a little. It has bored me high as a mountain,
deep as a canyon (162). She hugs him a couple of
times but tells him she couldnt be a mans mistress
and hopes they can still be friends. He spends the
night on the cushions of her dinette and leaves

in desperate haste before dawn (163). He spends

much of Wednesday using a crane to help a Richfield undertaker lower the coffin of a 543-pound
woman into her enormous grave in Bicknell cemetery. He tells the undertaker, [D]ont be surprised
if you hear Im walking out on Zelva, and
explains, The problem is she and I have run out of
things to say to each other (167). He hauls a load
of firewood to the camp, still confront[ing] the
imminent necessity of informing Zelva that their
marriage was at an end (170), and the campfire
program that night seems a second funeral, a
grieving farewell to Zelva (171).
Even when she wakes him in the bed of his
pickup at 3:30 A.M. and asks him, Do you want to
hoe my garden? Wallace slip[s], almost consciously, into an evasive vacillation over the question whether it was ethical to make love to a spouse
one has decided to abandon (172). But she crawls
under the big double sleeping bag with him, an
utter incontinence came over him, and they make
love, after which
Wallace mulled the deceitfulness of tactile
experience, the willingness, that is, of his roving hands to persuade him, in contradiction of
what his eyes had for many years too clearly
discerned, that this woman who lay pressed
against him in the dark had neither aged nor
deteriorated but was young, virginal, and ripe
with promise and expectation. (174)

He weeps maybe a little (174), tells her a

childhood story about his old dog Jack, and apologizes for never having any sweet words for her.
Who wants fancy words? she says. He tells her,
I couldnt ever leave you, no matter what, and
she answers, Of course you couldnt . . . . I couldnt
leave you either (175). As Wallace said about old
Jack, sometimes things turn out all right in this
world, dont they? Thats the truth, Zelva murmured (175).
CONCLUSIONS?
This has been more ramble than guided tour,
and I have, here at a middling end, nothing so firm
as conclusions. Most of the interesting implications
49

AML Annual 2002

have come up by the way; and my second hope for

this paper is still to provoke further conversation
about what Mormon (or should we now say CJC?)
writers have writtennot only in fiction but also
in essay, poetry, or dramaon a topic that persists
with some urgency for not a few of us. My first
hope is to provoke the writers.
I dont know any fiction writer or poet or
philosopher any smarter about this subject than,
for instance (well, a favorite instance, I admit),
Bruce Springsteen. For starters, listen hard to his
1987 Tunnel of Love album. Its like he says: Spare
parts and broken hearts / Keep the world turnin
around; and If youre rough enough for love you
need somebody tougher than the rest. Youll have
to do what you can to walk like a man and . . .
keep on walkinmaybe one step up and two
steps back. For sure, theres things thatll knock
you down / You dont even see coming, and Its
just nobody knows honey where love goes, / But
when it goes its gone gone and when youre alone
you aint nothing but alone. As the title cut says:
It ought to be easyought to be simple enough.
Man meets a woman and they fall in love.
But the house is haunted and the ride gets rough
And youve got to learn to live with
What you cant rise above
If you want to ride on down, down in
Through this tunnel of love.

B. W. Jorgensen, a past president of AML, still teaches,

reads, writes, serves, and lives, middling, with Donna
and his family (now down to one child at home) in
Provo, Utah. This paper was presented in truncated
form at the annual conference of the Association for
Mormon Letters, 24 February 2001, at Westminster
College, Salt Lake City.

NOTES
1. My American Heritage Dictionary, 3rd ed., gives
two transitive verb senses for middle, and three noun
senses for middlings, none directly related to my uses in
this essay.
2. Susan Miller noted the one disquieting feature of
the story (84).
3. Paraphrased in Price (214). Ive not yet located the
interview in which this remark was made.
50

WORKS CITED
Bennion, John. Falling toward Heaven. Salt Lake City: Signature, 2000.
Cavell, Stanley. Pursuits of Happiness: The Hollywood Comedy of Remarriage. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1981.
Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Wife of Baths Prologue; The
Franklins Tale. The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer. 2nd ed.
Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1957.
Clark, Marden J. Liberating Form. Salt Lake City: Aspen,
1992.
Eliot, George. Middlemarch. 1874; New York: Norton,
1977.
Erdrich, Louise. Introduction to Robert Stones short
story Helping in Youve Got to Read This. Ed. Ron
Hansen and Jim Shepard. New York: HarperCollins,
1994. 490.
Fowles, John. The Aristos. Boston: Little, Brown, 1970;
New York: New American Library, 1975.
Frost, Robert. The Impulse. The Poetry of Robert Frost.
Ed. Edward Connery Lathem. New York: Holt,
1969. 12829.
Gass, William H. Fiction and the Figures of Life. New York:
Random, 1971; Boston: Godine, 1979.
Heilbrun, Carolyn. Writing a Womans Life. New York:
Norton, 1988; Ballantine, 1989.
Holland, Jeffrey R. Of Souls, Symbols, and Sacraments.
Devotional and Fireside Speeches 19871988. Provo,
UT: Brigham Young University, 1988.
Jorgensen, B. W. Imagining Mormon Marriage, Part 1:
The Mythic, the Novelistic, and Jack Weylands
Charly. Mormon Letters Annual 1997. Ed. Lavina
Fielding Anderson. Salt Lake City: Association for
Mormon Letters, 1997. 12837.
Kaske, Robert E. Chaucers Marriage Group. Chaucer
the Love Poet. Ed. Jerome Mitchell and William
Provost. Athens: U of Georgia P, 1973. 4565.
Kermode, Frank. The Sense of an Ending: Studies in the
Theory of Fiction. New York: Oxford UP, 1967.
Kittredge, George Lyman. Chaucers Discussion of Marriage. Modern Philology 9.4 (April 1912): 43567.
Lawrence, D. H. The Rainbow. London: Methuen, 1915;
New York: Penguin, 1995.
. Selected Letters. Ed. Richard Aldington. 1978. Rpt.
New York: Penguin, 1996.
Miller, Susan. A Song for One Still Voice: Hymn of
Affirmation. Dialogue 23.1 (Spring 1989): 8085.
Milton, John. Paradise Lost. Poetical Works 2. Ed. David
Masson. London: Macmillan, 1890.

Marriage Group of Contemporary Mormon Stories

Morson, Gary Saul. Prosaics: An Approach to the

Humanities. American Scholar 57 (Autumn 1988):
51528.
Nussbaum, Martha. Loves Knowledge. New York: Oxford
UP, 1990.
Porter, Katherine Anne. Rope. The Collected Stories.
New York: Harcourt, 1965; Plume, 1970. 4248.
Price, Reynolds. Conversations with Reynolds Price. Ed. Jefferson Humphries. Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 1991.
Rilke, Rainer Maria. The Notebooks of Malte Laurids
Brigge. Trans. Stephen Mitchell. New York: Random,
1983; Vintage, 1985.
De Rougemont, Denis. Love in the Western World. New
York: Pantheon, 1956; Harper, 1974.
Sorensen, Virginia. The Neighbors. New York: Reynal,
1947.
Springsteen, Bruce. Tunnel of Love. New York: Columbia
Records, 1987.
Tallent, Elizabeth. Time with Children. New York: Knopf,
1987.
Tanner, Tony. Adultery in the Novel. Baltimore: Johns
Hopkins UP, 1979.

APPENDIX
Toward a Marriage Group of
Contemporary Mormon Short Stories:
A Tentative and Incomplete List
B. W. Jorgensen
Barber, Phyllis: Almost Magnificence and White on
White in The School of Love.
. Idas Sabbath and Bread for Gunnar in Parting
the Veil.
Bennion, John: Breeding Leah and A House of Order
in Breeding Leah.
Brooks, Joanna: Badlands in In Our Lovely Deseret.
Cannon, Ann Edwards: Separate Prayers. Sunstone 6.6
(Nov.Dec. 1981): 3237.
Carver, Wayne: Benvenuto ad Anzio. Carleton Miscellany 4.4 (Fall 1963): 4558.
. With Voice of Joy and Praise in Greening Wheat.
Chandler, Neal. Roger Across the Looking-Glass in
Benediction.
Christmas, Robert A.: Another Angel in The Fiction.
Clark, Dennis: Answer to Prayer in Greening Wheat.
Clyde, Mary: A Good Paved Road in Survival Rates.
Edwards, Jaroldeen: Me and the Big Apple in Turning
Hearts.

Evenson, Brian: Bodies of Light in Altmanns Tongue.

Fillerup, Michael: Family Plantation Day and Bowhunter in Visions.
Freeman, Judith: Family Attractions and Going Out to
Sea in Family Attractions.
Hall, Randall: Father, Forgive Us in Turning Hearts.
Horne, Lewis: What Do Ducks Do in the Winter? in
What Do Ducks Do in the Winter?
Jones, Helen Walker: The Six-Buck Fortune in In Our
Lovely Deseret.
Jorgensen, Wayne: A Song for One Still Voice in Greening Wheat.
. Two Years Sunday. Wasatch Review International 1.1
(1992): 2536.
. Who Jane, Who Tarzan. High Plains Literary Review
9.1 (Spring 1994): 630.
. Measures of Music. Dialogue 32.3 (Fall 1999):
13340.
Kump, Eileen G.: Sayso or Sense in Bread and Milk and
Other Stories.
Marler, Myrna: Balancing Acts. Dialogue 28.4 (Winter
1995): 16977.
. Leaving the Farm. Wasatch Review 3.1 (1994):
3553.
Marshall, Donald R.: The Wheelbarrow in Frost in the
Orchard.
Mortensen, Pauline: Woman Talking to a Cow in Back
before the World Turned Nasty.
. Something in the Shape of Something in In Our
Lovely Deseret.
Petersen, Zina: Now Lets Dance in Turning Hearts.
Peterson, Levi S.: A Wayne County Romance in
Night Soil.
Rosenbaum, Karen: Hit the Frolicking, Rippling Brooks
in Bright Angels and Familiars.
Saderup, Dian: A Blessing of Duty. Sunstone 4.3
(MayJune 1979): 1720.
Sillitoe, Linda: A String of Intersections, Coyote
Tracks, Susanna in the Meadow, The Spiral
Stair, and Mornings in Windows on the Sea.
Spencer, Darrell: Doing the Bats, Rooster Loves, I
Am Buzz Gaulter, Left-Hander, and The Planet of
Surprise in A Woman Packing a Pistol.
. Nothing Sad, Once You Look at It, As Long as Lust
Is Short, and The Glue That Binds Us in Our
Secrets Out.
. Park Host, Theres Too Much News, The 12Inch Dog, Caution: Men In Trees, and LateNight TV in Caution: Men in Trees.
51

AML Annual 2002

Strange, Susan Dean: Still Dancing in Turning Hearts.

Thayer, Douglas: Under the Cottonwoods in Under the
Cottonwoods.
Young, Jerry M.: Mallwalker in Turning Hearts.
Young, Margaret: Grandpas Growth, Invitations, and
Grandmas Dying in Elegies and Love Songs.
. Zoo Sounds, The Affair, Hanging Out the Dirty
Language, God on Donahue, Hanauma Bay,
Balance Beam, Griever, The Go Between, and
Project in Love Chains.

52

The Holy Cords Too Intrinse to Unloose:

Mormon Families in Life and Fiction
Bruce W. Young with Remarks by Margaret Blair Young

The title of my essayThe Holy Cords Too

Intrinse to Unloosecomes from Shakespeares
King Lear and refers to the holy cords of human
relationship, especially in families.1 The odd word
in the title, intrinse (meaning intricate, entangled,
involved [Oxford]), points to a peculiar quality of
such relationships: They are so intricately bound
together that pulling them apart seems to require
not merely an untangling of connections, but
an act of violence. The phrase from Lear brings
together several of my chief interests: Shakespeare
and Renaissance family life, my own experience
with family, and the fictional and dramatic portrayals of family life by one of the foremost of contemporary Mormon writers, Margaret Blair Young
who also happens to be my wife.
What this essay will reveal, among other things,
is that scholarship and literature are rarely if ever
truly objective or impersonal enterprises. I have
studied Renaissance family life for twenty years or
more because I want to understand Shakespeare
better, but especially because I want to understand
family better and experience its potential for joy
and growth. I value family because I want to learn
how to love and because I know that marriage and
family, which have been called a school of love,
offer great challenges and opportunities for anyone
engaged in that learning process. Most of all I want
my relationships with my wife and children and
other family members to have the permanence
and power implied in the phrase too intrinse to
unloose, to be strong and positive and deeply
grounded. In short, my academic work, my reading

of Shakespeare, my reading of Mormon fiction,

and my own family life, both in reality and in aspiration, all connect and all shed light on, and sometimes raise questions about, each other.
Over the past thirty years or so, Shakespearean
and Renaissance studies have been dominated by a
negative view of marriage and family and, of course,
gender relations in general. The hold of this negative
view has loosened somewhat and become more
balanced, especially during the last five years or so.
But the negative view continues to have much
power. According to this view, marriage and family
in Shakespeares time were essentially oppressive
and unhappy, with anxious males seeking to control and with wives and children being either fearful or rebellious or self-destructively submissive.
Some versions of the negative view have taken
a more subtle approach, acknowledging the happiness of the happy endings in Shakespearean plays
and the expressions of love and tenderness, at least
in literary pictures of marriage and family, but interpreting these apparent positives negatively, usually
in one of two ways. One argument is that the happiness and love associated with family life are only
fantasies, not the way life was really experienced.
The other argument paradoxically views these positive ideals as negative in an even deeper way. Love,
harmony, and happiness may indeed have been
part of the real experience of Shakespeares contemporaries, yet these highly valued and movingly
portrayed experiences are destructive because they
depend on submitting oneself to relationships,
roles, and social structures. To be more precise,
53

AML Annual 2002

they must be bought at the price of being a dutiful

child or a faithful wife.
In As You Like It, for example, Rosalind, who
has orchestrated most of the action of the play,
ends by saying to her father, To you I give myself,
for I am yours, and then to her future husband
Orlando, To you I give myself, for I am yours
(5.4.11617). It is true that she submits to these
relationships willingly and has even arranged the
scene of reunion and revelation herself. In fact, she
has spent much of the play learning, and especially
teaching Orlando, about the realities of marriage
in particular, teaching him that it is a union of two
real, imperfect people, not the idealistic fantasy
Orlando has been imaginingand yet affirming at
the same time that marriage can be a loving and
happy union.
But according to the view dominant in recent
Shakespearean criticism, Rosalind is nevertheless
the unwitting dupe of social expectations and roles
and is losingor at least risks losingan independent, self-created identity as she submits herself
to her father and future husband. Thus, in this
view, even in the happy, loving endings of Shakespearean drama, it is adult males who maintain
control, exercise power, dominate, and have their
own needs served.
King Lear has recently been interpreted in much
the same way, though of course the tragic outcome
makes the point even more starkly. Several recent
writersKathleen McLuskie, Peter Erickson, Janet
Adelman, and othersargue that the traditional positive view of Cordelia as a dutiful, loving daughter
who forgives her father is dangerous because it makes
her a victim and encourages young women generally
to serve the needs of others, especially adult males,
and thereby lose their identities and even, like Cordelia, their lives, rather than protecting and promoting their own pursuits and desires (B. Young).
How do I respond to such interpretations? I have
wanted to believe that there is more to the positive
moments in Shakespeare than such critics have
found, yet I have also wanted to know what family
life was really like for Shakespeares contemporaries.
As I have looked at the attitudes and experiences of
real peopleby reading diaries, letters, sermons,
54

handbooks, pamphlets, and other sources from

Shakespeares timeI have concluded that marriages and families, then as now, had problems. Yet
Shakespeares contemporaries had a much more
positive vision, and often experience, of family life
than recent critics have suggested.
Shakespearean and Renaissance studies over
the past generation have been strongly influenced
by the work of Lawrence Stone, especially his groundbreaking volume The Family, Sex and Marriage in
England 15001800. My own effort to understand
family life in Renaissance England has convinced
me that Stones negative view of family life in that
period is largely erroneous. Stones view has been
challenged by other historians, who present a
much different picture of family life in the period.
Ralph Houlbrooke, Susan Amussen, Keith
Wrightson, Alan Macfarlane, Linda Pollock, and
many others demonstrate that family life did not
change as radically or quickly as Stone maintains;
that women often took a forceful and independent
role in family life; that even during the Renaissance
period, authority was much less arbitrarily or
destructively employed than Stone suggests; and
that intimacy and harmony within the family were
not only ideals, but often realities.
In his assessment of Stones book, Houlbrooke
argues: Much evidence of love, affection and the
bitterness of loss dating from the first half of Stones
periodthat is, the period most relevant to Shakespearehas simply been ignored; and he notes
that, despite its admirable breadth and energy, Stones
book is marred by its questionable assumptions
about the connection between ideals and practice
and by its perpetuation of sociological myths
(The English Family 15). Macfarlane demonstrates
at length how the book ignores or dismisses contrary evidence, misinterprets ambiguous evidence,
fails to use relevant evidence, imports evidence from
other countries to fill gaps, and jumbles up the chronology (review 10326). Many historians understandably consider this Stones most dangerous
and controversial book. Some go so far as to call it
unconvincing, a compendium of distortions,
even a disaster (Cressy 128; Macfarlane review
106, 123; Thompson 500).

Mormon Families in Life and Fiction

One of the most damaging results of Stones

influence on Shakespearean studies has been the
assumption by many who depend on his work that
all the horrific conflicts and abuses in the plays
families are simply a revelation of what life was like
in Shakespeares time, rather thanwhat makes
more sense dramaticallyviolations of the desired
and expected norm for family life.
The evidence, viewed fairly and carefully, creates a complex and mixed picture of family life in
the period, with negative elements but also with
many positive ones. In particular, it is clear that
fathers were not commonly the stereotypical villains Stones work makes them out to be. Though
viewed with some ambivalence, Shakespeares contemporaries saw fathers mainly as nurturing figures. Attitudes in early modern England generally
acknowledged the importance of paternal authority and filial duty but valued other elements of the
parent-child relationship at least as much. One of
the most striking features of the Renaissance image
of fatherhoodlargely ignored or misrepresented
in contemporary criticismis its association with
kindness, nurturing, and generous self-giving.
In an astute and persuasive essay analyzing cultural attitudes in the period, Debora Shuger has
shown that fathers were usually thought of in contrast to kings or despots, rather than simply as
repeating the kingly role in the family. Instead of
conflating patriarchy with royal authoritarianism,
the common view generally assumed that a fathers
relation to his child [was] essentially different from
political relations of submission, domination, and
the struggle to acquire power (219). The word
father, rather than connoting authority, discipline, rationality, law, and so on, more commonly
was associated with forgiveness, nurturing, and
tenderness (220). Even someone like Lancelot
Andrewes, who was associated with the royal court,
consistently and explicitly opposes the two figures of king and father, associating the king with
power and subordination, the father with unconditional love and inclusion (22829).
My own reading of large quantities of 16th- and
17th-century material strongly confirms Shugers
contention. Sources from the period indicate that

the word fatherly was almost always virtually

synonymous with kindly or benevolent. One
finds such phrases as a most tender and loving
nourcing [nursing] Father, a gentle and tender
father, Were not his affections most fatherly,
fatherly kindness, fatherly love, fatherly
care, fatherly gentleness, fatherly and kindly
power, benevolent and Fatherlie dealings.2
Obviously, the ideal and expectation wasin the
words of John Newnhamthat the naturall and
the kindelie love of Parentes towardes their children, is, or ought to bee, as constant and readie as
Gods unfailing love (3).
We understandably wonder how well this ideal
was put into practice. Shuger points to various indicationsand I could add many moresuggesting
that, more often than not, the ideal corresponded
to actual fatherly behavior. Shuger paraphrases
Steven Ozments judgment that sixteenth-century
parents appear to have been affectionate, often (to
the dismay of the moralists) indulgent, and deeply
emotionally involved with their children and
quotes Lancelot Andrewess claim that Fathers
stand thus affected towards their children, that
they are hardly brought to chasten them; and if
there be no remedy, yet they are ready to forgive, or
soon cease punishing (235 n. 58, 222). She concludes that it does not seem plausible that humanists and preachers would appeal so confidently to
parental tenderness if such emotions were culturally unavailable (23435).
Much the same could be said of the relations
between husbands and wives. Shakespeares plays
make it clear that not all marriages were happy, yet
at the same time they convey a vision of potentially
loving mutuality and happiness that many of
Shakespeares contemporaries would have shared.
A passage near the end of Henry V nicely captures
both sides of marriage. The Queen of France,
though recognizing the challenges of marriage,
hopes that France and England may be as happily
united as a married couple ought to be: As man
and wife, being two, are one in love, / So be there
twixt your kingdoms such a spousal, / That never
may ill office, or fell jealousy, / Which troubles oft
the bed of blessed marriage, / Thrust in between
55

AML Annual 2002

the paction of these kingdoms (5.2.36165). Sources

from Shakespeares time echo the view expressed here
and in particular emphasize the ideal of intimate
love and union in marriage. According to Thomas
Gataker, husband and wife are neerer than
Friends, and Brethren; or than Parents and Children. . . . Man and Wife are . . . the one ingraffed
into the other, and so fastned together, that they
cannot againe be sundred (5). A wife, writes Puritan theologian William Perkins, is the associate
of her husband, not only in office and authority,
but also in advice and counsel unto him (439).
Among the hundreds of other examples that
could be cited are passages from the popular London preacher Henry Smith (unlesse there be a
joyning of hearts and knitting of affections
together, it is not Marriage indeed, but in shew and
name [44]); early 17th-century writer John Wing
(conjugal love must be the most deare, intimate,
precious and entire, that hart can have toward a
creature; none but the love of GOD above, is above
it. . . . The Fountaine of love, will have the current
run stronger to the Wife, then to any, or to all
other [44]); and Rachel Speght, in a 17th-century
pamphlet in defense of women (neither the wife
may say to her husband, nor the husband unto his
wife, I have no need of thee, no more then the
members of the body may so say each to other,
betweene whom there is such a sympathie, that if
one member suffer, all suffer with it; Marriage is
a merri-age, and this worlds Paradise, where there
is mutuall love [106]).
Such happiness and love require the offering of
self in service, patience, and forgiveness, but (contrary
to what some modern critics assume) this offer of
self is required of the husband as well as the wife.
Richard Hooker, a contemporary of Shakespeares,
notes that parties married have not anie longer
intire power over them selves but ech hath interest
in others person (V.32.7). According to William
Perkins, husband and wife are freely to communicate their goods, their counsel, their labours each
to other for the good of themselves and theirs (427).
Acknowledging that some husbands fail to live
the ideal, Henry Smith advises that both husband
and wife must offer themselves to the other: [L]et
56

all things be commonn betweene them, which

were private before . . . for they two are one. He
may not say as husbands are wont to say, that
which is thine is mine, and that which mine is
mine owne, but that which is mine is thine, & my
selfe to (5152). The husbands and husbands-tobe in Shakespeares plays regularly make this sort of
offerfor example, Berowne in Loves Labours
Lost (O, I am yours, and all that I possess!
[5.2.383]), Claudio in Much Ado (Lady, as you are
mine, I am yours. I give away myself for you, and
dote upon the exchange [2.1.30809]), and the
Duke in Measure for Measure (if youll a willing
ear incline, / Whats mine is yours, and what is
yours is mine [5.1.53637]). Though, given the
characters weaknesses, the offers are at times problematic, they are nevertheless heart felt. The plays
truly loving husbands and husbands-to-be are
shown as sincerely seeking the good of their
beloveds, even to the extent of offering their lives if
that is required (e.g., Posthumus in Cymbeline:
For Imogens dear life take mine [5.4.22]).
The ideals of self-giving, service, and love were
not, then, associated exclusively with women and
children but served very much as expectations for
fathers and husbands as well. Once this point is
granted, much in Shakespeares plays makes a great
deal more sense. King Lear, for instance, does not
exemplify standard Renaissance parenting. Instead,
he is clearly at fault in his egotism at the beginning
of the play, including his attempts to manipulate
his daughters and use them to satisfy his own
needs. The play shows how Lear changesin particular how he learns compassion and humility and
submissiveness.
In what is often called the reconciliation scene
(act 4, scene 7), Lears daughter Cordelia kneels to
ask for his blessing, but at the same time he kneels
to ask her forgiveness and says, I am a very foolish
fond old man (59). He knows he has treated his
daughter badly and that even now he is far from
perfect: You must bear with me, he says. Pray
you now forget, and forgive; I am old and foolish
(8283). Lear is only one of a good number of misbehaving Shakespearean fathers and husbands who
humble themselves and ask forgiveness.

Mormon Families in Life and Fiction

Of course the critics who take a view different

from mine read the same lines and have access,
when they choose to use it, to much of the same
historical information. The differences in our ways
of reading Shakespeare ultimately come down to
different visions of life, different views of what
makes for human fulfillment. Most of the negative
readings of Shakespeare and of family life in his
time have assumed that autonomy is more valuable
than the kinds of relationships that require the sacrifice of autonomy. They have usually put a higher
value on self-fulfillment than on service.
Both my own experience and the gospel as I
understand it lead me to a different view: that seeking our own livesour own interests and desires in
opposition to those of othersis self-destructive;
that finding our lives requires that we, in a sense,
lose them. The philosopher Emmanuel Levinas says
much the same thing: I am defined as a subjectivity, as a singular person, as an I, precisely because
I am exposed to the other. It is my inescapable and
incontrovertible answerability to the other that
makes me an individual I. So that I become a
responsible or ethical I to the extent that I agree
to depose or dethrone myselfto abdicate my
position of centralityin favor of the vulnerable
other. As the Bible says: He who loses his soul
gains it (Levinas and Kearney 27).
This same truth is consistently present in
Shakespeares plays, and it clearly applies to the
plays men as well as to the women. In The Merchant of Venice Bassanio is confronted with this
truththat he must lose his life in order to find
itwhen he reads on the casket by which he will
win a wife, He who chooseth me must give and
hazard all he hath (2.9.21). This notionthe
expansion of identity that comes by risking or
offering the selfruns through Shakespearean
drama from beginning to end, from The Comedy of
Errors, in which Antipholus of Syracuse must
lose himself to find a mother and a brother
(1.2.3940), to The Tempest, where
. . . in one voyage
Did Claribel her husband find at Tunis
And Ferdinand, her brother, found a wife
Where he himself was lost; Prospero, his dukedom

In a poor isle; and all of us, ourselves,

When no man was his own. (5.1.20813)

Shakespeare is one of the most sensitive of

Renaissance writersof all writersto what it
means to be an individual self. But he would have
agreed with Robert Elliot Fitchs claim that the
self-centered self is a sickly self and, it might be
added, a narrow and isolated self (148). Shakespeares plays suggest that the highest fulfillment of
the self is found not in autonomy or absolute freedom from all connection or constraint, but in the
free offering of the self to others. Most often, especially in the great moments of reunion and reconciliation, these others are linked to the self by the
ties of marriage and family.
II
Not surprisingly, what I have learned from Shakespeare and from studying family life in his time has
shaped how I have read Mormon fiction about family life. But the influence has gone both ways: My
experience with Mormon families, both in life and
in fiction, has also shaped my reading of Shakespeare and the values I bring to my historical study.
A central figure in all of these interests has been
my wife, Margaret Blair Young, who shares my love
of Shakespeare and to whom I am bound by holy
cords too intrinse to unloose. Margaret, like many
other Mormon writers, writes about families and
in many cases draws on our own family life. The
story Hanging Out the Dirty Language, for
instance, is in part about meand about marriage
and being a writer and being married to a writer.
Another story, Hanauma Bay, deals with several
family relationships: mother-daughter, husbandwife, and ex-husband/ex-wife. Remarkably, at least
for a writer who usually puts real life through fairly
fundamental transformations when turning it into
fiction, this moving, well-crafted story really happenedthat is, it is largely, almost exactly based
on something we experienced during the year we
spent in Hawaii.
Divorce has been a theme in many of Margarets
stories, as well as in the novel Salvador, where the
57

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protagonist is, among other things, working

through the trauma of a failed marriage. Salvador
deals with a variety of other family relationships as
well. Family relationships are also powerfully present in the recent novel about African American
pioneers, One More River to Cross. Jane Manning
James experiences conversion to the Church and
the trek to Nauvoo with her family, and these are
followed by a courtship and marriage that take on
their unique flavor not only from Janes racial and
religious identity, but also from her situation as a
single mother. The novel also powerfully evokes
the family relationships of Elijah Abel, especially
his bond with his mother.
Perhaps Margarets most potent treatment of
family is a work called Dear Stone. This work exists
in two forms: as a play, which was performed in
1997 at Brigham Young University, and as a novel,
forthcoming in 2001 from Signature under the
title Heresies of Nature. Dear Stone is about a family: a husband and wife who have beenand really
still aredeeply in love, the wifes multiple sclerosis, the husbands adultery, and the effect these
have not only on their marriage but on their two
daughters. (In fact, an earlier version of the novel
was called Merrys Daughters.) One of the daughters
also has a troubled marriage.
Dear Stone is based in part on my sister Nancy,
who was abandoned by her husband when her multiple sclerosis became so advanced that she needed
to enter a care center. She died on the day the play
officially opened. I was deeply involved in the play:
I wrote the program notes, went to most of the performances, and brought some of Nancys children
to one of them. I felt that this play was more than
just a work of entertainment or even art. Rather, it
was a tribute to my sister, a testimony of faith and
redemption, and an instrument for changing hearts.
I also felt deeply attached to the play because it
draws for much of its power on one of my favorite
Shakespearean plays, The Winters Tale. That play is
the source of the title Dear Stone. The word stone
refers partly to geology (the husband in the play is
a geologist) and to the rigidity that comes with
multiple sclerosis. But the phrase dear stone refers
more specifically to the statue that appears at the
58

end of The Winters Tale. Leontes, king of Sicilia,

believes he is responsible for the death of his wife,
Hermione, through what he now knows to have
been his utterly false accusation of adultery against
her, founded in nothing but his crazed insecurity,
sixteen years before. Now his counselor Paulina
invites him to view a statue of Hermione. As he
sees the statue, he says, Chide me, dear stone
referring to the stone he thinks the statue is made
ofthat I may say indeed / Thou art Hermione.
As he remembers his living wifeO, thus she
stood, / Even with such life of majesty (warm life, /
As now it coldly stands)he also thinks of the
stony condition of his heart that made him capable
of treating her as he did: I am ashamd; does not
the stone rebuke me / For being more stone than
it? (5.3.2425, 3438). Miraculouslymainly
because he is able to awake [his] faith (5.3.95)
his wife is restored to him. She, and the happiness
and warmth of married life, come back to him, as
if from the dead.
Besides providing the title, The Winters Tale is
an element of the plot of Dear Stone. One of Merrys
daughters, Elizabeth, tries out for and gets a part in
a high school production of the play. As rehearsals
proceed, we see scenes or snippets of scenes. The
drama teacher, Joe, happens to be married to the
other daughter, Penny; but they are separated for
reasons he doesnt understand and that dont
become clear to the audience until late in the play.
The Winters Tale is not just artificially tacked
on to Dear Stone but is an integral part of it. Joe
chose the play deliberately. As he tells Elizabeth:
I picked this play for your mom (20). He doesnt
say why, but we can guess some of the reasons he
may have had in mind. For one thing, The Winters
Tale has several remarkable women characters,
especially the queen, Hermione. Like Merry (and
like my sister Nancy), She had not been, / Nor
was not to be equalld (5.1.10001). Both Dear
Stone and The Winters Tale are about difficult marriages. In the first half of Shakespeares play, a wife
is abandoned and rejected by her husband. In Dear
Stone we see the process of abandonment go both
ways: Merry is betrayed by her husband; her sonin-law Joe, in a way, is abandoned by his wife.

Mormon Families in Life and Fiction

Despite the problems they portray, both plays

are redemptive. Both present powerful images of
resurrection, not just the resurrection of our bodies, but of relationships and hearts. In The Winters
Tale the apparent statue of Hermione comes to life,
Leontes hope and happiness are reborn, and a
marriage and family are restored and revivified. In
Dear Stone the marriage of Penny and Joe is
brought back to life; and even the damaged bond
between Merry and her husband Ben is in some
measure mended.
Both plays are also about faith. At the climactic moment in the last scene of The Winters Tale,
Paulina tells Leontes what he must do to have his
wife again: It is requird / You do awake your
faith (5.3.9495). The same could be said to Ben
Morgan in Dear Stone. He needs to exercise faith in
several senses: in himself, in his wife, in his marriage, in God, in life, in the universe, in the resurrection. The issue comes up when he first meets
Merry. She says she believes despite the evidence;
as a scientist, he rejects her stance as naive and dishonest. But Merrys faith is shown to go deeper
than Bens skepticism. She is not saying she believes
even though she knows what she believes in is not
true. Rather, she is saying, I believe despite what
Im seeing right now; I believe in realities that go
beyond what I can grasp immediately.
Besides dealing with marriage, both plays are
about family in general, including the bond between
parent and child. One of the scenes from Shakespeare used in Dear Stone comes from the very end
of The Winters Tale, at the moment when Hermiones
daughter Perdita is reunited with her mother and
kneels to ask her mother to bless her. Placing her
hands on or above Perditas head, Hermione gives a
powerful blessing that confirms and reinforces the
intimate bond between them: You gods, look
down / And from your sacred vials pour your
graces / Upon my daughters head! (5.3.12123).
The scene reminds us that Merry has a similar
bond with her daughters and a similar power to
bless them. In Dear Stone we see Merrys anxiety
and love for her daughters and her pain as she listens to them quarrel and cant interrupt them. Her
disease has progressed so far that she cant speak.

She has to spell out each word by blinking as someone goes through the alphabet. (This was how we
communicated with my sister Nancy.)
Using this method as she counsels with Penny,
Merry blinks to spell out the sentence: Marriage is
serious stuff (61). Besides showing her concern
for her daughter, this sentence reflects on the other
relationships in the play as well, including Bens
relationship with her and with his daughters. The
play shows that family life in general is serious
and often painfulstuff. Trying to push Elizabeth toward more authentic acting in one of the
rehearsals, Joe offers another evocative line with
relevance to marriage and family when he asks: Is
it the closeness that scares you? (78). The line
reminds me of something George Eliot has Dorothea
Brooke say of marriage in Middlemarch: There
is something even awful [that is, awe inspiring,
perhaps terrifying] in the nearness it brings (583;
ch. 81).
Cody, the live-in nurse who cares for Merry,
senses the pain and love in the home and says to her:
You nursed your babies, didnt you. . . . [T]he
house feels like you nursed them, because youre
all so close. I can feel the bond. Made my arms
shiver. Its a tired bond, isnt it. And angry, a
little. Mostly, its just love. Coming from you?
All that urgent love? You fill the house up. And
youre very strong, arent you. Stronger than
they know. (13)

Later Elizabeth wonders how they can survive

as a family when theyve hurt each other so much.
We have come to know this family well enough
that we could give Elizabeth an answer: Along with
the pain there has been a knitting of hearts and
souls together. The bonds in this family are (to
quote the line from King Lear) too intrinse to unloose. Indeed, the bonds are so strong that the
daughters very identity is bound up with that of
their mother and father. As Joe tells Elizabeth:
Youre Hermione. More than that, even. Elizabeth, youre Merry (78). Ben tells his daughter:
You and Penny, youre the best of your mom and
me. Youre our synthesis. The very best we could
give. Our family (116).
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Cody adds an interesting complication to the

story: She is a healer, but she distorts the gift of
healing because her neediness leads her to use
others in a desperate attempt to fill her own needs.
Her faulty way of relating to the other characters is
a helpful reminder that love and service can
become distorted into manipulation, that to truly
serve others does not mean to dominate them, but
rather to seek their goodand that their good is
ultimately to learn in their turn to love and give.
To give properly, then, isas Levinas puts itto
give the gift of the power of giving (Totality 269);
and that means empowering others, inviting and
encouraging and doing all of the other things listed
in Doctrine and Covenants 121, but not forcing
others into relationship or goodness.
III
In Dear Stone and in other books and plays
Margaret Young shows people struggling in relationships, seeking authenticity and meaning, seeking and often failing to know how to love and serve
and bless each other. Some charactersoften men,
sometimes womenseek happiness or meaning in
autonomy, in a self-centered pursuit of their own
needs; and usually the result is unhappiness,
betrayal, failure to find personal fulfillment. More
often than not, Margarets work shows personal
fulfillment emerging from loyalty and self-giving
and from the recognition that we are not ultimately or essentially detached from one another,
but deeply connected. Not that Margaret starts out
with the intent to convey messages of this sort:
rather, these are generalizations I draw from her
work. They are there because they are part of
her being, her faith, her vision of life.
Margarets work often presents powerful women
who seek to bless others: Elijah Abels mother in
One More River to Cross, Jane in the same book and
in the play I Am Jane, and Merry in Dear Stone. At
the end of Dear Stone, as bits of the final scene of
The Winters Tale are being performed on one side
of the stage, we see Merry Morgan on the other.
Symbolically, but with at least a glimpse of realityyou need to see or read the play to know what
60

I meanHermiones resurrection and giving of a

blessing to her daughter are paralleled with Merrys
resurrection and power even beyond her mortal life
to bless others.
Margarets is often a redemptive vision, but not
an easy oneone, in fact, not unlike Shakespeares
at his best, or Dostoevskys, to cite another of our
favorite authors. Family is at the core of that vision.
Family life is a potentially wonderful, powerfully
fulfilling reality, but it is not easy. It requires selfgiving, humility, empathy, repentance, forgiveness,
the stretchingat times it seems almost the breakingof the heart-strings.
To quote the phrase from King Lear once more,
family is made up of holy cords too intrinse to
unloosebonds that are holy, that are intricately
and deeply tied, and that cannot be unloosed. But
if you know the play King Lear, you know that it
doesnt mean these bonds cannot be broken. The
lines Ive quoted are spoken by Kent, who is describing Oswald, a character he loathes, and comparing
him to rats that gnaw through ropes. Likewise
there are those who cut, or chew through, or otherwise violate the holy cords of family relationships. The point is that these are cords that cannot
simply be untied with gentle skill; their disconnection is a violent act.
The phrase too intrinse to unloose conveys a
powerful vision of human relatedness and an
explanation of why submission to relationship has
to be the grounds of human fulfillment and happinesswhy the vision of absolute autonomy that
has been so seductive through human history,
especially during the last 500 years, is false and
destructive. We are members of one another, separate yet deeply connected at the same time. Our
very being, our very identity, is dependent on our
relationships. Our fulfillment and happiness come
from service and love and self-giving, not from
competitive conflict or self-protective isolation.
Obviously this vision of human connectedness
bears on what it means to be a Mormon writer; it
calls into question the tendency (which has become
stereotypical in modern culture) to view the artist
as oppositional to family, religion, and society.
Certainly a writer has to be honest and seek

Mormon Families in Life and Fiction

authenticity and integrity. But ultimately a Mormon writer, or any writer, is not just an autonomous
individual but a member of othersof his or her
own family and of the human family. To be a writer
is not merely to express ones self or to present a
purely personal vision over which one has absolute
ownership. Rather it is to engage in conversation,
to give and to receive. At its best, the writers mission is to serve and blessto quote Levinass phrase
again, it is to give the gift of the power of giving.
Much of what Ive said about a writers mission
describes the course of Margarets career so far.
Some of the earlier fiction was a working through
of personal concerns, sometimes having to do with
failed relationships. With Dear Stone, I believe something new began to happena focus on the Other
(in this case, my sister Nancy)with the result
being a marvelous and deep vision of human relationship. With more recent projects, Margaret has
gone even further, coming to know brothers and
sisters of the past and of another race and sharing
her vision with blacks and whites, with members
and nonmembers of the Church.
But the changes in Margarets work go even
deeper: What is offered in these recent projects is
no longer just her vision. One More River to Cross
is co-authored with an African American man. The
play I Am Jane, as some in the cast like to point
out, is no longer just Margarets. It belongs to the
cast, crew, and others involved in its production,
and the musical element especially draws on a long
tradition of suffering and faith belonging to one of
the great segments of the human family. And at a
more local, personal level, Margarets family has
been deeply involved with her work, with some of
her children taking part in the play and even with
me having caught the vision of what she is doing
and feeling very much a part of it.
Margarets workor maybe I should say, this
work that she is blessed to be part ofbears witness
to the truth that we are members of one another
and that meaning and fulfillment come into our
lives as we seek to bless each other. That doesnt
mean that she avoids the tough issues. On the contrary, such issues are often present in her work.
That is why reading her work, when she is dealing

directly with family but even when she is not, feels

much like the experience of Mormon family life: it
is often tough and sometimes heart-wrenching, but
it is also lifted by a vision of who we are, what we
can become, and how precious we are to each other.

MARGARET BLAIR YOUNG:

SUMMARY OF REMARKS
Margaret, who spoke briefly without a prepared
text after Bruces paper, said that she felt writing
was an act that united the past and futureeven
beyond the veil. We enact in the temple that act
of creation and connection. I truly feel that in fiction we have the opportunity to transcend the
mortal barriers that usually impede our ability to
understand and communicate with each other.
She told about a meeting for the cast of I Am
Jane before the February 2001 BYU performance.
The night before, the costumer had sensed the
presence of thousands of angels around us and
knew that they were Janes family. The closing
prayer of the cast meeting was a testimony borne
directly to Janes family. It made Margaret think
that when we sing about angels above us are silent
notes taking that these notes are not checkmarks
on rolls about whether we went to church or
attended the temple but rather that the angels are
actually listening to our testimonies.
In tears, Margaret described an incident during
Bruces sisters long struggle with multiple sclerosis,
after she had lost the ability to speak. My sweet
husband knelt before his sisters wheelchair and
said, I dont understand why God let this happen
to you. Do you understand it? Painfully, a letter
at time, blinking when the correct letter of the
alphabet was said, Nancy spelled out, I think its
helping Dad.
Margaret described Bruces father as a man
who hadnt been out of himself a whole lot. In
the final three years of Nancys life he (along with
his wife) had spent almost the whole of every day
with her, an act of love and service that was utterly
redemptive.
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AML Annual 2002

Margaret commented on the fact that Nancy

died only two hours before the opening of Dear
Stone, Margarets play about a woman with M.S.,
written as a tribute to Nancy. The death scene was
beautiful on stagewith music and the words of
A Winters Tale and Nancys spirit rising out of her
wasted body. The real death was not beautiful.
It was painful and slow. Bruces father spent hours
wiping her nose as fluids leaked out. That showed
who he had become. When I got there with the
children, Nancy had just died, and my father-inlaw was still at her bedside weeping. He loved his
daughter. He loved her so much. At Nancys funeral,
the stake president said, I dont have the sealing
power, but if I did, I would seal Nancys mother
and her father up unto eternal life for what they
did for their daughter during the last six years when
she was alone and abandoned. Margaret feels that
what we didnt see in Nancys dying was what the
angels saw. The play portrayed was the spiritual
reality: Nancys death from her perspective.
Margaret also discussed how moving the experience of working on One More River to Cross and
I Am Jane had been. I became aware that we are
a family of many kindsall of us make a coat of
many colors. Father loves this earth in its diversity,
and the purpose of that diversity is for us to love,
accept, and serve each other. She commented that
the collaboration between her and her coauthor
Darius Gray represented a diversity of genders and
a diversity of races.
Like Bruces question to Nancy, we can ask
why was there slavery and its pain? Why would
God allow certain of his children to suffer the pain
of slavery? Continuing the analogy between
Nancys suffering and Nancys fathers redemption,
Margaret asked, What if its not a curse but a callingin the working out of which others find the
spiritual strength to become great in their callings? She issued a call for the vision and spirituality that we may cleanse whatever it is that creates
barriers and separations among the entire posterity
of our Heavenly Father, so that we will experience
the binding power, not only of the human family
but also of the love of God.

62

Bruce W. Young teaches in the English Department at

Brigham Young University, specializing in Shakespeare,
Renaissance literature, and literary theory and criticism.
He also teaches world literature and the writings of
C. S. Lewis. He is completing a book on Shakespeare
and Renaissance family life. Bruce lives in Provo, Utah,
with his wife, Margaret Blair Young. They have four
children.

Margaret Blair Young is the author of two plays, Dear

Stone, performed at Brigham Young University, May
1424, 1997, and I Am Jane, performed at Genesis
Branch meeting, Midvale, Utah, March 5, 2000; Villa
Theatre, Springville, Utah, June 30July 10, 2000; Curie
Metropolitan High School, Chicago, July 29, 2000; and
Brigham Young University, February 910, 2001. She
has also published novels and numerous short stories.

NOTES
1. In the edition I am using, the phrase reads the
holy cords . . . / Which are t intrinse t unloose (Lear
2.2.7475). This and all subsequent Shakespearean quotations are from The Riverside Shakespeare, 2nd ed., ed.
G. Blakemore Evans, et al.
2. The first phrase is from The Epistle Dedicatory
to the King James Bible (1611), Sig. A2v. The next six
phrases, quoted by Shuger (219, 221, 222), are from
Thomas Becon, Richard Hooker, and John Calvin. The
last two are from Shakespeare (Much Ado 4.1.74) and
John Newnham (9).

WORKS CITED
Adelman, Janet. Suffocating Mothers: Fantasies of Maternal
Origin in Shakespeares Plays, Hamlet to The Tempest.
New York: Routledge, 1992.
Amussen, Susan. An Ordered Society: Gender and Class in
Early Modern England. Oxford: Basil Blackwell,
1988.
Cressy, David. Foucault, Stone, Shakespeare and Social
History. English Literary Renaissance 21 (1991):
12133.
Eliot, George. Middlemarch. 187172. Ed. Gordon S.
Haight. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1956.
Erickson, Peter. Patriarchal Structures in Shakespeares
Drama. Berkeley: U of California P, 1985.
Fitch, Robert Elliot. Odyssey of the Self-Centered Self. New
York: Harcourt, 1961.

Mormon Families in Life and Fiction

Gataker, Thomas. A Good Wife Gods Gift. 1623.

Hooker, Richard. Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity. The
Folger Library Edition of The Works of Richard
Hooker. Gen. ed. W. Speed Hill. 4 vols. Cambridge,
MA: Harvard UP, 197782.<J244>
Houlbrooke, Ralph A. The English Family 14501700.
London: Longman, 1984.
, ed. English Family Life, 15761716: An Anthology
from Diaries. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1988.
Levinas, Emmanuel. Totality and Infinity: An Essay on
Exteriority. Trans. Alphonso Lingis. Pittsburgh:
Duquesne UP, 1969.
Levinas, Emmanuel, and Richard Kearney. Dialogue
with Emmanuel Levinas. Face to Face with Levinas.
Ed. Richard A. Cohen. Albany: State U of New York
P, 1986. 1333.
Macfarlane, Alan. Marriage and Love in England: Modes of
Reproduction 13001840. Oxford: Blackwell, 1986.
. Review of Lawrence Stone, The Family, Sex and Marriage in England 15001800. History and Theory 18
(1979): 10326.
McLuskie, Kathleen. The Patriarchal Bard: Feminist
Criticism and Shakespeare: King Lear and Measure for
Measure. Political Shakespeare: New Essays in Cultural
Materialism. Ed. Jonathan Dollimore and Alan Sinfield. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1985. 88108.
Newnham, John. Newnams Nightcrowe. A Bird that
Breedeth Braules in Many Families and Housholdes.
1590. STC 18498.
The Oxford English Dictionary Online. http://dictionary.
oed.com
Perkins, William. Christian Oeconomy. 1609. The Works of
William Perkins. Ed. Ian Breward. Appleford, Eng.:
Sutton Courtenay P, 1970. 41139.
Pollock, Linda, ed. A Lasting Relationship: Parents and
Children over Three Centuries. London: Fourth Estate,
1987.<J244>
Shakespeare, William. The Riverside Shakespeare. 2nd ed.
Ed. G. Blakemore Evans, et al. Boston: Houghton
Mifflin, 1997.
Shuger, Debora Kuller. Habits of Thought in the English
Renaissance: Religion, Politics, and the Dominant Culture. Berkeley: U of California P, 1990.
Smith, Henry. A Preparative to Mariage. 1591. STC
22685.5.
Speght, Rachel. From A Mouzell for Melastomus. 1617.
The Paradise of Women: Writings by Englishwomen of
the Renaissance. Ed. Betty Travitsky. New York:
Columbia UP, 1989. 10407.<J244>

Stone, Lawrence. The Family, Sex and Marriage in

England, 15001800. New York: Harper and Row,
1977.<J244>
Thompson, E. P. Happy Families. Review of Lawrence
Stone, The Family, Sex and Marriage in England
15001800. New Society 8 Sept. 1977: 499501.
Wing, John. The Crowne Conjugall. Middelburgh, Eng.,
1620.
Wrightson, Keith. English Society, 15801680. London:
Hutchinson, 1982.<J244>
Young, Bruce W. King Lear and the Calamity of Fatherhood. In the Company of Shakespeare: Essays on English Renaissance Literature in Honor of G. Blakemore
Evans. Ed. Thomas Moisan and Douglas Bruster.
Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson UP, 2001.
Young, Margaret Blair. Dear Stone. Unpublished play
script. Performed at Margetts Theatre, Brigham
Young University, Provo, Utah, May 1424, 1997.
. Hanauma Bay. Turning Hearts: Short Stories on Family Life. Ed. Orson Scott Card and David Dollahite.
Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1994. 16067.
. Hanging Out the Dirty Language. Love Chains. Salt
Lake City: Signature, 1997. 2933.
. I Am Jane. Unpublished play script. Performed at
Genesis Branch meeting, Midvale, Utah, March 5,
2000; Villa Theatre, Springville, Utah, June 30
July 10, 2000; Curie Metropolitan High School,
Chicago, July 29, 2000; and Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, February 910, 2001.
. Salvador. Salt Lake City: Aspen Books, 1992.
Young, Margaret Blair, and Darius Aidan Gray. One More
River to Cross. Vol. 1 of Standing on the Promises. Salt
Lake City: Bookcraft, 2000.

63

LDS Picture-Book Authors and Illustrators

Publishing in the National Market
Rick Walton

Between 1973 and 1990, there were a total of

seventeen picture books by Mormons published
with national publishers. And then something happened. I dont know what. Because in 1991 alone,
there were nine picture books published, and the
numbers steadily grew, until as far as I can determine, in 2001 there will be 23 picture books coming out from national publishers, written and/or
illustrated by members of the Church.
Several times national editors and agents have
asked me, Whats going on out there in Utah?
Were getting so many good submissions from
Utah writers and illustrators. The field is booming, and I believe LDS authors and illustrators are
going to have an even larger presence than theyve
had before.
There are at least three things happening now
that I believe will push the LDS presence in the
national picture-book market even higher.
First is the BYU Writing for Children conference, organized by Chris Crowe, John Bennion,
and Carol Lynch Williams. This conference, begun
in 2000, is attracting first-rate writers, illustrators,
and editors. A lot of networking goes on, a lot of
mentoring, a lot of good writing.
Second, Im teaching classes at BYU in writing
picture books, and Im getting some incredibly talented students. I hope that several national picture-book writers come from these classes. Richard
Hull, in his BYU illustration classes, is also using
his picture-book illustration experience to train a
number of very talented LDS artists who are interested in the childrens book field.

Third, weve launched a new listserv, Utah

Childrens Writers. This is an e-mail list for people
who want to write for children, and who live in
Utah, have lived in Utah, plan to live in Utah someday, or are interested in Utah for some reason. On
this list we discuss the writing and marketing process
and the writing life. We pass along information.
We make connections. We plan events. This list is
not restricted to members of the Church. We welcome members from other backgrounds. But because
of its Utah focus, the list has a large LDS presence;
and we hopeful that it will help LDS writers and
illustrators develop their craft and their marketability. To join the list, send a blank e-mail to
utahchildrenswriters-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.
As of March 2001, the list had only been in existence for a little over a month and already had
about 100 members.
These, and other resources, I believe, will push
the LDS presence on the national picture-book
market to a new level in coming years. Ten years
from now I expect the list Ive compiled below to
be three to four times as long.
Since the purpose of this list is to show what
LDS picture-book authors and illustrators are
doing on the national market, I have not included
books published for the LDS market. Some of the
authors and illustrators on this list have produced
books other than picture books. I have not included
those books in this list.
Im sure that there are people and books that I
have missed. If you know of any such, please let me
know at rick@rickwalton.com.
65

AML Annual 2002

LDS PICTURE-BOOK AUTHORS

AND ILLUSTRATORS
Andersen, Bethanne, illustrator. Bethanne lives in Idaho,
and commutes each week to Provo where she teaches illustration at BYU.
Bluebird Summer, by Deborah Hopkinson. Greenwillow, 2001.
Kindle Me a Riddle: A Pioneer Story, by Roberta Karim.
Greenwillow, 1999.
A Prayer for the Earth: The Story of Naamah, Noahs Wife,
by Sandy Eisenberg Sasso. Jewish Lights, 1996.
Bagley, Pat, author/illustrator. Pat is the editorial cartoonist for the Salt Lake Tribune and is the author and/or illustrator of several very funny books for the LDS market.
Peek-A-Boo Magic. Aspen, 1995.
Showdown at Slickrock. Il. Guy Francis. Aspen, 1996.
Bowen, Anne. Anne is new to the field and, with a beautiful writing style, shows great promise.
I Loved You Before You Were Born. Il. Greg Shed.
HarperCollins, 2001.
Buehner, Caralyn. Caralyn is part of the very successful
Buehner team. She has written many of the books that her
husband, Mark, has illustrated. This year her first book
not illustrated by her husband will be published.
The Escape of Marvin the Ape. Il. Mark Buehner. Dial,
1992.
Fannys Dream. Il. Mark Buehner. Dial, 1996.
I Did It, Im Sorry. Il. Mark Buehner. Dial, 1998.
I Want to Say I Love You. Il. Jacqueline Rogers. Phyllis
Fogelman Books, 2001.
Its a Spoon, Not a Shovel. Il. Mark Buehner. Dial, 1995.
A Job for Wittilda. Il. Mark Buehner. Dial, 1993.
Buehner, Mark, illustrator. Mark has a unique, delightful
style that is in high demand with publishers. He has
received Notable awards from the American Library Association and Childrens Choice awards from the International Reading Association.
The Adventures of Taxi Dog, by Debra and Sal Barracca.
Dial, 1990.
The Escape of Marvin the Ape, by Caralyn Buehner.
Dial, 1992.
Fannys Dream, by Caralyn Buehner. Dial, 1996.
Harvey Potters Balloon Farm, by Jerdine Nolen. Lothrop
Lee & Shepard, 1994.
I Am the Cat, by Alice Schertle. Lothrop, 1999.
66

I Did It, Im Sorry, by Caralyn Buehner. Dial, 1998.

Its a Spoon, Not a Shovel, by Caralyn Buehner. Dial,
1995.
A Job For Wittilda, by Caralyn Buehner. Dial, 1993.
Maxi, the Hero, by Debra and Sal Barracca. Dial, 1995.
My Life with a Wave, by Catherine Cowan and Octavio
Paz. Lothrop Lee & Shepard, 1997.
My Monster Mama Loves Me So, by Laura Leuck.
Lothrop, 1999.
No More Water in the Tub, by Tedd Arnold. Puffin,
1998.
Cannon, A. E. (Ann Edwards). Anns greatest writing successes have come in writing for young adults. But shes a
versatile writer; and besides writing for newspapers and
middle-grade audiences, she has also written picture
books.
I Know What You Do When I Go to School. Il. Jennifer
Mazzucco. Gibbs Smith, 1996.
Covey, Traci OVery. Traci has illustrated mostly for
Gibbs Smith. Her style is fun.
Mapped Out: The Search for Snookums, by Carol
Baicker-McKee. Gibbs Smith, 1997.
Duncan, Robert, illustrator. Roberts one picture book is a
beautiful piece that makes you wish hed do more. He was
born and raised in Utah, studied at the University of Utah,
and is now a respected fine artist specializing in art of the
American West.
Amber on the Mountain, by Tony Johnston. Dial, 1994.
Evans, Lezlie. Lezlie, from Manassas, Virginia, is relatively
new to the field but has written several fun books. Her
books are a joy to read out loud.
Can You Count Ten Toes?: Count to 10 in 10 Different
Languages. Il. Denis Roche. Houghton Mifflin, 1999.
If I Were the Wind. Il. Victoria Lisi. Ideals Childrens
Books, 1997.
Rain Song. Il. Cynthia Jabar. Houghton Mifflin, 1995.
Snow Dance. Il. Cynthia Jabar. Houghton Mifflin,
1997.
Sometimes I Feel Like a Storm Cloud. Il. Marsha Gray
Carrington. Mondo Publishers, 1999.
Evans, Richard Paul. Rick is probably the best-selling
LDS picture-book author. His picture books are allegories
that appeal mostly to the adult market, though they can be
enjoyed by children. His background in marketing, where

LDS Picture-Book Authors and Illustrators

messages need to be presented succinctly and simply, has

led to his picture books being, I believe, better works than
his novels.
The Christmas Candle. Il. Jacob Collins. Simon &
Schuster, 1998.
The Dance. Il. Jonathan Linton. Simon & Schuster, 1999.
The Spyglass: A Story of Faith. Il. Jonathan Linton.
Simon & Schuster, 2000.
Foster, Karen, author/illustrator. Karen, an artist from
Davis County who has published several books in crafts
fields, has had some success also in picture books.
Good Night My Little Chicks/Buenas noches mis pollitos.
First Story Press, 1997.
Francis, Guy, illustrator. Guys style is fun, fanciful, and
rich.
Showdown at Slickrock, by Pat Bagley. Aspen, 1996.
Garns, Allen, illustrator. Allen graduated from BYU and
studied at the Art Center College of Design. Hes won
many awards for his illustrations.
Astronauts Are Sleeping, by Natalie Standiford. Bradford, 1996.
The Gift Stone, by Robyn Harbert Eversole. Knopf, 1998.
When I Go Camping with Grandma, by Marion Dane
Bauer. Bridgewater, 1995.
Winter Fox, by Jennifer Brutschy. Knopf, 1993.
Givens, Terryl. Terryl Givens is a professor of English.
Dragon Scales and Willow Leaves. Il. Andrew Portwood.
Putnam, 1997.

Father, We Thank You, by Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Seastar, 2001.
Greenbrook Farm, by Bonnie Pryor. Simon & Schuster,
1991.
Home by Five, by Ruth Wallace-Brodeur. McElderry,
1992.
If I Were Queen of the World, by Fred Hiatt. McElderry,
1997.
Lotties Dream, by Bonnie Pryor. Simon & Schuster,
1992.
Lucy Comes to Stay, by Rosemary Wells. Dial, 1994.
Merry Birthday, Nora Noel, by Ann Dixon. Eerdmans,
1996.
Michael and the Cats, by Barbara Abercrombie.
McElderry, 1993.
Miss Opals Auction, by Susan Vizurraga. Henry Holt,
2000.
Murphy and Kate, by Ellen Howard. Simon & Schuster,
1995.
My Fathers Hands, by Joanne Ryder. William Morrow,
1994.
Sarahs Sleepover, by Bobbie Rodriguez. Viking, 2000.
Shadows Are About, by Ann Whitford Paul. Scholastic,
1992.
Waiting for Noel: An Advent Story, by Ann Dixon. Eerdmans, 2000.
Wheres the Baby? by Tom Paxton. Morrow, 1993.
Wilderness Cat, by Natalie Kinsey-Warnock. Cobblehill, 1992.

Glenn, Sharlee. Sharlee has taught at BYU and now spends

most of her time mentoring her children. She has had one
middle-grade novel published by Bookcraft and has been
picked up by Putnam as a picture-book author.
Gracie and Roo. Il. Dan Andreasen. Putnam, 2004.

Harris, Trudy. Trudy is another newcomer to the field,

and shows great possibilities for the future.
100 Days of School. Il. Beth Griffis Johnson. Millbrook,
2000.
Pattern Bugs. Millbrook, 2001.
Pattern Fish. Il. Anne Canevari Green. Millbrook,
1999.
Up Bear, Down Bear. Houghton Mifflin, 2001.

Graham, Mark, illustrator. Mark alternates between New

York and Utah. Hes the winner of many illustration
awards. Booklist says that Grahams softly blended fullcolor paintings reflect gentle warmth.
Alicias Tutu, by Robin Pulver. Dial, 1997.
Baby Talk, by Fred Hiatt. Margaret McElderry, 1999.
Charlie Anderson, by Barbara Abercrombie. Aladdin,
1995.
Come Meet Muffin! by Joyce Carol Oates. Ecco, 1998.
The Dream Jar, by Bonnie Pryor. Morrow, 1996.

Hawkes, Kevin, illustrator. Kevin is perhaps the most successful LDS picture-book illustrator. A graduate of USU,
he was born in Texas and has lived all over the world with
his military family. He now lives with his wife and children on an island in Maine.
And to Think That We Thought That Wed Never Be
Friends, by Mary Ann Hoberman. Crown, 1999.
Boogie Bones, by Elizabeth Loredo. Putnam, 1997.
By the Light of the Halloween Moon, by Caroline Stutson. Puffin, 1993.
67

AML Annual 2002

Cowpokes, by Caroline Stutson. Lothrop, 1999.

Dreamland, by Roni Schotter. Orchard, 1996.
The Enormous Snore, by M. L. Miller. Putnam, 1995.
Handel, Who Knew What He Liked, by Matthew T.
Anderson. Candlewick, 2001.
Imagine That: Poems of Never Was, by Jack Prelutsky.
Knopf, 1998.
Jasons Bears, by Marion Dane Bauer. Hyperion, 2000.
Lady Bugatti, by Joyce Maxner. Puffin, 1991.
The Librarian Who Measured the Earth, by Kathryn
Lasky. Little Brown, 1994.
Marven of the Great North Woods, by Kathryn Lasky.
Harcourt Brace, 1997.
My Friend the Piano, by Catherine Cowan. Lothrop, 1998.
My Little Sister Ate 1 Hare, by Bill Grossman. Crown,
1996.
Nose, by Nicolai Gogol, retold by Catherine Cowan.
Lothrop, 1994.
Painting the Wind, by Michelle Dionetti. Little Brown,
1996.
The Poombah of Badoombah, by Dee Lillegard. Putnam,
1998.
Timothy Tunny Swallowed a Bunny, by Bill Grossman.
Laura Geringer, 2001.
The Turnip, by Walter De La Mare. David R. Godine,
1992.
Weslandia, by Paul Fleischman. Candlewick, 1999.
Then the Troll Heard the Squeak. Author/illustrator. Puffin, 1991.
His Royal Buckliness. Lothrop, 1992.
Henriod, Lorraine. Lorraine was one of the earliest LDS
childrens writers to publish nationally. She helped organize a writers group, which also included Ivy Ruckman,
Ann Edwards Cannon, Barbara Williams, Dorothy Allred
Solomon, and several other very fine writers. Most of Lorraines books are nonfiction for children.
Grandmas Wheelchair. Albert Whitman, 1982.
Hepworth, Cathi, author/illustrator. Cathi is an MFA
graduate from BYU. She lives with her family in Seattle.
Her style is beautifully wacky.
Antics!: An Alphabetical Anthology. Il. Putnam, 1992.
Bug Off! A Swarm of Insect Words. Ed. Nancy Paulsen.
Putnam, 1998.
Hattie Baked a Wedding Cake, by Toby Speed. Putnam,
1994.
While You Are Asleep, by Gwynne L. Isaacs. Walker,
1991.
68

Hong, Lily Toy, author/illustrator. Lily used to illustrate

for Hallmark, but started illustrating picture books so she
could stay at home with her kids. She lives with her family in Salt Lake City.
The Empress and the Silkworm. Albert Whitman, 1995.
How the Ox Star Fell from Heaven. Albert Whitman,
1991.
Two of Everything. Il. Albert Whitman, 1993.
Mr. Sun and Mr. Sea, by Andrea Butler. Goodyear, 1994.
Hull, Richard, illustrator. Richard is on the illustration
faculty at BYU where he is hard at work training the new
crop of LDS illustrators. His style is delightfully, fantastically bizarre.
The Alphabet from Z to A. (With Much Confusion on the
Way), by Judith Viorst. Atheneum, 1994.
The Cat & The Fiddle & More, by Jim Aylesworth.
Atheneum, 1992.
Jellyfish to Insects, by William Hemsley. Gloucester, 1991.
My Sisters Rusty Bike, by Jim Aylesworth. Atheneum,
1996.
Jacobs, Jim. Jim is a professor in the BYU Elementary
Education department where he teaches childrens literature classes. He has served on the Caldecott Committee.
Babri. Il. Fahimeh Amiri. Gibbs Smith, 1994.
Kosaka, Fumi, illustrator. Fumi is assistant to the art
director at HarperCollins.
Bubbles, Bubbles, by Kathi Appelt. HarperCollins,
2001.
Lets Count the Raindrops and Other Weather Poems.
Viking, 2001.
Ordinary Mary, by Emily Pearson. Gibbs Smith, 2001.
Leavitt, Mel. Mel lives in Utah with his wife and children.
He is an editor for The Friend.
Grena and the Magic Pomegranate. Il. Beth Wright. Carolrhoda, 1994.
Snow Story. Il. JoEllen McAllister Stammen. Simon &
Schuster, 1995.
Madsen, Ross Martin. Ross, I understand, is currently
serving as a mission president.
Perrywinkle and the Book of Magic Spells. Il. Dirk Zimmer. Dial, 1986.
Perrywinkles Magic Match. Il. Dirk Zimmer. Dial,
1997.
Stewart Stork. Il. Megan Halsey. Dial, 1993.

LDS Picture-Book Authors and Illustrators

Meidell, Sherry, illustrator. Besides her national books,

Sherry has created several successful childrens books for
Deseret Book.
ABCs of Uniforms and Outfits, by Barbara Williams.
Winston-Derek, 1991.
Emma Jos Song, by Faye Gibbons. Boyds Mills, 2001.
Newbold, Greg, illustrator. Greg, a BFA graduate from BYU,
has won Awards of Merit from the Society of Illustrators
and Communication Arts, and lives in Salt Lake City.
Winter Lullaby, by Barbara Seuling. Harcourt, 1998.
Spring Song, by Barbara Seuling. Harcourt, 2001.
The Touch of the Masters Hand, by Myra Brooks Welch.
Aspen, 1997.
Olson, Julie, illustrator. Julie is a popular childrens artist
in the LDS market, and has her first national picture book
coming out in 2001.
Hip, Hip Hooray for Annie McCrae, by Brad Wilcox.
Gibbs Smith, 2001.
Osmond, Alan and Suzanne. Alan and Suzanne have
entered the childrens book field with their fairy-tale adaptations.
Just Right. Il. Thomas Aarestad. Ideals Childrens Books,
1998.
If the Shoe Fits. Il. Thomas Aarestad. Ideals Childrens
Books, 1998.
Huff n Puff. Il. Thomas Aarestad. Ideals Childrens
Books, 1999.
Pearson, Emily. Emily has also coauthored books with her
mother, Carol Lynn Pearson.
Ordinary Mary. Il. by Fumi Kosaka. Gibbs Smith, 2001.
Post, Howard, illustrator. Howard has illustrated some
fun picture books and has worked mostly with Gibbs Smith.
The Magic Boots, by Scott Emerson. Gibbs Smith, 1994.
Under the Moon and Stars, by Scott Emerson. Gibbs
Smith, 1995.

his wife, Rosanna. He has won many awards for his illustrations. His last name is pronounced soon-pete.
Coolies, by Yin. Philomel, 2001.
Dear Santa, Please Come to the 19th Floor, by Yin.
Philomel, 2001.
Jin Woo, by Eve Bunting. Clarion, 2001.
The Last Dragon, by Susan Miho Nunes. Houghton
Mifflin, 1997.
Molly Bannaky, by Alice McGill. Houghton Mifflin, 1999.
Momma, Where Are You From? by Marie Bradby.
Orchard, 2000.
More Than Anything Else, by Marie Bradby. Orchard,
1995.
Peacebound Trains, by Haemi Balgassi. Clarion, 1996.
A Sign, by George Ella Lyon. Orchard 1998.
The Silence in the Mountains, by Liz Rosenberg.
Orchard, 1999.
Silver Packages: An Appalachian Christmas Story, by
Cynthia Rylant. Orchard, 1997.
So Far from the Sea, by Eve Bunting. Clarion, 1998.
Something Beautiful, by Sharon Dennis Wyeth. Doubleday, 1998.
Where Is Grandpa? by T. A. Barron. Philomel, 2000.
Around Town. Author/illustrator. Lothrop, 1994.
Strickland, Michael. Michael, a professor of English, is
also the editor of collections for children of AfricanAmerican literature.
Haircuts at Sleepy Sams, by Keaf Holliday. Boyds Mills,
1998.
Terry, Will, illustrator. Will lives in Utah Valley. Besides
this delightful beginning reader picture book, Will is
much in demand for book covers and other illustrations.
Pizza Pat, by Rita Gelman. Random House, 1999.

Slangerup, Erik Jon. Erik, a graduate of BYU, lives in

Memphis, Tennessee, with his wife, Debbie, and their two
boys.
Dirt Boy. Il. John Manders. Whitman, 2000.

Tunnell, Michael O. Michael teaches childrens literature

at BYU. He has served on the Newbery Committee.
Beauty and the Beastly Children. Il. John Emil Cymerman. Tambourine, 1993.
Chinook. Il. Barry Root. Tambourine, 1993.
Halloween Pie. Il. Kevin OMalley. Lothrop, 1999.
The Jokes on You, George. Il. Kathy Osborne. Tambourine, 1993.
Mailing May. Il. Ted Rand. Greenwillow, 1997.

Soentpiet, Chris, illustrator. Chris was born in Seoul,

Korea, and was adopted, when eight, along with his sister,
by an American family. He received a BFA in illustration
from Pratt Institute in 1992, and lives in Brooklyn with

Walton, Rick. Rick is the compiler of this list. You can find
out more about him at his website: www.rickwalton. com.
The Bear Came Over to My House. Il. James Warhola.
Putnam, 2001.
69

AML Annual 2002

Bullfrog Pops! Il. Chris McAllister. Gibbs Smith, 1999.

Bunny Day. Il. Paige Miglio. HarperCollins, 2002.
Cars at Play, with Ann Walton. Il. James Croft. Putnam,
2002.
How Can You Dance? Il. Ana Lopez-Escriva. Putnam,
2001.
How Many How Many How Many. Il. Cynthia Jabar.
Candlewick, 1993.
Little Dogs Say Rough. Il. Henry Cole. Putnam, 2000.
My Two Hands, My Two Feet. Il. Julia Gorton. Putnam,
2000.
Noahs Square Dance. Il. Thor Wickstrom. Lothrop Lee
& Shepard, 1995.
Once There Was a Bull...frog. Il. Greg Hally. Gibbs
Smith, 1995.
One More Bunny. Il. Paige Miglio. Lothrop, 2000.
Pig Pigger Piggest. Il. Jimmy Holder. Gibbs Smith, 1997.
So Many Bunnies. Il. Paige Miglio. Lothrop, Lee &
Shepard, 1998.
Thats My Dog! Il. Julia Gorton. Putnam, 2001.
Thats What You Get. Il. Jimmy Holder. Gibbs Smith,
2000.
What to Do When a Bug Climbs in Your Mouth and
Other Poems to Drive You Buggy. Il. Nancy Carlson.
Lothrop Lee & Shepard, 1995.
Why the Banana Split. Il. Jimmy Holder. Gibbs Smith,
1998.
You Dont Always Get What You Hope For. Il. Heidi Stetson. Gibbs Smith, 1996.
Wilcox, Brad. Brad is a professor in the BYU Education
Department, and a popular lecturer and author for youth.
Hip, Hip Hooray for Annie McCrae. Il. Julie Olson.
Gibbs Smith, 2001.
Williams, Barbara. Barbara is one of the first members of
the Church to achieve success in the national market writing for children. She is still writing and publishing.
ABCs of Uniforms and Outfits. Il. Sherry Meidell. Winston-Derek, 1991.
Alberts Toothache. Il. Kay Chorao. Dutton, 1988.
Chester Chipmunks Thanksgiving. Il. Kay Chorao. Dutton, 1978.
Donna Jeans Disaster. Il. Margot Apple. Albert Whitman, 1986.
Gary and the Very Terrible Monster. Il. Lois Axelman.
Childrens Press, 1973.
Guess Whos Coming to My Tea Party? Il. Yuri Salzman.
Holt, 1979.
70

Hello, Dandelions. Photos by the author. Holt, 1979.

The Horrible, Impossible Witch Child. Il. Carol Nicklaus. Avon, 1982.
If Hes My Brother. Il. Tomie De Paola. Harvey House,
1976.
Jeremy Isnt Hungry. Il. Martha Alexander. Dutton,
1989.
Kevins Grandma. Il. Kay Chorao. Dutton, 1991.
Never Hit a Porcupine. Il. Anne Rockwell. Dutton,
1977.
So What If Im a Sore Loser. Il. Linda Strauss Edwards.
Harcourt, 1981.
Someday, Said Mitchell. Il. Kay Chorao. Dutton, 1976.
A Valentine for Cousin Archie. Il. Kay Chorao. Dutton,
1980.
We Can Jump. Il. Mary P. Maloney and Stan Fleming.
Childrens Press, 1974.
Whatever Happened to Beverly Biglers Birthday? Il.
Emily Arnold McCully. Harcourt, 1978.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

QUESTION: There really seems to be an amazing level of collegiality among writers of childrens and
young adult books. Wheres the lonely, struggling
artist? Wheres the competition and suspicion in this
dog-eat-dog profession?
You cant be uppity when youre writing for
children. The whole world is telling you youre not
that good, so you just dont have the ego problems. I got my start in Louise Plummers writing
group. Lots of people helped me. I really want to
pass it on.
QUESTION: How do you find an illustrator for
your book?
Thats a common misconception. You dont.
The publisher will want to get the illustrator.
QUESTION: How do you submit manuscripts?
I tell people to do it just like an English paper.
Double-spaced, wide margins, dont bother with
page breaks unless theres a reason why the placement of breaks is crucial.
QUESTION: Do you need an agent?
Theyre less essential. A lot of publishers will
look at a manuscript without an agent. And its
sometimes as hard to find an agent as it is to find a
publisher. But the fact of the matter is that most

LDS Picture-Book Authors and Illustrators

publishers work with people they already know in

some way. Networking is the industry reality.
Theyre interested in people theyve met at a conference or whose work theyre already familiar
with. Few come out of the slush pile.
[During the question-answer period, Lael
Littke, a well-established young adult author from
Pasadena, California, recommended that interested professionals join the Society of Childrens
Writers and Illustrators. It started in Southern
California but it has regional meetings, sends out
four bulletins a year, has an annual conference in
August in Los Angeles, and has really fabulous
material for a membership fee of $50 a year. The
website is www.scbwi.org. Rick added that a
regional conference of this group is scheduled for
April 2001 in Utah and is currently (February
2001) looking for a regional coordinator.]
Rick Walton is one of the most prolific authors/illustrators of childrens books in the nation with 41 books out
by the end of 2000 and three more scheduled to come
out in 2001.

71

Then and Now:

A Survey of Mormon Young Adult Writers
Jesse S. Crisler and Chris Crowe

Even a cursory glance by a would-be researcher

at literature available to Mormon teenagers up to
1900 leads to an inescapable, if disappointing, conclusion: Almost none existed.1 On the one hand,
such a dearth is initially startling, for a sizeable stream
of books targeting an audience comprised of readers older than children but presumably not yet prepared to grapple with the demands exacted by
adult fare had been steadily flowing since the publication within a year of each other of first novels
by Americas first writers for adolescents, Horatio
Alger and Louisa May Alcott, whose Ragged Dick
and Little Women respectively appeared in 1867 and
1868. If Americas teens generally provided a ready
and apparently eager audience for stories featuring
characters from their own age group, an audience
on the tastes of which such enterprising literary
entrepreneurs as Gilbert Patten and Edward Stratemeyer capitalized until well into the 20th century,
one wonders why similar material for LDS adolescents did not likewise pour forth.
On the other hand, the paucity of literature for
19th-century Mormon adolescents is, in retrospect, eminently predictable, since the amount of
fiction written for Mormon adults at that time is
itself skimpy. Although in his watershed review,
Mormon Literature: Progress and Prospects,
Eugene England, one of the most persistent and
knowledgeable celebrants of Mormon letters,
observes that there is evidence that Mormon pioneers read fiction, even during their treks (465),
he posits only two examples of such evidence, an
1844 tract by Parley P. Pratt, Dialogue between

Joseph Smith and the Devil, and Nephi Andersons novel, Added Upon (1898). If little fiction was
being read by Mormon adults and even less was being
written, one could hardly expect a reversed trend to
obtain in the case of LDS young adult literature of
the same period.
That it did not made this self-assigned task,
that is, a survey of Mormon young adult writers,
a relatively simple one, at least at first. As for
England, Added Upon became the starting point
for such a survey. Though not the first Mormon
novel, in many ways it is the most typical of the
wintry festival of unrelieved technical mediocrity
(or worse) offered the unsuspecting reader at the
turn of the last century: cold dialogue, pallid characterization, gelid style, frozen plots, and bleak
themes. Suffused with heavy doses of Mormon
doctrine, neither Andersons most famous novel,
his many other efforts, nor novels by his few contemporaries represented exciting reading either
then or now. Unlike Little Women which successive
reading generations discover anew, adapting its
timeless moral lessons to their own unique circumstances, who now recalls such Mormon texts as
Hilton Hall published in 1898 by the firm of
George Q. Cannon and Sons, or Andersons 1900
novel, Marcus King, Mormon?
The Home Literature movement, child of
forward-thinking Mormon intellectuals Orson F.
Whitney, B. H. Roberts, Emmeline B. Wells, and
Susa Young Gates, scarcely improved the quality of
literature for Mormon teenagers though it vastly
extended its quantity. Whitney confidently predicted
73

AML Annual 2002

in 1888 that the Church could yet have Miltons

and Shakespeares of [its] own. Gods ammunition
is not exhausted. His brightest spirits are held in
reserve for the latter times. In Gods name and by
his help we will build up a literature whose top
shall touch heaven (300). In response, both
Roberts and Gates wrote novels. But the formers
Corianton: A Nephite Story (1902) is barely readable, while the latters John Stevens Courtship
(1909), though more successful, still moves sluggishly if reactions by both undergraduate and graduate students in recent courses taught at Brigham
Young University furnish a gauge to its readability.
Still, as the 20th century ineluctably progressed,
so did both the quantity and quality of LDS teen
fiction; while most writers doubtless considered
adults their audience, and Deseret Book marketed
books as either adult or juvenile fiction, several
works published during the 1960s, had they
appeared today, would be viewed as young adult
novels, either because of their romantic plots, their
protagonists ages, or their subject matter.
Notable among these are historical novels by
Paul Bailey dating from the 1940s; Bailey was one
of few to breach the invisible wall surrounding
national publishers where Mormon writers were
concerned when Doubleday in 1964 issued For
Time and All Eternity, certainly an unlikely title for
a work hoping to tap a national audience and one
which found its way to home libraries of young
Mormons of the time.2 Olive Woolley Burt, an
example in so many areas to aspiring Mormon
writers, also had her stories published by a number
of national presses. More regionally, the exploits of
the Mormon Battalion perennially attracted both
authors and their readers, especially as its centennial neared: Baileys For This My Glory (1940),
Mabel Harmers Dennis and the Mormon Battalion
(1946), and S. Dilworth Youngs An Adventure in
Faith (1956) all realistically depict the battalions
trials on the trail as it wound its fruitless way
through the thinly populated deserts of the American Southwest. The latter two chronicle those trials
through the eyes of teenage narrators.
Earlier in the century, cloying tales had continued to gush from the font of Nephi Anderson. For
74

example, Romance of a Missionary (1919) reports

the saga of Elder Willard Dean who, despite the
intrusion of his own romanticizing tendencies,
enthusiastically succeeds in converting British
Saints. Perhaps a cut above Anderson were novels
by Howard R. Driggs; titles such as Wild Roses,
A Tale of the Rockies (1916), Ben the Wagon Boy
(1944), and George the Handcart Boy (1952) not
only intimate their plots but also suggest their
intended readership. Harmers The Youngest Soldier
(1953), portraying a plausible fifteen-year-old
narrator, also merits attention as a readable adolescent text. Finally, The Road to the Valley (1961) by
Virginia Nielsen created Mormon literary history.
Subtitled A Novel for Young Adults, it was the
first book to employ the term young adult, a
classification then largely unused, despite having
been coined three years earlier in 1958 by the
American Library Association to identify an
increasing body of literature obviously geared neither to adults nor children.
Even so, the Church officially remained hesitant to target its teen members as a discrete segment of a literate audience whose reading needs
and literary preferences clearly differed from those
of other segments. True, Marion D. Hanks, then
one of the seven Presidents of Seventy, and Elaine
Cannon, a well-known Salt Lake City newspaperwoman, youth speaker, and future Young Womens
general president, began editing The Era of
Youth in July 1960. This unpaginated pull-out
center section of the Improvement Era never contained fiction, relying instead on inspirational fare
deemed appropriate for Mormon youth of the
time. By February 1963, this department, now
appearing at the end of each issue rather in the center, was numbered consecutively with the rest of
the magazine. In time, it became a regular feature,
with no assigned place in any particular issue. The
Improvement Era ended its publication run in
December 1970, transformed into the Ensign,
which also subsumed the Churchs other adult
magazines: The Instructor, Relief Society Magazine,
and Millennial Star. The Era of Youth emerged as
a full-fledged magazine in its own rightthe New
Era, which still exists.

Survey of Mormon Young Adult Writers

From its first issue in January 1971, it showed

that the Church had accepted the challenge of providing material specifically for Mormon teenagers.
By its sixth issue (July), the magazine carried its
first short story, Non Hero-Type Rescues, by
M. de Koning Hoag, with single stories later that
same year in the September, October, and December numbers. While two stories did appear in
December 1972, standard editorial procedure for
the New Era evidently dictated that an issue
include no more than one short story per issue, not
necessarily in every issue. Not until 1976 did a
short story appear in every issue.
Among other reasons those of us in the field
should be grateful to the New Era is that, largely
due to the efforts of its editor Brian Kelly, it gave
impetus to the fledgling careers of several nowimportant Mormon young adult writers, including
Jack Weyland, Louise Plummer, Chris Crowe, and
Ann Edwards Cannon. Thus, the New Era set the
stage for Mormon young adult fiction to come into
its own at last.
If the New Era opened that theater, certainly
Mormon writers were not tardy in filling it with
productions. Indeed, Charlies Monument, Blaine M.
Yorgasons first attempt at longer fiction, could be
called Mormondoms most successful one-act, having sold more than a quarter of a million copies
since its publication in 1976. The financial windfall of Charlies Monument no doubt caught the
attention of LDS publishers, for Bookcraft reissued
the novel under its own imprint in 1977.
Notwithstanding the success of a few pre-1970
novels, Deseret Book had systematically and steadfastly resisted the blandishments of popular fiction
as well as the potential for easy profit it purported.
That policy changed, however, in 1979 when Deseret
Book issued Dean Hughess Under the Same Stars.
The first volume of a teen trilogy, it dramatically
filled the new theater of Mormon young adult fiction as the first full-length performance.3
Hughess success led directly to Jack Weylands
first published novel, the sentimental Charly (1980),
a true Broadway blockbuster that was hugely profitable. The early success of these three novels convinced LDS publishers to make fiction a staple of

their annual publishing agendas.4 Many more followed, not just by Yorgason, Hughes, and Weyland,
but by an ever-burgeoning legion of Mormon young
adult authors writing material for both Mormon
and non-Mormon youth, developing plots around
both Mormon and other characters, and publishing work with both Mormon and national presses.
II
The pre-1979 closed (or at least highly limited)
Mormon fiction market did not prevent LDS
authors from publishing in national venues. As has
been previously pointed out, a handful of Mormon
writers were producing young adult novels in the
mid- and later 20th century, most notably Virginia
Sorensen, whose Miracles on Maple Hill (1956)
edged out Fred Gipsons Old Yeller (1956) and several other novels for the prestigious Newbery
Medal in 1957. Olive Woolley Burt published
young adult fiction and nonfiction in the national
market in the 1950s and 1960s,5 and R. R. Knudson published several groundbreaking young adult
novels in the early 1970s that, preTitle IX, featured young women as mainstream athletes.6
Two additional LDS veterans in the national
young adult field are Beatrice Sparks, author of Go
Ask Alice (1971) and other diaries of troubled teenagers, and Berniece Rabe, author of more than sixteen novels7; both have been publishing since the
1970s. Until the 1980s, these young adult authors
were among the very few Latter-day Saints who
found success in New York; but not long after Yorgason, Hughes, and Weyland cracked open the LDS
fiction market, a growing number of Mormon writers, including Hughes, began to make their presence known in New York publishing houses.
Though he is now best known for his extremely
popular Children of the Promise historical fiction
series for adults, Hughes began his career as a writer
for teenagers.8 Since his first two novels with
Deseret Book, he has published more than thirty
novels with Atheneum while continuing to publish
simultaneously in the LDS market. Hughess
books for teenagers range from historical fiction to
sports fiction, with a good number of popular
75

AML Annual 2002

series books (including Nutty and The Scrappers) in

between.9 Lael Littke, though not as prolific as
Hughes, has had a similar career pattern, with
more than twenty novels published by a variety of
national presses along with a handful of books by
Mormon publishers.10 In the young adult field,
no Mormon author can compare to these two
heavy hitters who have enjoyed sustained success
in both the national and the LDS markets.
Starting in the 1980s, Tracy Hickman, author
or coauthor of more than forty novels, has enjoyed
steady national success in the fantasy genre for
young adults. His titles include the Dragonlance
and Darksword series.11 Canadian author Martine
Bates, two-time winner of an AML Award for
Young Adult Literature, has also found dragon fantasy stories to be the pathway into print. Her 1993
AML Award winners, The Dragons Tapestry (1992)
and The Prism Moon (1993) began a trilogy which
she completed with The Takers Key for her second
AML prize in 1998. Her most recent work of fantasy, The Dollmage, will appear in 2001 with Tom
Finder following in 2002. The newest Mormon
author of young adult fantasy also resides in Canada;
Rebecca Tingle, a BYU graduate and former Rhodes
Scholar, will see her first novel, The Edge on the
Sword, released by Putnam in June 2001.
Former AML Award winners Ann Edwards Cannon and Louise Plummer are among the best-known
LDS authors of contemporary young adult fiction.
Both connected with Delacorte/Bantam Doubleday Dell Press through that publishers annual first
young adult novel contest. Cannon, whose most
recent novel was Amazing Gracie (1993), has published three novels with that company. Plummers
A Dance for Three (2000) was her fourth book with
Delacorte. Carol Lynch Williams is another Mormon writer discovered by the Delacorte contest.
Since her first novel for teenagers, Kelly and Me, in
1993, she has published sixteen books with Delacorte, Putnam, Deseret Book, and others.
Latter-day Saints have long had an interest in
Lamanites and Lamanite culture, and several Mormon authors of young adult fiction have used Native
American characters and settings in their novels.
Three of Paul Pittss four novels, all with Avon,
76

have dealt with contemporary Native American

characters and issues.12 Helen Hughes Vicks two
series, Walker of Time and Courage of the Stone,
both deal with pre-Columbian Native Americans.13 Thelma Hatch Wysss first young adult
novel, Star Girl, published by Viking in 1967, also
featured Native American characters. Her next two
books in the national market didnt appear until
twenty years later, and both were contemporary
realistic fiction.14 The Blue between the Clouds
(1992), Stephen Wunderlis first novel, was about a
Navajo boy in the late 1930s; his second book was
in the same vein as many of Dean Hughess novelscontemporary sports fiction.
The presence of Mormon authors in the national
young adult market continues to expand with several writers appearing in print within the last four
years. They include Kimberley Griffiths Little,
Breakaway (1997) and Enchanted Runner (1999);
Kristin Embry Litchman, All Is Well (1998); Laura
Torres, November Ever After (1999) and Crossing
Montana (2001); Lois Thompson Bartholomew,
The White Dove (2000); Laurel Brady, Say You Are
My Sister (2000); and Ron Woods, The Hero (2001).
In 2002, a few more will debut: Chris Crowe, Mississippi Summer, 1955 with Penguin Putnam, and
Randall Wright, A Hundred Days from Home with
Henry Holt.
Even so, more than half of the LDS authors of
young adult fiction that we have tracked down in
our research in this area write exclusively for the
LDS market. Despite the enormous popularity of
Charlies Monument, Blaine M. Yorgasons presence
in the Mormon young adult market has been
spotty at best. The single author with the most
staying power and highest name recognition is Jack
Weyland, a professor of physics at Ricks College,
who hit the scene with a bang when he published
Charly in 1980. Since then, in addition to regular
contributions of short fiction to the New Era, he
has dominated the market by publishing young
adult novels for Deseret Book at the rate of about
one per year. No author, not even Dean Hughes or
Gerald Lund, has dominated LDS fiction for adult
and young adults so thoroughly and for as long as
Weyland has.

Survey of Mormon Young Adult Writers

Many other young adult novelists labor in the

prodigious shadow cast by Weyland. Most prominent among these also-rans is Chris Heimerdinger,
whose 1989 Tennis Shoes among the Nephites, a timetravel story in which a teenage boy and his friends
find themselves transported into Book of Mormon
times, launched his career as a full-time novelist
and spawned the multi-volume Tennis Shoes series.
Heimerdinger is the only writer whose popularity
approaches the magnitude of Weylands.
Even though Weyland and Heimerdinger are
the two giants of LDS young adult fiction, several
other writers have enjoyed regular publication and
modest success with Mormon readers. Lee Nelsons
Storm Testament series has maintained steady popularity among LDS teenagers,15 and Alma Yates, a
middle-school principal in Arizona, has found the
time to publish eight young adult novels with
Deseret Book.16 More than thirty other writers
have published two or more novels in the Mormon
young adult market, and most of these books fall
into one of three categories: contemporary fiction,
historical fiction, or romance. Indeed, the popular
national market genres of mystery, suspense, fantasy, and science fiction are almost nonexistent in
the current LDS young adult market.
Clearly, Mormon writers have a certain knack
for producing young adult fiction for national and
LDS publishers. In part, this affinity for the field
derives from the LDS cultures general optimism
and from its perennial interest in youth. Young adult
fiction may also attract Mormon authors because
the field allows them to write stories that generally
do not require them to deal with taboo subjects or
situations that some members of the Church find
objectionable. Whatever the explanation for the
success of Mormon young adult writers, they seem
well able to hold their own in both the national
and LDS markets.
Jesse S. Crisler is a professor of English at Brigham Young
University whose specialties include late 19th-century
American literature and adolescent literature. He previously chaired BYUHawaiis Language, Literature, and
Communications Division and was a headmaster of
private academies for eight years in South Carolina. He

edited the letters of Frank Norris and coedited From

This Place: Lectures in Honor of David O. McKay
(1998) and Charles W. Chesnutt: Essays and Speeches
(1999). Works in progress include An Exemplary Citizen: Letters of Charles W. Chesnutt, 190632 (forthcoming in 2001), a collection of essays on William Dean
Howells, and a biography of Frank Norris.

Chris Crowe is a professor of English at Brigham Young

University specializing in adolescent literature and English education. He previously taught at BYUHawaii,
Himeji (Japan) Dokkyo University, and McClintock
High School. He is currently president-elect of the
Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of the National
Council of Teachers of English and editor of the Young
Adult Literature column for English Journal. In addition to many articles on young adult literature, his
recent projects include Presenting Mildred D. Taylor
(1999), Mississippi Summer, 1955 (forthcoming in
2002), and the book manuscript upon which this paper
is based, A Small Degree of Knowledge Concerning
Us: A Guide to LDS Authors Young Adult Fiction,
coedited with Crisler.

NOTES
1. In the contemporary publishing world, young adult
refers to readers aged twelve to eighteen. Publishers, bookstores, and libraries use this term, which replaces adolescent and juvenile, for marketing and shelving purposes.
2. As a teenager, Crisler remembers Baileys novel in
his parents home library; while he did not read it at the
time, his older sisters as young wives did.
3. As Wide as the River (1980) and Facing the Enemy
(1981) complete Hughess trilogy.
4. Interestingly, the current robust LDS fiction market owes a great debt to these writers who reset the stage
for LDS fiction: authors who were writing primarily for
teenagers. Most serious writers would cringe at having to
acknowledge literature for teenagers for anything.
5. As early as 1943 with her Petes Story Goes to Press,
Burt began publishing books for older juveniles with
national presses.
6. Knudsons first such novel was Zamballer (1972).
7. The first of these was Rass (1973).
8. Rumors of War began the Children of the Promise
Series in 1997.
9. The former series began with Nutty for President (1981),
while nine installments of the latter all appeared in 1999.
77

AML Annual 2002

10. Littkes first young adult novel was Shanny on Her

Own (1985).
11. Hickman began his Dragonlance saga with Dragons of Autumn Twilight (1984). With coauthor Margaret
Weis, he published Forging the Darksword, the first of that
series, in 1987.
12. These include Shadowmans Way (1992), Crossroads (1994), and Racing the Sun (1998).
13. Walker of Time (1993) inaugurated a trilogy; to
date, two volumes in the Courage of the Stone series have
appeared, the first, Shadow, in 1998.
14. These were Here at the Scenic-Vu Motel (1988)
and A Stranger Here (1993).
15. The first volume of this popular series was The
Storm Testament (1981).
16. The first of Yatess books was The Miracle of Miss
Willie (1984).

WORKS CITED
Alcott, Louis May. Little Women. 2 vols. Boston: Little,
Brown, 1869.
Alger, Horatio. Ragged Dick; or, Street Life in New York
with the Bootblacks. Boston: Loring, 1868.
Anderson, Nephi. Added Upon. Salt Lake City: Deseret
News, 1898.
. Marcus King, Mormon. Salt Lake City: G. Q. Cannon,
1900.
. Romance of a Missionary: A Story of English and Missionary Experiences. Independence, MO: Zions Printing, 1919.
Bailey, Paul. For This My Glory: A Story of Mormon Life.
Los Angeles: Lyman House, 1940.
. For Time and All Eternity. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1964.
Bartholomew, Lois Thompson. The White Dove. Boston:
Houghton, Mifflin, 2000.
Bates, Martine. The Dragons Tapestry. Red Deer, Canada:
Red Deer College P, 1992.
. The Prism Moon. Red Deer, Canada: Red Deer College P, 1993.
Brady, Laurel. Say You Are My Sister. New York: HarperCollins, 2000.
Burt, Olive Woolley. Petes Story Goes to Press. New York:
Henry Holt, 1943.
Cannon, A. E. Amazing Gracie. New York: Delacorte P,
1991.
Driggs, Howard R. Ben the Wagon Boy. Salt Lake City:
Stevens and Wallis, 1944.
78

. George the Handcart Boy. New York: Aladdin Books,

1952.
. Wild Roses: A Tale of the Rockies. Chicago: University
Publishing, 1916.
Dubois, Louise. Hilton Hall: or, a Thorn in the Flesh, a
Novel. Salt Lake City: Geo. Q. Cannon & Sons, 1898.
England, Eugene. Mormon Literature: Progress and
Prospects. Mormon Americana: A Guide to Sources
and Collections in the United States. Ed. David J.
Whittaker. Provo: BYU Studies, 1995. 455505.
Gates, Susa Young. John Stevens Courtship: A Story of the
Echo Canyon War. Salt Lake City: Deseret News,
1909.
Gipson, Fred. Old Yeller. New York: Harper, 1956.
Harmer, Mabel. Dennis and the Mormon Battalion. Salt
Lake City: Deseret Book, 1946.
. The Youngest Soldier. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book,
1953.
Hickman, Tracy, and Margaret Weis. Dragons of Autumn
Twilight. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1984.
Hickman, Tracy, and Margaret Weis. Forging the Darksword. New York: Bantam, 1987.
Heimerdinger, Chris. Tennis Shoes among the Nephites:
A Modern Adventure in an Ancient Land. Salt Lake
City: Covenant, 1989.
Hoag, M. de Koning. Non Hero-Type Rescues. New
Era 1 (July 1971): 4244.
Hughes, Dean. As Wide as the River. Salt Lake City:
Deseret Book, 1980.
. Facing the Enemy. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1981.
. Nutty for President. New York: Atheneum, 1981.
. Rumors of War. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1997.
. Under the Same Stars. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book,
1979.
Knudson, R. R. Zamballer. New York: Delacorte P, 1972.
Litchman, Kristin Embry. All Is Well. New York: Delacorte, 1998.
Littke, Lael. Shanny on Her Own. New York: Harcourt,
Brace, 1985.
Little, Kimberley Griffiths. Breakaway. New York: Avon,
1997.
. Enchanted Runner. New York: Avon, 1999.
Nelson, Lee. The Storm Testament. Springville, UT: Council P, 1981.
Nielsen, Virginia M. The Road to the Valley: A Novel for
Young Adults. New York: D. McKay, 1961.
Pitts, Paul. Crossroads. New York: Avon, 1994.
. Racing the Sun. New York: Avon, 1998.
. Shadowmans Way. New York: Avon: 1992.

Survey of Mormon Young Adult Writers

Plummer, Louise. A Dance for Three. New York: Delacorte

P, 2000.
Pratt, Parley P. A Dialogue between Josh. [sic] Smith &
the Devil. New York Herald. 1 January 1844.
Rabe, Berniece. Rass. Nashville: T. Nelson, 1973.
Roberts, B. H. Corianton: A Nephite Story. [Salt Lake
City]: n.p., 1902.
Sorensen, Virginia. Miracles on Maple Hill. New York:
Harcourt, Brace, 1956.
[Sparks, Beatrice]. Go Ask Alice. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
Prentice-Hall, 1971.
Torres, Laura. Crossing Montana. New York: Holiday
House, 2001.
. November Ever After. New York: Holiday House,
1999.
Vick, Helen Hughes. Shadow. Boulder, CO: Roberts
Rinehart, 1998.
. Walker of Time. Tucson, AZ: Harbinger House, 1993.
Weyland, Jack. Charly. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book,
1980.
Whitney, Orson F. Home Literature. The Contributor 9
(July 1898): 297302.
Williams, Carol Lynch. Kelly and Me. New York: Delacorte P, 1993.
Woods, Ron. The Hero. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001.
Wunderli, Stephen. The Blue between the Clouds. New
York: Henry Holt, 1992.
Wyss, Thelma Hatch. Here at the Scenic-Vu Motel. New
York: Harper and Row, 1988.
. Star Girl. New York: Viking, 1967.
. A Stranger Here. New York: HarperCollins, 1993.
Yates, Alma. The Miracle of Miss Willie. Salt Lake City:
Deseret Book, 1984.
Yorgason, Blaine M. Charlies Monument. Rexburg, ID:
Ricks College P, 1966.
Young, S. Dilworth. An Adventure in Faith. Salt Lake City:
Bookcraft, 1956.

79

Emerson as Radical Restorationist

John-Charles Duffy

In 1838, Ralph Waldo Emerson, philosopher

and former Unitarian minister, was invited to address
the graduates of the Harvard divinity school. The
Divinity School Address, as his speech is known,
is of special interest to students of Mormonism
because it employs restorationist rhetoric of a kind
that will ring familiar to anyone acquainted with
the teachings of Joseph Smith.
Harold Bloom has already argued that Smith
and Emerson are independent spokesmen of the
Zeitgeist Bloom calls the American religion, but
the address reveals a much more specific connection between these two 19th-century figures than
that put forth by Bloom. Like Smith, Emerson
employs a mode of religious discourse which Jan
Shipps has dubbed radical restorationism. In essence,
this means that Emerson preaches a great falling
away from the original teachings of Jesus, the need
for contemporary revelation, and a model of history quite different from that which prevails in traditional Christianity. The content of Emersons radical
restoration is markedly different from Smiths,
reflecting these mens very different backgrounds
and theological tendencies. Nevertheless, I propose
that Emerson is best conceived of as a Unitarian
Joseph Smith, a view which in turn suggests that
scholars cannot hope to understand Emersons take
on religion without first understanding Smiths.
As Richard Hughes has observed, restorationism
was a widespread phenomenon in early America.
Historians associate the term restorationism most
readily with the Campbellites, the group Sidney
Rigdon was preaching for when he encountered

the Mormons. But the basic idea of restorationism

the idea of undercutting the continuity of tradition
to revert to a lost primitive stateis evidenced in a
variety of American religious movements. The idea
is even invoked in American political discourse.
While Jan Shipps agrees that restorationism
is a widespread phenomenon, she argues for a further distinction between restoration and radical
restoration:
It is important to note the difference between
radical restoration movements, which make possible new beginnings in all the dimensions of
religionmythological, doctrinal, ritual, social,
and experientialand restoration movements,
which, through processes of reformation, reinterpretation, and reintegration, revitalize religious
traditions. . . . Radical restoration involves a
changing of the means of, or the reopening of,
communication between divinity and humanity. . . . [I]t breaks through the ongoingness of
experience, tearing across historys seamless
web to provide humanity with a new world
wherein God is actively involved. (7172)

Radical restoration movements have arisen in a

variety of religious traditions around the world.
Shipps regards Christianity
as a radical restoration erupting out of Judaism,
and Mormonism, in turn, as a radical restoration erupting out of Christianity. While Mormonism initially presented itself as a restoration
of primitive Christianity, it drew . . . on so
many elements other than the Judeo-Christian
tradition that its adherents were not reintegrated
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into traditional Christianity but quite the

reverse (Shipps 35).

For this reason, Shipps believes Mormonism is best

understood as a new religious movement in its own
right, not another Christian secta radical restoration movement, not merely a restoration movement.
Extrapolating from Shippss discussion of Mormonism, I identify three central tenets of radical
restorationismthree ways of distinguishing a
radical restoration from a mere restoration, at least
in the context of Christianity.
1. Like mere restoration movements, a radical restoration posits a falling away from the purity
of the primitive church. Unlike mere restoration
movements, however, a radical restoration does not
regard the fallen church as redeemable. A radical restorationist such as Joseph Smith aims not at reforming the church but at starting over again from scratch.
2. Because a radical restoration requires a brandnew dispensation of divine authority, the restoration
must be accompanied by contemporary revelation.
Hence, in the Mormon restoration, Joseph Smith
received new revelations to supplement the Christian canon: the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and
Covenants, the Pearl of Great Price, and so on.
3. In a mere Christian restoration, such as
the Campbellite movement, Jesus ministry and
the apostolic age are seen as the fulfillment of history. A mere restoration is therefore a restoration
of the apostolic age. A radical restoration movement, however, is a restoration of all dispensations,
not merely the apostolic age. In the case of Mormonism, it was not enough that Peter, James, and
John restore to Joseph Smith the keys they had
received from Jesus. Joseph also had to receive keys
from John the Baptist, Moses, Elias, Elijah,
Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and divers other figures from Adam to the present time (D&C
128:21). Radical restoration, then, draws on elements from across history, not merely from a single
past age seen as the culmination of history. I call
this an extra-linear vision of history.
Taking these three tenets as the defining features of a radical restoration, and then turning to
Emersons Divinity School Address, we find all
three features present.
82

A FALLING AWAY
The summary of Jesus teachings which Emerson presented to the divinity school graduates is a
radical reinterpretation of the Gospels, a fact not
lost on his listeners, who were scandalized. But
Emersons postulation of a falling away from Jesus
original teachings is familiar to restorationists:
Jesus Christ belonged to the true race of
prophets. . . . Alone in all history, he estimated
the greatness of man. . . . He saw that God
incarnates himself in man, and evermore goes
forth anew to take possession of his world. . . .
But what a distortion did his doctrine and
memory suffer in the same, in the next, and the
following ages! . . . The idioms of his language,
and the figures of his rhetoric, have usurped
the place of his truth; and churches are not built
on his principles, but on his tropes. Christianity became a Mythus, as the poetic teaching of
Greece and Egypt, before. He spoke of miracles; for he felt that mans life was a miracle,
and all that man doth, and he knew that this
daily miracle shines, as the man is diviner. But
the very word Miracle, as pronounced by Christian churches, gives a false impression; it is Monster. . . . Historical Christianity has fallen into
the error that corrupts all attempts to communicate religion. (Collected Works 1:8182)

The influence of Carlyles Sartor Resartus is

unmistakable: the understanding of the Incarnation as the presence of God in all human beings,
not merely in the person of Jesus; the redefinition
of Miracle as everyday experience; the use of the
term Mythus.
What is not Carlylean about this passage is that
Emerson represents the errors of his day as a centuries-old falling away from the original teachings
of Jesus. In a subsequent passage, Emerson makes
it clear that he considers Jesus original teachings to
have been not only distorted, but altogether lost.
Ergo, we are looking at a case of radical restoration,
not mere restoration.
The stationariness of religion; the assumption
that the age of inspiration is past, that the Bible
is closed; the fear of degrading the character of
Jesus by representing him as a man; indicate

Emerson as Radical Restorationist

with sufficient clearness the falsehood of our

theology. . . . The true Christianity,a faith
like Christs in the infinitude of man,is lost.
(Collected Works 1:89)

In the First Vision, Jesus informs Joseph Smith of

the wholesale corruption of Christianity: the Personage who addressed me said that all their creeds
were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt (JSH 1:19). Similarly,
Emerson informs his audience of the universal decay
of a church tottering to its fall. Where, Emerson
asks rhetorically, is the true, primitive faith preached?
Where shall I hear words such as in elder ages drew
men to leave all and follow,father and mother,
house and land, wife and child? (Collected Works
1:85). For Emerson, the answer is nowhere. The
church has fled into the wilderness; the Spirit of
the Lord has departed from the temple. What is
needed now is a temple, which new love, new faith,
new sight shall restore to more than its first splendor to mankind (Collected Works 1:92).
CONTEMPORARY REVELATION
Like Joseph Smith, Emerson believes that the
restoration which is to overcome the great falling
away must be accompanied by contemporary revelation. Note that in one of the passages cited earlier, Emerson decries as false doctrine the belief
that the age of inspiration is past, that the Bible is
closed. Emerson insists rather, It is the office of a
true teacher to show us that God is, not was; that
He speaketh, not spake (Collected Works 1:89). For
Emerson, revelation is an ongoing event, not a
closed corpus of ancient texts. The wholesale corruption of Christianity necessitates a contemporary
re-revelation of Jesus teachingsteachings which
themselves affirm the ongoingness of revelation.
Men have come to speak of the revelation as
somewhat long ago given and done, as if God
were dead. . . . [I]t is my duty to say to you, that
the need was never greater of new revelation than
now. From the views I have already expressed,
you will infer the sad conviction which I share,
I believe, with numbers, of the universal decay
and now almost death of faith in society. . . . In

how many churches, by how many prophets,

tell me, is man made sensible that he is an infinite Soul; that the earth and heavens are passing into his mind; that he is drinking forever
the soul of God? (Collected Works 1:8485)

The failure of past and present preachers to

declare the truth requires that a new prophet stand
to speak the words of God. And even had there
been no falling away, Emerson implies, the present
would still require its own prophets simply by
virtue of its being the present, the revelations of the
past being insufficient simply because of their
belonging to the past. Like Smith, Emerson aims
to restore to the present not merely the content of
past revelation, but the event of revelation itself. As
he had demanded two years earlier in the opening
lines of Nature, The foregoing generations beheld
God and nature face to face; we, through their
eyes. Why should not we have . . . a religion by revelation to us, and not the history of theirs? Let us
demand our own works and laws and worship
(Collected Works 1:7). Emerson makes the same
point at the end of the Address:
I look for the hour when that supreme Beauty,
which ravished the souls of those Eastern men,
and chiefly of those Hebrews, and through
their lips spoke oracles to all time, shall speak
in the West also. The Hebrew and Greek Scriptures contain immortal sentences, that have been
bread of life to millions. But they have no special integrity; are fragmentary; are not shown
in their order to the intellect. I look for the new
Teacher, that shall follow so far those shining
laws, that he shall see them come full circle . . .
(Collected Works 1:9293)

Emerson himself fits the description of the new

Teacher, the modern prophet, quite well, but he
hardly claims a monopoly on contemporary revelation. On the contrary, because his Romantic theology equates the voice of God with the inner light
of every human being, Emerson calls the whole
body of graduating divinity students to accept the
prophetic vocation: speak the very truth, as your
life and conscience teach it, and [thus] cheer the
waiting, fainting hearts of men with new hope and
new revelation (Collected Works 1:92).
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AML Annual 2002

AN EXTRA-LINEAR VISION OF HISTORY

Emersons conviction that everyone can speak
in Gods name leads him to a radical restorationist,
not a merely restorationist, view of history. In
Emersons view, no single person, philosophy, or
period of time can claim to be the culmination of
history. Consider the following admonition to the
divinity students:
Let me admonish you, first of all, to go alone,
to refuse the good models, even those most
sacred in the imagination of men, and dare to
love God without mediator or veil. Friends
enough you shall find who will hold up to your
emulation Wesleys and Oberlins, Saints and
Prophets. Thank God for these good men, but
say, I also am a man. . . . Yourself a newborn
bard of the Holy Ghost,cast behind you all
conformity, and acquaint men at first hand
with Deity. (Collected Works 1:90)

Earlier in the Address, Emerson had given

the impression that he regarded Jesus as the
Teacher, the Truth, the Word: Alone in all history,
[Jesus] estimated the greatness of man (Collected
Works 1:81). That rhetoric allowed Emerson to
paint himself as a garden-variety primitivist intent
on reinstating Jesus original teachings. This in
turn implied that Emerson revered Jesus teachings
as the culmination of humanitys search for truth.
Such a representation lends itself to the mere
restorationist vision of history.
But while Emerson is undoubtedly interested
in restoring what he regards as Jesus original teachings, his project is more radical than he at first
implies. This fact begins to become clear when
Emerson urges the divinity graduates to refuse
even those models most sacred in the imagination
of men and those who would claim to be necessary mediators to God. Emerson is careful not to
name Jesus as such a model or mediator, but the
allusion is unmistakable. It seems, then, that Emerson does not, in fact, regard Jesus as the fulfillment
of history, as a mere restorationist or primitivist
would. Emerson is not interested in simply turning
history back to the point of time occupied by Jesus
ministry or the apostolic age.
84

On the contrary, Emerson, as a newborn bard

of the Holy Ghost, believes he has been set free
from the linear flow of historyfree from conformity to Wesleys, Oberlins, saints, or prophets, free
from the past. The past is not altogether useless.
Emerson still thanks God for the Wesleys, Oberlins, saints, and prophetsand, we could add, for
Jesus. But none of those figures represents, for Emerson, the last word on truth. To borrow a Mormon
catch phrase, Emerson seeks to recover truth from
wherever it may be found.
As Joseph Smiths radical restoration is distinguished from mere restoration movements by its
bringing together elements from multiple dispensations and continents, so too Emersons notion of
restoration involves drawing on philosophies and
religions from across history and around the world.
Specifically, by way of example, he mentions the
names of Moses, Zeno, and Zoroaster (Collected
Works 1:89). In this regard, Emersons restoration is
perhaps more radical than Smiths, which remains
more clearly Christ-centered, although if I had time,
I would argue that 19th-century Mormon discourse
has some surprisingly strong universalist tendencies. In any case, Emersons relationship to history,
like Smiths, is more expansive than that of the
Campbellites or other mere restorationists, who
look back only to the time of the New Testament.
Emerson, then, like Joseph Smith, speaks in
the prophetic mode of radical restorationism. That
two men from such very different backgrounds
should engage in the same mode of religious discourse is not as surprising as it may seem. Shipps
explains that radical restorationist claims
issue up in times of confusion when . . . multiple belief systems abound and [when] cultural
and religious disorder is aggravated by the
shifting of the social, political, and economic
bases on which society has long restedsuch
claims posit a return to an original situation
wherein the proper relationship between
humanity and divinity was clearly and firmly
established. (6970)

Religious and political confusion was not confined to New Yorks Burned-Over District, where
Joseph Smith experienced his First Vision. According

Emerson as Radical Restorationist

to Nathan Hatch, the rise of democracy during this

period created acute uncertainty and excited
apocalyptic visions in people all over the country
(6). Emerson was not immune to such visions; on
the contrary, his Federalist background made him
especially likely to regard the state of contemporary
society in terms approaching the apocalyptic. Historian Mary Cayton documents at length the
young Emersons disillusion with the times, his
acute sense of living in the latter days (3132).
Indeed, Cayton proposes, had the young Emerson
been of a different religious background, he might
have been a prime candidate for the conversion
experience that revivalists such as Lyman Beecher
were preaching in Boston (64)and, we could
add, near Palmyra, New York.
Emerson entered the ministry at a time when
restorationist rhetoric flew fast and furious. Lyman
Beecher decried Unitarianism as apostasy and
prophesied that evangelicalism would restore true
Christianity (Cayton 86). Emerson responded to
the religious controversy by concluding that the
churchboth Unitarian and orthodoxwas corrupt. He hoped to become a teacher of a different
sort, one who could free his congregation from sectarianism. Thus the Christian fervor of holy fellowship could be revived. . . . True religion might
return to Boston (Cayton 11011). It was the
same objective espoused in a relatively mild version
by Alexander Campbell and in a more radical version by Joseph Smith.
As the Divinity School Address evinces, Emerson emerged from his experience as a young Unitarian minister with the same convictions that
became the founding tenets of the church established by Joseph Smith: belief in the wholesale corruption of Christianity and in the need for a new
teacher to restore true religionunderstood as something very different from sectarian Christianity.

Culture. The ideas laid out in this paper were recently

published in extended form in American Transcendental Quarterly.

WORKS CITED
Bloom, Harold. The American Religion: The Emergence of
the Post-Christian Nation. New York: Simon and
Schuster, 1992.
Cayton, Mary Kupiec. Emersons Emergence: Self and Society in the Transformation of New England, 18001845.
Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 1989.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. The Collected Works of Ralph
Waldo Emerson. Ed. Robert E. Spiller et al. Vol. 1.
Cambridge, MA: Belknap P, 1971.
Hatch, Nathan O. The Democratization of American
Christianity. New Haven: Yale UP, 1989.
Hughes, Richard T., ed. The American Quest for the Primitive Church. Urbana: U of Illinois P, 1988.
Shipps, Jan. Mormonism: The Story of a New Religious Tradition. Urbana: U of Illinois P, 1985.

John-Charles Duffy holds a B.A. in English from

Brigham Young University and an M.A. in English
from the University of Utah, where he is an instructor
in its writing program. His literary criticism has
appeared in American Literary Realism, American
Transcendental Quarterly and Victorian Literature and
85

Virginia Sorensens A Little Lower Than the Angels and

John A. Widtsoe: A Lesson in Literary History
Susan Elizabeth Howe

When Virginia Sorensens first novel, A Little

Lower Than the Angels, was published in 1942,
Sorensens publisher Alfred A. Knopf himself wrote
the book jacket copy. I have seldom introduced
a new novelist with the confidence I feel in the
author of this remarkable book, he said. It marks
the debut, I believe, of a major American writer.
Despite the publishers wholehearted support, critical response to the novel split along Mormon and
national lines. (Mary Bradford has compiled
excerpts from many of these reviews in her fine
Foreword to the new edition of the novel, published in 1997 by Signature Books.) The national
press echoed Knopf with significant praise for this
first novel from an unknown Mormon woman. For
example, Wallace Stegner reviewed the novel for
the Saturday Review of Literature and wrote:
Miss Sorensen has more than the capacity
to . . . create living people. She can write better
than the majority of the novelists now practising [sic] in this countrymuch better than
many distended reputations. And she betrays
constantly, in flashes of observation and passages of reflection, an acute and original mind.
For all the sophistication and polish of her
prose, she looks through no literary glass. She
sees with her own eyes, thinks with her own
head. That is to say, she is a young writer with
a present and a future. (1112)

Similar praise came from such respectable sources

as the New York Times, Newsweek, The Nation, The
New Yorker, and the Chicago Sun (see Bradford,
viiix, xviii).

But criticism in Utah took a decidedly different direction. In 1942 Apostle John A. Widtsoe,
one of the editors of the Improvement Era, took
upon himself the task of writing most of the book
reviews, including the publications brief review
of A Little Lower Than the Angels. He praised
Sorensen for her careful research and concluded
his review: She has undoubted literary gifts. Much
may be expected from her (380). However, very
little of the rest of the review is favorable. Here are
two of its five paragraphs:
The story, uneven in structure, is well told.
There are many fine passages in it. The author
is gifted in her style and expression. Nevertheless, the story is not colorful. Only occasionally
does it grip the reader. Fire is wanting.
As a Mormon novel it is ineffective. There
were strong beliefs, right or wrong, that made
possible the building of Nauvoo, that drove the
Saints across the plains and enabled them to
conquer the Great American Desert. These
compelling forces are absent, to the readers
surprise, from the actions of the Mormons in
the tempestuous Nauvoo days. Joseph Smith
and his associates become, in the telling, ordinary, rather insipid milk and water figures.
That does not comport with the historical
achievements of the Mormon pioneers. (380)

Widtsoe and Stegner agree on the lyrical qualities of Sorensens prose. Otherwise, the reviews
seem exactly opposite. Widtsoe says the story is
not colorful, and only occasionally gripping
(380). Stegner counters: [W]e can focus on the
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AML Annual 2002

family of Simon Baker . . . with pleasure, because

every member of it is real enough to make the average historical-novel character look like Grandfathers stuffed Sunday suit (11). Another review by
Milton Rugoff of the New York Herald Tribune
expands on Stegners critique:
What goes on as Mercy fights a desperate rear
guard action from her sickbed as Simon and
the elders face the loaded guns and torches
of the good people of Illinois makes a doublebarreled narrative that is everywhere vigorous
and yet finely wrought. . . . [T]he intimate
studies of the Baker children . . . and of Mercys
reactions and perceptions . . . make the narrative continuously stimulating (qtd. in Bradford, vii).

The two reviews also disagree about the representation of Joseph Smith. Widtsoe calls Sorensens
Joseph Smith and his associates insipid milk and
water figures, who seem incapable of carrying out
the actual historical achievements of the Mormon
pioneers (380). Stegner says almost exactly the
opposite:
A Little Lower than the Angels is an
achievement in tightrope walking. Historys
bare bones could so easily have showed through;
the people could so easily have been mere rags
on a broomstick. But the history comes to us
naturally, without being forced; the institutions
are taken for granted; the people are uniformly
real. Even Joseph Smith, variously estimated as
a prophet and martyr, self-deluded social experimenter, and scoundrel, becomes here the charming and magnetic man he surely was. (12)

It seems as if Elder Widtsoe was not reading the

same book that Stegner, Rugoff, and other national
reviewers read.
These opposite critical reactions provide convincing evidence for some of the claims of readerresponse theory: e.g., that one responds to a text at
least partially because of the personal history, culture, and background one brings to that text. The
author may intend a specific meaning, but the
reader takes the language of the text, not the authors
intentions, and makes meaning according to his or
her specific cultural context (Poulet; Iser). Why did
88

John A. Widtsoe perceive A Little Lower Than the

Angels so differently from national reviewers?
I would like to examine both the portrait of Joseph
Smith created in the novel and the portrait of
Mercy Baker, its main character, in light of Widtsoes criticism and then try to figure out what
caused him to reject the novel so soundly that,
despite its national success, it hardly sold at all in
Utah because of the influence of his review.
There are many aspects of the novels portrayal
of Joseph Smith that it would seem Widtsoe would
approve of. Sorensen shows Joseph acting as a
prophet from the moment he enters the narrative.
The first mention of him is in the books second
chapter, when Eliza Snow visits Mercy Baker and
they reminisce about the Bakers arrival in Nauvoo,
recalling all those sick with swamp fever on the
banks of the river. They speak of Joseph healing
the afflicted Saints, Eliza comparing him to the
angel at the pool of Bethesda who stirred the waters.
A while later Eliza describes Josephs selection of
the site of the city:
When Brother Joseph first chose this place,
some said he couldnt be right this time, they
told him hed need a boat to survey it. And he
said: All right, then, build me a boat. . . . It
was Commerce when we came, a couple of old
shacks, but Brother Joseph said Commerce
would be a name for a rowdy whisky-selling
settlement. Nauvoo means beautiful place
and implies a place to rest. And thats what we
want, all of us. After he named it, folks began
believing in it more. (1415)

These initial references to Joseph Smith establish

him as someone with the power to heal the sick.
They indicate that his vision is, if not prophetic, at
least more long-range than those of most of his followers, who tried to discourage him from choosing
swampy lands by the river as the site of their future
city. Sorensen emphasizes that Joseph changed the
name of the place from Commerce to Nauvoo,
beautiful place, a place to rest.1 This act made the
Saints believe in the possibility of creating such a
city and showed their belief in Josephs counsel,
a belief that enables them to achieve what they
do not know they are capable of achieving. Thus,

A Little Lower Than the Angels and John A. Widtsoe

Sorensen initially characterizes Joseph as a strong,

prophetic leader. She continues to emphasize this
image of Joseph by showing him acting as a
prophet in many subsequent scenes.
Joseph enters the novel as a character when he
heals Jarvie, the Bakerss eldest son, who is also sick
with swamp fever. Mercy doesnt believe that the
prophet himself will actually come across the Mississippi from Nauvoo to bless their son, and that
he does has an impact on her. When she sees the
Prophet, she is impressed by his appearance: The
great shoulders, slightly stooped as though with
the worlds burdens on them, and bright hair that
caught the light and made folks think significantly
of halos. . . . Luminous eyes, almost wild, yellow
lashes falling over them like a curtain (20). Even
Sorensens imagery hints at Josephs prophetic
nature. This is the prayer the Joseph speaks: Jarvis
Young Baker, by the authority of the Priesthood
vested in me I rebuke the weakness of thy flesh and
command you in the name of Jesus Christ to rise
and be made whole (21). Though Jarvie is not
immediately healed, Joseph seems to know that he
will be. He tells Mercy, who is about to deliver
another child, Save yourself in nursing your boy.
Save yourself all you can. Hell be all right. And
you know theres more than one that deserves
your care (21). Although Mercy doubts that Jarvie
will be healed by Josephs prayer and sets out to
find the ingredients of a medicine he recommends,
by the time she returns (after significant struggles,
perhaps because she does not heed the prophets
counsel), Jarvie is already well.
There are many other passages that show
Joseph as a prophet. As he blesses and names the
Bakers new son and many other new babies, he
becomes weak, stumbles to a bench, and has to sit
down. He says:
While I was blessing your children, I saw
clearly that Lucifer would exert his influence to
destroy them and I strove with all the faith and
spirit I had to seal upon them blessings that
would secure their lives upon this earth. In so
doing, such a great virtue went out of me into
the children that I became weak. . . . Remember the woman in the eighth chapter of Luke

who touched the hem of Jesus garment and

took virtue from him. The virtue here referred
to is the spirit of life; and the man who exercises great faith in administering to the sick,
blessing little children, or confirming, is liable
to become weakened. (33)

Joseph soon says he is well again and can continue;

then Sorensen confirms the suggestion of Joseph
as a messenger of Christ with this passage: For a
moment, as he stood there, his figure merged with
another figure that he had called up by his words,
and a wave of feeling passed along the benches (33).
Another passage that portrays Joseph as a prophet
is Eliza Snows description of him as he teaches the
Saints a revelation. She says he speaks, looking as
though he were an angel put on earth by mistake;
looking as though he spoke with his eyes on things
the people could not see; looking as though he
gazed straight into heaven through a shining gate
and told them everything he saw there. And [he
was] spent when he finished, as though he had
come, running, a long way (127). In another passage, Sorensen also has Joseph describe the experience of receiving a revelation to Eliza Snow:
Revelation, memoryits like that, Eliza.
Like a flash of light out of nowhere and thats
how we know a thing is from God. While we
have it, the moment it comes, we arent just ourselves, but Him too. And when we have to come
back from it, its like falling down from heaven
into the world again, down into the everyday,
into streets and mud and trouble. Ive lived
through it so many times, Eliza. A great time of
understanding, and I write it as though my fingers were mad, or I speak it like a river of words
and somebody writes it down for me, to hold it
still so it wont be lost again. (89)

Not only does Sorensen repeatedly show

Joseph Smith acting in a prophetic manner but she
also has him teach many specifically Mormon doctrines. He tells Eliza, The body . . . is the most
beautiful thing God ever made. . . . It is so beautiful God will never let it be lostit will always be
just as it is, but made perfect, without pain (86);
and In heaven . . . there will be lips and hands.
And men and women will love one another there
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AML Annual 2002

(86). He tells her that they were spirits together

before they were born and later teaches through a
sermon the doctrine of a Mother in Heaven that
enables her to compose O My Father (127).
Later in the novel Joseph is hiding out on an island
in the river and meets the third Baker son, Menzo,
there. Joseph teaches Menzo additional Mormon
concepts: The world is yours, it was made for you,
for your benefit. And its not just the world, the
way some think it is, but its heaven tooright
here (190); if men are not equal in earthly things
how can they be equal in obtaining heavenly
things? (191); [W]e dont have any right to do
anything to stop anybody from growing, do we? It
takes food to grow one way and ideas to grow the
other way; then it isnt fair to keep either food or
ideas away from people that need them to grow
with (193). Then he teaches Menzo about his
understanding of the Kingdom of God:
I want a kingdom created in this land that
will sweep away all the kingdoms of the world
but not by war. When you believe every man is
a child of God you cant believe in war. But
kingdoms can be swept away with ideas when
ideas get big enough and are believed fervently
enough. It will begin in Zionand I told you
that Zion was both Americasand grow and
spread the way the Gospel spread from Jerusalem. Isaiah said the word of the Lord would go
out from Jerusalem, and it has. He said the law
would go out from Zion, and it will. (194)

Sorensen creates a Joseph Smith, often using

his own words and the doctrines he revealed, who
is a principled man, living according to a religious
and idealistic vision, striving to teach people doctrines that will make their lives larger and infuse
their actions with eternal meaning. He is concerned
for the poor, giving them food from his store until
he has to close it down and writing to the land
agent on behalf of many who cant make their payments. He creates the Nauvoo Charter as a means
of establishing independence and power that will
protect the Saints from more persecution. He proposes that, upon entering Nauvoo, all slaves will be
freed. Why, then, did Elder Widtsoe not see in the
novel the strong beliefs for which the pioneers
90

sacrificed? Why did he read the Joseph Smith of

this novel as an insipid, milk and water figure?
So far I have discussed only part of the characterization of Joseph Smith. Because of Virginia
Sorensens own life and background, she was disposed to create a much more complex picture of
the prophet. Sorensen grew up as Virginia Eggertsen, with a mother who was a Christian Scientist
and a father who was a jack Mormon. Her
mother wanted her to participate in the Mormon
Church so that she would be included in the activities of the community, but her father made light
of the beliefs of his faith. Consequently, during her
childhood Sorensen both participated in Mormon
culture and stood slightly apart from it. Because of
her vivid imagination and empathetic nature, she
learned to understand the deep beliefs of members
of the community just as she was also learning to
question their beliefs and to identify with the values of those outside the Mormon faith.
Sorensen brought this dual perspective to the
creation of the character of Joseph Smith. In addition to showing how the faithful Saints believed in
him as a prophet, she gives those who do not
believe or who are critical of him the opportunity
to be heard. One of these characters is Victoria
Moon, who acts for a while as a servant in the
Baker household. Her poverty-stricken family was
converted in England, joined the Church, and
emigrated to be with the Saints in Nauvoo. In a
conversation with Jarvie, Victoria suggests that her
family hoped for more in a social and material
sense than they have found with the Saints in Nauvoo. Jarvie asks if she didnt come from England for
the gospel. She answers, Sure. Sure I did. But some
others did, too, and for some sugar they thought
theyd get, besides. But some has mansions on dry
ground and some has shacks in the swamp (149),
a pointed comparison between her own familys
living situation and that of Joseph, who has just
moved his family into the newly complete Mansion House. Vic makes Jarvie question, and he soon
asks his father who the Mansion House belongs to.
Simon answers that it belongs to the Church, but
then Jarvie muses, How funny it was that the
Mansion should be secured to the Church and so

A Little Lower Than the Angels and John A. Widtsoe

exempt from any tax, city or county or state, and

yet be secured to the heirs of the Prophet and to his
use while he remained in the world! (157).
Other voices reveal Josephs mistakes. The novel
portrays him as somewhat naive politically, a leader
trying to learn how to achieve the power and control that will enable him to protect his people from
further harassment. Of his unsuccessful visit to
Washington, Sorensen says, using the perspective
of the character of Sidney Rigdon:
[H]e had learned something of suavity and something of the ways of politics; he had learned
that out in the world, wheels move faster when
they are oiled with rewards; he had learned that
the stick is not wielded by the imposing thing
called Organization at all, but by single men
who manage in strange and devious ways to control other men and so amass majorities. (42)

Therefore, Joseph has aligned himself with John C.

Bennett, quartermaster general of the state of Illinois, promising Bennett the office of mayor of
Nauvoo in return for his help in securing the Nauvoo Charter. The novel portrays Bennett as an
opportunist and a scoundrel but implicates Joseph
of more than just political maneuvering by having
Joseph suggest to Bennett that his baptism would
make him a more desirable candidate for mayor
and make it easier for Joseph to persuade the Saints
to vote for him. When Sidney Rigdon protests this
mixing of politics and religion, Joseph answers:
Religion mixes well with politics if the good
of the Church is involved. . . . If there was religion in politics and government, would we be
likely to have dishonest men at the head of our
country? Would President Van Buren refuse the
plea of an innocent people for redress from Missouri if he had some God in his politics? . . .
Put your religion in everything, Brother Sidney, put it in every hour of every day. There is
no place where religion does not belong. (43)

A convincing argument, though it avoids the question of the sincerity of Bennetts conversion and his
worthiness for baptism. But the choice of Bennett
as an ally and his being rewarded with such a
prominent position prove to be serious errors for
Joseph. Bennett is soon excommunicated from the

Church and forced to leave Nauvoo for both sexual

scandal and dishonest business dealings. He then
becomes the leading antagonist in the fight against
Joseph, his new money-making scheme the exposure of Joseph Smith as an evil religious zealot.
Because Bennett has had knowledge of the new
doctrine of polygamy (and has tried himself to
practice it without religious sanction), he uses that
inflammatory information as the basis of his
assault. Later in the novel, Bennett returns to Nauvoo and becomes part of the group that publishes
the defamatory articles about Joseph and the
Church in the Nauvoo Expositor. Joseph is portrayed as making another mistake by allowing
himself to be manipulated into destroying the
press on which this has been printed in an effort to
shut the paper down, even after a warning by
Simon Baker that that action is precisely what
Josephs enemies are hoping for as the excuse to
have him arrested.
These weaknesses seem to me to be part of the
reason Elder Widtsoe said that the novel portrayed
Joseph Smith as an ordinary, rather insipid milk
and water figure. The focus of Church leaders has
always been on missionary work and the need to
help people develop a testimony of Joseph Smith
that will prompt them to join the Church. Widtsoe must have felt that a portrayal of a human,
struggling Joseph Smith would give prospective
converts too many doubts about him; therefore, he
felt the need to brand that characterization as inadequate, even if, in a strictly historical sense, the
actions it portrays did happen.
But even worse to Widtsoe, it seems, was the
novels focus on polygamy and its use of a central
character, Mercy Baker, who herself was not a
believer. Because of Sorensens own background, it
seems natural that in writing about a Mormon
subject, she would include characters who did not
believe in the doctrines of the Church. Perhaps
Mercy Bakers attitudes were much like Sorensens
personal attitudes about the Mormon faith. But in
fact, the strategy of using a central character whose
lot was entirely cast with the Mormons but who
still did not believe was a major factor in the novels
national success. General readers who, at the time,
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did not have a favorable impression of Mormons,

could read the novel knowing that it did not
require them to accept the doctrines of the Church
because the central character, with whom readers
most closely identify, is not a believer. That fact
allowed these readers to relax and see Mormons as
humans, as Mercy does, and, without having to
agree with their beliefs, to sympathize with their
struggles and their heroic efforts to establish themselves in a homeland where they will be able to live
without being persecuted.
Mercy is an attractive character. She dearly loves
her husband and children. She is happy, imaginative, and artistic, and she is willing to try to adapt
to her husbands new religion, even to join the
Church herself for the sake of her family. She is
kind and generous to those around her. That she
becomes a close friend of Eliza R. Snow suggests to
Mormon readers that she must be a good person.
Mercy tries to believe, and does seem to accept
some doctrines, but generally she is a doubter, having been schooled by her father in religious skepticism throughout her life. As she is about to be
baptized, she feels that there is a ludicrousness in
it (56), and she wonders about the need for baptism, particularly for a woman who is a mother. As
she looks at another woman waiting for baptism
and suckling her infant at her breast, Mercy asks,
[I]f the mother came, as Mercy had, to receive the
badge of belief, what was it that could add an iota
of divinity to her as she stood here comforting her
child in the wind? (57). But then, considering
her own case, she also thinks of her husband: All
this was not ludicrous to Simon, nor even unimportant; it was beyond the body and above it. To
Simon, her soul stood with her, hovering over the
water. She smiled at him and moved from the
shore (58). She is baptized for his sake.
Because Mercy is loving, intelligent, and kind,
she is a point-of-view character with whom most
readers will empathize. So her opposition to
polygamy holds substantial weight. Eliza Snow has
confided in Mercy her love for Joseph Smith; and
when Eliza comes to tell Mercy that Joseph wants
to marry her as a second wife, Mercys reaction to
that request is horror and disbelief:
92

It was impossible, incredible, it couldnt be

true. If you went to China or Turkey or Persia,
there were exotic silken women and strange
eyes and curious prattle and utterly new ways
to go along with it. But herethe good steady
farmers digging the ground in the good solid
American manner, with their plain talk and
their sober clothes and their stolid faith. It
didnt come easy to you here; it jolted you and
shocked you and turned you inside out with a
kind of loathing. (104)

Mercy even suggests that such a marriage will make

Eliza almost a mistress. Its better to marry him
like that, eventhan to have him like a bad woman
would, she says (105). Eliza reprimands her and tries
to explain the spiritual nature of her commitment.
Mercy doesnt see it but agrees to go to the wedding
for Elizas sake. The subsequent marriage scene is at
Josephs office, and Mercy is the one who is aware
of how unfair such a marriage is to Eliza. Joseph
merely stops work for a while to marry Eliza, who
then leaves and returns to her single room, without
a honeymoon or any time with the man she loves.
Mercy wishes Eliza happiness, and Eliza responds
by quoting [M]an is that he might have joy. Mercy
asks, And women, too? (113), an offhand question that is really central to the entire text.
The novel then shows how painful it is for Emma
Smith to discover this secret marriage between her
husband and a woman who has been her closest
friend. Emmas pain is replicated in Eliza when Eliza
sees another woman, Louisa Bemen, also going to
be married to Joseph Smith in the office above his
store, another plural wife that Joseph did not tell
Eliza about. And finally, the whole episode of
polygamy as it is experienced by Eliza and Emma
is replicated when Charlot Leavitt secretly marries
Simon Baker because Mercy has become so ill at
the death of one of her twins that she cant care for
her children. Of course, Mercy eventually learns
the truth. Much like Emma, Mercy never accepts
polygamy even as she is forced, in her battle to
regain Simon, to appear outwardly to accept it.
Throughout the rest of the novel she fights Charlot
bitterly for the love of Simon and the control of her
household.

A Little Lower Than the Angels and John A. Widtsoe

This review of the novels concerns with polygamy brings us again back to Elder Widtsoe and
what I thought to be one of his strangest claims
about A Little Lower Than the Angels. He wrote,
[T]he story is not colorful. Only occasionally does
it grip the reader. Fire is wanting (380). I find his
comment strange because the novel has been so
colorful and gripping to so many, including myself. My experience of reading the book was like
that of Stegner and Rugoff; the story seemed utterly
engaging from beginning to end. In several womens
literature classes at BYU, my students have said
that this was the most important novel they read in
the semester, I think because the novel raises questions about Mormon doctrine and practices that
are issues in their own lives.
The story is centrally about the private life of
Mercy Baker and her struggle with polygamy. Not
to see the novel as interesting is to fail to care about
Mercy Baker and her fate, which I think Elder Widtsoe was unable to do. Being an empowered, public
male, was he unable to appreciate the private family life of a Mormon woman and therefore find fiction about such a subject boring? No, I dont think
that is the answer. I believe Elder Widtsoe would
have been sympathetic to a novel about a faithful
Mormon woman who agreed to the practice of
polygamy. But I think he did not allow himself to
care about Mercy Baker because she did not have a
testimony of Joseph Smith and because she
absolutely rejected and struggled against polygamy.
Therefore he did not find the novel to be interesting. Again, the nature of his position as a Church
leader made him sensitive to any material that
asked questions about Joseph Smith and the doctrines he taught.
Herein is the lesson of this literary history.
What to do with nonbelievers is a question that
our whole Mormon culture needs to consider. Our
general response to a lack of belief is to discount it,
ignore it, and fail to hear it, which is often carried
out by discounting, ignoring, and failing to recognize the people who dont believe, as Elder Widtsoe
fails to care about the narrative that reveals the
struggles and fate of Mercy Baker. I think she was a
particularly threatening character to him because

she is portrayed as a genuinely good person (as many

unbelievers are). It is an unstated but strongly held
narrative principle in Mormon culture that genuinely good people ought to have testimonies or at
least to gain them by the end of the book, but in
real life, as in this novel, many of them never do. It
is a weakness of our culture that we make those
people disappear (in other words, we fail to appreciate their good qualitiestheir sympathy, principles, ideals, kindnessas Elder Widtsoe failed to
perceive Mercys good qualities) because we are so
intent on not hearing that they dont believe.
In summary, what has been the effect of A
Little Lower Than the Angels on both Mormon and
non-Mormon readers? In 1942, when the book
was originally published, it didnt find very many
Mormon readers, largely because of Elder Widtsoes negative Improvement Era review. But the new
edition by Signature Books has made the novel
available to a whole new generation, and it is a
challenging novel to Mormons, particularly to
Mormon women, raising questions about their
place in the eternities and whether or not God
loves them as much as he loves men. (These are
questions my own students have asked as a result of
reading the novel.)
As to the question of the effect of the novel on
a more general readership, I dont have a great deal
of information, but I do have a relevant quotation
from Nina Brown Baker, a quotation that appeared
in the 1950 Wilson Library Bulletin:
A century and less ago America was deeply agitated over the Mormon menace. All those
fears and the persecution they generated seem
ridiculous now, when the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter Day Saints [sic] has taken its
place among our respected religious sects. Virginia Sorensen is a Mormon, by birth and conviction. Through her books she has done as
much as any living author to bring those early
days into proper perspective. (330)

Apparently, Baker felt that Sorensens novels shed a

sympathetic light on Mormon experience. The
very complexity of her portraits makes them whole
and therefore credible to a general audience as a
one-sided portrayal can never do. It is precisely the
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complexity of this novel, its inclusion of so much

history and so many points of view, that makes
it important, in fact a breakthrough novel in
Mormon literature.
Susan Elizabeth Howe is an associate professor of English at Brigham Young University and the poetry editor
of Dialogue. Her play about Joseph Smith, Burdens of
Earth, was performed recently at BYU, and her first
poetry collection, Stone Spirits, was published in 1997.
She is currently working with Mary Bradford and Sue
Saffle (Virginias niece) on a biography of Virginia Sorensen. This paper was presented at the annual meeting of
the Association for Mormon Letters, held 19 February
2000 at Westminster College, Salt Lake City.

NOTE
1. Sorensen seems to have researched the information
for this passage thoroughly; the language she uses is similar to that of an 8 January 1841 epistle from the First Presidency of the Church to the Saints, urging them to gather
to Nauvoo. (See Berrett and Burton 368; Sorensen 14.)
A review of the historical sources Sorensen used in writing
the novel is beyond the purview of this paper, but a cursory look at Readings in L.D.S. Church History from Original Manuscripts, vol. 1, by William E. Berrett and Alma P.
Burton, and A Comprehensive History of the Church, vol. 2,
by B. H. Roberts, shows how closely Sorensen adhered to
the historical record in writing about Joseph Smiths experiences in Washington (Roberts 3839; Sorensen 42); the
visit of Chief Keokuk to Joseph Smith (Roberts 8889;
Sorensen 7576); and the identity of stake leaders on the
Iowa side of the Mississippi (Berrett and Burton 350;
Sorensen 20). I would expect similar historical accuracy
throughout the novel.

WORKS CITED
Baker, Nina Brown. Virginia Sorensen. Wilson Library
Bulletin (1950). 330.
Berrett, William E., and Alma P. Burton. Readings in
L.D.S. Church History from Original Manuscripts,
Vol. 1. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1953.
Bradford, Mary Lythgoe. Foreword to A Little Lower Than
the Angels. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1997.
vxx.
Iser, Wolfgang. The Reading Process: A Phenomenological Approach. Contemporary Literary Criticism:
94

Modernism Through Postructuralism. Ed. Robert Con

Davis. New York: Longman, 1986. 37691.
Poulet, Georges. Phenomenology of Reading. Contemporary Literary Criticism: Modernism Through Postructuralism. Ed. Robert Con Davis. New York: Longman,
1986. 35062.
Roberts, B. H. A Comprehensive History of the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 6 vols. 1930; rprt.
Provo, Utah: BYU Press, 1965.
Rugoff, Milton. The Mormon Paradise. New York
Herald Tribune Books, Sunday, 10 May 1942.
Sorensen, Virginia. A Little Lower Than the Angels. 1942;
rprt. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1997.
Stegner, Wallace. Sorensen . . . [Rev. of A Little Lower
Than the Angels, By Virginia Sorensen.] Saturday
Review of Literature, 9 May 1942, 1112.
Widtsoe, John A. On the Book Rack. Improvement Era
45 (June 1942): 380.

Unto The Third and Fourth Generations:

The Influence and Community of Families
in Virginia Sorensens The Evening and the Morning
Kelly Thompson

Encouraging Utah Mormon novelists to write

their honest report on life, award-winning novelist Virginia Sorensen, in her 1953 address titled Is
It True?The Novelist and His Materials said:
I hope that Utah authors are not going to
find any serious discouragement in the truth
that they themselves, as well as their characters
and situations, are bound to be analyzed. It is a
new and popular indoor sport, and not only
among psychiatrists, to analyze, from his productions, an authors motive, principles, prejudices, beliefs and notions about the world and
heaven too. This is an uneasy thing, of course
we had hoped that fiction somehow protected
us from discovery, as the familiar disclaimers
on the first page were supposed to protect us
from libel suits. But now it seems that we ourselves, in our very selectivity, even in our most
complex character-creations who are utterly
unlike ourselves, betray somewhat who and
what we are. If we have a truth, it will be there
in our work; if we have not a truth, the work
will have no value. I have always felt that a
novel is seldom an explanation, but rather an
exploration. Joyce Carey, the British novelist,
has described a novel as a seeking and a setting
forth. It is rather astonishing to find, also, that
our seeking finds us out.

As a published writer and lecturer, Sorensen

anticipated the readers, critics, and scholars who
would examine not only her writing but also her
life, her motives, principles, prejudices, beliefs
and notions about the world and heaven too
(291). Indeed, Sorensen must be admired for her

talent as a writer as well as for her honesty and her

unapologetic willingness to be examined. The selfassurance so apparent in her writing is, to a large
extent, what makes her work so endearing.
In the same address, she admonishes writers to
not be satisfied with less than [their] own truth, as
deeply, as widely, as complexly and thoroughly as
[they] can find it out (291). Sorensen herself takes
this advice to heart. Her writing is a seeking out of
her own truth. Consequently, through Sorensens
writing and, in particular, through her female characters, a reader comes to know the thoughtful,
independent author and nowhere more than in her
novel The Evening and the Morning and her short
story titled The Apostate.
As mentioned in the essay Virginia Sorensen
by L. L. and Sylvia B. Lee, The Evening and the
Morning is a more in-depth version of Sorensens
short story The Apostate from her collection
titled Where Nothing Is Long Ago: Memories of a
Mormon Childhood. Although this collection cannot be taken as an exact account of Sorensens childhood (Lee and Lee 13), it is based upon much of
her past and is written as a memoir which is, by
definition, autobiographical. In fact, Where Nothing Is Long Ago, was helped along by the journal
and wild letters of one of Sorensens dearest lifelong friends as explained in the dedication.
The Apostate is Sorensens retelling as an
adult of the shock she experienced as a believing,
church-going, young girl when she learned that her
beloved grandmother who was returning to Utah
to collect a government pension, was a wicked
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apostate (48). The story recounts the authors

close relationship with her grandmother and her
bewilderment when she learned that her apostate
grandmother still wore her temple garments and
wanted to be buried in her temple clothes.
The Evening and the Morning is a more extensive rendering of a similar tale. It is the story of a
week in the lives of three women characters who
are unquestionably based upon Virginia herself,
her mother, and her grandmother. The characters
in the novel include Kate (the grandmother), Dessie
which is short for Deseret (the daughter), and Jean
(the granddaughter). Kate, an independent feminist
social worker living in Los Angeles and a Mormon
dissident returns to Manti to collect a government
pension. Through a series of flashbacks, Kate relives
her rebellious past and illicit romance with Peter
Jansen. Kate discloses to her daughter Dessie that
she is the child of this longstanding affair.
With this exchange of information and accompanying feelings, there is in the end, a coming
together of the hearts and minds of these three
women in healing ways. When compared with
Sorensens letters and interviews, both of these
works reflect significant aspects of Sorensens real
family and life and, with much promise, invite a
closer examination. Such an analysis offers a unique
interpretation of the story and perhaps another
reason for writing this, the best of Sorensens novels. It is, by the way, her best work, perhaps because
of the very fact that it is fundamentally her story.
Like Nathaniel Hawthorne in The Scarlet Letter, Sorensen writes The Evening and the Morning
in part in order to come to terms with the religion
of her ancestors or to come to terms with . . . her
Mormon heritage (Geary 26). Through the process
of storytelling, Sorensen evaluates her situation,
including her history and the roles her progenitors
play in that history, and investigates her choices.
Undoubtedly, her writing is less of an explanation,
but rather an exploration, a seeking and a setting forth; and, in the end, her seeking definitely
helps us find [her] out (Sorensen Is It 291).
Consequently, she comes to understand her familys theological disposition, and she seems fated to
take a similar path. Ironically, she undertakes an
96

essentially Mormon activity, namely genealogical

research of a very in-depth and artistic kind, to
undergird her conception of self outside of the
Mormon community.
According to The Evening and the Morning and
The Apostate, one extremely powerful influence
in Sorensens life is her grandmother. In fact, Sorensen revealed in an interview that one of her foremost
role models was her grandmother. The Kate Alexander characters real name was Alice Geraldine
Alexander Blackett. In an interview in Exponent II,
Sorensen admits that she used her grandmother as
the role model for the heroine in The Evening and
the Morning. As it turns out, Sorensen is practically
obsessed with her grandmother. Once when she
asked her brother for more information about their
relative, he said, Cant you ever let Grandma lie in
peace? Sorensen responded, I cannot let Grandma lie in peace. . . . I loved her very very much
(Pathfinders 3). She remembers:
Grandmother had always come to us when we
needed her, when the babies were born, when
we had flu, when Dad and Mother took their
once-in-a-lifetime trips to San Francisco and to
New York. In every family crisis, she had been
there. For years I had felt that from the sunset,
which was named California, came rescue. She
moved about the rooms and order entered, like
sun through a window. (Apostate 51)

Not only does Sorensen adore her grandmother, but, throughout her life, Sorensen is said
to be like her. Their similarities, although only
alluded to in The Apostate, are an important element of The Evening and the Morning. Early in the
novel, daughter Dessie, speaking of granddaughter
Jean, says to Kate, She reminds me of you all the
time, and IWell, she quarrels with people and
goes off by herself and she gets impatient. And
sheimagines things. . . . I worry about Jean (27).
Perhaps because of their likeness to one another,
this grandmothers influence upon her granddaughter is profound. First of all, Grandmother Alexander influenced Sorensen intellectually. Second, she
modeled the exploration of her past as key to understanding and evaluating the conditions of her life.
Last but certainly not least, Grandmother Alexander

Influence and Community of Families in The Evening and the Morning

also influences two of Sorensens major life decisions, namely, marriage and church affiliation.
Sorensen inherited her grandmothers love for
beauty, her intellectual astuteness, and her feminist
views. Sorensen valued her grandmothers knowledge of nature and her artistic abilities. The granddaughter in The Apostate comments:
Grandmother was one to come home from a
walk with her pockets heavy. When she visited
us, we had wonderful walks. She knew the
names of stones and bugs, and of birds she discovered with her binoculars. She even knew
the names of weeds and would come in with an
armful of purple asters and joint grass and
make a bouquet that looked like nothing I had
ever seen. (40)

At first Sorensen is shocked to hear that her

beloved grandmother is disaffected from the LDS
Church. Encouraged by her mother to attend the
neighborhood Mormon ward so that she would
feel a part of the community, adolescent Virginia
believes in the truth of the Mormon faith with all
her young-girl heart. She is unimpressed when her
parents, trying to explain her grandmothers disaffection, reveal that her grandmother was a freethinker from the time she was a girl (Apostate
49). They say, She even demanded a vote, right
along with Susy Young Gates and the rest of
them. . . . Quite a girl! (49)
Silently, Sorensen rebukes her grandmothers
apostate actions. In spite of hearing about her
grandmothers hard life, Sorensen wishes that
her grandmother had had more faith and had persevered. Furthermore, Sorensen desires to be a
good example so that she may possibly reclaim her
dearest relation. With all the faith she can muster,
Sorensen prays that her dear grandmother [will]
see the light (50).
Sorensens prayer is not answered, however. In
time, mostly through an exchange of letters, Sorensen comes to see her grandmother as much more
than an apostate. Rather, like all the brilliant flowers in the world, her grandmother is all the more
beautiful for all [her] thorns (51). She loves her
complexity and her independence. A case could be
made that, because of the perplexing nature of

Grandmother Kate, Sorensen prefers the scamps

and skeptics in her novels (Bradford If 35).
Like Kate, Sorensen develops a love for intellectual pursuits and a definite feminist viewpoint.
Grandmothers love for poetry is evident when she
writes in a letter to her daughter and her family:
Lately Ive been reading the Bible a good deal.
Not for philosophy or for religion now, but just for
poetry. Her interest in poetry is what sticks with
the impressionable granddaughter. Later, while visiting her grandmother during her final illness,
Sorensen gravitates to a comfortable place for
herher grandmothers bookshelves. She wrote:
For hours I looked at the books. . . . They were
full of marks and pressed flowers (5354).
Sorensens interest in the books and her grandmothers annotations indicates an interest the two
women shared. Sorensen noted that the thoughts
of great thinkers were underlined and annotated:
The quote from Von Humboldt in support of
individuality, for instance, was ringed with ink
and Good! was written in the margin.
Kates firm feminist convictions are likewise
passed on to her granddaughter. One such conviction Sorensen found written down on a slip of
paper among her grandmothers notes. Ahead
of her time, Kate Alexander, predicted that
Woman is coming into her own. She is recognized as the equal of man. She is his companion. She inspires his love and she receives it.
Upon this firm foundation of mutual respect
and affection, a new world was soon to be
built. (54)

Decidedly, Kate Alexander resented what she perceived as the subservient, priesthood-less position
of women in the Mormon faith. Sorensen similarly
dislikes the notion that women could only get to
heaven on the coattails of her husband as her
grandmother put it (Pathfinders 4).
Sorensen admires women with a strong sense
of self. As evident in her female characters in The
Evening and the Morning, Sorensen wants women
to obtain their identity, not just through their relationships with men, but also through a female
community that is equal in status to that of men
within a larger society that genuinely values
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women. In her mind, this community would more

fully allow for both autonomy and belonging and
is neither weak, submissive, nor detached (Smith
75). It is a community based upon interdependence. Through the writing of The Evening and the
Morning, Sorensen, like Kate, the protagonist in
that novel, seeks to understand the condition of
her life (19). In other words, she seeks to find
whether and where she can place the blame for her
difficult present situation. This is Kates way . . . of
bringing [her] past and the Mormon past into the
present so that each moment of the past clarifies
the present (Lee Mormon 213). As it turns out,
Brigham Young had been the All-Father Kate
blamed for the conditions of her life, for he
managed everything, did he not? . . . It seemed
unreasonable for Kate to blame this great man
because Kates father was hardly a father at all,
in spite of the numbers [Kate was, by the way,
raised in a polygamous family]. . . . It was Brother
Brigham she blamed, the smiling wealthy symbol of power, with his fine square face and his
staunch belly and his word-of-God like an eternal brand upon the villages. (Evening 20)

When she is a child, Kate manifests her disapproval of Brigham Young. At a parade in honor
of the prophet, instead of throwing her bouquet
into the street, she throw the flowers behind her
and steps on them. In The Apostate, Sorensens
mother tells her that her
grandmother had a very hard life here when
she was young. Her mother was a second wife
youve seen your great-grandfathers grave with
his three wivesand there were lots of children
and hard times, sometimes not even enough to
eat or to wear. Sometimes when there was
trouble about polygamy, her father had to hide
for weeks at a time. (49)

Kate blames Brigham Young, polygamy, and

the Mormon Church for the present difficult conditions of her life. Because Kate Alexander was an
apostate Mormon, Sorensens mother was not a
Mormon either but a Christian Scientist. Kate was
so opposed to the Church because of her childhood experiences that none of her children turned
out to be Mormon (Bradford If 22).
98

Similarly, Sorensen looks backward to understand the conditions in her life. Responding to an
interview question about whether her life was so
difficult that she felt it easier to escape into the
past, Sorensen readily agreed: Oh, all my life I was
escaping into somethingmy poetry, my stories
(Bradford If 29).
When she wrote The Evening and the Morning,
Sorensen was not altogether happy. In spite of letters affirming her love for her husband Fred, she
later admitted that her marriage was very unhappy.
In fact, in a letter to her friend Anna Marie Smith
dated St. Swithins Day, 1960, shortly after divorcing Fred and marrying British novelist Alec
Waugh, she ruefully remarked, I dont seem to
want to write very much when Im happy! In this
happy second marriage, Sorensen wrote, How
wonderful it is to be cherished by a good man
(qtd. in Bradford Literary 103) While Sorensens
unhappy first marriage had driven her into her fictional worlds, now the real world was too engrossing to miss, notes Mary Lythgoe Bradford, her
biographer, and quoted Virginias comment, I would
rather make a meal for Alec than write a story
(Virginia Eggertsen 199). One of Sorensens editors observed rather ruthlessly, Virginia only
writes when she is unhappy, so we can hope that
Virginia will be unhappy (Bradford If 32).
It is safe, therefore, to assume that indeed much
of Sorensens writing was an escape and most often
an escape to the past, a coming to terms with the
turns her life had taken. In a letter to her good friend
Anna Marie Smith, a childrens librarian at Utah State
University, written 9 June 1958, Sorensen reveals
that she was not allowed to be herself in her marriage: There is always fight in a marriage when the
wife has too much personality. . . . It is hard not to
be allowed to be selfish because our thoughts and
dreams have to have peace. More than ten years
earlier, Sorensen had written to Anna Marie on
27 November 1947 a revealing vignette of a marriage in which Fred did more taking than giving:
I wish you could have known Fred while I was
sick. He used to seem angry when I was sick,
and I understood it was because he was used to
leaning upon me and when I was not well I

Influence and Community of Families in The Evening and the Morning

didnt make good leaning. But he doesnt lean

now. He takes charge and there is true sympathy. How changed he is! I have loved him so
much that the sound of his steps made me simply hammer all over. You will laugh at this but
it is true. It is a relief to have a real man to love
at last. One tires of simply being affectionate to
an irate child. And it is a good feeling to do
some leaning myself.

In Sorensens own words, Fred . . . was a very stormy

petrol. He couldnt get along with authority. I dont
know why, with his Mormon background. But I
think he expected all authorities to be infallible.
Whenever they were not, he battled with them
(Bradford If 28).
After being awarded the Guggenheim Prize in
1954, Sorensen tells Anna Marie of Freds negative
reaction toward this professional opportunity for her:
Part of the trouble just now is that I cant mention any of the joy of going because of how
Fred feels. He doesnt try to disguise it in the
least and periodically makes me feel that I
simply cannot leave. But I cant not leave now
or I shall not be able to stay with him anyhow.
I mean if anything interfered with this I couldnt
bear itnot if it were done deliberately. But
even an Act of God I couldnt forgive, Im afraid.
It has been so many years coming and means
so much to me I am sometimes frightened. But
go I must . . . (14 Oct. 1954)

Fred resented Virginias success. In October 1958,

Sorensen reports that he began to be different.
Bought guns. Went hunting constantly, early and
late. Took up smoking big cigars. Began insisting
he was a man. Not Mr. Virginia S. mind you, carrying suitcases. Unfortunately, each time a book
came out, I was always punished some way, and
apparently the Newbery demanded something
absolutely final and sufficient (Letter to Anna
Marie, 8 Jan. 1958). Sorensens main coping strategy was exactly what irritated Fred mostnamely,
writing. Moreover, Freds conditional love most
assuredly justified Virginias contemplation of seeking love outside of her marriage as her grandmother purportedly had done as depicted in The
Evening and the Morning.

Lastly, Sorensen looks to her past as she makes

significant decisions about personal relationships
and continuing or breaking the connection to her
childhood faith. The idea of an extramarital affair
was not abhorrent to Sorensen. Rather, she was
intrigued by it. Reflecting later about novels built
around the theme of illicit love, she observed:
I see now why some people found those stories
unsavory. But I didnt think so at the time. It
seemed to me to be how life was. I thought every
kind of love fascinating (Bradford If 30).
As early as 1944, Sorensen expressed profound
sympathy for adulterous lovers. She rebuked Anna
Marie for castigating a married man who had had
an affair:
Your remark about your friends husband and
his affair and your attitude toward him for it
interested me very much. Are you sure he was
so wrong or so wicked? You implied it was part
of his growing upthat his wife said he was
juvenile a long time. So perhaps it helped him,
who knows, and so helped her too. I am curiously changed about these things. When we
meet I will tell you a story. It is easy for you and
for me and your friend, secure in an actually
mythical ownership, to assert ourselves and to
make loud noises when we are hurtmortally,
as we suppose. I am coming to the habit of
looking around and about and behind for all
sides of these things. Perhaps you know enough
to condemn him, I dont know. But, I doubt if
you knew his angle, or could ever know it . . .
(29 Nov. 1944)

The characters in The Evening and the Morning

who find themselves in the love affair are both very
sympathetic characters. Sorensen outlines Kates
and Peters reasons for engaging in an illegitimate
liaison, making them perfectly understandable.
Sorensen makes a concerted effort to point out the
naturalness of their actions. To escape a polygamous household, Kate married Karl Alexander
when she was only sixteen. He was twice her age
and his wife had died in childbirth. Several years
later, when Peter Jansen flirted with her, she felt
justified in responding because she had seen her
husband kissing her eighteen-year-old sister, Verna.
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AML Annual 2002

Kate also pities herself for having married so young.

If Id waited until I was older to be married, the
way Verna is waiting, Kate thought, Id have felt
young a lot longer. She might have married a younger
man. She might have had new carpets instead of
these ugly old things that had been [the first wifes]
and worn before she ever came in to sweep them to
threads (Evening 38).
Peter Jansen, her lover, also has a list of complaints for wrongs done to him throughout life by
which he justifies his adultery. While his father was
an enthusiastic convert to Mormonism and left Denmark to join the Saints in Utah, Jansens mother experienced no such conversion and remained behind
in Denmark. Upon her death, Peter journeyed to
Utah but was critical of both his father and his
faith. Moreover, Peter and his wife, Helga, had only
one child, whose physically deformities require her
constant attention. This child represents their flawed
sexual union. The demands of this child suggest
that Helga cannot sexually satisfy Peter and also
suggest the specter that they will again conceive an
imperfect child. It is easy to be sympathetic with
Peters desire for outside affection.
Perhaps Sorensens fascination with fictional
forbidden love allowed her to explore those paths
herself in the days to come. At MacDowell Colony,
a writers retreat in Vermont, she met Alec Waugh
in the early 1950s. They became close friends; by
1956, as Virginia confided to Anna Marie, she had
to choose between her surly, unsupportive husband
and this British cosmopolitan. At that point, she
chose Fred:
I find that having been on the very thin edge of
pulling out for good has given me rather an amazing perspective about him and life in general.
I had to make up my mind whether I wanted
to be a worldly cosmopolitan or notAlec
flew from the West Indies to see me at Tucson
for a day or so! And I decided to stay with Fred,
finally and irrevocably, and there it is! I love
Alec very much and I love his life tooWhat a
life . . . Yet it turned out it is not for me. A deep
feeling. And I came back to Fred like a longlost child and I feel will never wander much
any more. I have learned what I have learned.
100

By using wander to describe her excursion into a

forbidden romance and the image of a long-lost
child to describe her retreat to marital fidelity,
Sorensen creates an innocent and sympathetic feeling about her experience. To her credit, perhaps
following another example of her grandmothers,
Sorensen desired to keep her promises. In spite of a
severely troubled relationship with Fred, she
decided to remain with him and try to work things
out. Her own resolutions were not enough, however; Fred, who had had a drinking problem, tried
to strangle her and she left him. The divorce was
final in December 1959, and her long traveling
friendship with Alec Waugh led to marriage in
1969 (Worth 198).
In terms of her religious alignment, Sorensen
likewise looks to her grandmother for direction.
Indeed, with regards to her standing as a Mormon,
Sorensen explains: I was married in the temple.
I was very active in Palo Alto [where Fred earned
his Ph.D]. When I wrote Angels [her first novel],
I was going to a little church that met in a lodge
hall (Bradford If 3435). She had certainly
lived the life of a Mormon for number of years and
given it a fair trial. However, Sorensen says I must
admit that the apostasy of my mothers mother
Kate Alexanderhad a great influence on my life
(Bradford If 35). When all was said and done,
blood proved thicker than church affiliation
though not necessarily theology.
Kate Alexander was undeniably spiritual in
spite of the fact that she forsook the religious community of her early life. As noted in The Apostate, Kates favorite Bible passage is the heart of
Christianity:
Judge not and ye shall not be judged . . .
forgive and ye shall be forgiven . . . bless them
that curse you . . . for he maketh his sun to rise
on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on
the just and on the unjust . . . when thou prayest,
thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are; for they
love to pray standing in the synagogues and in
the corners of the streets, that they may be seen
of men . . .. But thou, when thou prayest, enter
into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy
door, pray to thy Father, which is in secret. (57)

Influence and Community of Families in The Evening and the Morning

Kate also read about other religions, including

Buddhism. Sometimes, Sorensens grandmother
had written in this book, I wonder whether I am
even a good Christian (Apostate 5354). Kate
Alexanders attention to the needs of her family
and her choice of a career in social work (ascribed
to her in The Evening and the Morning) communicate that she was conscientious, socially minded,
and thoughtful in religious ways.
Like her fictional/factual grandmother, Sorensen likewise became disillusioned with a tradition
which seems to have failed (Geary 26). Perhaps
because of the provincialism of Utahs small towns,
or perhaps because the charms of the world were
simply more alluring, Sorensen distanced herself
from her religious roots. Memories of her grandmother belittling religion or expressing skepticism,
plus her own observations and experiences, at some
point overpowered Sorensens commitment to the
faith. For instance, Kates observation that poetry
is all the religion or philosophy anybody really
reads, especially if some of it is set to a tune (39),
made an indelible impression upon her granddaughter. Apparently Sorensen came to accept that
idea as well.
In The Apostate, Sorensen tells how Grandmother used her son-in-laws old law books as
flower presses. There was a pressed flower, a grass,
a colored leaf every few pages which seemed to
[Sorensen] far better than the law which [she] had
sampled and found quite unreadable (4142).
Perhaps these old law books were symbolic of an
outdated heritage of religious law, no longer useful
as a code of ethics, but still somewhat useful in
producing aesthetic objects.
Nevertheless, Sorensen was always fascinated
with her Danish roots. She sought to understand
why her ancestors decided to come to Utah. In a
letter to Anna Marie dated 26 October 1954, she
confessed her desire to tell the story I heard so
often in Testimony Meeting when I was a child (in
that unforgettably delightful accent) . . . She says,
I want to create imaginatively what might have
happenedwe cannot say more than that, can
we?to those particular Europeans who came to a
particular America for a particular faith. What they

abandoned for it is the beginning of the story, and

that is what I want to go and find out about.
After reading a 1954 article by William Mulder
on the history of the Scandinavian migration to
Utah in Utah Historical Quarterly, she found it so
exciting that
I immediately began reading it to everybody . . .
and getting ideas of how I might do better. For
years and years I have believedfor what reason,
I wonder, since I never really lived in the houses
where the true tradition was but could only visit
a while, and listen, and pause always by the gate
where I could hear and see it?that I was the
one to tell this story you speak of. Almost I have
heard the call! (qtd. in Bradford Literary 99)

Reading about the history of the Danish converts to the Mormon faith filled her with such
enthusiasm that she almost heard the call herself.
For better or worse, she describes her beloved
Danes as good folk
who dared tell stories on themselves, poke fun
at the verities with rich accents, bear mock testimonies of de trut of de Gospel, imitate the
old gentleman who declared in Testimony
Meeting his sorrow for the behavior of his son,
who was a thief, a woman chaser, a drinker and
a blasphemer, but, for all that, un goot Latter
Day Saint! (Evening 34)

This very characteristic of her Danish ancestors may

have corroded the faith of subsequent generations.
With Sorensens own children, the family pattern of separation from the new American religion
continued to repeat itself. When asked whether she
personally regretted not handing her Mormon heritage on to her children, Sorensen skirted the issue,
describing her daughter as church-going and her
son as a good companion (Pathfinders 4). However, she recognized, at least in the situation of her
daughter, that her church was in one way different.
She accompanied her daughter to Beths churchs
Christmas Eve service and remarked with surprise
that its the first time I had been to a Christmas
Eve service where Jesus birth was not mentioned.
She quickly added, however, that it was a very
beautiful servicefull of singing and full of
poetry (Pathfinders 5).
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AML Annual 2002

It seems clear that Sorensen was swayed by the

irreligious example of her grandmother. In fact,
according to the traditional religious interpretation, the iniquity of the fathers [was visited] upon
the children until the third and fourth generation
(Deut. 5:9). In other words, the choices of prior
generations impacted the latter ones. As psychologist Harriet Goldhor Lerner maintains in The
Dance of Intimacy, each person is probably several
hundred years in the making . . . affected by issues,
patterns, and events that were passed down over
many generations (181).
The many similarities between Sorensens published works, The Evening and the Morning and
The Apostate, and her life as explained in her
personal letters and interviews are intriguing. Even
though her novel and short story cannot be taken
as exact accounts of her nor her familys life, her
creations betray somewhat who and what she [is]
(Sorensen True? 291) They reveal a woman who
loves beauty, relationships, and life. They reveal a
woman who is not narrow in her thinking but
rather expansive, open, and real. They reveal a
woman obsessed with discovering the truth about
her past.
Like Kate Alexander and Virginia Sorensen,
every person must come to terms with his or her
past to live beyond it. According to Harriet Goldher Lerner, As we are able to think more objectively about our family legacy and connect with
more people on our family tree, we become clearer
about the self and better able to take a position in
our family (200). Because of her commitment to
give an honest report of life in her writing,
Sorensen models an admirable genealogical
research that brings healing to herself and to her
family. Sorensens life and writing also provide an
opportunity for understanding, compassion, and
expansion for readers both inside and outside of
the Mormon community.
Kelly Thompson is currently a graduate student studying English at Utah State University. Her thesis is a
comparative examination of contemporary Mormon
women writers. Kelly is interested in learning how the
Mormon faith has influenced women writers.
102

WORKS CITED
Bradford, Mary Lythgoe. Virginia Sorensen: Literary Recollections from a Thirty-Five Year Friendship. Association of Mormon Letters Annual 1 (1994): 97104.
. Virginia Eggertsen Sorensen Waugh: Utahs First Lady
of Letters. Worth Their Salt Too: More Notable but
Often Unnoted Women of Utah. Ed. Colleen Whitley.
Logan: Utah State University Press, 2000. 191200.
. Virginia Sorensen: An Introduction. Dialogue: A
Journal of Mormon Thought 13.3 (Fall 1980): 1316.
. If You Are a Writer, You Write!: An Interview with
Virginia Sorensen. Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon
Thought 13.3 (Fall 1980): 1836.
Geary, Edward A. Mormondoms Lost Generation: The
Novelists of the 1940s. Tending the Garden: Essays on
Mormon Literature. Ed. Eugene England and Lavina
Fielding Anderson. Salt Lake City: Signature Books,
1996. 2333.
Howe, Susan Elizabeth. Virginia Sorensen. Dictionary
of Literary Biography. Ed. Richard Cracroft. Washington DC: DLB, 1984. 27283.
Lee, L. L., and Sylvia B. Lee. Virginia Sorensen. Western Writers Series 31. Boise, ID: Boise State University 1978.
Lee, Sylvia B. The Mormon Novel: Virginia Sorensens
The Evening and the Morning. Women, Women
Writers, and the West. Ed. L. L. Lee and Merrill Lewis.
New York: Whitston, 1979. 20918.
Lerner, Harriet Goldhor. The Dance of Intimacy. New
York: Harper & Row, 1990.
Pathfinders: Esther Petersen and Virginia Sorensen. (Questions from participants at Exponent II s tenth reunion,
1984.) Exponent II 10.2 (1984): 35.
Sorensen, Virginia. The Apostate. In Where Nothing Is
Long Ago. 1963. Rpt. Salt Lake City: Signature Books,
1998. 3857.
. Is It True?The Novelist and His Materials. Western Humanities Review 7 (1953): 28392.
. Letters to Anna Marie Smith. 29 Nov. 1944; 26 Sept.
1947; 27 Nov. 1947; 14 Oct. 1954, 26 Oct. 1954;
29 Dec. 1956; 8 Jan. 1958; 9 June 1958; St. Swithins
Day, 1960. Originals at L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah. Photocopies in my possession. Used
by permission.
. The Evening and the Morning. 1949. Salt Lake City:
Signature Books, 1999.
Smith, Grant T. Women Together: Kate Alexanders Search
for Self in The Evening and the Morning. The Association of Mormon Letters Annual 1 (1994): 6877.

The Inner Other:

Sharing Testimony through Personal Experience
Kristen Allred

Our evolution is the story of listening. This

statement from Terry Tempest Williamss newest
book, Leap (100), has come back to me in dozens
of experiences. What importance does it, or should
it have, to us? What is the story of listening?
In the context of literature and the Mormon
community, it has a great deal to do with us. A cultures growth, change, and development directly
relate to the way relationships are formed and
maintained. Listening to others stories is a significant part of community building and, in the Mormon culture, to the building of Zion.
In Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and
Place, Terry Tempest Williams offers a story with
an incredibly unique contribution to the evolution
and strengthening of the Mormon community. In
Refuge, Williams traces the story of the 1983 rising
and flooding of the Great Salt Lake, which occurred
at the same time her mother was diagnosed with
breast cancer. The stories of her mother, the lake,
and the surrounding Utah wilderness are woven
together in a narrative showing how family, landscape, and religion are inseparably tied together.
However, there is much we are not hearing in
Refuge, because we are asking the wrong questions.
Common readings of Refuge tend to narrowly focus
on evidence that would allow us to isolate Williams
from the Mormon conversation of religion, literature, and culture. Although in places she appears to
be challenging orthodoxy, she actually teaches
about some of the most fundamental beliefs of the
Mormon religion. Rather than leading us away from
our religion, she leads us back to it.

Learning to listen to Williams will help us (readers) move beyond the shortsighted question of Is
Williams a good Mormon or a bad Mormon? to a
question much more valuable and significant to
the Mormon community: What does Williams
teach us and remind us about our own Mormon
theology? Changing directions when it comes to
readership can be difficult, especially when our
subculture has socialized us to be skeptical of nonconformity and unfamiliarity. However, sometimes
it is those very thingsfamiliarity and comfort
that lead us to a lifestyle of complacency that may
have repercussions as harmful as radical departure
from Mormon culture.
According to Bruce W. Jorgensen, a central part
of Mormon literary criticism is letting the voice of
the Other speak. Mormon readers and critics alike
have a responsibility to not only let the stranger
say (66), but to listen open-mindedly, with as few
preconceived notions as possible, to what the
stranger has to say before offering up our own
ideas. Surprisingly, but not infrequently, Mormons
encounter a stranger such as Terry Tempest Williams within their own religion. Often the Other is
not a writer presenting different ideas from outside
the familiar Mormon cultural context but a voice
from within the culture, an inner Other, expressing ideas that are sometimes very different from
the current LDS norm. Some of the most significant Others whom we encounter are those within our own culture who present a perspective with
a different slant on those things that we have grown
comfortable in rarely challenging or rethinking.
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AML Annual 2002

Inside the Mormon subculture, many people

have listened to Refuge. What is in it that is worth
listening to? What value does her story have for
us? A large part of Williamss story that we often
fail to hear is her testimony. Some claim that Williams has no testimony worth respectingthat too
much of her behavior is unacceptable and strange
because some of the values and lifestyles Williams
possesses dont reflect mainstream Mormon culture.
One reason that Williamss testimony is sometimes
overlooked is because it can be difficult to recognize.
The bearing of testimonies is deeply rooted
within the Mormon culture, and serves many functions, one of them being a means of strengthening
relationships between members. Looking at the
form and content of the traditional Mormon testimony will provide a helpful context for recognizing and analyzing Williamss unique expression of
testimony.
For Latter-day Saints, microphone-and-pulpit
testimonies have been traditional media for testifying of belief, faith, and commitment to and in
Jesus Christ, the restored gospel, and the Book of
Mormon, among other things. Fast and testimony
meeting has developed a special atmosphere of
generosity and respect that welcomes and accepts
all individual experiences and problems and that
doesnt ask for explanations or justification. Testimonies have come to include such a variety of
experience, many times hardly relating to Christ,
scriptures, or Joseph Smiththings fundamental
to orthodox Mormons. However, this setting is
revered and respected: the personal offerings of all
are graciously received, even if they are very
unusual. Many times we end up being positively
surprised by the way that the most unusual of testimonies inspires and teaches us.
Williams doesnt stand behind a wooden pulpit, deliberately placing herself in a comfortable
and culturally acceptable context ensuring that all
will be accepted and approved of. She doesnt even
formally announce that she is going to bear her testimony. Instead, she allows it to permeate the book
as she thoughtfully ponders and reflects on many
gospel principles. This is one of the reasons that make
her testimony so unrecognizable on the surface: It
104

is interwoven throughout and within a book; it is a

literary testimony. The remarkable form of Williamss
testimony is precisely what gives it value and
meaning. It is fresh, it is deeply personal, and it
declares the importance of each individuals personality and role within the larger community.
Although the form of her testimony may take
some getting used to, what she shares really isnt
much different at all from the testimonies shared
in sacrament. The nature of the Mormon testimony has gradually evolved through the years
along with the evolution of the sacrament meeting
testimonyand is now very closely associated with
the sharing of deeply personal experiences. Indeed,
in many ways, the word testimony can accurately
hold two meanings, which inevitably overlap each
other but which still carry distinction within their
own content.
Mary L. Bradford observes the reflection of this
truth and redefines what it really means to bear
testimony in much of the literature of Mormon
personal essayists and, thus, in Mormon culture.
To bear testimony means to bear testimony to life
itself, its variety, its humor, its pain, and to the
many lessons it teaches (Bradford 156). Bearing
testimony has evolved to mean a declaration of our
human experience, which includes those pieces of
us that are good, ugly, struggling, learning, complicated, etc. The nuances of testimony have evolved
into those of personal and family histories, personal essays, and diaries, for example. Indeed, the
literary testimony as well as the oral testimony is
becoming an important medium for recording and
sharing testimony.
These literary forms are reflective, down-toearth, and refined, yet they retain a quality of individuality that make them unique and impossible to
be duplicated. Having a clearer vision of this development in the form of the testimony provides
validity and requires respect beyond that of mere
tolerance for Williamss personal narrative. Most
importantly, it invites each of us to reconsider our
own testimonies, and what they are really made
of. It asks us to take an honest look at our own
lives and experiences, encouraging a renewal and
strengthening of our own individual testimonies.

Sharing Testimony through Personal Experience

Williamss testimony is assuredly a complicated

one but undoubtedly more honest and realistic
than many of the sometimes-rehearsed testimonies
born during sacrament meeting. She criticizes Mormon cultures at the same time she praises it. She
speaks so freely and sincerely that some gasp for air
because of this frankness. She speaks with nothing
but honesty as her motive when she observes, for
example, the Mormon cultural problem of how
[o]bedience is revered, authority is respected
and independent thinking is not . . . [and] as a
Mormon woman of the fifth generation of
Latter-day Saints, I must question everything,
even if it means losing my faith, even if it means
becoming a member of a border tribe among
my own people. (28586)

Interestingly enough, personal feelings and criticisms such as this are accepted when someone is
inside a chapel, whereas perhaps because Williams
discloses herself in an unnatural setting, with a
literary instead of chapel testimony, she is regarded
as Other.
As Williams shares her testimony through personal experience, she reminds us of important religious truths that challenge us to grow spiritually
and that will also help us grow closer together as a
culture. Williams gives us her story and asks us to
listen. Specifically, she reminds us that the environment has its own story to telland that our own
Mormon theology and history are deeply embedded in that story. Mormon history has a rich spiritual tradition intimately associated with the
wilderness. Williamss Kenyan friend thoughtfully
remarks: Because we have forgotten our kinship
with the land, . . . our kinship with each other has
become pale. We shy away from accountability and
involvement. We choose to be occupied, which is
quite different from being engaged (137).
Throughout Refuge, Williams shows us the way
our relationship with the land can affect our relationships within our culture and religious worship.
Although for some it may appear that Williams is
digging new ground or creating a new arena of
thought, she is actually tapping into a much larger
literary tradition of spirituality and wilderness.
Spirituality really cannot be isolated into certain

cultural of circumstantial contexts: It has, and

always has had, a special relationship with Nature,
and the literary tradition stemming from this relationship is very significant. One need only cite the
American transcendentalists Emerson, Thoreau,
and Whitman, who have tapped the wellspring of
spirituality and with whom Mormon theology has
been readily compared by scholars.
Uncovering Williamss testimony requires a
more open ethics of readership which doesnt mean
ignoring its possible unusualness but which must
include looking deeper and further than what we
are presented with on the surface. Many readers
reactions include whisperings about paganistic tendencies because of her atypical relationship with
nature, complaints of prayers to birds and other
creatures, and, of course, shivering at the idea of
women participating in the laying on of hands.
Unorthodox worship is what many ears hear.
Often, readers find disturbing the lack of traditional Mormon values portrayed and advocated
(such as church-meeting attendance, temple worship, partaking of sacrament, personal prayer, etc.),
and conclude that because of these lacks, there is
little valuebut rather, dangerwithin the pages
of Refuge. We have the choice of either shutting her
out or engaging the open-minded attitude we exercise during sacrament meetingcuriosity and a
willingness to listen to those who are dressed a bit
funny or who dont use the same clichs and typical testimony language as many often do.
I noticed a large, white mound a few feet from
where the lake was breaking. . . It was a dead swan,
begins Williams as she tells us about one of her
walks alone, along the shore of the Great Salt Lake.
After returning from a friends funeral she walks
along the shore of Stansbury Island to meditate:
she begins to wonder how much longer her own
mother, who has breast cancer, will survive.
I lifted both wings out from under its belly and
spread them on the sand. Untangling the long
neck which was wrapped around itself was more
difficult, but finally I was able to straighten it,
resting the swans chin flat against the shore. . .
I looked for two black stones . . . and place them
over the eyes like coins. . . . And, using my own
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saliva as my mother and grandmother had done

to wash my face, I washed the swans black bill
and feet until they shone like patent leather.
I imagined the great heart that propelled the
bird forward. . . . I imagined the deep breaths
taken as it lifted from the arctic tundra. . . .
And I imagined the shimmering Great Salt Lake
calling the swans down like a mother, the suddenness of the storm, the anguish of its separation. And I tried to listen to the stillness of its
body. At dusk, I left the swan like a crucifix on
the sand. (12021)

As she describes, while walking along the

wrackline, she finds the dead swan and treats this
body with a very maternal tenderness, care, and
respect. Her unique attachment to birds and to
nature allows her mind to give a parental personification to the Great Salt Lake as a mother, nurturing its dead child (the swan). Her imagining the
anguish of separation between the lake and
the swan as she waits solemnly by the birds body,
listening, is clearly her way of preparing to cope
with the inevitable death of her mother (122).
One interpretation is that Williams finds God
in nature, and not separate from nature. Creatures
and the wilderness appear to serve not only as contexts or settings for obtaining renewal and comfort,
but also as the source of strength itself. Because
nature has not only served as a place of peace, spiritual development, and communion with God
and has just as frequently been a place of destruction, sorrow, sin, and corruption, one wouldnt be
exaggerating to interpret Williamss text as her
going astray by using the wilderness in a nontraditional way. For many Mormons, a more common
belief is that nature should serve as a function or
medium which we can use in finding our ultimate
comfort and refuge in Christ. Nature is the means
to the end. However, as Mormon environmental
ethics have evolved over the years, there has been a
widening of the gap between nature and the sacred
(God). Sometimes we forget that the land and God
are actually inseparable in a number of ways.
Even though these incidents and others create
quite an unusual picture of Williams, there is
much more to this than a woman who has a wild
106

relationship with nature. Other clues uncover the

deep spiritual renewal that Williams undertakes
through her encounters with the wilderness
something very much a part of Mormon religion
and culture, but something that we seem to have
lost touch with through the years. As she meditates
on the land, explicitly defining the role it has in her
life, Williams refreshes our memories with the possibilities nature holds for spiritual renewal and
communion with God. She finds Christ by being
in the wilderness, although it initially appears that
her relationship with the land separates her from
him. She shows us that the land can have a more
active role in our lives and that it can be a direct
link connecting us to God. Its holiness exists, not
just because of its physical beauty but also because
of her own spiritual renewals there. As Williams
copes with her mothers painful death by solitary
retreats to the Great Salt Lake, she shows us her
understanding of natures sacredness and how
being in the wilderness strengthens her understanding of gospel principles:
Its strange how deserts turn us into believers. I believe in walking in a landscape of mirages
because you learn humility. I believe in living
in a land of little water because life is drawn
together. . . . If the desert is holy, it is because it
is a forgotten place that allows us to remember
the sacred. Perhaps that is why every pilgrimage to the desert is a pilgrimage to the self. There
is no place to hide, and so we are found. (148)

The retreats she takes into nature and the way

she returns each timerenewed, filled, and with
greater vision than she had beforeare very much
archetypes of other significant figures solitary journeys from our history. Wilderness can, and should
be, an intrinsic part of our worship and spirituality,
just as it was for Jesus Christ, Nephi, Joseph Smith,
and many others.
Speaking with the voice of one who is acutely
familiar with Mormon history, she reminds us that
the lands ability to purify comes from its characteristics. It is not merely a physical setting where
human beings meet the purifier, God. The land
itself can purify. Moses and the Israelites experience in the wilderness testifies of this; the dry,

Sharing Testimony through Personal Experience

barren desert forced the Israelites to be dependent

on God. The deserts very attributesits isolation,
privation, and emptinesslent themselves to purifying the Israelites. In fact, the Israelites could not
have learned to rely completely on God through
communication for comfort and literal survival in
an environment where their basic needs and comforts were already met. She reminds us that the
heritage of the gospels restoration does in fact produce special ties to the land:
Wilderness courts our souls. When I sat in
church throughout my growing years, I listened to teachings about Christ in the wilderness for forty days and forty nights, reclaiming
his strength, where he was able to say to Satan,
Get thee hence. When I imagined Joseph Smith
kneeling in a grove of trees as he received his
vision to create a new religion, I believed their
sojourns into nature were sacred. Are ours any
less? (14849)

Spirituality has always been associated with the

wilderness. Not only is the land a place of solace,
comfort, and purification, but it is also a site where
great personal and community growth can take
place. Historically, one can easily identify the consequences of the early Latter-day Saint members
experiences with the land. Our Mormon environmental encounters are extremely significant. Nature
is embedded in our past and history. The struggle
to find a home for the Saints from the time the
Church was formed forced them to engage in a
deep relationship with the land. Each time they
moved, they had to tame and refine the land to
make it suitable for survivalthe refinement of
the land paralleling their own physical and spiritual refinement. Burning muscles and aching backs
became symbols of renewed, continued commitment to their community and to their God.
Living some of the basic principles of the
gospel involved a direct, meaningful relationship
with the environment. Exercising faith meant the
festering swamps of Nauvoo and the bitter coldness of Winter Quarters as settings for dealing with
diseases, hunger, and weariness from struggling to
survive. Walking across the plains was the ultimate
act of trust and courage in this new gospel. Faith,

belief, hope, and a fiery determination to obey

were conceived on the land and with the land. The
growth that most members achieved was a direct
result of the Saints incredibly intense relationship
with the land.
Lastly, Williams celebrates and calls attention
to the literary beauty of our own scripturesthe
poetry and lyricism of the scriptures in relation to
wildernesss spiritual capacities and functions. Our
theology connecting nature and worship is present,
not only through the experiences and sojourns
people have had throughout the ages, but also
within our scriptures. She tells us that she carries
this scripture with her:
The earth rolls upon her wings, and the
sun giveth light by day, and the moon giveth
her light by night, and the stars also give their
light, as they roll upon their wings in their
glory, in the midst of the power of God. Unto
what shall I liken these kingdoms that ye may
understand? Behold all these are kingdoms and
any man who hath seen any of the least of these
hath seen God moving in his majesty and
power. (D&C 88:4547, p. 149)

The wilderness setting where Williams shares

her story also provides us with the potential for
renewing the meaning of this scripture. She personalizes this scripture, thus allowing us to also see
it in a new light.
Williamss rich personal narrative helps reestablish the faded connection between our Mormon
theology and nature. Through sharing her encounters with nature, she bears her testimony of the
gospel and the wonderful possibilities the environment holds for spiritual renewal and comfort,
communion with God, and community growth.
The wilderness, however, offers us an invitation
without pushing us to respond in a particular way.
We can choose to find God in the wildernessor
we can lose ourselves. An invitation is laid before
us, and there is potential for spiritual destruction as
well as regeneration.
A great-grandfather of mine didnt respond
well to his encounter with the wilderness. The
experiences he had while walking across the plains
to Utah were too painful for him. He allowed the
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AML Annual 2002

wilderness to break him instead of build him,

developing a bitterness that resulted in his leaving
the Church, followed by several generations of our
family. Saints past and present must respond to the
opportunities of the wilderness. Similarly, Terry
Tempest Williams presents before us the wilderness
of her testimony, and we can choose between having a redeeming experience or a destructive experience. It depends on how we choose to respond.
Individual experience is invaluable to the Mormon community: uncovering Williamss and others
testimonies through their personal experiences,
despite the characteristics that may seem atypical at
first, is a mandate for building relations within the
Mormon community. It is precisely Williamss
individuality, uniqueness, and refreshing paradigm
that make her story, and thus her testimony, so
powerful and meaningful.
Kristen Allred, a senior majoring in English and minoring in international development at Brigham Young
University when she delivered this paper, developed
and refined her interests in and ideas about Mormon
literature and culture through studying with Gideon
Burton and also through Eugene Englands influence.
She spent the spring before her graduation in Ethiopia
training local leaders in the development of a community literacy project.
WORKS CITED
Bradford, Mary Lythgoe. I, Eye, Aye: A Personal Essay in
Personal Essays. Tending the Garden: Essays on Mormon Literature. Salt Lake City: Signature Books,
1996. 14759.
England, Eugene. Good Literature for a Chosen People.
Dialogue 32.1 (1999): 6989.
Jorgensen, Bruce W. To Tell and Hear Stories: Let the
Stranger Say. Tending the Garden: Essays on Mormon
Literature. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1996.
4968.
Williams, Terry Tempest. Leap. New York: Pantheon,
2000.
. Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place. New
York: Vintage, 1991.

108

Louise Plummer:
Local Grasshopper Makes Good
Anne Billings

I really am going to talk about Louise Plummer

today, but Id like to begin by describing an experience of my own. When I entered BYUs masters
program in the English Department, I was interested in young adult literature. Those were the
classes I wanted to take and the ones I most enjoyed.
I knew I had the option of writing a young adult
novel. This is what I really wanted to do. But even
so, when it came time to actually declare an
emphasis and decide what type of thesis to write,
I hesitated. I worried that a young adult novel
would not be important and literary enough. I
worried that if I wrote a young adult novel, academic peers would not take me seriously.
I share this experience because I think my hesitation to get fully involved in young adult literature is probably not altogether unique. I believe
that there may be many writers and scholars who
could benefit from and contribute to young adult
literature but are hampered by false and lingering
stereotypes that literature for young adults is not
real literaturethat it is nothing but cotton-candy
pulp novels and does not merit our time or serious
attention. These misconceptions are unfortunate
because the genre of young adult literature in fact
offers a great variety of rich and rewarding reading
and presents opportunity for aspiring writers.
Luckily, things are changing. The fact that a
session of this conference is dedicated to the discussion of literature for young adults shows that
among Mormon academics and scholars, literature
for adolescents and children is receiving more attention. In part, young adult literature has steadily

been gaining recognition and attention over the last

several years. More recently, young adult literature
has received increasingly more attention from the
LDS literary community in particular, due to some
fine writers and scholars in our midst. Some of them
are the other speakers at this session, and they have
made reference to some of the others. And among
these scholars and writers of literature for young
people, Louise Plummer is one of the finest.
Born in the Netherlands, Louise Plummer immigrated to the United States with her parents when
she was five. She grew up in Salt Lake City and
married Tom Plummer, a neighborhood boy who
later became a professor of German. They lived in
Massachusetts briefly, then Minnesota, and had
four sons. Louise earned a masters degree at the
University of Minnesota. The book she wrote for
her M.A. thesisThe Romantic Obsessions and
Humiliations of Annie Sehlmeier (1986)was the
first book she published. After almost twenty years
in Minnesota, Louise and her husband moved back
to Utah, where they have lived for almost another
twenty years. They now both teach at BYU. She
teaches literature and writing classes and continues
to write novels. From Louise Plummer, I have
learned many important things about why and
how to write young adult literature. These are a
few of the things I have learned.
According to Plummer, young adult literature
isnt that different from adult literature. It can be
serious, yet there are also many very funny young
adult books. You can write about anything. One
reason Plummer says she writes for teenagers is that
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she is still working out her own adolescence. When

we are honest, most of us still have issues, emotions, and relationships from our adolescence that
in some way, we are still working out. This is clear
in her writing, for example, in her short essay,
Wallflower, where we hear the poignant, humorous, yet real thoughts of a young girl standing
against the wall waiting to be asked to dance during a stake dance.
Reading good writing like this, we not only
remember how it is to be a teenager, we feel emotions that are relevant to us at any stage of life. A
review of A Dance for Three, a novel about fifteenyear-old Hannah who becomes pregnant, said:
Hannah is a rich and rewarding presence; her
aching losses nearly throb on the page. Plummer is not afraid to say that it is possible to overcome lifes demons, but its hard; that people
can change, but not all do; that giving up a baby
hurts. Sobering and definitely a page-turner.
(Plummer Kirkus)

Louises plot is far from the negative image of

cotton-candy fluff we sometimes associate with the
label young adult literature. Plummer demonstrates
in her writing that books for and about teenagers
can and should deal with the stuff of real life.
Detail is another of Plummers strengths. The
details in her books often come from her own
lifeplaces: a neighborhood in Salt Lake or a park
in Boston; people, such as a slightly unstable Dutch
grandmother; and situations, such as a husband
climbing in a bathtub fully clothed to settle an argument with his wife. As she describes in First Things
First, an essay in Thoughts of a Grasshopper,
My job is to tell a compelling story and the only
way to do it is through the divine details, as
Nabokov puts it, so that in my fiction, the
divine details are often autobiographical, and
in my nonfiction the divine details are imagined. And it is all true. (5)

These details make her stories real.

They also make her characters real. I have
learned from Plummers writing that interesting
characters with strong voices make you want to
turn pages. Characters with strong teenage voices
110

are one of Plummers strengths. She says that a big

influence on her came when she read J. D. Salingers
Catcher in the Rye in high school. Holden
Caulfields voice was a voice with attitude, Plummer said. I read that book and thought, Can you
write in this voice? If you can, I can do that!
(Plummer Interview).
Characters with strong personalities that come
out in their voices are a key to Plummers approach
to writing. She says she usually starts with a character that will matter to the audience. She lets the
character talk, hears the characters voice, and then
gets that character in lots of trouble. In her four
young adult novels, the main charactersAnnie,
Susan, Kate, and Hannahare very distinct, but
have a similar defiant voice that rings true with
teenagers.
A book review in Publishers Weekly pointed out
Plummers talent for creating great characters:
Plummers uncanny ability to project details and
human idiosyncrasies onto her characters makes her
enterprise a believable one. [They] seem to have
lives beyond the page; they, even more than their
struggles, are memorable (201).
Another thing I have learned from Plummers
writing is that, in books for teenagers, there is rich
potential in experimenting with form. In A Dance
for Three, not only does Hannah speak in the first
person, but we also hear from Hannahs best friend
Trilby, and also from Roman, the brother of the
boyfriend who got Hannah pregnant. In The
Unlikely Romance of Kate Bjorkman, Kate is writing
a romance novel as she tells her story. Thus, she
incorporates phrases from The Romance Writers
Phrase Book: See you later, Kirk said, looking
back. He didnt gaze longingly into my amethyst
eyes, so he obviously is not the hero in this novel
(8). Plummer also includes revision notes at the
end of each chapter as if Kate had written them.
The revision notes are printed in a different font
and include all of the things Kate thinks she should
change in the chapter of the book she is writing.
(Plummer said this device also made it very simple
to incorporate the revision suggestions of her editorshe simply listed them at the end of each
chapter as Kates revision notes.)

Louise Plummer: Local Grasshopper Makes Good

Besides specific writing skills, from Louise I

have learned that you can be a Mormon and be a
successfully published writer in the national market. Plummer started out trying to write for the
national press because she wanted to see if she could
make it as a writer in that market. She said she has
not written specifically Mormon stories because
that is not what editors have wanted. However, she
does present religious figures in a positive light. She
often writes about Mormon characters in a way
that does not make an issue of their Mormonness
but shows them as real people. For instance, in The
Romantic Obsessions and Humiliations of Annie
Sehlmeier, the main character and her family are
not Mormon, but one of their neighbors is a Mormon bishop. When their grandmother dies, Annies
father invites the neighbor-bishop, who has become
a family friend, to say a prayer with the family
before the casket is closed (144).
In a similar way, being Mormon is not the
direct subject of any of her books, yet she incorporates elements of being Mormon in a natural and
positive manner. Plummer has also shown that
young adult literature can be an attractive field for
Mormon writers because, in her words, they want
clean romance. Im happy with that (Interview).
Finally, Plummer is one of the best examples I
know of doing what you love and doing it well.
Several years ago, having no idea who Louise
Plummer was, I registered for a literary criticism
class she taught. I vividly remember one day when,
laughing, she boldly proclaimed that besides teaching English, she wrote novels for teenagers. I was
amazed that a real English teacher did such a
thingand not only did such a thing, but was
proud of it!
I later found out she, like I, had once worried
that writing for teenagers wasnt a practical
enough thing to spend ones life on. From an early
age, Plummer was interested in writing for young
people. There was a section in her elementary
school called girl books that she loved. (The
librarian once tried to get her to read Little Men
after Louise had liked reading Little Women, but
Louise didnt want to read it because it was in the
boy books section.) She always wanted to write

girl books. But for many years she didnt think

she could really write fiction for a career. Instead,
she concentrated on looking for more practical
jobs. Finally, in her thirties, she realized she really
did want to write novels and went back to school
to finish a degree in English and get a M.A. in creative writing. Now, she says, I love what I do.
Anyone who knows her can see that is true. And
because she loves what she does, she does honor to
herself and her craft.
When she writes a book, she wants it to be well
written. She wants to write a good book that she
would be interested in reading. Some of what
she tries to do in her own writing comes out
through the voice of Kate Bjorkman, in the book,
The Unlikely Romance of Kate Bjorkman: Romance
novels are sappy in the extreme. They read like
junior-high-school daydreams. Ive never read one
that I could really believe. None of them sounds
like real life. And I want real life. Even in novels,
I want real life (2).
Since Plummer began writing novels for adolescents, she has published all four of the young
adult novels she has writtena phenomenal success rate for any writer! Not only have her books
been published, but she has also won several
awards. Her first book, The Romantic Obsessions and
Humiliations of Annie Sehlmeier, which describes
the life of a girl who moves to the United States
from Holland in her senior year of high school,
won Honorable Mention in the Third Annual
Delacorte Press Prize for an Outstanding First
Young Adult Novel, a national contest. The award
included the publication of the novel in 1986.
Plummers second book, My Name is Sus5an
Smith. The 5 is Silent, is about a girl who goes to
Boston the summer after her senior year to live
with her hip aunt and pursue her talent for
painting. Published by Delacorte Press in 1991,
this book was selected as an ALA Best Book for
Young Adults and also won first prize for a young
adult novel in the 1989 Utah Arts Council Creative Writing Competition.
In Plummers third young adult novel, The
Unlikely Romance of Kate Bjorkman, the unexpected arrival of an old family friend at Kates
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house for Christmas vacation brings a romantic

element into Kates holidays. This book was published by Laurel-Leaf Books in 1995 and was a
School Library Journal Best Book of the Year.
Plummers fourth book, A Dance for Three,
showed critics that she not only had a talent for
humor and romance but was also able to treat
more somber subjects. In this story, fifteen-yearold Hannah has had to take care of herself and her
mother since her father died a few years ago. Then
she finds out shes pregnant. It was published by
Delacorte Press in 2000. Like her other books, it
received favorable reviews in important national
book review publications such as Horn Book,
which called it smart, witty, and affecting (320),
School Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus
Reviews, and Amazon. com. The scope and prestige
of the recognition Louise Plummers writing has
received in the field of juvenile literature have been
equaled by very few Mormon writers and artists in
their respective fields.
Thanks to the influence of Louise and others,
I did decide to concentrate on young adult literature during my masters program. Ive been nothing but happy with this decision, and Ive never
enjoyed writing a research paper as much as I have
enjoyed writing my novel. Before I made this decision, I asked Louise how her academic colleagues
react when she tells them she writes novels for teenagers. Do they respect you? I asked. She laughed
and said, Well, now they do. She has shown me
that if you love what you do and do it well, even if
its writing novels for teenagers, it can matter.
Anne Billings delivered this paper as a second-year
English masters candidate at Brigham Young University. Her thesis project was a young adult novel. After
graduation (April 2001), she moved to Houston, Texas,
with her husband and baby daughter.

WORKS CITED
A Dance for Three. Publishers Weekly, 14 Feb. 2000, 201.
Plummer, Louise: A Dance for Three. The Horn Book
Guide, 11.2 (Fall 2000): 320.
Plummer, Louise: A Dance for Three. Kirkus Reviews,
15 Dec. 1999: 1961.
112

Plummer, Louise. First Things First. Thoughts of a

Grasshopper. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1992. 15.
. Interviewed by Anne Billings, 18 Jan. 2000.
. The Romantic Obsessions and Humiliations of Annie
Sehlmeier. Dell: New York, 1986.
. The Unlikely Romance of Kate Bjorkman. New York:
Bantam Doubleday Dell, 1995.

Job Revisited:
Discussion of a Tim Slover Story
Cherry B. Silver

A high challenge for teachers and readers is to

evaluate adequately a new piece of fiction. We
must ask what should be the basis for judging the
characters, the action, the tone, the underlying
philosophy? In the fall of 1998 I had students in an
honors intensive writing class at Brigham Young
University read and discuss such a new piece, Tim
Slovers Jim of Provo. Tim Slover, well-known as
a playwright, won the Moonstone Award in the
1995 Brookie & D. K. Brown Memorial Fiction
Contest with Jim of Provo, and the story appeared
in Sunstones June/July 1998 issue. The reaction of
my students on first reading was mixed.
In general, I ask a story: (1) to take a point of
view that is engaging, (2) to offer interesting and
believable characters, (3) to show plot developments
that lead to a climatic decision, (4) to suggest something about our general human conditionalso to
enrich my view of our place in the universe, and
(5) to do so in language that is witty or metaphoric
and imaginative. I felt intrigued by Slovers story
and wanted to share my enthusiasm for its ingenuity. I found that not all these young readers liked
the story but they certainly raised provocative
questions about it.
For class discussion I paired Slovers Jim with
the Grand Inquisitor passage from Dostoyevskys
The Brothers Karamozov, because both stories present Satans view of the state of humankind. Both
also make statements about the tragedies of human
life and what would make humans happy. Both
suggest Gods respect for human agency. The Mormon story highlights Gods active effort to bring

his children unto himself. What may surprise us is

Slovers setting with its blend of earthly and celestial modes as the ambitious Satan takes up Gods
challenge to try to prevent a depressed young man
from taking his own life.
Students were so fascinatedand some so
offended by Slovers storythat one suggested we
invite the author to the class to answer questions.
Professor Slover kindly accepted and from notes I
kept on students questions and his responses,
I relate an interchange on the theological and artistic issues they posed. First I will highlight the story,
then capsulize the discussion. Afterward I will offer
my own comments about the artistic value of this
piece of fiction.
THE STORY
The setting is an extraterrestrial gymnasium
where God and Satan are lifting weights. Satan, the
narrator, comments in asides on the eternal unfairness of the competition, while God poses the question, Hast thou considered my servant Jim? . . .
My servant Jim in Provo might be one of yours,
might be one of mine. I dont know yet. And later,
when God observes, Hes going to kill himself,
Satan sees a chance to trap God:
For a moment I thought I had him, but he quickly
added, I think. He sighed again, and this time
I believed it. Suicides are a real problem for God;
I have a legal claim on every one of them. . . .
Why dont you see what you can do with
Jim? he said. I cant seem to do anything.
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AML Annual 2002

My jaw dropped.
I mean it, he said. Oh, I know your line
is making people miserable, but you always
claim if you had it your way, you could make
them happy instead. So, why dont you give it a
try with my servant Jim? . . .
Why should I? I asked.
. . . Because maybe youre right. Maybe
we should start doing things your way down
there. My way doesnt seem to be working out.
Doing things my way. In a momentary
flash, the old vision came to me. . . . Me on top,
me on the throne, me telling everyone what to
do, and them doing it. Not like with God in
charge; he tells everyone what to do, and they
hardly ever do it. Its that freedom problem hes
got, that penchant for letting people work it all
out for themselves. Only they dont; they screw
it up. And, yes, these days I help them screw it
upsometimes, not as often as they tell you
I dobecause the whole insane plan just infuriates me. See, Im a people person; God isnt.
People are weak; I understand. They want help
to advance themselves; I sympathize. And they
dont want to be plagued by doubts and decisions; I take them away. Or at least I would if
God allowed me to. But he wont. . . .

We first encounter Jim as a BYU student in a

class discussion analyzing The Wasteland. He feels
depressed and isolated. The discussion doesnt make
sense. No one on this supposedly happy campus
will even look him in the eye, smile, and say
helloor so he tells his counselor.
With Gods permission, Satan comes forth with
three tricks to make Jim happyin illegitimate
ways. First is a beautiful woman, a blonde rock
singer making advances to him. Jim runs away.
End of first temptation. Satan complains to God:
. . . he wasnt supposed to be able to resist.
I think you have misunderstood. . . . I cant
curtail Jims basic freedom to resist your temptations.
Cant or wont? I asked.
It wouldnt be right, he said.

Satan tries again. This time, he finds Jim plodding up a residential hill behind the Provo Temple
114

and crying.1 A cat streaks out from a yard, chased

by a German shepherd who catches the cat in his
cruel jaws, mauling it to death. Jim kneels before
the dead feline, not to gloat, but to weep. Satan is
puzzled after this second temptation fails.
What does this kid want?, I wondered.
I thought that would cheer him up! Someone
who hates the world as much as he must, I figured, would enjoyjust for a moment, at least
seeing it suffer. I figured it wrong, obviously.

Satan rummage[s] in Jims mind again, trying

to find a memory of a person who could mean something to him and give Jim a moment of happiness.
Jim plods back down the hill toward the Provo
Temple, carrying a handgun in his coat pocket. As
he takes the pistol out, his English teacher suddenly appears beside him, professing friendship
and offering half-hearted admiration for his school
work. Jim laughs a dry, soundless, painful laugh.
But not a happy laugh. Instead of accepting the
compliment from his teacher, Jim lifts the gun to
his temple and shoots, while the howling demon,
our narrator, waits to jump on Jims spirit and drag
him down to his kingdom as a suicide. End of the
third temptationand of Jims life.
The closing scene takes place in Gods celestial
office. Satan is outraged because Jims spirit was
whisked away from him at the death scene. He has
come to demand his rights. Instead:
There he was, with God, in his office. Jim of
Provo!
I came unglued. This one is mine! I yelled.
No, God said, putting his arm around
Jim. The little jerk looked radiantly happy. And
God gave him that look, my least favorite one
of all: complete acceptance, serene understanding, healing love. Unbearable. This one is my
friend, God said.
But, I spluttered, it isnt fair, its a cheat!
He killed himself. He took a life. Murderers
come to me.
God turned in my direction. Thank you
for bringing my friend, Jim to me. . . .
You played your part admirably. I asked
you to tempt him, and you did. He resisted

Job Revisited: Discussion of a Tim Slover Story

your temptations to the very last. He looked

back at Jim, whose untroubled, joyful eyes had
all this time never left Gods face. God smiled
at him. That is all I ask of my friends.
I thought about ranting and raving some
more about my rights and Gods apparent misapprehension that I had been doing all this for
his benefit, but my heart had gone out of it.
God had me, and I knew it. He worked all the
angles, even mine. . . .

THE QUESTIONS
When Tim Slover came to our class session, the
students, having read Jim of Provo, launched
into questions about theology, morality, and the
rightness of depicting Deity eating salad and lifting
weights with Satan.2 They asked Slover why he
wrote the story anyway and worried that it might
prompt people to think that committing suicide
was all right. Several, however, declared that they
liked the story and found considerable merit in it.
In the following exchange, the student questioners are labeled SQ. Tim Slovers response follows as
TS. (Because my notes were necessarily abbreviated,
I clarify these passages of conversation, putting my
additions in brackets. I have also rearranged the
sequence of questions and answers, clustering them
by topic.)
The Job Comparison
SQ: I read the story four times. Finally I loved
it because of the relationship between God and Satan.
TS: It is a Job story, which I taught recently in
Gospel Doctrine class. God finds a way to save someone; He makes it work for a tortured mind set. . . .
I was also thinking of Section 76. Just men made
perfect by mediation. The size of the gap is not as
important. There is nobility in suffering even if the
level is adolescent.
SQ: I hated the story. You wrote it as a play on
Jobs themes.
TS: The story goes beyond Job. It is a kind of
parable of mortality in which there are three stages:
pre-temptation, mortality, and after life. I see Jim
as predisposed to self-destruction like my bipolar

nephews. Job complains before God. This character is different. Are temptations adequate to save
him? This is beyond my theology.
SQ: If you cant tell why it happened or what it
means, why write a story about it?
TS: [It is fascinating because] you cant tell. Thus
the story. It would be a weakness if we prejudge.
SQ: What audience were you thinking of?
Students?
TS: Mormons, I suppose. I have Baptist friends,
wonderful people, who would hate the tone of the
story as inappropriate, dealing with an anthropomorphic God. Mormon jokes horrify these Baptist
friends. The motivation was doctrinal.
SQ: Was there an influence from the Screwtape
Letters?
TS: C. S. Lewis would never have had the bad
taste to put God in. I was not consciously using the
Screwtape Letters.
Issue of Depression and Suicide
SQ: Why did you write this story?
TS: [I had a student commit suicide. It really
caused me to ponder about his action, his mental
state, and the eternal consequences.] The story was
modeled on C. S. Lewiss Perelandria. The devil is
not bright, but he hammers the same points again
and again like Mephistopheles in Faust.
SQ: What is the theology of suicide? I didnt
get it from the story. In the Bible in Jobs minidebate, did Job contemplate suicide?
TS: I think that was not a parallel. In the Bible
translation the emphasis is stronger on boils. [But
in] Psalms we have a longing for death.
SQ: Would this push a person reading the
story over the breaking point?
TS: That is a valid concern. I would be horrified if the story had that effect. From another point
of view, it offers hope after a suicide. You write
what you really think because you have to take the
moral responsibility [as a writer].
SQ: Are there really three temptations or two?
TS: [First, the woman, second, the cat, third,
the English teacher. The last] is a desperate move of
Satan to make him happy. They all fail. Suicide is
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inevitable in the story. [But I am] not sure if he

[God] believes it.
SQ: I see, you are keeping it uncertain.
SQ: Jim is just like Jobthree so-called friends
parallel the temptations here.
SQ: As to temptations, why choose what really
doesnt lead to happiness?
TS: He has only to do it [feel happiness] for a
second.
SQ: Shouldnt he go beyond pleasure?
TS: Is he capable? The irony is that Jim achieves
happiness in the end.
Uses of Satan
SQ: I didnt like the story-playing with Satan.
He is serious opposition in peoples lives.
TS: The authorial voice is in Satan. That must
[affect] the tone. It is hard to put the author into God.
SQ: At first I found the story shocking. Then I
thought the tone was effective, not flippant, but a
kind of joke. It helps give courage to men.
SQ: People wont misjudge. Jim is an exception. The devil is not being serious. The story gave
me the idea that God uses Satan as a tool.
TS: God uses him as a pawn in Job.
SQ: It is as if God abuses his power and Satan
is the victim.
TS: [Satans] complaints are transparent.
SQ: 1 Corinthians 10:13 says we cant be
tempted beyond what we can stand.
TS: That is a frightening verse.
SQ: What is the TVP Satan complains about,
a poison? [Laughter, and explanation that TVP is a
soy substitute for meat often connected with Mormon food storage.]
Literary Parallels and Reshaping
SQ: The opening scene has Jim in an English
class where he feels that the teacher and student
over-analyze. Jim felt touched by the line from
T. S. Eliots poem, Marie, Marie, hold on tight.
How much did you mean by that?
TS: I was thinking of Steve Walker, a careful
teacher. Through him I understood Eliots Wasteland for the first time. But a student stopped Walker
from going on.
116

SQ: My question is about the motives for Jim.

He seems basically disconnected from God as well
as Satan. He seems out of energy.
TS: Jim doesnt know himself and [yet] has a
great well of compassion. The cat arouses it. The
Devil think he will get a kick out of seeing an animal abused. But that doesnt happen. Fixated on
himself, Jim cannot analyze. He takes it viscerally.
SQ: Is there an allusion to Christ in Jims right
palm bleeding after he clinched his fists in frustration? I dont see a connection.
TS: Jim is not a Christ figure. His palm bleeds
just to show tension. However, like Christ Jim undergoes three temptations.
SQ: I have more respect for the story now. I see
a parallel to the Grand Inquisitor, Satans confrontation with God. Now I see they were instruments in proving the main point.
TS: I resent sharing time with Dostoyevsky. . . .
However, a useful exercise for writers is to ask, if
you could rewrite, what would you now do? Is it
irretrievable? [Turns to students for responses]
SQ: I would have stayed away from Christ
parallels.
TS: Agreed.
SQ: I was taught that Satan could not read
mans mind.
TS: Where?
SQ: How does Satan otherwise know our
weaknesses?
TS: Passages like that come in the heart of Provo
and in folklore. Such a belief is a little absurd, like
having to take the sacrament with the right hand.
Agency and Viewpoint
SQ: I enjoyed the battle with free agency. Some
[in this life] will choose wrong.
TS: I dont think God knows every detail of
behavior. It is a downer if we are foreknown.
SQ: He may know us from before. . . . Or we
have weaknesses in common.
TS: Possible. I like the idea of making the
human mind a graphic map. Men are grand
canyons, having more needs than can be filled.
SQ: Jim was filled with what was not true.

Job Revisited: Discussion of a Tim Slover Story

TS: I needed a third party to look at him, [so

as not to let Jim tell or act out the whole story
himself ].
SQ: The problem with not putting anything in
Jims mind [is that] I couldnt connect with Jim.
TS: My answerit is good not to put yourself
in his place. No one was a comfort to him. He was
empty of [any saving grace or graces].
THE MESSAGE OF THIS MORALITY TALE
FOR MODERN MORMONS
I call Jim of Provo a modern fable, perhaps
more specifically a morality tale.3 It raises provocative questions for an LDS audience because, unlike
Archibald MacLeishs 1958 verse drama J.B., it is
not a condemnation of superficiality and materialism, and it does not depict an angry, totalitarian
god of justice. Instead it is a careful probing into a
world philosophy associated with the teachings of
the Doctrine and Covenants, where human choice
is genuine but Gods love and mercy have force and
where Satans influence is likewise real. You will
notice that the students questioned the morality of
writing about God-man-Satan as a triumvirate.
However, Tim Slovers story creates a believable
position for God in that He respects mankinds
agency to experience and choose, while He actively
tries to lead his children to salvation
Treating this story as a creative work, I find the
sparring between God and Satan cleverly philosophical. It seems startling but not ultimately disrespectful to update the Job scenario. Jim, however,
does not elicit much sympathy or represent the
universal human dilemma. I felt no urge to champion his surviving his suicidal depression. Would it
be possible to create, instead of a Jim, a Mormon
Everyman, in the tradition of the morality plays,
whose sincere but stumbling attempts to earn salvation also leave him on the ridge between Gods
and Satans domains? My answer is, probably not
in this short piece, but perhaps in a longer work.
So better to stay, as Slover does, with an abstraction
that sets up a chess game, or in this case a weightlifting competition, between the powers of dark
and light.

Within this comic context, it is suitable to have

a positive ending, see the ambitious Satan defeated,
and observe Jims return to light and love. Theologically, the author leaves open deeper questions
about the motives for suicide and the complexities
of judgment, but he does suggest that for those in
troubled emotional states a loving Father will welcome their released souls. Whether you like the
tone of the story or not, you will find the debate
fruitful and the theology provocative.
ARTISTIC EVALUATION
In conclusion, I weigh the story as a piece of
fiction against the five artistic criteria I listed above.
1. Is the point of view engaging? The surprising
setting, which presents a tangible, resurrected deity
conversing with a not-too bright Satanic narrator
makes a humorously ironic package for Mormon
readers.
2. Is there a character with whom one can identify and whose fortunes one follows? God is suitably
distant and wise. Jim, although depicted as an agent
making choices, remains a cipher, not an actor. Satan
plunges into the competition, vents his wrath, and
multiplies his frustrations as comic relief. We may
cheer for them as for allegorical characters in a
morality play but we probably do not feel emotional identification.
3. Does the plot lead to some kind of climactic
decision? The structure sets up a God-Satan frame
story, focusing on the trials for Jim within that frame.
The story leads to a climactic point where Satan
has done his bestor his worstto ensnare Jim.
Jim has resisted Satans snares but taken his life by
pulling the trigger. God exercises mercy and justice. And the aftermath shows Jim restored to spiritual health. The unraveling of the story-line leads
us to reflect on the moral parable.
4. Does the story suggest something about our
human condition and enrich the readers view of
our place in the universe? At this point each reader
must decide whether to be intrigued or offended
by the personalization of God. Slover, I believe
with wit and wisdom, manages to enact Mormon
theology concerning the afterlife, judgment, and
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mercy. As with any fictional look into other worlds,

the reader ought willingly to suspend disbelief and
enter the universe being depicted. Thereafter the
reader can judge whether the trip was worth
the effort.
5. Is the language metaphoric and imaginative?
Language, varying from the colloquial Satan to the
dignified Deity stays appropriate to the characters.
The tone is light enough that we judge the story to
represent ironic comedy rather than high tragedy.
Yet the whole episode is a provocative metaphor for
a theological puzzle.
I conclude that this is not a great story, but
a skillfully crafted one. It is a story that is worth
reading and commenting on. So I congratulate
Tim Slover on creating a piece of short fiction that
makes readers jump out of their chairs, either to
protest, to ponder, or to defend!
Cherry Silver, 2001 president of the Association for
Mormon Letters, teaches American literature and technical writing as a visiting instructor at Brigham Young
University. She has degrees in English literature from
the University of Utah, Boston University, and Harvard
University.
NOTES
1. Harlow Clark pointed out that the house described
is Slovers own. E-mail, February 23, 2001.
2. Eric Eliason, who includes Jim of Provo in his
course on Latter-day Saint literature at Brigham Young
University, told me that some students refuse to read the
story because they consider it blasphemous.
3. The morality plays of the Middle Ages dramatized
allegories in which abstract virtues and vices are personified as struggling for the soul of a human being. This genre
merged into the tradition of English comedy because of
the plays realistic and [even] farcical depictions of the
Devil (Harmon and Holman 330).

WORKS CITED
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor. The Grand Inquisitor. Trans.
Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhousky. In Readings
for Intensive Writers. Comp. Susan T. Laing. Needham
Heights, MA: Simon & Schuster Custom Publishing, 1997.
118

Harmon, William, and C. Hugh Holman. A Handbook to

Literature, 8th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: PrenticeHall, 1996.
MacLeish, Archibald. J. B. Sentry Ed. Boston: Houghton
Mifflin, 1958.
Slover, Tim. Jim of Provo. Sunstone 21.2 (June/July
1998): 4248.

Writing Dixie: Marilyn Arnolds Desert Trilogy

Douglas D. Alder

Utahs Dixie, the land of red cliffs and yearlong sunshine, has long been known among writers
as the locus of Maurine Whipples Giant Joshua,
still Mormonisms most acclaimed novel. Since its
appearance, nearly 60 years have passed during
which significant historical writing has appeared
from those southern climes including the many
books by Juanita Brooks and a handful by Andrew
Karl Larson, but fiction has been sparse.
So we in Dixie are delighted to once again be
the subject of significant creative writing, this time
by an import. (St. George has a majority of such
newcomers.) Marilyn Arnold is ensconced in the
Sante Felike setting of Kayenta, near Ivins, where
she can breathe in the sights of Snow Canyon as
she produces a book a year, causing the mayor of
Ivins and the Utah Humanities Council to give her
the Mayors Humanities Award. She amazes us,
capturing the life we know so well and have failed
to write, even though, like her, so many of us are
retired and supposedly have the time to reflect.
Marilyn is not really retired. She has simply
cast herself on the windy sands of unemployment
to be a full-time writer after spending twenty-eight
years as a more than full-time professor. Despite
the fact that she continues to teach a popular extension class in St. George, she has vowed to move
from being a literary critic to being a producer of
literature. Her long internship for this new calling
saw her analyzing the works of Willa Cather through
four books and numerous articles, seminars, and
conferences. As one of our nations literary giants,
Cather set Arnolds direction, convincing her to

write about rural folk, their landscape, and their

wanderings from their moorings.
Exultant at being her own person, free of meetings and telephones, Arnold spent her first Dixie
year unloading two non-fiction statements that
had welled up in her. She had long felt a desire to
comment about the Book of Mormon. Using her
professorial genre of text analysis, she wrote Sweet
Is the Word, ignoring the usual issues of commentaries such as the historical origins of the book or
the archeological evidences. She focused instead on
the textual content, much as she would in analyzing writings by Shakespeare or Milton.
The reader will be surprised to find the work to
be light and delightsome. This was my first venture into Arnolds writing; and I was immediately
jealous of her spritely sentences, her fun with words
and ideas. There is nothing ponderous about this
commentary on a sober scripture. It is personal and
refreshing.
The second book was her editors idea as much
as hers. Sheri Dew invited Arnold to compile a
book of virtues which would draw on her lifetime
of reading in world literature. Arnold chose to
focus on the Sermon on the Mount and the many
meanings of the word charity. She collected literary excerpts from the classics, major American and
English authors as well as Mormon writers and
religious leaders. It is a Latter-day Saint response to
William Bennetts popular volume on virtues. As
an example here are the authors of statements in
one chapter, Chapter 3: Charity Envieth Not:
Albert Schweitzer, Louise Lake, Sylvia Probst
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Young, Madeleine LEngle, George F. Richards,

Nancy Byrd Turner, Hannah Cornaby, Abraham
Lincoln, James Brown, Delbert L. Stapley, Parley P.
Pratt, Henry David Thoreau, Donald R. Marshall,
Mary Elizabeth Woolley Chamberlain, Eliza Maria
Partridge Lyman, Frank Lloyd Wright, Lao Tsu,
Baruch Spinoza, Ella Wheeler Wilcox, William
Brighty Rands, William Hazlitt, Chieko Okazaki,
Aesop, and Henry Howard Earl of Surrey. What
fun she must have had going through a lifetime of
literature anthologies and playing with computer
collections!
Once these two works were in print, Arnold
turned to what she had longed to do, what she had
gambled an early retirement would enable. It was a
scary leap because she was not sure she could come
close to the quality of Willa Cather, whose work and
letters and life had been her focus for two decades.
The setting for her fiction had been determined
long before as she climbed the slick-rock canyons
of Zion National Park and hiked through much of
the Colorado Plateau. She was infatuated with the
red cliffs and the desert landscape. Writing of that
topography would come naturally. Second, she
wished to focus on the windblown, sunbaked
people who farmed against the droughts and floods
and heat of the Southwest, people of deep religious
commitment, if not academic reflection. The element of tension would develop easily, not because
of the weather but by wandering from that solid
base, wandering into academia. That wandering
would draw her heroine, Delia McGrath, to the
American Midwest and into the values of the
research universities, their secularism, their pecking orders, and their demands for sophistication
while the counter-heroine, Polly McGrath (Delias
mother), remained at home in Smithville to cope
with the death of her husband and to create a new
life without him.
The trilogy is a concert of characters. The main
plot centers around two believable women. Delia,
an assistant professor of literature in a major Midwestern research university, has ancestral roots in
southern Utah, and her mother Polly, widow of
Jedediah McGrath, the rock-solid patriarch of their
clan, who dies early in the first volume. Mormonism
120

is the solid base of the McGrath family and the

challenge for Delia who follows sophistication and
rationality as it leads her away from faith.
Delia has two suitors, both very believable and
both Gentiles. Hector Gabrielson is an academic
colleague at Jefferson University, a decade her senior and divorced. He would be willing to join the
Church if that would win Delia and her parents,
but then Delia is moving his way rather than
theirs. Then there is Gordon Foster, a cowboy and
a BLM agent, a handsome hunk in Utah who in
fact does join the church, independently of Delia.
Her attraction for him is greatly facilitated by an
accident they experience in a slot canyon flood.
Delias brother, Donald J., and his teenage son,
Miles, also survive that flood with thembarely.
The brothers virtue and faith are unshakable,
unimpressed with Delias doubts about the Book
of Mormon.
Other straight characters include Angie
Turner and her husband, Howard, also academic
colleagues in Wisconsin. Angies cancer is a sobering influence for them all, a cause for reflection
well beyond professional aspiration. These are winning folks. I thoroughly enjoyed having them all as
friends. Reading about them uplifted me. I loved
the non-Mormons as much as the Mormons, even
though the latter were my people.
The counter characters are what distinguish
the book and characterize Arnolds writing. She
loves to invent doozies. There is Anthon Clemmer, a felon who is a poet, a softie who holds up
Polly at a freeway rest stop and then repents, turning himself into a hitchhiker instead. He later
inherits a fortune and presumes to court Polly
through delightful wit and her equally delightful
dodges. An eighty-five-year-old murderer (of her
eighty-seven-year-old husband) is Clemmers benefactor. She was his school teacher whom he once
defended from a death threat. She rewards him
with her husbands sizable fortune, avoiding a set
of twin nieces and two nephews (all middle-aged)
who expect the money.
Then there is a wildly rebellious teenager, Torrey,
who ran away from decent parents at age fifteen
and bumped into Delia as her hospital roommate.

Writing Dixie: Marilyn Arnolds Desert Trilogy

Polly ends up providing the rebel a home and

attempts to civilize her. Torrey dodges deft missionary efforts by two black-suited elders who
wont give up. A robbery and violent car accident
place Torrey near death again and change her direction, leading to reconciliation with her parents and
her eventual return to Smithville to attend junior
college and join the church.
Then there is Delias zany senior citizen neighbor in Wisconsin. Begonia Slopek also served prison
time but for an unintended crime, unknowingly
smuggling drugs across the Mexican border at the
behest of a cool operator who asked her to pick up
a package for him. Begonia provides Delia with
transportation in a faded blue Pontiac convertible
during the weeks she cannot drive her Subaru because
of the broken leg suffered in the slot canyon flood.
That contact leads Delia into Begonias life, especially the courtship that leads Begonia to wed
Elmar Roy, both of them over seventy-five.
There is even a genuine villain, Horace Rostrand, chair of Delias tenure committee. Not only
does he challenge her qualification for tenure (in
which he is probably correct) but he clearly wishes
to resist promoting females. That, however, does
not stop him from propositioning Delia, which
abruptly stirs her to one of her high moments when
she sees issues clearly. He gets bruises as she successfully attacks him despite her cast. As she hobbles
away, she is determined to choose principle over
tenure. Then Delia has some real moral dilemmaswhether to charge him for both sexual discrimination and sexual assault. That she decides to
do. Then the tables turn when Rostrand has a deadly
heart attack. Delia has to decide whether to forgive
him or delight in a victory. He lies in the hospital,
abandoned by the many people he has alienated,
including his wife. Delia knows she needs to dissipate the anger and blame that enflame her; she
needs to forgive him. A scene in the hospital when
he dies in Delias presence is genuinely uplifting.
There is Nelson Farwell, a marginal LDS ward
member who would like to court Delia. He is a
Johnny come lately who cannot compete with
Gordon Foster even though he is a conventional
Church member. Gerard Mannion is another

player in the drama, a student in Delias class

whose comment, counter to his peers who wish to
blame God for a co-students death, stops Delia. In
response to their cynical view of man as trash,
Gerard asserts, We can also do good. That
impacts Delia, who is facing fundamental choices.
He invites her to speak at his missionary farewell,
helping Delia solidify some resolves, even though
she denies that she helped him decide to go on a
mission, as he asserts.
The counter characters, bizarre as some of
them are, produce delight. They make the trilogy
successful, avoiding the piety, the proselyting, and
the preaching that could otherwise burden the
basic religious tone of the work.
Once Marilyn Arnold had the first volume of
the trilogy in text, she had to consider publication
and marketing issues. Like so many of us, she was
drawn to the mind-set that a national publisher
was most desirable. Her manuscript had implications well beyond the Mormon culture. Maurine
Whipple had proved that the red-rock country was
attractive to readers throughout the USA and
beyond so why not give national publishers a try?
Arnolds many previous publications had been produced through national academic venues which
had little in common with the New York commercial publishing world. Marilyn was a neophyte
when it came to the New York scene.
In a recent interview she described her frustrations with the experience, frustrations that many of
you know well, the interface of Zion and New
York. She discovered that many publishing houses
receive more than one hundred manuscripts a day.
The submissions are put on calendars that often
keep them from being examined for months.
Many are not even posted at all. The editors attention level is often minimal, if they do not have
some reason to attend to any given novel with extra
interest.
Facing that reality, a writer from the distant
Rocky Mountains can decide to hire an agent with
the hope that it will increase the publishers interest.
Marilyn found that agents, too, are oversubscribed
and not likely to take on a new author unless there
is something unusual to arouse attention. Even if
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they do contract with an author, they may not succeed in getting the manuscript an attentive reading.
Marilyn knew people who had succeeded against
these odds. In analyzing their situations, she could
see that they often had some kind of inside contact. One was an employee of a publishing house.
Another had participated in a writers conference
where an editor became interested in her writing.
Another had served as a judge of a contest involving works from a given publisher who later published her book. Just being in the New York circuit
seemed to be essential for many. She thought back
to Maurine Whipple. How had this totally unknown
writer broken in? She won a writing contest for
unpublished authors whose prize was a chance at
publication with Houghton-Mifflin.
Marilyn lacked that contact and was limited to
mere submission. She knew authors who fought
those odds by submitting manuscripts to two hundred publishing firms and then following up with
phone calls. She decided that would take more time
than writing the second volume. Its ideas were
pounding within her, and she wanted to capture
them instead of becoming a marketer for her first
volume.
Then she found out that if she was accepted by
a New York publisher, she would earn very little
money for her first contract and the company
would print only between 1,500 and 3,000 copies.
They would do only limited marketing and probably none focused directly on the Mormon market.
That caused her to pause.
The arguments went back and forth in her
head. Being published by a New York firm would
bring more recognition and would suggest a higher
quality than a regional press. It would prove that
she met a more rigorous standard. It would also
mean that she would likely have to travel nationwide to promote the book, attending writers conferences and meeting the press. It might also mean
that she would get into a tussle with the editor over
the tone or content of her work. She writes valueladen stories. Many editors want to drain out such
messages.
She settled for a regional publisher, Covenant.
They published twice as many copies on the first
122

run but none of them would reach national outlets. She had more control of the content and preserved much more time to move on to the other
two volumes. But convincing Covenant to publish
was not easy. There were some plusses in settling
for the local choice, but the longing for New York
is still alive in her.
In my opinion she chose wisely. Despite the
wild secondary characters, the trilogy is still overtly
religious, so much so that most national publishers
would dismiss it. There is no explicit sex. Instead
there is faith. It is not dogmatic, not at all. It is not
proselyting. It is not offensive but it is still faithpromoting. The device of Delia finding four metal
plates with Indian writings on them is clever. It
allows Delia, and even Gabe, to reconsider the
golden plates origins of the Book of Mormon.
That is just too convenient for a secular editor.
Gerald Lund has expanded the Mormon reading audience and convinced them to tackle a book
series. In this he has served us all, but he chose a
safe groundpioneer history and biblical stories.
Dean Hughes took up the challenge of winning
series readers by moving into the 20th century with
a five-volume set involving Mormons in World
War II. Marilyn Arnold now moves the strategy up
to the present day, a bit more venturous, but only
three volumes. The theme of tension between reason and faith is more demanding and focused on
an audience with academic sympathies. We academics can relate to the tension, which is the main
plot, and to the research university setting. We buy
books, but there are not nearly as many of us as
Gerald Lund captured.
My assignment today has been to discuss Marilyns trilogy, but I would like to add a postscript.
I have just had the opportunity to read her newest
book, Fields of Clover, forthcoming from Cedar
Forts Salt Press imprint. This work is an entirely
different effort. It showcases her talent of creating
fun, even bizarre, secondary characters like those
readers find in the trilogy; so it is refreshing to read.
Even the main figures span the spectrum from conventional to far-out.
This book is much more focused on a specific
audience and a major issue. As a result it makes an

Writing Dixie: Marilyn Arnolds Desert Trilogy

important statement. The readers are pulled into a

setting they may like to avoida care center for
the terminally ill. The action of the main plot is
slowthe churning decline of an elderly couple
heading to their deaths. The daily pain, boredom,
failing capacities, and impotence they face are the
discomforting setting. That is plot one. Plot two
focuses on the responses of the couples three offspring. These siblings are pulled into the suffering,
reluctantly. Their ability to empathize and serve
grows rather quickly, but they resist improving
their frayed relationships with each other. Arnold
uses a writing technique to get inside the heads of
each of the three so they speak to the reader
directly from their minds without necessitating
dialogue or description by an observer. It is an
effective device.
Reluctantly the three offspring come to face
their immaturities and unkindness. Their dying
parents linger long enough to provide a catalyst for
the gradual reconciliation and belated maturing of
their adult children. The amazing character of the
parents is revealed; and the siblings at midlife are
humbled, having missed so many earlier messages.
Subplots provide relief from the rest-home
drudgery with zippy characters, some from the
counter culture. The reading picks up speed with
well-crafted sentences and sublime moments
dropped in quietly.
As I read, I scribbled these notes to myself:
Dying is hard, boring, tedious. Love is important
at death. Dedication is a powerful thing. Sibling
imperfections can be overcome. There are lots of
kinds of people, but we all need to know about
dying. It is part of us, not to be ducked. Though
nursing home workers try to care, the dying need
families to care more.
The book is a major statement, one that
addresses a situation many mid-life people face
the emotion-laden caring for slow-dying parents. It
is often an unwelcome message but is potent with
humanitys lessons. The author has chosen wisely,
creating a significant message, well beyond the
therapeutic level. In my opinion this book deserves
a national publisher. It has no direct Mormon content; the issues are universal.

From my perch in St. George I often have to

look north for literary action but in this case I am
sufficiently amazed to watch our local import,
Marilyn Arnold, pouring out fine worksshe is
already into her seventh book, this one a mysteryand I recommend her to your attention.
Douglas D. Alder earned his B.A. and M.A. from the
University of Utah and his Ph.D. from the University
of Oregon and had a Fulbright to University of Vienna
(196263). He taught at Utah State University (1963
86), served as president at Dixie College (198693),
and retired as professor of history in 1998. He has
served as president of the Mormon History Association,
as chair of the Utah Endowment for the Humanities, as
a member of the State Board of History, and as a member of the Utah Arts Council. He and Karl Brooks
coauthored the statehood centennial history of Washington County. He and his wife, Elaine Reiser Alder,
have four children and eleven grandchildren.

WORKS CITED
Arnold, Marilyn. Desert Song. American Fork, UT:
Covenant, 1998.
. Fields of Clover. Springville, UT: Cedar Fort/Salt Press
Imprint, forthcoming in 2002.
. Pure Love: Readings on Sixteen Enduring Virtues. Salt
Lake City: Deseret Book, 1997.
. Sky Full of Ribbons. American Fork, UT: Covenant,
2000.
. Song of Hope. American Fork, UT: Covenant, 1999.
. Sweet Is the Word. American Fork, UT: Covenant,
1996.

123

God-Finding in the Twenty-First Century:

Alan Rex Mitchells Angel of the Danube and
John Bennions Falling toward Heaven
Richard H. Cracroft

Speaking as one without authority and as one

of the scribes, I prophesy that this turn-of-theMillennium era will be recalled by future Church
of Jesus ChristCJC (not LDSyes, you heard it
here first, and probably last) literary historians as
the flowering of the Mormon novel. It takes ten
tons of printing to yield a pound of belles lettres;
and in the past two years, Mormon presses have
turned out dozens of competently written though
largely predictable, formulaic popular novels
which have garnered a large audience. These same
presses, greased by the enormous popularity of
Gerald Lunds Work and the Glory series, have
blessed us with an unprecedented and abundant
outpouring of several first-rate historical novel
series by Dean Hughes (Children of the Promise),
Ron Carter (Prelude to Glory), Gerald Lund (The
Kingdom and the Crown), and David G. Woolley
(The Promised Land). This same two-year period
has yielded four classic Mormon novels, listed
alphabetically by author: Marilyn Browns WineDark Sea of Grass, Orson Scott Cards Sarah, Anne
Perrys Tathea, and Donald Smurthwaites Fine Old
High Priests and its sequel, Blue, Wise Autumn.
Now, joining this distinguished company are
Alan Rex Mitchells Angel of the Danube, and John
Bennions Falling toward Heaven, both published,
coincidentally, in fall 2000 by a pair of brothersin-law (Alan is married to Johns sister) who hold
Ph.D.sAlan in soil and environmental science
from the University of California at Riverside, and
John in English at the University of Houston
where he sets part one of his novel. Importantly,

because both novels are, more or less, Mormon

missionary novels, both Mitchell and Bennion are
returned Mormon missionariesAlan in the Austria Vienna Mission and John among the Navajo
nation. While Angel of the Danube clearly belongs
to the Mormon missionary fiction genre, only the
first part of Falling toward Heaven takes place in
the mission field; but it is in his Texas Houston
mission that Elder Howard Rockwood begins his
fall toward heaven.
In both Angel of the Danube and Falling toward
Heaven, the Latter-day Saint missionary experience
becomes the frame for two very different, highly
original workings-out of the Mormon mission as
salvation journey, as variations on Joseph Campbells hero journey. In both novels we follow the
protagonist along a pilgrims progress through separation, initiation, trials and tests, into and out of
the belly of the whale, as both Elder Barry Monroe
and Elder Howard Rockwood learn the ways of the
Holy Spirit and journey toward making peace with
God and receiving the divine boon of individual
salvation and hope for exaltation.
In mentoring their all-too-human protagonists
through their customized awake and arise patterns of following the First Principles path of gaining and exercising faith, undergoing necessary
changes and repentances, purifying the inner man,
and submitting to and enjoying the presence of the
Holy Ghost, Mitchell and Bennion show Barry
Monroe and Howard Rockwood following a path
to that harmony which the Navajos call Hozro, and
the scriptures call that peace of God which pass
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AML Annual 2002

eth all understanding (Phil. 4:7). As becomes evident in a close look at these excellent novels, Alan
Rex Mitchell and John Bennion have used the
timeless framework of the salvation journey to
expand and enrich readers lives through the timeless blessing of great, even inspired, art.
I
Angel of the Danube: Barry Monroes Missionary
Journal is the retrospective missionary journal of
Elder Barry Monroe, lately of the Austria Vienna
Mission. Since his release two months earlier,
Barry has been groping to understand the welter of
emotions which caused him to stop keeping his
journal just three months before his release and
which prevent his bringing closure to his mission.
Sounding like a Mormon Holden Caulfield in a
post-mission funk, Barry grouses, Nobody at
home understands what it was like. Just because I
went to Austria I feel like Im some Nam vet in
need of therapy (1).
After he confides his confusion to a Mormon
patriarch whom he meets at church in Blythe, Arizona, in the Mojave Desert. Brother Zapata tells
him, Now, Elder, all you need to do is to read
your journal and you will find the hand of God
working (176).
Barrys journal becomes, then, the revelation of
Gods providence in leading him through the strange
events of the last months of his mission: Dude is
right. I need to either finish it or forget it, but that
seems impossible. Maybe ten years down the road . . .
Ill understand the carnival incident, the Danube
bomb, the mermaid, and the folk legends. Maybe
then I can let go of the mission (1).
Picking up where he left off writing his journal,
on the evening before his last transfer, from Himmelsruhe back to Vienna, Barry begins to piece
together the complexities of his faith in his saving
message, his frustration at the stubborn refusal of
the Austrian people to listen to that message, and
his falling head-over-heels in love with Anna Magdalena, one of his investigators in Himmelsruhe.
Completing his journal account of those three
months enables Barry to identify the Lords strange
126

act in leading him to some kind of still unresolved

conclusions and still unclear fulfillment and
understanding.
Under Mitchells skillful guidance, the reader
never loses track of Elder Monroes search for
meaning in his serio-comic rite de passage. As I have
(brilliantly and incisively) written in Brigham
Young Magazine (what satisfaction to quote oneself !): Tracking [Barrys] spiritual odyssey through
the Austria Vienna Mission is something [akin to]
tracking Huckleberry Finns discovery of his and
Jims humanhood, and even more like following
Henderson on his comic African journey to selfdiscovery in Saul Bellows Henderson the Rain
King (52).
Barry Monroe, as unlikely a pilgrim and
sojourner as Huck, Holden Caulfield, or Henderson, is a southern Californian, whose beach-bum
and motorcross-racing past and Hey-Dude cool
mask cannot conceal a sensitive, deeply spiritual,
profoundly believing, and innately idealistic young
man. Unlike Alma the Younger or Elder Corey
Anthon, in Benson Parkinsons The MTC: Set Apart,
Elder Monroes salvation journey begins, not in
sin, rebellion, or doubt, but in faith. Having overcome an anti-authoritarian and anti-institutional
impulse which delayed his entering the mission field
by a year, Barry has undergone a sincere and genuine conversion to the Mormon God and to what
he deems as the glorious but radical doctrine of
man as a god in embryo, which came to him
. . . the first time I read the King Follett Discourse
the summer before my mission. The Spirit hit
me so strong that I almost cried. Of course I
didnt cryI never crybut there was something there in my chest that kept swelling and
burning, like indigestiononly not in my
stomach. And it wasnt painful like indigestion.
It was a powerful thing unlike anything else.
Like heat but not hot. Not like anything physical, because it was affecting my brain and emotions, but I wasnt emotional. My body didnt
have a desire to get up and shout it out, like the
Pentecostals, because it wasnt an emotion like
anger, or even enthusiasm. It was like love,
like truth, but more than that it was a new
spirit being born inside me. And I thought if

Finding God in the Twenty-First Century

only I could qualify and endure, that somehow

there was more of this to be had. And there was
this sensation that I had endured and overcome
an awful lot alreadybecause, as old King Follett said, I had been around a long timeeternity. Ewigkeit. (5)

This love is put to the test in beautiful but ravaged Austriaintensely yet indifferently Roman
Catholic, still in thrall to the physical, spiritual,
and psychic devastation of World War II, and completely unaware of minuscule Mormonism, and
religion generally; and if made aware at all, it is by
the irritating intrusion of two ubiquitous young
men cluttering their stoop with a message to which
they are instantly antagonistic or maddeningly
indifferent.
Although Barry has been, for the most part, a
devoted, slogging, and normal, if mercurial, Mormon missionary, twenty-one months of opposition in all things by Austrians steadfastly oblivious
to Gods role and mans worth (5) have taken a
serious psychic toll on Barrys heady King-FollettDiscourse idealism. He tells Elder Unts Vidic,
his penultimate greenie companion from Edmonton, Canadanick-named Unts by his three
older brothers in playful reference to Vidics being
the runt of the family litterthat theres a lot to
be depressed about on a mission if you let it, especially in Austria (5). After just a few days in the
field, the devoted and not-yet-jaded Elder Vidic
nutshells their hapless lot as the only Mormon missionaries in the tiny hamlet of Himmelsruhe,
where the few members have fallen away after an
intra-branch squabble and the rest of the villagers
remain friendly but deaf to their message: The Austria Vienna Mission is, Unts opines, the lowest
baptizing mission in the world; their zone is the
lowest baptizing zone in the mission; their district
is the lowest teaching district in the zone; their
companionship is the lowest teaching companionship in the district.
Unts slouched. What could be worse?
I put my hand on his shoulder and offered
the only words of comfort I could think of,
Youre junior companion. (11)

Despite Barrys weary dejection, he and Dudehis

southern California term for all other human
beingsbecome fast friends and loving companions; in three months they diligently winnow and
sift the inhabitants of tiny Himmelsruhe three times,
ending up with three interested investigators
goldens. When the mission president decides to
transfer both of them to separate companionships
in Vienna, the Austrian folk-legends told by the
attractive, charming, and married Anna Magdalena
become catalysts for the transformation of Elder
Monroe, as well as the Ursache, or cause, of his
mounting bewilderment and confusionand the
principal reason he stops writing in his journal.
Although Elder Monroe valiantly resists naming the captivating Magdalena as the root of his
confusion, he has, in fact, and counter to all of
his scruples, ideals, and mission rules, fallen in love
with her. His unspoken and unnamed feelings are
complicated by her beguiling gift for reciting Austrian legends, which she teaches Elders Monroe
and Vidic in exchange for, and often in illustration
of, their gospel discussions. These legends, a brilliant unifying touch by Mitchell, become for both
missionaries a means of naming and defining their
roles as catchers-in-the-rye, as latter-day Jeremiahs,
Jonahs, or Peters-on-the-day-of-Pentecost to the
Austrian nation.
As Monroe and Vidic bid farewell to Magdalena on the eve of their transfer to separate companionships in Vienna, she recounts for them the
legend of the fishermen and the Nixe, or Donauweibchen, the mermaid Angel of the Danube who
warns two net-fisher men on the ancient Danube
of pending disaster. The pair of fishers share her
warning with the other fishers and save the entire
village from devastating flood. Barry sees in the
legend the parallel between the angel and his own
charge to warn the Austrian people of impending
spiritual destruction. Moved by her vision of his
role and stirred by his unrealized and unrealizable
love for Magdalena, he goes to Vienna resolved to
redouble his efforts to call the Austrian people
to repentanceor at least to Achtung.
In Vienna, Barry enters a new phase of his hero
journey as district leader of a motley and shiftless
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AML Annual 2002

crew of missionaries who cope with endemic rejection by becoming pranksters and rule-benders and
engaging in all manner of tomfoolery. Although
they continue to knock on doors, they more often
resemble sophomoric fraternity boys than focused
and disciplined missionariesa demeanor sure to
put off some readers and all of the Church Missionary Committee. District Leader Monroe, understanding the dejection of his fellow-missionaries and
unconsciously driven by his unnamed (because
forbidden) love for Magdalena, shows a remarkable
aptitude for leadership by taking the clowns, as
he calls them, out to dinner and skillfully engaging
them in recalling for one another the vision they
had after receiving their mission callthe vision of
the ideal missionary which kept them going while
locked up in the MTC in Provo (42). It was all
the same vision, he discovers:
Strong, determined men with sharp haircuts
young prophets walking the world, entering
into houses and telling people the truths of
their destiny as children of God. . . Waking up
earlier in the morning filled with eagerness to
find the honest in heart. Reading and understanding the scriptures. Studying the language
until we could speak it like a native. Confounding the enemies of righteousness by
strong words that cause the earth to quake.
Laughing at the weak tricks of Satan. Loving
people so much that the love just oozes out
causing our faces to shine. Like the Spirit you
get when youre in the temple. (42)

In his unorthodox fashion the new district leader

initiates his Dudes by asking, What had happened to those dreams? . . . How can we let that
spirit shine from us? Maybe if we could shine, we
could get through to the Austrian people (42). He
recounts another of Magdalenas Austrian legendsthe story of Briccius, field marshal for the
Emperor Leo in the wars against the Turks. As a
reward for valorous service, Briccius asked for and
received the boon of carrying back to Denmark a
drop of the blood of Jesus Christ shed on the cross
and stored in the cathedral at Constantinople.
En route to his homeland, Briccius perished in a
snowstorm at the foot of Austrias Gross Glock ner
128

mountain. His body was found the next spring,

still protecting the vial containing the precious
drop of blood, which still graces the small chapel
built over his revered grave.
Elder Monroe concludes, Now there was a
missionary that got through to the people, even if
the holy blood was bogus. He may have had to die
of cold in a snowstorm, but he got through to them!
(43). He caps his motivational sermon by relating
his own dream of warning the Austrians, just as the
Angel of the Danube had warned the fishermen of
the impending flood. It may take a miracle. . . .
I may have to die on a mountain. . . . A flood
sounded as good as anything else (43). Fired by
Barrys leadership, his missionaries return, invigorated and refreshed, to the work of the ministry.
Tests of resolve are part of Barrys journey, as
they are part of any hero journey, and are, as Emerson labeled them, the real and demanding Lords
of Life. Tests and trials here mean day after day of
knocking on doors which remain closed or are
slammed shut, regardless of faith, intentions, diligence, effort, and a never-ending supply of new
programs which revolutionized London, or
Paris, or Houston, and are sure to work in
Viennabut dont.
Suffering from burn-out, Barry and his charges
play the pinball machines, albeit on P-Day, bend
rules, and even, in one comic interlude, innocently
end up squiring Heidi and Maria, two Viennese
music students and investigators, to an evening at
the opera, contrary to Missionary Law. Barry groans
at his degenerate end-of-mission plunge into the
belly of the whale and into a condition dramatically contrary to his Angel-of-the-Danube vision
of himself.
True to the hero journey pattern, Barry and
Whitman, his last companion, emerge from the
belly of the whale and receive the promised boon,
when, out of nowhere and at the end of a particularly bad day of rejection, the sagging duo tract
out Herr and Frau Winter and their two children.
It was awesome, Barry recounts:
Ive given the Joseph Smith story a thousand
times, I can give it in my sleep, in a speedy monotone without any meaning. . . . But this time

Finding God in the Twenty-First Century

the Joseph Smith story was in tenseyou can

tell when people are really listening to you and
not just with the ears but with the Spirit as well.
If they are watching you to see if you really
believe what you are saying. And I did believe.
I knew it, and I told them so. I told them my
testimony and look ed them in the eye and
experienced it through out my entire body.
Even Whitman looked at me as if he were hearing and feeling this for the first time. But thats
the way it goes. Sometimes I feel the worth of
the souls of the people and the love and testimony of Jesus just flows through me to them.
Its not me at all. I know it was from God. And
from God for them, not for me. A heavenly
Eilbot [Express]. (5152)

It is the inevitable but eventual rejection by the

golden Winters family and a withering verbal
onslaught from another referral which initiate the
series of the desperate end-of-mission acts which
non-LDS critic Ruth Starkman has called prophetic
grandstanding in a last-minute effort of trying to
get through to the stubborn Austrians (82). From
throwing snowballs through windows and firecrackers from his apartment window to detonating
a plastic bomb on the flood plain of the Danube,
Barry, responding to the promptings of spiritual
voices, moves toward what Mark Twain would call
his final effect as the Angel on the Danube or
Samuel the Lamanite on the walls of Zarahemla.
On the morning after his final mission conference, Barry awakens from a dream in which yet
another voice has told him, Go to Prater and play
pinball and you will teach many people (111).
Heeding the voice, he leads the whole district to
the park, where the Spirit speaks to him through the
unlikely medium of an arcade attendant, who says,
If you really believed that stuff about God and
angels and a message, you would be shouting it
from every street corner in every city. If you really
believed it, all the crap in the world wouldnt
slow you down. (112)

The comment cuts like a knife, and, taking

the arcade Dudes charge to heart, Barry asks the
Lord, Can we go out and scream it from the street
corners? The Spirit answers with an enthusiastic,

Go for it! So, he and Tommythe other elders

say no dicestorm Wien Central, hand out literature, and preach the message at the top of their
lungs to captive audiences in train lines. To hecklers, Barry relates another of Magdalenas legends
this one about a magic well in the Alps, which
flowed with wine instead of water. A stranger asks
for a drink of water, but the people at the well refuse
to share and send him on his way. The stranger tells
them that because they would not share the freely
given gift of God, he would curse the well forever.
After that, the well began to bubble only soda
water and it remains bitter to this very day (115).
The Mormon elders are here, Barry declares, to
share the water of life with the Austrian people.
At Karlsplatz the pair are taken into custody
for disturbing the peace but keep right on preaching
to the bemused Polizei and to the amused judge
Tut Busse! (Repent!) . . . . The end of the world
draws near and destruction awaits the wicked!
who fines them five schillings. As they leave the
court, Barry sings The Time Is Far Spent, and
heads, this time with his whole amazed district in
tow, for the Prater, the great Viennese amusement
park on the Danube River.
There, among the mad-cap Fasching (Mardi
Gras) revelers, the missionaries commandeer the
attention of the television crew, get the crowds attention by singing American folk-songs in German,
and turn the microphone to Elder Monroe, who
tells the story of the Angel of the Danube to the
Austrian TV audience. That is who we aremessengers who have been sent to warn the people of
this city and to gather them before the flood comes
again (120). He urges them to repent and to pray,
and If you feel your religion doesnt work for you,
then let us come and teach you about the marvelous things the Herr Gott has revealed about His
kingdom in the last days (12021). When the
crowd mockingly asks for a sign, he tells them that
they are all adulterers and prophesies destruction.
The crowd goes wild. Barely eluding mob action,
Barry leads the elders back to the arcade attendant
and tells the Dude that he had taken his advice and
started shouting from the street corners. He asked
how it worked. I told him it got us an audience
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AML Annual 2002

with the precinct judge. Almost got us killed fifteen minutes ago. He nodded, You really do
believe it (123).
The prophetic rampage has remarkable consequences. In addition to the thirty referrals he and
his companions collected from their several audiences, he learns from newspaper clippings sent him
after he has returned to Long Beach that he has
become a folk-hero among the Austrian saints, a
legend among the Austrian missionaries, and the
subject of newspaper articles. The newspapers,
dubbing him the Angel of the Danube, turn his
Angel story into a flood and point out that the
week following his prophecy, the Danube River
indeed overflowed its banks and wreaked considerable havoc by dumping two feet of water into businesses in the Prater. Monroe is also credited with a
sharp rise in attendance at area churches during the
Lent season (154).
While Barry is awaiting his ride to the airport,
Maria, who has heard from Heidi about his performance on national television, relates the end of
the Donauweibchen story which Magdalena had
neglected to tell him: After saving the village, the
younger fisherman of the pair was never the same.
He lived a lonely life, longing for the lovely Angel.
Eventually he disappeared and it was said that he
had joined the Donauweibchen in her kingdom
(13031). Barry, perplexed by this ending, wonders why Magdalena had withheld from him the
ending of the story. His Hausfrau points out that
some feel the story represents the end of youth;
others insist that the young man was intentionally
lured and brought down by Nixen, or mermaids.
From the Nixens point of view, she concludes,
it is a story of a young man who understood that
he was limited in his life as a fisherman, and had
the yearning for a better existence (131). The
interpretations all leave Barry deeply troubled by
his feelings for the married, non-LDS Anna Magdalena and about what her silence on the fate of
the young fisherman seemed to reveal about her
feelings for him.
Barry returns to the home place, Long Beach,
an unsettled, unfulfilled, and unlikely hero who
doesnt feel like a hero. He gives a moving, if
130

unorthodox homecoming talk and undertakes to

adjust to civilian life, plagued by irresolution and
continuing confusion about his feelings for Magdalena, his impossible dream. During one of his
aimless motorcycle rides into the desert, he receives
spiritual assurance that, somehow, the Lord would
come through for me. Life was good. He asks for
forgiveness for his idle thoughts about Magdalena and prays that God will provide him with
someone just like her (174).
After bringing his journal up to date as Brother
Zapata counseled, Barry receives a letter from
Whitman, his last companion, telling him, in passing, of the resurrection of a branch in Himmelsruhe, populated by new members of the Church
whom Barry had met and taught but not baptized.
Among them is a Sister Nadler, whom he does not
recall. He is surprised to learn that Sister Nadler is,
in fact, Anna Magdalena, who has joined the Church,
is single and has just turned twenty-fiveBarry
thought she was older. When Barry telephones her
in Himmelsruhe, she admits that she had been
ashamed to tell him that she was never married to
Rudi, whom she left before she joined the Church.
The morning breaks, the shadows flee. Barrys
confusion vanishes, and the hand of the Lord almost
becomes Brother-of-Jared visible. As Magdalena
alights from the airplane in LAX, Elder Barry Monroes Austrian trial suddenly becomes the best two
years of my life, as it becomes clear that his footsteps and stumblings have been directed all along
by the Holy Spirit. Another of Gods fools, he has
traced in bewilderment and faith the journey to fulfillment and personal salvation, following a course
which is wonderfully unique and wonderfully
commonplace, as is each persons salvation journey.
Fresh, original, comical, yet fraught with serious purpose, Angel of the Danube is a new twist on
an old pattern and becomes Mitchells delightful,
imaginative, faithful, fulfilling, and thoroughgoingly Mormon gift to the Mormon people of a
book grounded in the redemptive pattern dear to
every Latter-day Saint, and destined to be a Latterday Saint classic. In Angel of the Danube Alan Rex
Mitchell has achieved a triumph in Mormon missionary fiction.

Finding God in the Twenty-First Century

II
John Bennions Falling toward Heaven (Salt Lake
City: Signature Books, 2000) is, like Angel of the
Danube, a journey novel. Bennions book, however,
begins as a missionary novel but elides into a highly
original and refreshing variation of the first principles journey to spiritual peace and at-one-ment.
Falling toward Heaven is the aptly named account
of Howard Rockwoods fall and how that fall becomes
a felix culpa journey to knowing and loving God, a
journey made possible, paradoxically, through his
moral fall into illicit love for Allison Warren. In fact,
Howard Rockwoods salvation journey is a Falling
toward Heaven journey which at length brings him
and his beloved Allisonto a profound spiritual
maturity, wholeness and reconciliation with the
Father God that would otherwise have been doubtful. Bennions brilliantly written account of How
ard Rockwoods salvation journey makes for superb
fiction richly grounded in bedrock, King-FollettDiscourse-Mormonism. The result is a major Mormon novel and another enduring classic.
In Part I, which we might label, The Fall,
twenty-three-year-old Elder Howard Rockwood
is laboring in the Texas Houston Mission. An outwardly faithful missionary with only two months
left to serve, Howard is in a spiritual funk, inwardly
battling the same stern God and languishing in the
same spirit prison as Levi Petersons backslider.
Howards prayers seem superficial, partly because
of the irony of asking God if he exists, and partly
because of Howards longstanding fear of the stern,
unbending, and obedience-obsessed Father of the
Universe, a fear which intensified when Howard
started reading the Old Testament midway through
his mission. How ard thought of God as unpredictable, arbitrary, and even cruelan abusive
father. He flirted with the simpler explanation that
the governing spirit of the cosmos was chaos. Still,
How ards habit was faith, and he doubted even his
doubts of God (5).
As he drifts rapidly away from his orthodox
moorings, Howard gradually envisions the dissolution of his orthodox dreams even as he reveals his
intrinsically Mormon Weltanschauung:

Most recently Howard had worried that what

he had hoped for his whole mission would happen: that he would return from Texas swathed
in glory, finish his last year of college (range
management and European history), and gradually take over the ranch from his father; like
Abraham, he would build herds and domains;
like Joseph, he would heal his cantankerous
family; like Moses, he would become a great
leader in the church; and like King Solomon,
he would engender posterity, not on a harem of
women, but only on Belinda Jakeman, who
had written him faithfully since the day he left
her for God. His future, once fraught with hope,
now appeared as the narrow hallway leading to
a prison cell. (5)

Suffering from what his strait-laced companion, Elder Peterson, calls a bad case of missionary
menopause and assures him that it is merely a
passing confusion of his sexual and religious longings, Howards new dream of a full and vital life
now appears to him, he confides, as a longing for
conversation with a beautiful, intelligent woman
and that woman is no longer Belinda Jakeman (5).
Following the timeless script of humankinds
salvation journey, it is Enter, Satan, in the person
of Allison Warren, a beautiful, funky, computer
software writer. Charmed by what Elder Peterson
called Howards knee-jerk mouth, Allison and
Eliot, her middle-aged lover, although not interested in Mormonism, invite the elders to play soccer. Elder Peterson, immediately wary of Allison,
whom he rightly calls a flipping lascivious atheist
humanist feminist drugheaded winebibbing psychologist (19), watches his companions developing infatuation and eventually tells his concerns to
President Wister, the mission president, who transfers Howard after Allison, who has broken up with
Eliot because of her pending move to Anchorage,
gets drunk and, in a wonderfully madcap scene,
invades the elders apartment just as they are having dinner with President Wister.
A month later, at the end of his mission, Howard
bids farewell to his relieved mission president and
boards the plane for Salt Lake City. Overcome by
his need to see Allison one more time, Howard
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leaves the plane, finds Allison, declares his love,

honorably proposes marriage to a woman resolved
never to marry, and falls headlong into sin. End of
Part I, and, Im afraid that for many Mormon readers, this will be the end of the bookor of any
book that begins with the sexual transgression of a
Mormon missionary. But walking out at this point
is like exiting from the Passion Play in protest at
the heinous crucifixion of Jesus. As in any salvation
journey, the fall is only the beginning of the story.
Part II, the winding journey to repentance and
redemption, is made complex by Howards need,
one could say, to bridle his passion for Allison.
En route to Anchorage where she has accepted an
attractive position, Allison delivers the defrocked
Howard to his stunned father, Walter Rockwood,
a hardscrabble west-desert Utah rancher from a
deep-roots Mormon family, and to his surprised
mother, Emily, the delightfully unorthodox president of the Rockwood Ward Relief Society, who is
giving her otherwise understanding bishop fits by
giving blessings to her flock. The Rock woods, two
wonderfully crafted characters, live in the twentyroom ancestral home where Grandpa Rockwood
had once sheltered his polygamous brood and
where, explains How ard to Allison on their second
night in the home, When we made love last night,
it was as if God and all my ancestors were standing
just above us in the air, watching in their robes and
white beards, all of them whispering, Thou hast
made thyself unclean with a woman (95). But
then I see that theyre smiling, he says to his new
lover who is wondering what shes got herself into:
I know they were all ranchers and polygamists.
Virile. And its like theyre cheering me on (96).
Later, after Allison is asleep, he envisions the stern
Mormon God
stomping back and forth, as if just above in the
attic. The young fools squandered his chances,
he said, polluted his temple.
Jesus held his hand out in a calming motion.
But Father. The Holy Ghost fluttered around
the room.
Grandmother Godwho reminded Howard
of Grace Montoya [his last convert baptism],
arms thin as bones, face translucent, hair like a
132

burning haloleaned back on a dusty couch.

Settle down, all of you, she said. Give him
space to think. . . .
Grandmother God, he prayed. Im in a
bad way.
You are a foolish mouse, she said. But
you cooked your own frijoles. Now eat them.
(99100)

Aware of his need to reconnect to his former

self, Howard attends church, bears a strong testimony of Jesus ability to heal, to change lives, to
take away our sins (109), confesses his fall to Bishop
Hansen, and accompanies Allison to Anchorage,
Alaska, willing to give up the ranch and his Mormon conscience for Allison. But he knows the next
step in placating the stern and authoritarian God
(138). He dons his missionary suit and attends
church in Anchorage (139), where he enjoys and
wonders at the simple faith of the Saints. Allison
calls his fresh desire for faith . . . mere ly a retreat
from a fear he could not endure (146); but in
their conversations, the pair undertake, unconsciously, to define and fathom the Mormon God.
Howard insists on the reality of the Holy Spirit,
and that God, no matter how stern, is a reality and
not an abstraction (147). In those occasional
moments when he fears losing Allison, because
they are not married and because he wants both
Allison and his church, he says to the committee
of gods and ancestors eavesdropping, . . . I will not
give her up. . . . Then came the uncertain voice of
Grandmother God, Who wants you to give her
up? Why do you cling to sin, when you can embrace
joy? (148). Thrilled by his very real love for Allison and by the feeling that they are building toward
marriage, creating a unity of flesh and spirit, one
being, he wonders if he could do the same with
his faith, reconstruct faith out of the flashes of light
he had felt since meeting Allison, and asks,
Could he embrace hope by choice, giving it priority over fear [of God]? His steps toward faith, he
concludes, must embrace and include Allison.
Marriage to Allison thus becomes his next waystation on the journey. His basic Mormon orthodoxy torments him with the thought that they

Finding God in the Twenty-First Century

had never married, never pronounced covenants in

the temple, never been sealed by the power of the
priesthood (157). He is anguished by nightmares
of himself sinking slowly into mud, and Allison
going down into water and mud until darkness
filled her mouth, and she was lost forever (157).
Marriage is his constant subject with Allison, who,
while flying over a small pack of wolves, says to an
oil rigger seated next to her:
Wolves mate for life, . . . Mormons for eternity.
I wouldnt mate with neither one, said
the rigger. (159)

Moving in not-so-mysterious ways, the Lord

continues as the master of circumstance; and when
Howard receives a summons to appear before a
high council disciplinary court, his pleas that if
Im married, they may not excommunicate me,
wins through with Allison, even though she sees
through the Howardish ploy (163). She marries
him, stipulating that they each continue to pay
their own way, buy no house, and have no children. Howard, smiling, agrees to her provisos.
His appearance before the stake high council
disciplinary hearing is an another important step
in his journey. Howard tells the stake president and
high council that, as a missionary, I started
wrestling with my faith in God. Im still wrestling.
[But] I feel like Im finding myself . . . ; the church
has become very important to me (173). He is
elated when he is disfellowshipped and not excommunicated, and tells Allison that I didnt know Id
care so much (174).
During his trip to Utah, Howard reconnects to
the Rockwood genealogy that extended synchronously through the landscapes of earth and heaven
(177), to a family and a house filled with relatives,
alive and dead, all focused on building the kingdom through having children and gathering land
(179), and feels kinship with all of it. Leaving
Rockwood and resisting the temptation to return
to the land, now proffered him by his father, who
has suffered a heart attack, he hears the voice of
Grandmother God saying:
You can create good out of the bad in your
life. Her voice was nothing like the voice of

guilt which he could only name patriarchal, after

his stern male ancestors. . . . Grandmother God
had taught him that church was not a room of
answers, but a pathway of questions. Answers
fell like sloughed-off skin behind him. He hoped
that he could next learn that Grandfather God
was not an impossible mix of modern businessman and Old Testament patriarch. Howard
knew that prayer was a form of eternal calculus, a way of making closer and closer estimates
of Gods person-ness. But for the first time since
he was a child, he had faith in the process. (184)

During an idyll in the west-desert cabin when

Allison flies down to join him for Thanksgiving,
he tells her that after the church court, I rebuked
the stern patriarch god. I drove a stake through
his heart. . . . I started to feel that God might be
more like my mothers father, a wise and kind
man (192).
The pair returns to Anchorage and the next
step in Howardsand Allisonsprogress, which
includes, for both of them, a plunge into the belly
of the whale. Howard, having given up his dream of
the ranch, and unaware of Allisons discussion with
his mother about having children, declares that he
wants a child. Allisons retort shows that she has
read her husbands Mormonness about right: You
want that old Rockwood house filled with babies
and a woman there producing them. He pumps
them in, she pumps them out. Its your idea of
dynasty. . . . Mormons must have an extra gene,
keeps you focused on reproduction. Babies raining
from heaven. Splat, splat (21112). Unemployed,
cut off from the land, and stagnating, Howard
becomes depressed. Then his father dies from a
fall, and Howard and Allison return to Rockwood
for the funeraland the surprise that Emily has
sold the ranch, thereby freeing her sons and daughters from foolishly following an impossible dream.
But Howards ensuing brooding, sulking, and
depression drive Allison into the night and very
nearly into the arms of another man; and Howard,
believing she has left him, almost flies home to
Utah. They find each other in a dramatic reunion,
the upshot of which is Allisons surrender to his
Mormon dreams.
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AML Annual 2002

They begin building a new, pre-fab house. Allison becomes pregnant and exclaims, Its because
every one of your damned ancestors had ten children and you cant stand not to have even one. . . ;
for you its biological and cultural and, dammit all,
spiritual (252). But Allison recognizes that life
with Howard is exciting, an adventure of significant negotiation (259), and she realizes that their
lives and their marriage have deepened, that they
have both changed dramatically (260), and that
she loves him profoundly.
On the anniversary of their first year in Anchorage, they move into their new home on Eagle
River. A month later, Howard is reinstated by the
Anchorage Stake presidency and high council. At
dinner, Allison raises her glass of wine to toast her
teetotaling, full-fledged Mormon husband: Howard,
may his eyes always flash fire (263).
The course to spiritual maturity is ever fraught
with trials, and the pregnancy becomes a crowning, refining trial in testing the mettle of their marriage. Allison has her own desert dream in which
the angel of death appears to her dressed like the
Goshute Indian woman whose body, to which was
strapped the body of her infant, was found in a hot
mineral pool on the ranch. Allison threatens to
miscarry and prays for the first time, while en route
to the hospital, Emilys God, . . . I dont know
you, but Im telling you I dont want to lose this
child. . . . We want to stay together (270). The crisis is averted. On the morning Allison is to deliver,
Howard kneels on the floor in front of her and
prays, Bless child and mother to pass through
this unscathed, whole and well. As he spoke to his
invisible God, [says Allison] he looked so much
like a little boy that she had to stroke his hair
(291). When the doctor is unable to find a heartbeat, Howard prays, Ill be a sinner my whole life,
but please dont take this child from us. Ill give you
my soul, my agency. He was flooded with peace, so
when the doctor heard something, an echo of a heartbeat, he whispered, Yes. Thank you, God (293).
Bewildered when the baby is born dead because
the Holy Ghost had spoken peace to his heart
(294), Howard tells God how angry he was at him
for doing nothing to stop the childs death. You
134

told me it would be all right (295). He copes with

his loss as a Latter-day Saint:
He imagined the child, not as an infant, but as
a girl of three or four, running across a
meadow. Grandmother God sat on a boulder
with Howards father; they both watched the
running child. Walter, she said. This one is
for your care. Teach her as they would. Impossible vision, prompted by his longing to know
the baby existed somewhere. Then he imagined
Grandmother God smiling, despite Howards
despair at his daughters death. Suddenly Grandmother God and Grandfather God both seemed
creatures strange as aliens, creatures undisturbed
by death, horrid, dispassionate creatures. (297)

Howard attempts Mormon reassurance with

Allison, telling her that the soul of the child still
lived, that she had simply slipped into another
dimension, and that during the Millennium they
would have the chance to raise the child (296).
For her part, however, Allison imagines
a small being, tear-shaped, falling through space
as dark as the water in the burial pool. Falling
toward Gods open arms. An impossible fiction. She knew that, even if the child had a soul
that remained after death, she was lost still in
the immensity of the universe, and Allison had
no way of finding her. (297)

Allison accepts a blessing from the bishopric,

and takes yet another step towards completing her
own hero journey:
Id like that, she said. Howard raised his eyebrows, but she did want one, couldnt explain
it even to herself. They laid their hands on her
head and promised her the knowledge that the
child was hers beyond time and space, and that
her despair wouldnt overwhelm her. (300)

Over the coffin in the mortuary, Howard said

a long prayer in which he detailed what knowledge
he wanted the child to gain. He reminded God that
his servant the bishop had made a specific promise
that the child would be theirs, that she would not
be lost to them (301). Later, Howard explains to
Allison his deep sorrow and his accommodation
to Emily Loiss death, to God, and to himself:

Finding God in the Twenty-First Century

. . . Whenever I pray, I feel that God is surprised and saddened by my sorrow. Then I
receive a gift as clear as touching. It feels like
the same comfort I felt when she was dead inside
you, and we didnt know. The gods, mother
and father, knew, but we didnt. They were
helping me get ready for the sorrow. Telling me
they loved me before the sorrow set in.

And he tells Allison, with Mormon certitude, At

the Judgment Ill face God and demand her back
(310).
Allison, on the verge of admitting faith, says,
You know Ill never really understand. It will
always sound fantastic to methis quick-and-easy
transcendence (310).
At the conclusion of the novel, Allison and
Howard lie in front of their fireplace, discussing
the future. To Howards suggestion that they have
another child, Allison says, Not for at least fifty
years. Howards transcendent Mormon response
and her response in turn show how far this couple
have moved along the salvation road:
Fifty years is nothing to wait, he said. Youll
see. Were in it for a million. A million years of
intense conversation, verbal and physical.
My mind cant stretch that far.
By then well manage ten or twenty planets, he said. Make sure the oxygen nitrogen
balance is right. Make sure the water cycle works
smooth.
The big ranch in the sky.
Ten million spirit children. Ten trillion
years of making love.
Oh, Howard,she said, a million years
and I still wont be used to you.
He laid his head on her shoulder; she
curled her arm around him and placed her
palm on his cheek. She imagined leaving Anchorage on a jet, bound for Salt Lake or Indonesia
or Kuwait. They would rise until the atmosphere was too thin to breathe. There would be
limitless space above them and the solid earth
below. Floating in a rare pool of air. (31112)

Richard H. Cracroft is former English Department

chair and dean of the College of Humanities, has
taught at BYU since 1963. He is currently director of
the Center for the Study of Christian Values in Literature. A founding member and past president of AML,
he was recently awarded Honorary Lifetime Membership in AML. He is currently bishop of BYU 203rd
Ward (Marrieds); he has served as bishop, stake president, and mission president.
WORKS CITED
Bennion, John. Falling toward Heaven. Salt Lake City, UT:
Signature Books, 2000.
. Ive Given Birth to a Novel: Announcing Publication
of Falling toward Heaven. AML-List, 10 Nov. 2000.
Brown, Marilyn. The Wine-Dark Sea of Grass. Springville,
UT: Salt Press/Cedar Fort, 2000.
Card, Orson Scott. Sarah. Women of Genesis, Vol. 1. Salt
Lake City: Shadow Mountain, 2000.
Cracroft, Richard H. The Act of Reading: A Few Good
Books for Readers on Your Christmas Gift List,
Brigham Young Magazine 54.4 (Winter 20002001):
5152.
Hall, Andrew. The Year in Review, Pt. 1, AML-List,
17 Jan. 2001.
Hughes, Dean. Children of the Promise (Series). Salt Lake
City: Deseret Book.
Vol. 1. Rumors of War (1997).
Vol. 2. Since You Went Away (1997).
Vol. 3. Far from Home (1998).
Vol. 4. When We Meet Again (1999).
Vol. 5. As Long As I Have You (2000).
Lund, Gerald N. Fishers of Men. Salt Lake City: Shadow
Mountain, 2000.
. The Work and the Glory (Series). 9 vols. Salt Lake
City: Bookcraft, 199098.
Mitchell, Alan Rex. Angel of the Danube. Springville, UT:
Bonneville Books/Cedar Fort Inc., 2000.
. Angel of the Danube (Special Offer). AML-List,
19 Oct. 2000.
Smurthwaite, Donald S. Fine Old High Priests. Salt Lake
City: Bookcraft, 1999.
. A Wise, Blue Autumn. Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 2001.
Starkman, Ruth. Angel of the Danube (Review). AMLList, 5 Jan. 2001.

As they, together, continue Falling toward Heaven.

135

The Last American Refuge of Religious Literature:

Card and Science Fiction
Valerie Buck

I am a fan of (among many genres) science fiction and fantasy, and I am a writer. As such I am
interested in the writing of Orson Scott Card
specifically in three aspects of his writing: first,
Cards success beyond the LDS audience; second,
his speculative fiction as religious literature; and
third, how these two aspects interconnect. Many
people, including Card himself, have examined
Cards success to date and have come up with various explanations for it. The review and interview
links and questions/answers on his Hatrack River
homepage deal repeatedly with this issue.
Some say he is successful because of his choice
of a broad audience, his choice of genre, or his
choice of writing what some critics believe is not
literary but merely popular. Some say Card has
sold out for success by sacrificing the chance to
proselytize actively with his writing. Others say
Card is talented, intelligent, and imaginative. Im
not here to argue any of these positions but rather
to accept his success as a fact and to take a closer
look at the writing itself.
In a presentation given recently at BYU, Card
stated that the first chapter of any book will show
all of the problems that the book will have (Scripture and Fiction). In the same spirit, I choose to
look at some specific images that appear in Cards
Homecoming series to see what they show, in
microcosm, about Cards success. As a writer, I am
of course interested in the whole tapestry Card
weaves in his stories, but I also am interested in the
threads that contribute to engaging and holding
the imagination of the reader.

I dont choose Cards Homecoming series, which

parallels parts of the Book of Mormon, to prove
my point about religion in speculative fiction because
the series is based on scripture and therefore religious in some form. I choose the Homecoming
series because with it I have the baseline (the Book
of Mormon) from which Card started and thus can
see where his images leave ground and take off,
which images have overt connections to scripture
and which have no visible connection. My focus
on the religiosity in Cards speculative fiction is in
the transformation it provides to readers. Card says
that fiction works better than nonfiction discourse
in providing transformative experiencesin other
words, that active proselytizing in his writing would
not reach and change readers as his fiction does
(Scripture and Fiction).
Michael R. Collings, speaking about Cards
Alvin Maker series, which parallels the story of
Joseph Smith, says much the same thingthat
because of his avoidance of narrow polemics,
Cards approach often generates more power
within his stories than mere preachment ever
could (73). Card says he chooses speculative fiction because
while never overtly talking about religion at all,
I can deal with religious, theological, and moral
issues with greater clarity . . . than anywhere
else, precisely because science fiction allows the
writer to set these issues at one remove, freeing
the writer and reader from biases and issues
relating to particular religions or philosophies
in the present world. (Open Letter)
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AML Annual 2002

Despite the discussion of how Card might send

messages to readers, Card is a champion of story
for itself (Collings 6). But what is it people seek in
stories? Readers, of fiction or nonfiction, dont just
read a book believing theyll get nothing from it. If
nothing else, they derive entertainment. Readers
read to learn new things, experience different outlooks, encounter other people and eventseven if
they pursue these goals simply to escape. In short,
readers read to become transformed, whether in
small ways or great ways.
I argue that Cards ability to provide transformative experience with his fiction is what draws his
readers. The human issues, the presence of undogmatic but believable morality in believable charactersin short the inherent, realistic spirituality or
religiosity of Cards fictionare some of the very
characteristics that make readers remember Cards
work and want more of it. Even if Card is correct
in asserting that academic-literary fiction has
largely shunted aside religion and religious issues
(Open Letter), readers still greedily welcome
transformation.
To become transformed, readers imaginations
must be engaged in the reading. This is where my
interest in Cards images comes into play. Readers
are, of course, entertained by a good story, but
most readers are aware that below the surface,
Cards stories transcend simple narrative (Collings
25). Card engages his readers on several levels, a
skill, Collings argues, that helps Card attract and
keep readers because he provides something for
each stratum of his audience (31). On the surface
Cards images might appear to be simply those elements that contribute to making the story speculative fiction, but in reality most of them go deeper.
An example of such an image is the Oversoul
computer that watches over the people of the
planet Harmony and whispers warnings and messages to their minds. No doubt many readers, both
religious and otherwise, recognize the Oversoul as
a metaphor for God or the Holy Ghost. The metaphor is not subtle; Card probably didnt mean it to
be. But readers, even those who think the metaphor
a little too deliberate, end up reading the book on
more than one level because their minds have been
138

referred to at least two categories, one for a computer and one for God.
Collingss explanation of how Card provides
levels of reading for each stratum of his audience
reminded me of a study I did a few years ago
on categories of meaning in language. The study
focused on the use of language in the writings of
Julian of Norwich and Hildegard of Bingen, both
women of the Middle Ages who had religious
visions and wrote about them. What interested me
was how these women attempted to describe what
must have been nearly indescribable, what feats of
language they performed to provide readers with
enough information to do justice to the visions. At
the same time I was reading George Lakoffs Women,
Fire, and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal
about the Mind.
What became evident in the study was that
both Julian of Norwich and Hildegard of Bingen
sometimes had to refer their readers to several different categories of meaning to put across just one
piece of visionary information, the result of which
for readers is not unlike the experience of reading
Isaiah or the book of Revelation. Readers come
away with their minds broadened, burgeoning
with meaning, some of it not understood but some
opening new vistas, shaping new categories of
meaning, stretching known categories to include
more depth and richness. During the study I
became very aware that any writer or reader, any
learner, any human becomes involved in categories
of meaning as life broadens his or her experiences.
As humans we spend our lives learning, and learning inherently means stretching what we already
know, expanding categories of meaning, adding
new ones, and bridging others. Learning requires
imagination because, as Lakoff explains, thought
is imaginative, in that those concepts which are not
directly grounded in experience employ metaphor,
metonymy, and mental imagery (xiv).
This dynamic applies to those same readers I
mentioned above who seek transformation. In this
act they are also seeking to broaden their categories
of reference in what they encounter in books because
such a process is part of achieving transformation.
Thus, any writing that engages the imagination of

Finding God in the Twenty-First Century

the reader, and succeeds in engaging it on several

levels, will have greater potential for providing a
transformative experience.
To clarify what I mean by categories of meaning, let me return to the metaphor of Cards Oversoul. In the prologue to The Memory of Earth, the
first book of the Homecoming series, we are introduced to the master computer (xix). Encountering these words, readers minds immediately produce
their understanding of a computer, accessing a category of meaning that includes machine, data processing, and any number of visual images and
details associated with the idea of computer. The
word master helps to qualify the image, allowing
access to other categories, including those of
authority or hierarchy. A few paragraphs later Card
names this master computer the Oversoul (xx).
This term appeals to more categoriesfor example,
to one with general religious overtones, helped by
Cards description of the master computers protection and influence over the people of the planet
Harmony. It also appeals to the specific category of
Ralph Waldo Emersons concept of the Over-soul,
and all the meanings and associations connected
with it. Already this short list of accessed categories
provides a prodigious amount of allusion, connotation, and distinct categories combining and
extending to give meaning to Cards metaphor. Ive
only just started. The point is that by accessing so
many mental categories, readers become more
involved in the reading. They learn and experience
more, and have already in a small measure been
transformed. And this is only one unsubtle metaphor encountered in the first pages of a book that
is rich in similar metaphor.
In presenting three more isolated images, I will
be giving my experience as a reader and aspiring
writer. One of my favorite images is in the third
book of the series, The Ships of Earth, where Nafai
the character who parallels Nephipenetrates the
barrier field surrounding a starship. In my mind I
have a healthy category of meaning to access for
force field, including images of earths atmosphere,
returning Apollo missions, and images provided by
Star Wars and Star Trek. Almost immediately,
though, Card begins to stretch the boundaries of

my category of meaning. He gives me sensory

details, combined with the thought processes of a
person (Nafai) as he first discovers the barrier and
tries to figure out how it works. Here is an excerpt:
Carefully he approached the barrier. When
he was near enough, he reached out a hand
toward it.
Invisible it might be, but it was tangible
he could press his hand against it, and feel it
sliding under his hand, as if it were slimy and
constantly in motion. In a way, though, the
very tangibility of it was reassuringif it kept
living things out by blocking their passage,
then perhaps it didnt have any mechanism for
killing them. (305)

Nafai figures out that a direct contact against the

barrier with human skin that has plenty of force
behind it will penetrate the barrier. He takes off his
clothing, ascends a hill, and runs down toward the
barrier. He reaches the bottom of the hill and flings
himself at the barrier. His back hits it first, with
enough force that his buttocks, his thighs, then his
shoulders, and finally his legs and feet go through
the barrier. But his head and arms remain outside
so that he is stuck, part in and part out. He gradually squeezes his head in through the elastic-like
barrier and then nearly dies because there isnt any
air inside. But the weight of his sagging body
slowly brings his arms through and at once, like a
balloon popping, the barrier disappears (312).
Air rushes in and Nafai survives. While following Nafais explorations and reasoning about the
makeup of the barrier and how to get through, my
mind works on all the categories Card has provided
me in his description. Among my accessed categories
is one that perks up, so to speak, at the images of a
naked body squeezing through a small elastic-like
opening and passing through the valley of the shad
ow of death. You, like me, probably begin to see
Cards description evoking certain categories to provide provided another level of meaning: the metaphor of birth, and a breech birth at that.
A little later the Oversoul instructs Nafai to
assume the cloak of the starmaster by passing
through what first looks like a block of ice hanging
in midair but which is liquid. The Oversoul says,
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AML Annual 2002

Pass through the water and you will emerge wearing the cloak of the starmaster. When that is in
place, linked to you, then all my memories will be
yours, as if they had been yours all along (326).
This second image adds to the first birth image
the passing through and emergingbut it also
evokes a category of baptism, with its own various
allusions to birth and death, cleansing, rebirth. In
addition, the effect of giving Nafai more authority
and the use of the term cloak provides the religious image of assuming the mantle of authority,
like that of the prophet Elijah casting his mantle to
Elisha (1 Kgs. 19:19). On the storys surface level,
Nafai merely passes through a liquid medium that
allows the electronic matrix of the Oversouls computer memory to house itself in his physical body.
But so much metaphor accompanies the surface plot
that, especially as an LDS reader, I almost forget
the surface story. LDS readers perhaps get more specific meaning from this metaphor, but any reader
must on some level feel the effect of the archetypal
images. It is this engagement of the imagination on
several levels that helps to provide transformation.
Certainly not all readers will experience the same
metaphor. Some might first think of Winnie the
Pooh getting stuck in Rabbits doorway after eating
a big lunch. The point is that Card provides application to many categories and experience on many
levels. He tells a grand story, with living characters
facing real issues, in a genre that allows him to pull
readers away from the trees to view the forest. It
permits him to surprise, wow, and portray a message all at the same time. Of course, this ability is
not limited to Card, and thank heavens there are
plenty of other authors who provide transformative experiences as well. But it is because Card is
one of them that he is successful.
For the third image, let me carry you a little
further into Nafais story, into the fourth book of
the series, called Earthfall. Nafai and his people have
traveled in the starship back to Earth forty million
years after humans abandoned it. Here they find
that bats and rats have evolved into intelligent life
forms. In their cultures, the bats sculpt clay into magnificent shapes for their gods, and the rats steal the
sculptures to take down into their caves to worship.
140

Nafais people befriend both races with the intent

to helping them live together harmoniously, even
though the rats are the natural predators of the bats.
With this storyline, Card has a powerful metaphor for exploring issues of racial prejudice, cultural differences, forgiveness, unconditional love,
and so on. His description of both new races is beautiful and engaging in itself, forming an emotional
backdrop that helps bring his issues into sharper
focus when the two races and Nafais people clash.
But again, other levels of meaning are occurring.
I will point out the one I like best, though of course
there are more. One day I made a discovery in Isaiah 2:1721. Im sure others have made it, too:
And the loftiness of man shall be bowed
down, and the haughtiness of men shall be
made low: and the Lord alone shall be exalted
in that day.
And the idols he shall utterly abolish.
And they shall go into the holes of the
rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear
of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty,
when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.
In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made
each one for himself to worship, to the moles
and to the bats;
To go into the clefts of the rocks, and into
the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the
Lord, and for the glory of his majesty, when he
ariseth to shake terribly the earth.

Holes in rocks . . . caves of the earth . . . casting

idols to the moles and bats? These images triggered
the category in my mind associated with Cards
story and suddenly there was a bridge between two
categories that had earlier had no direct connection
for me: Isaiahs millennial prophecies and Cards
retelling of the Book of Mormon. My experience
of Cards story broadened. I saw a bigger picture of
the background of Cards story, saw humans abandoning earth as a loss of birthright not only from a
pre-Meridian parallel, but also as an end-of-theworld fulfillment of Isaiahs prophecy. But also, with
Cards images, I broadened my category of Isaiahs
prophecy, seeing Cards entire story as a metaphor

Finding God in the Twenty-First Century

for what Isaiahs words, in their many possible emanations, could mean. My understanding and experience became engaged on multiple levels, the image
of the bats and the rats became unforgettable, and
I experienced an aha! moment, a transformation.
I cant say which of Cards images are deliberate
analogues of events, concepts, or characters from
books he has read and which are the unconscious
echoes included by his writers instinct. But Im
certain there are both. His echoes of the Book of
Mormon undoubtedly include some of the more
deliberate. There are many echoes of Emerson besides
that of the Oversoul. For example, in Nature Emerson says, He [man] is placed in the centre of beings,
and a ray of relation passes from every other being
to him (19), a concept from which I see a strong
parallel in Cards character Hushidh, a woman who
sees rays of relations between people. I can trace enough
additional echoes that I am certain there are others
I cannot identify because I am not familiar with
their analogues. As a writer I admire them, especially the subtle ones, the probable unconscious
ones that Cards skill and mastery of craft created.
The point is that they are there and that readers
become more involved by encountering them.
Before I conclude, I must admit to a certain
resistance to aspects of the Homecoming series.
I dont like to be reading the Book of Mormon and
have Cards images become what my brain provides to carry the story. I dont want my category of
meaning for the story of Nephis family to be
hijacked by Cards characters, In other words, I
dont want the category closed to mean just Cards
images because of his powerful characterization
and fleshed-out presence. But this is the challenge
all of us face in reading the scriptures over and
overnot to let the scriptures mean only what we
derive from a first reading, but to allow ourselves to
be open to the new categories of meaning that our
experiences teach us and that broaden further in
the next reading of the scriptures.
This idea of allowing ourselves to open new categories of meaning brings me full circle to Cards
quotation in my titlethat speculative fiction is the
last American refuge for religious fiction (Cruel
1). Most people will agree that speculative fiction is

a genrea category, if you willwhose boundaries are daily stretched by grand and often absurd
new visions and phenomenal, sometimes outrageous, metaphors. Speculative fiction is a genre of
metaphor. The fact that speculative fiction stretches
and broadens categories of meaning, continually
creating and introducing new categories, may be
one of the reasons why some people resist it. Some
readers and authors prefer to stick more to what is
known. Certainly speculative fiction authors sometimes write stories that even I, though a fan, find
inaccessible or unpleasantly beyond my comfort
zone. However, life is all about learning, from developing relationships to understanding one another
across cultures, to take in all we can of how our
universe works. Learning comes line upon line,
precept upon precept (Isa. 28:10), or idea upon
fact upon knowledge that continually expands categories of what we know. It is the learning, the
transformative (or the spiritual) experience, however it is achieved, that our human natures seek.
I certainly seek it. Its why I readand why I
write. Speculative fictions ability to expand categories in this way is a freedom that attracts me.
Card no doubt thinks of it as freedom, too, especially in allowing him to include moral issues,
since, when describing writing in other genres, he
uses such words as confining and one hand tied
behind my back (Open Letter). It is a freedom
which seems to give him a latitude and disencumberment that contribute to his ability to create
multifaceted and multilevel images, which in turn
become the building blocks of a transformative
story. Creating them doubtless provides him with
transformative experiences as a writer. Again, I do
not assert that this phenomenon is limited just to
Card and speculative fiction. But Cards speculative fiction certainly succeeds in giving many readers some of the transformation they are seeking
because they come away from his books having
done quite a bit of their own connecting and creating while reading them.
Valerie Buck is a masters candidate in BYUs English
program and a full-time employee in BYUs Harold B.
Lee Library.
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WORKS CITED AND CONSULTED

Card, Orson Scott. The Call of Earth. New York: Tor,
1993.
. Cruel Miracles. New York: Tor, 1990.
. Earthborn. New York: Tor, 1996.
. Earthfall. New York: Tor, 1995.
. The Memory of Earth. New York: Tor, 1992.
. An Open Letter from Orson Scott Card to Those
Who Are Concerned about Plagiarism in The Memory of Earth. Hatrack River: The Official Web Site
of Orson Scott Card. 2000. http://www.hatrack.com/
osc/articles/openletter.html
. Scripture and Fiction. Presentation at BYUs Harold B.
Lee Library. 13 Nov. 2000. Notes in my possession.
. The Ships of Earth. New York: Tor, 1994.
Card, Orson Scott, et al. Various interviews, reviews,
questions & answers found at Hatrack River: The
Official Web Site of Orson Scott Card. http://www.
hatrack.com/
Collings, Michael R. In the Image of God: Theme, Characterization, and Landscape in the Fiction of Orson Scott
Card. New York: Greenwood P, 1990.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. Nature. In The Collected Works
of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Introductions and notes by
Robert E. Speller. Text established by Alfred R. Ferguson. Vol. 1, 745. Cambridge, MA: Belknap P of
Harvard UP, 1971.
. The Over-Soul. Essays: First and Second Series. Notes
and text selection by Joel Porte. New York: Vintage
Books, 1990. 15570.
Hildegard of Bingen. Scivias. Trans. Mother Columba
Hart and J. Bishop. New York: Paulist P, 1990.
Julian of Norwich. Showings. Trans. E. Colledge and
J. Walsh. New York: Paulist P, 1978.
Lakoff, George. Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things: What
Categories Reveal about the Mind. Chicago: U of
Chicago P, 1990.

142

Pastwatch: The Redemption of Orson Scott Card

Eugene England

Orson Scott Card is a radical Mormon. Hes

certainly not a liberal, at least by our current popular Mormon definitions; and despite calling himself a conservative and often talking like one in his
Vigor newsletter and his Nauvoo on-line discussion
group, he is definitely not conservative by current
popular Mormon standards.
No, hes a radicaldeeply committed at his
core to both the Church and the gospel and to traditional family values, to the point of great self-sacrifice, and also willing, in his fiction, to attempt to
get at the roots of the most fundamental questions
and issues affecting the Mormon religion: the nature
of God, of evil, of prophethood, of gender roles,
the sources of and solutions to homophobia, racism,
religious intolerance, war, and even capitalism.
Orson Scott Card is the Mormon author most
widely read by non-Mormons and by far the most
prolific and versatile writer of Mormon fiction and
arguably the bestcertainly the one most praised
and honored. He is also the one who to this point
bestand most radicallyfulfills the great prophetic
hopes for a world-class as well as genuinely Mormon literature.
In 1888, Orson F. Whitney set out the highest
goal of Mormon literature in sentences that still
rivet us and move Mormon critics to exalted hope
in the future and sometimes to despair about the
present: We shall yet have Miltons and Shakespeares of our own. . . . In Gods name and by his
help we will build up a literature whose top shall
touch heaven, though its foundations may now be
low in earth (Whitney Home Literature 132).

What this future apostle may have only intuited, but which we must never forget, is that Milton and Shakespeare were radical Christians. Yes,
they were in some ways devoted to encouraging
and promoting the rather conservative values of
small groups of religious peopleMilton the Puritans and Shakespeare the English Anglican Royalistsbut they were also, among the worlds
writers, two of those most radically subversive of
the inferior values of their own people and universalist in their vision. Both of them created Christian literature that was designed not only to teach
religious truth but also to actually change their
audience of somewhat self-satisfied, chosen
peopleto move them to repentance and healing,
especially to move them beyond their partial view
of Christianity and thus partiality against the marginal people in their societiesthose Christ called
the least of these.
Milton and Shakespeare were, in the phrase
someone has used to describe a first-rate religious
leader, able to both comfort the afflicted and afflict
the comfortable. Thats what I mean by radical.
Shakespeare and Milton were radically religious
and moral, and I think Card is the closest yet to
fulfilling Elder Whitneys prophecy precisely because
he is a radical Mormon.
But after reading Lost Boys in 1992 and Treasure Box in 1995 I became a little worried about
Scott. I wondered if his theology hadnt begun to
show itself not so much radical Mormon as conservative Christian, even Manicheisticthat is, inclined
to see all existence as divided between the competing
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and nearly equal forces of good and evil. And I

wondered if Card had lost some of his courageous
outspokenness on the central gospel issues, his
willingness to be, at whatever cost, a speaker for
the dead and different. So, it was with both pleasure and relief that I read Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus. I had been thinking
Orson Scott Card (the writer, not the Latter-day
Saint) needed some redemption himself, and I
found it in this remarkable novel.
Most of you are familiar with Cards career. For
me, it breaks into three rather distinct periods:
Beginning in the early 1970s as a student at BYU,
he wrote and produced or published about ten
plays on Mormon subjects, with themes ranging
from Moses (Stone Tables, which he recently turned
into a novel for Deseret Book) to Church history
(Liberty Jail ) to contemporary Mormonism (Elders
and Sisters). He also served as an editor and writer
for both the Ensign and Sunstone.
In about 1977, Card began writing science fiction, and his first published story, Enders Game,
won the 1978 John W. Campbell Award for the most
promising new science fiction writer. He went on
to publish dozens of stories and novels and to win
a large following and an international reputation
for his fiction and his speeches at science fiction
conventions, which were often in the form of a devastating satire of religious bigotry in the persona of
a Bible Belt fundamentalist preacher, Brother Orson.
The huge majority of his readers and listeners had
no idea he was a Mormon, and he openly stated in
a letter to Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought
that he would never attempt to . . . overtly preach
the gospel in his fiction and thought he represented Mormon theology best when he did not
speak about it at all (Card Letters 12).
But in that same letter he recognizes, as I think
all experienced and deeply religious writers (like
Milton and Shakespeare) do, that what he is makes
all the difference in his fiction:
As long as I dont interfere with my own
storytelling, I suspect that my works will always
reveal my beliefs, both orthodox and unwittingly heretical. And I believe that such expressions of faith, unconsciously placed within a
144

story, are the most honest and also most powerful messages a writer can give; they are, in
essence, the expression of the authors conceived
universe, and the reader who believes and cares
about the story will dwell, for a time, in the
authors world and receive powerful vicarious
memories that become part of the readers
own. (12)

It has been precisely Cards conceived universe that I have worried about recently, especially
in two books he wrote in the early 1990s, Lost Boys
and Treasure Box. Both seem to me to reflect a view
of evil at odds with orthodox Mormonism as I
understand itand, more seriously, to lose the
powerful edge of social criticism and utopianism
that Card developed in the mid to late 1980s.
It is interesting that just about the time Card
made that statement in Dialogue about not speaking openly in his work about his Mormonism, he
began to contradict himself. What might be called
a third phase of his work began with the publication in 1984 of Woman of Destiny, a much-praised
achievement in Mormon historical fiction based
on the life of a fictional plural wife of Joseph Smith,
that has since been republished as Saints (with a
more seemly cover) and is still very popular among
Mormons.
With this novel, Card began to publish a large
number of openly Mormon works. First came his
Mormon science fiction stories, Salvage and The
Fringe, also published in 1984, and then the
thinly veiled fantasy version of Joseph Smiths life
in the Tales of Alvin Maker series and later the fivevolume Homecoming series, a more fully veiled
version of the Book of Mormon as a future voyage
in space. Card went on to what might be called
domestic Mormon realism, with a touch of magic
realism, in his first mainstream novel, Lost Boys
(1992), and a remarkable story, Christmas at
Helamans House, in which a wealthy Mormon
family gives their home to their bishop to use for
the homeless.
For me, the crucial moment of change, in the
process during 198485 when Card emerged as
our most important and radical Mormon writer,
was when he expanded that first published science

Pastwatch: The Redemption of Orson Scott Card

fiction story, Enders Game, into the famous,

prize-winning novelwhich, by the way, seems on
its way right now into being made into a movie.
In the process of that expansion of story to
novel, Card extended the stunning surprise ending
in a way that changed the tale from a merely brilliant combination of the age-old conventions of
the coming-of-age story with the popular spacewar
formula into a much more moving and deeper
work. He also converted Ender Wiggin (and Card
himself ) into a speaker for the dead and the different. By imagining the killer of a whole race of
intelligent beings turned into a Christ-like figure
who writes their story and resurrects their progeny,
Card moved firmly into a larger moral and religious world, where issues of diversity, unconditional love for the Other, and thus healing through
giving and accepting grace, even the atoning grace
of Christ, become central to his work.
Every aspiring Mormon writer (as well as all
serious readers) should go over that ending again and
again, reminding himself or herself that the remarkable act of imagination and literary skill that it reveals
led to books that have won the most prestigious literary prizes of both the science fiction and the Mormon communities. Enders Game and its sequel,
Speaker for the Dead, made an unprecedented
sweep of both the Nebula and the Hugo two years
running, and their sequel, Xenocide, and then Lost
Boys both received awards for best novel of the year
from the Association for Mormon Letters.
Cards third-phase books have enriched both
American and Mormon culture with new visions
of ethical possibility and challenging theological
speculations and questions. For instance, the second volume of the Alvin Maker series, Red Prophet,
focuses on the association of Alvin, the Joseph Smith
figure, with an American Indian whom Alvin has
healed and who becomes a pacifist Christ-figure.
This prophet shares spiritual powers and visions
with Alvin, ultimately leading him into what I find
to be one of the most moving scenes in all literature, partly because it is modeled closely on one of
the most moving scenes in the Book of Mormon,
that of the Lamanites who when converted to
Christ refuse all violence, bury their weapons, and

allow themselves to be killedbut move their attackers to conversion and peace. Card skillfully translates this scene into a typical American frontier
massacre but with a profound difference: The Red
Prophet stands with his people in passive acceptance of death that both condemns and begins to
heal the violence of the whites, a testimony both
to the unique power of redemptive love and also to
its great cost.
In the third volume, Card becomes the Mormon
writer who has dealt most thoroughly (though still
indirectly) and most affirmatively (and yet perhaps
most hauntingly) with the black presence in Mormon American experiencesomething we Mormons
are still largely in denial about. A black baby,
Arthur Stuart, whose mother gave her life for him
in escaping slavery, becomes central to Alvins quest
for the meaning of his own life and allows Card to
explore one of the worst horrors of slaverythe
sexual use of slave women by their owners and
the selling of the resulting children away from their
mothers. But Card also creates intensely moving
scenes of sacrificial love by blacks and of reconciliation and new relationship with whites, especially
between Alvin and Arthur.
Though it seems distant from contemporary
Mormonism, Card uses this fantasy context, perhaps intuitively, to explore what Toni Morrison,
the Nobel Prize winning black author and literary
critic, rightly sees as the combined fear and desire,
the fascination and guilty repugnance, that haunts
white American contemplation of black sexuality,
and Card provides his Mormon readers with powerful hints for reflection on both our own unique
complicity and our own unique hope in Joseph
Smith for an alternative to American racism. Card
creates a subtext that suggests the guilt over centuries of white sexual misuse of blacks that likely
undergirds white fantasies about black sexual
prowess and sexual threat to whitesand whites
irrational horror about miscegenation, which some
Mormons have picked up and emphasized down
into the present. With self-serving scriptural interpretations and specious reasoning that parodies the
American slavers theology adopted by some 19thcentury Mormons, Cards character Cavil Planter
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convinces himself that he is called by God to father

as many children on slave women as he can and to
spread them throughout the South to reduce the
amount of evil black blood. He even invents a
racist God to command his actions and excuse his
lust (You see the face that you invented for me in
your own mind, the body conjured out of your
own imagination [Card Prentice 8]).
This is, of course, a direct parallel to the process
by which one popular and corrupt Mormon concept of God was inventedin attempts to rationalize the denial of priesthood to blacks by defining
white innocence over against black sinfulness from
the preexistence. Card thus deconstructs for his
Mormon readers the influential work of those few
Mormon theologians who have provided a rationale for excluding blacks from the priesthood that
would blame them rather than whites, and then,
most destructively in the books by John Stewart
and John Lund, have developed a still influential
concept of a God who shepherds his favorites from
stage to stage with special privileges and codes others
with color and poor birth conditions to punish them.
But Card also provides a positive model for
Mormon attitudes and behavior by making the
Joseph Smith and Emma figures models of unracialized Christian openness, even sacrificial love.
Peggy (the Emma Hale parallel in the Alvin Maker
books) risks much. She insists on tutoring Arthur
Stuart privately when the town fathers wont let him
attend schools with the white children, and Arthur
becomes Alvins constant companion and apprentice, developing his own spiritual gift of perfect
hearing and recall of voices, including Gods. A
supreme symbolic connection is made when Alvin
uses his own gifts to save Arthur from the Finders
who come from the South, tracking him with their
knack of perfect recognition of his biological signature, based on a hair or skin sample.
In an unmistakable parallel to Mormon baptism,
Alvin, standing with Arthur in the Hio River, uses
his own gift to search inside Arthur to find that signatureand, using his sense of a string that connects them, heart to heart . . . breast to breast,
he changes Arthurs DNA to be more like his own:
Just a little. But even a little meant that Arthur
146

Stuart had stopped being completely himself and

started being partly Alvin. It seemed to Alvin that
what he was doing was terrible and wonderful at
the same time. And what he is doing, he realizes,
is crucial to the last stage of his apprenticeship
and that is to be a Maker of humans. He remembers something that Arthur Stuart had heard and
repeated perfectly, from a redbird that is clearly the
Holy Ghost: The Maker is the one who is part of
what he Makes (Card Prentice 288).
Cards ideas about Makers and their opposite,
the Unmaker, seem to me crucial to his radical
theological perspective and contributionand
perhaps key to his theological wandering that perhaps could use some redemption. It is fitting that
Cards great insightthat both God and his children need each other to realize their full being, the
Maker becoming part of what he Makesis given
by a revelation through a little black boy, a representative of what has been perhaps most other
in American and Mormon experience and conscience. Theology and moral perspective come
together, for good or ill; and if there are any problems with Cards theology in the Alvin Maker
series, they are redeemed, as in Pastwatch, by his
moral passion.
Fairly early in the first Alvin Maker novel, Seventh Son, we get some sense of Alvins particular
calling and questto develop, through apprentice
and journeyman, into a master Maker of humans.
Card evokes what the young Maker must oppose
and what power he can use to oppose it through a
recurring nightmare:
[It] came on him, waking or sleeping, and spiked
his heart to his spine till he like to died. The world
filling up with an invisible trembling nothing
that seeped into everything and shook it apart.
Alvin could see it, rolling toward him like a
huge ball, growing all the time. (124)

Alvins friend Taleswapper (a wonderful version of

the Romantic poet-seer modeled on William
Blake) helps him name and thus understand this
nothing and why, when it invades his mind, he
couldnt stop fidgeting until hed done some weaving or built a haystack or done up a doll out of corn
shucks (127).

Pastwatch: The Redemption of Orson Scott Card

Taleswapper calls this force the Unmaker, an

evil more fundamental and dangerous than the devil,
who cant afford to break everything down . . . or
hed cease to be (128). I would call it radical cosmic
entropy, and my inclination to depersonalize the
Unmaker, to see it simply as the tendency of all
being toward less being unless actively countered
by intelligence, may indicate where I have come to
differ with some of Cards recent theology, which
seems to have personalized evil into something like
Manicheism.
The seeds of this tendency in Card now appear
to me in a passage from Seventh Son that I praised
some years ago for the way it reveals what Alvin
sees in the Unmaker. Alvin can see what he does
precisely because Card had thought carefully about
Lehis great discourse on ultimate being and its
relation to opposites in the Book of Mormon: For
it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all
things. If not . . . all things must needs be a compound in one; . . . having no life. . . . And if these
things are not . . . there could have been no creation of things, neither to act nor to be acted upon;
wherefore, all things must have vanished away
(2 Ne. 2:11, 13). Lehis is a radically comprehensive, but impersonal, insight into the way being
itself depends on the energies created in the
conflict of opposites, and I was greatly impressed
with Cards ability to challenge his readers, including
Mormons, to move past our fixation upon the devil
and particular forms of evil to the underlying
struggle between being and nonbeing, making and
unmaking, that makes existence, salvation, joy, all
good things possible.
But Alvins version, I see now, is more personalized than Lehisand points toward the
increasingly personalized evil in some of Cards
subsequent work:
Alvin knew all kinds of opposites in the world:
good and evil, light and dark, free and slave,
love and hate. But deeper than all those opposites was making and unmaking. So deep that
hardly anybody noticed that it was the most
important opposite of all. But he noticed, and so
that made the Unmaker his enemy. (Card Seventh 128)

The intense feeling here, that reduces the

impersonal tendencies of the universe to a hated,
feared, and fightable enemy, now seems to me to
undermine the ethical insight Card was developing
at the same timethat any reducing of the Other
to enemy, or even to something totally encompassed in our notion of its fundamental and fixed
nature, tends toward violence against others and
violation of ourselves. I now find some of that in
the Unmaker, as we see that concept taking form
in the Alvin Maker series, but it first became clear
to me in Lost Boys. The evil hinted at in the prelude
chapter powerfully pervades the last part of the
novelthough it is certainly countered by the sacrificial love of the boy Stevie; it seems to me to take
on a Manicheistic quality. The Boy inside Bappy
that compels him to kill the seven lost boys and
Stevie seems to be a personal form of the Unmaker
that has independent and ultimately unredeemable
existence.
Suddenly, as I write, these critical words seem
completely inadequate and unfair to my friend
Scott. Despite what Ive just said, which I believe,
Ive also recently reread the ending of Lost Boys and
wept my heart out. My daughter, who has two
little boys of her own, says she wept for two days.
So, whatever else you hear me saying, remember
Im recognizing that, bad theology or not, Orson
Scott Card is our greatest storyteller and understands, like Shakespeare and Milton, the power of
redeeming love.
Treasure Box did not move me as much, so Im
not going to apologize for criticizing its theology.
In that novel, the nature of demonic evil is revealed
in what seem to me blatantly Manicheistic forms.
One example is a succubus who seduces the protagonist and almost gets him to unloose a dragon,
a one-of-a-kind superdemon who has power to do
damage in the world on the level of a Hitler. These
demons seem able to create evil with something
very much like the omnipotence of God and seem
to be defeated or merely slowed down or delayed, if
they are, almost by accidentor only by an equal
and opposite divine intervention. This focus again
seems to undermine Cards carefully developed
ethical power, though certainly not entirely.
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Amidst all the horrific happenings of this cracking good story, Card does raise one of his most
interesting questions: What difference is there
between the natural power that the rich and intelligent have over others and the evil power witches
and demons have over their victims? At one point
in Treasure Box the very wealthy protagonist, who
has just used his money and connections to get his
way in a crucial matter that may save the world but
has probably damaged someone who got in his
way, reflects, How much power do you have to
have before youre a monster? How easy do you have
to make your own life at others expense before
youre evil and deserve to be destroyed? (269).
Good questions, for which Card doesnt really suggest answers here, as I think he does in his best
workbut also questions which in their form in
Treasure Box again imply a kind of Manicheism I
worry about in that focus on destroying evil beings.
Christs command to Resist not evil seems to
suggest a great danger in personalizing evil and
attempting to destroy it. Though it is certainly true
that one of the devils greatest wiles is to convince
us that he doesnt exist, I think an even more effective tactic he uses to lead us astray might be to convince us that he does existand in a particular form,
in a person or group that we can attack. I think its
very dangerous to give evil personal and assailable
form. This may simply be a difference in temperament between Card and myself. He freely admits
(as he did in my Mormon literature class) that he
draws lines, that he draws them differently than I
do, and that he may be wrong.
But actually its very hard for me to draw lines
at all. I know that the apostles and prophets sometimes draw lines and that Christ appears to occasionally, but the Savior I know most deeply and
personally doesnt . Hes intent on saving everyone,
including even the devil, if he can, and puts no
limits on his efforts to do so.
No such lines or limits exist in Pastwatch.
Columbus, who, just a few years ago, at the quincentennary in 1992, was cast by lots of people into
outer darkness, is redeemed in Scotts book, but so
are lots of othersin fact, all the othersin some
astounding ways but mainly through redemptive
148

love and grace. For those who havent read it (run,

dont walk, to the bookstore) heres a quick summary: With his best storytelling skills, Card moves
us back and forth between two timelines which
finally come together in a way that changes the
past and the future for most humans. We see
Columbus grow up, develop and display his particular genius, and make his voyage in the fifteenth
century. At the same time we learn of people two
hundred years from now, who after a period of war,
plague, and disastrous environmental depletion
feel the earth is healing enough to turn their attention to the past. They develop more and more
sophisticated machines to view it in detail and
eventually learn how to intervene in that past.
Card characteristically focuses these enormous
events, affecting the disparate courses of whole civilizations and eventually all earth-life, on a few
remarkable characters. The first is Tagiri, who starts
out as merely one of many well-trained pastwatchers, essentially doing her genealogy in Africa by the
time machine video. A combination of particular
genius and compassion (perhaps what we would
call the spirit of Elijah) prompts her to start moving backward in lives to understand the causes of
what she sees on peoples faces, which leads her to
study slavery, which leads her to study the man who
effectively started the American African slave trade,
Columbus, which leads eventually into an enormous
project to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the children to their fathers. She convinces the people of her own time to end their own
lives by sending three people back in time who are
able to change history after Columbus to one without slavery, environmental exploitation, and war. It
also produces a history in which Tagiri and her
people simply dont exist.
Is that clear? Well, it gets more complicated,
but Card brilliantly keeps not only two actual but
three possible stories going. As the Pastwatch
machines become more sophisticated, Tagiri, with
Hassan, another watcher who becomes her husband, discovers that a man and woman in Haiti,
facing the slavery of Carib peoples begun by
Columbus, actually see Tagiri and Hassan apparently begin watching them from the future and

Pastwatch: The Redemption of Orson Scott Card

then pray to them as gods who could deliver them

from Spanish oppression and slavery. Thus Tagiri
becomes convinced that it may be possible to actually affect the past and that she should answer the
prayer.
With the help of Hassan, Tagiri comes to understand the crucial role Columbus played in producing
their own sick world of the 2190s, not only slavery
but the pillaging of America that financed the terrible religious and dynastic wars that swept Europe
back and forth for generations (47) and also produced the age of technology, with its machines
that sucked all the oil out of the ground and let us
carry war and famine across oceans and continents
until nine-tenths of humankind was dead.
They articulate what seems clearly Cards view,
based on a large amount of research that he documents at the end of the book: Columbus was no
monster. . . . His vices were the vices of his time
and culture, but his virtues transcended the milieu
of his life. He was a great man (48). They see in
him the place where the smallest, simplest change
would save the world from the most suffering and
agree to spend their lives finding out if it might be
possible to make such a change and then, if the
people of their own time agree its worth it and
right, to go ahead. But the process is slow, and it is
actually their daughter, Diko (named after Tagiris
ancestor who lost her son to slavery and whose lifelong grief haunted and motivated Tagiri), who
makes the crucial discovery. Diko and two other
fascinating and diverse members of her generation
go back to redeem Columbus and the world.
Diko, in her study of Columbus, notices what
no one else had. At a crucial moment on a beach in
Portugal, after he has nearly drowned, he has a religious vision that energizes and changes his life,
turning him from his obsession to free Jerusalem
from the Muslims to an absolute conviction that
he should go West instead and will find gold there
and convert many to Christianity. But because she
also can see the vision, a wavering presence in the
air above him that Columbus interprets as the Holy
Trinity, she knows it is not a religious vision, which
would be seen only by Columbus and not recorded
on the Pastwatch machines. It is, instead, a holograph

created by some other Pastwatchers, who like Diko

and her parents had found the crucial cause of their
wounded civilization in Columbus. In a different
timestream, Columbus had carried out his obsession
to lead a third crusade to Jerusalem and destroy the
Muslims. Those other watchers, whom Tagiri calls
the Interverners, had indeed turned Columbus to
the West, preventing his crusade and consequent
destruction of the great Muslim civilization and its
treasures of knowledge. In doing so, however, they
produced the exploitation of the Americas, slavery,
and the dying civilization that now Tagiri wants to
change, even at the sacrifice of herself and her husband and people.
Tagiris fine-tuned ethics and deep compassion
will not assent to the new Intervening until two
conditions are met: that all her people agree to it,
even though their own existences will end the instant
Tagiri pulls the lever sending back her daughter
and the other two one-way time-travelers, and that
those who go back with them take copies of all the
world history that Pastwatch has recorded, a library
of the lost future that can remain hidden and preserved from about 1492 until technology develops
enough to make that alternate timeline, its stories
and people, known to the new one. Card does one
of his little in-jokes here, his way of what he calls
saying hi to his own Mormon people in a book
for non-Mormons, by having the essential directions recorded on metal plates.
But Card does more than make in-jokes with
his Mormonism. I quoted him earlier about placing expressions of faith in his stories that are the
most honest and also most powerful messages a
writer can give; . . . the reader who believes and
cares about the story will dwell, for a time, in the
authors world and receive powerful vicarious
memories (Card Letters 12). That way of blessing
his non-Mormon readers occurs often in Pastwatch.
One example is the scene where, before they leave,
the three Interveners have had the plates placed in
their skulls that contain an account of their mission and directions to the libraries they will
deposit. The Chinese surgeon says to them,
Save the world, young man, young woman.
Make a very good world my children.
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For a horrible moment Diko thought that

the doctor didnt understand that when they
went, his children would all be snuffed out, like
everyone else in this dead-end time. . . .
Seeing the consternation on their faces, the
doctor laughed. . . . When you go back, young
man, young woman, then all the people of the
new future, they are my children. And when
they hear your phony bones talking to them,
then they find the records, they find out about
me and all the other people. So they remember
us. They know we are their ancestors. This is
very important. They know we are their ancestors, and they remember us. (24849)

Certainly that is a passage that contains the

Spirit of Elijah and will form powerful vicarious
memories for all who have ears to hear.
The decision to go ahead with the Columbus
projectand the force that convinces all people on
the earth to vote for itcomes when scientists realize that the healing of the earth they are engaged in
cannot succeed. Here Card, echoing his mentor,
Hugh Nibley, radically challenges our politically
conservative Mormon anti-environmentalism by
letting a future scientist describe the world we, too,
seem hell-bent on producing:
Already were taking people out of the factories and putting them into the fields. But this
wont really help, because were already farming
very close to one hundred percent of the land
where theres any topsoil left at all. And since
weve been farming at maximum yields for
some time, were already noticing the effects of
the increasing cloud coverfewer crops per
hectare. . . .
The ocean has its own problems. . . . We
harvest as much fish as we dare. . . . Any more,
and in ten years our yields will be a tiny fraction of what they are now. Dont you see? The
damage our ancestors did was too great. It is
not within our power to stop the forces that
have already been in motion for centuries.
(23738)

In a famous essay collected in Approaching

Zion, But What Kind of Work?, a follow-up to
his even more famous Work We Must, But the
150

Lunch Is Free, Nibley paraphrased President

Kimballs denunciation of Mormons for (1) contempt for the environment, (2) the quest for
affluence, and (3) the trust in deadly weapons.
Nibley then went on to claim and demonstrate
that in these three vices, Utah leads the nation
(255). Almost as if he had used Nibley for a text for
Pastwatch, Card shows how Columbus, serving as
what Tagiri could see was a fulcrum of history,
could be redirected in a way that would greatly
reduce all three vices of anti-environmentalism,
materialism, and militarism. Card radically challenges his Mormon readers, as well as others, to
reconsider the path we have continued from
Columbus and whether we might change it.
To increase chances of success through triple
redundancy, Diko and two companions make the
journey, but these companions provide Card with
a way to create additional powerful emblems of the
redemptive process. It which requires that we see,
with Nephi, that all are alike unto God (2 Ne.
26:33). Diko, a tall black woman, goes to the tribe
of the Caribs her mother had first seen praying to
their future watchers and prepares them to receive
Columbus and his Christianity. They are also to
teach Columbus a higher form of ethical Christianity when his ships are lost and he and his most
receptive men are marooned.
The ships are destroyed by the second intervener Kemal, a devout Muslim who quite enjoys
thwarting the Christian Spaniards, who that very
year under Ferdinand and Isabella had expelled his
people from Spain. But Kemal also reveals himself
to the Spaniards and gives his life in a clever maneuver that sews the seeds of distrust in Columbuss
crew in a way that separates Columbus from them
and delivers him into the healing hands of Diko.
The third intervener is Hanahpu, a descendant
of the Mayans, who has used Pastwatch to study
his ancestors and neighboring civilizations. He has
developed a remarkable theory about how they
were weakened by their divisive practice of human
sacrifice and their lack of metallurgy for weapons.
With very little change, they might have been
more than a match for the Europeans. He returns
before Diko and Kemal to start the creation of

Pastwatch: The Redemption of Orson Scott Card

exactly that alternate future (or past, depending

on your perspective). He appears as a God, cows
the crucial group with his transported technology,
teaches them the advantages of renouncing slavery
and sacrifice in exchange for the metal-making
skills he gives them, and instructs them in making
bloodless conquest through alliances. He also, like
an appearing Christ-figure in America (another little
in-joke for Mormons), teaches them a form of
Christianity that is easily assimilated to the modified form Diko helps Columbus and his crew create as they teach it to the Caribs.
Consequently, when the mainland powers learn
to build ships and spread out to form alliances with
the Caribs and Spaniards, they form an increasingly powerful and united group that, near the end
of Columbuss life, ventures across the Atlantic to
peacefully intimidate and make alliances with
Europe. Thus, they set the course for the alternate,
peaceful, and nonexploitative, development of the
whole world that Tagiri had dreamed.
Card shows off his intellectual prowess a bit
with the Kemal and Hunahpu figures. Kemal had
developed and proven some remarkable ideas about
the sources of the Noahs flood and Atlantis stories
that Card, on the basis of his reading and imagination, makes quite convincing. And Hunahpus
ideas about the ancient American civilizations and
alternative directions they might have taken are
developed from some very serious recent academic
work that Card has educated himself about and
that he surveys in his bibliography.
Despite all this, Card is, in Pastwatch, principally the delightful storyteller and radical Christian
I most love and appreciate. He represents Hunahpu
first appearing to a carefully selected raiding party
of Zapotecs, in an hilarious, gripping scene,
involving everything from using his knowledge of
their personal pasts to an apparently very authentic
mutilation with lots of blood. I assume this scene is
based on Cards research, unless its another of his
jokes. Anyway, Hunahpu both convinces the
Zapotecs he is a recognizable god they should follow and begins to change their culture in radical
ways by invoking a higher god he calls the King of
Xibalba:

As you see me shed my blood here, so the

King of Xibalba has already shed his blood for
the lords of Xibalba. They will drink, and never
thirst again. In that day will men cease to die to
feed their god. Instead they will die in the water
and rise up reborn, and then eat the flesh and
drink the blood of the King of Xibalba. . . .
[He] died in a faraway kingdom, and yet he
lives again. . . .
He looked around at them, at the awe on
their faces. Of course they were hardly taking
this in, but Hunahpu had worked out with
Diko and Kemal the doctrine he would teach
to the Zapotecs. . . . It would prepare them for
the coming of Columbus . . . to receive Christianity as something they had long expected. . . .
You are wondering if I am the King of
Xibalba, said Hunahpu, but I am not. I am
only the one who comes before, to announce
his coming. I am not worthy to braid a feather
into his hair.
Take that, Juan Batista. (28586)

That last line is, of course, not Hunahpus as

much as Scotts own characteristic brand of humor.
His own characteristic radical obsessions about the
ethical nature of Christianity also come through
strongly in these scenes of teaching redemptive
truth to the Zapotecs and Caribs. When Hunahpu
is led to the war partys village he begins making
radical changes right away, with silent asides so we
can see clearly what Card wants us to see him doing:
Where are the women of Atetulka? Come
out of hiding, you and all your children.
Come out and see me! Among men I would be
a king, but I am only the humblest servant of
the King of Xibalba. Come out and see me!
Lets lay the groundwork of somewhat more egalitarian treatment of women now, at the beginning. Stand with your families, all of you! (287)

Then, based on his knowledge of their potential from his watching them, he calls forth the couple who will lead his revolution, first the woman:
Speak loudly! Hunahpu commanded. . . .
The voice of a woman can be heard as loud as
the voice of a man, in the Kingdom of Xibalbaon-Earth.
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AML Annual 2002

Thats about all we can do for egalitarianism

right now, Hunahpu said silently, but it should
be revolutionary enough as the story spreads. (288)

Then he calls out a slave girl and frees and

honors her:
Where is Xoc? Yes, I mean the slavegirl, the ugly
girl you captured and no one would marry her!
She was thrust forward, a filthy thirteenyear-old with a harelip. . . .
Today you are a free citizen of the Kingdom of Xibalba-on-Earth, Xoc. You belong to
no man or woman, for no man or woman belongs
to any other. The King of Xibalba commands
it! There are no captives, no slaves, no servantsfor-life in the Kingdom of Xibalba-on-Earth!

And then he adds, silently, For you, Tagiri (290).

The scenes where Columbus is literally redeemed,
that is, where he learns to be a true Christian and
accept his new role in the Columbus project, are
even more revealing of Cards radicalismand his
own redemption from anything like a narrow
Manicheism. Card is unsparing in letting Diko
speak from her knowledge of Columbuss other
future of how he had been the greedy, unthinking
exploiter that both his own priest and biographer,
Father Bartholome de las Casas, and his modern
debunkers have seen:
In the prior history it never crossed Cristoforos
mind that he didnt have the right to go straight
to any gold mine he might find on Haiti and
take possession of it.
[Diko] remembered what Cristoforo
wrote in his log when Guacanagars people [the
Haitians] worked long and hard to help him
load all his equipment and supplies off the
wrecked Santa Maria: They love their neighbor as themselves. He was capable of thinking
of them as having exemplary Christian
virtuesand then turn right around and
assume that he had the right to take from them
anything they owned. Gold mines, food, even
their freedom and their liveshe was incapable of thinking of them as having rights.
After all, they were strangers. Dark of skin.
Unable to speak any recognizable language.
And therefore not people. . . .
152

What am I expecting of Cristoforo, really?

Diko wondered. I am asking him to learn a
degree of empathy for other races that would
not become a serious force in human life until
nearly five hundred years after his great voyage,
and did not prevail worldwide until many
bloody wars and famines and plagues after
that. I am asking him to rise out of his own
time and become something new. (31920)

But that is exactly what Card is able to make us

believe Columbus was capable of doing. When
they first meet, Diko gets Columbuss attention
and forms an unforgettable presence in his mind
by telling him of his vision on the beachwhich
he had never told anyoneand then begins to
teach him:
You are not yet fit to teach these people Christianity, Cristoforo, because you are not yet a
Christian.
He reached back his hand to strike at her.
It surprised her, because he was not a violent man.
Oh, will hitting me prove how Christian
you are? . . .
I didnt hit you, he said.
But it was your first desire, wasnt it? she
said. Why? . . . Because to you Im not a human
being, Im a dog, less than a dog, because you
would not beat a dog, would you? Just like the
Portuguese, when you see a black woman you
see a slave. And these brown peopleyou can
teach them the gospel of Christ and baptize
them, but that doesnt stop you from wanting
to make slaves of them and steal their gold
from them. (33637)

Diko gets a sense of the force of this man, a

man that Card clearly has respect for, based both
on his research and also on his conviction, from
the Book of Mormon account (1 Ne. 13:12), that
this is a man the Lord could use for his purposes:
She sat on her sleeping mat and trembled.
Wasnt this exactly what she had planned? To
make Cristoforo angry but plant the seeds of
transformation in his mind? Yet in all her
imagining of this encounter, she had never
counted on how powerful Cristoforo was in
person. She had watched him, had seen the

Pastwatch: The Redemption of Orson Scott Card

power he had over people, but he had never

looked her in the eye until this day. And it left
her as disturbed as any of the Europeans who
had confronted him. It gave her new respect
for those who resisted him, and new understanding of those who bent completely to his
will. Not even Tagiri had so much fire burning
behind her eyes as this man had. No wonder
the Interveners chose him as their tool. Come
what may, Cristoforo would prevail, given time
enough. (33940)

Though this time Columbus gets angry enough

to leave, later, when Kemal has destroyed his ships
and lighted the sparks of a mutiny that will eventually drive Columbus back to Diko where he can
begin really to learn, he reflects on what she had
begun to teach him:
Until I spoke with her, I didnt question
the right of white men to give commands to
brown ones. Only since she poisoned my mind
with her strange interpretation of Christianity
did I start seeing the way the Indians quietly
resist being treated like slaves. I would have
thought of them the way Pinzn does, as worthless, lazy savages. But now I see that they are
quiet, gentle, unwilling to provoke a quarrel.
They endure a beating quietlybut then dont
return to be beaten again. Except that even
some who have been beaten still return to help,
of their own free will, avoiding the cruelest of
the Spaniards but still helping the others as much
as they can. Isnt this what Christ meant when
he said to turn the other cheek? If a man compels you to walk a mile with him, then walk the
second mile by your own choicewasnt that
Christianity? So who were the Christians? The
baptized Spaniards, or the unbaptized Indians? . . . Was it possible that God had brought
him here, not to bring enlightenment to the
heathen, but to learn it from them? (35556)

This is a remarkable, concrete realization of a

radical idea from the Book of Mormon that Card
understands well. As members of an aggressively
proselytizing church, we Mormons must face the
fact that Christs charge to take his gospel to the
world has inspired in some Christians a missionary
zeal that has been destructive to the cultures and

even to the lives of non-Christian peoples. The widespread and thorough discussion, during the 1992
quin-centennary, of the nature and consequences
of Columbuss discovery of America, raised
important questions that we must face as we confront throughout the world very similar challenges
to those that the voyage of Columbus brought to
the Catholic Church: What is the spiritual status of
people, especially of other races, who have long
dwelt in darkness, and what is our responsibility
to them and ourselves as we intrude upon them
with the version of the gospel of Christ developed
in our own narrow culture?
The Catholic answer was, of course, mixed and
in many ways a failure, but Catholic thinkers like
Karl Rahner have tried to describe the increase in
understanding for all of usthe new paradigms
made possiblefrom the mistakes made and new
perspectives gained from the crucial historical
experience of proselyting Christian cultures colliding with very different cultures. For instance, Rahner has articulated a way of understanding, given
Gods universal love and power, how Christs grace
must have been operating in non-Christian peoples
all along: Christianity cannot simply confront the
member of an extra-Christian religion as a mere
non-Christian but as someone who can and must
already be regarded in this or that respect as an
anonymous Christian. It would be wrong to regard
the pagan as someone who has not yet been
touched in any way by Gods grace and truth
(Rahner Christianity 131). This is, of course,
precisely what Card represents Columbus, at the
heart of his redemption, coming to understand.
The Book of Mormon has given us a crucial
additional concept to help us improve on the
Catholic experience, as we face our own transition
into a world church. We have always been taught
very clearly that God did not first reveal Christs
identity and saving gospel at the meridian of time
but has done so again and again from the very
beginning, in dispensation after dispensation and
in all parts of the world. Indeed the Book of Mormon preface declares that Jesus is the Christ, the
Eternal God, manifesting himself unto all nations
(italics mine). And early in the book we learn at
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AML Annual 2002

least one of the ways Christ so manifests himself.

The Lord asks Nephi:

1978, the First Presidency under Spencer W. Kimball officially declared:

Know ye not that there are more nations

than one? Know ye not that I, the Lord your
God, have created all men, and that I remember those who are upon the isles of the sea; and
that I rule in the heavens above and in the earth
beneath; and I bring forth my word unto the
children of men, yea, even upon all the nations
of the earth. . . . I shall speak unto the Jews and
they shall write it; and I shall also speak unto
the Nephites and they shall write it; and I shall
also speak unto the other tribes of the house of
Israel . . . and they shall write it; and I shall also
speak unto all nations of the earth and they
shall write it. (2 Ne. 29:7, 12)

The great religious leaders of the world such as

Mohammed, Confucius, and the Reformers,
as well as philosophers including Socrates,
Plato, and others, received a portion of Gods
light. Moral truths were given them by God to
enlighten whole nations and to bring a higher
level of understanding to individuals.
The Hebrew prophets prepared the way
for the coming of Jesus Christ, the promised
Messiah, who should provide salvation for all
mankind who believed in the gospel. Consistent with these truths, we believe that God has
given and will give to all peoples sufficient
knowledge to help them on their way to eternal salvation, either in this life or in the life to
come. (Palmer frontispiece)

I can understand those passages only as giving

even more concrete meaning to Karl Rahners claim
that Christs grace has already come to all peoples
on the earth. It seems to say that every nation has
been given, directly, in their own tongues, some
manifestation of Christ through the word of God
and then goes on to promise that the Jews shall
have the words of the Nephites, and the Nephites
shall have the words of the Jews and both will
have the words of the lost tribes and vice versa
(2 Ne. 29:13)which seems to mean that Gods
intent is that all his children will be able, if we try,
to share the words given by God to all other peoples. This means to me that we are to look in every
nation for those scriptures: In India, is it the
Hindu Baghavad Gita; in China, the Tao Te Ching;
among the Ogalalla Sioux, Black Elk Speaks? In
Russia is it Tolstoy and Dostoevsky; in England,
Shakespeare and Milton? And what about Samoa
and Switzerland? I dont know, but I feel called by
that revelation to Nephi to search with an open
mind and heart.
Part of our mission, it seems to me, is to identify and then learn from the scriptures that God
says have been given unto all nations. We are
called to learn how to delight in the diversity of
revelations and other manifestations of his grace
that God has given his children everywhere and to
honor and learn from those he has inspired to minister to and teach those children. On February 15,
154

I delight in that call to appreciate Gods respect

for diversity, even while I struggle with its challenges and often fail. Pastwatch has been a great
help to me, and I am grateful to Orson Scott Card.
In this be all his sins forgiven.
Of course, there is a huge theological problem
for Mormons if we take Pastwatch too literally. We
believe that each person has an eternal and indestructible intelligence, so alternate futures or pasts,
which erase the literal existences of billions of children of God, even while preserving their stories,
seems impossible. But, of course, Pastwatch is not
about some literal future or past but about our own
present, where slavery, racism, sexism, subjugation,
war, environmental degradation, and greed still
abound. Inspired by the Pastwatch Interveners,
especially their Christ-like (that is, sacrificial and
impartial), love, we can choose a different present
and a different future in this new millennium.
Eugene England, formerly of BYUs English Department, is writer in residence at Utah Valley State College. He first delivered this paper at Life, the Universe,
and Everything, BYUs science fiction/fantasy conference, and it was first published in Deep Thoughts:
Proceedings of Life, the Universe, & Everything XV, February 27March 1, 1997, ed. Steve Setzer and Marny K.
Parkin (Provo, Utah: LTU&E, 2001): 1941. Gabriel O.

Pastwatch: The Redemption of Orson Scott Card

Burton read this paper for Gene at the AML conference

on 24 February 2001 at Westminster College, while Gene
was recuperating from brain surgery.

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The Lost Tribes of Mormon Science Fiction Literature:

Battlestar Galactica in Books and Comics
Ivan A. Wolfe

Battlestar Galactica, a late 1970s/early 1980s

science fiction television show, has become a sort of
parlor game for Mormons. Whenever I mention
my involvement in the science fiction community
at a LDS gathering someone usually mentions Battlestar Galactica, and the conversation quickly turns
to a discussion of the most obvious Mormon elements in the series such as a Quorum of the Twelve
or the angels without wings who wear outfits like
those of temple workers (not temple outfits in the
sense of the endowment but the white outfits you
would see many of the temple workers wearing as
they wander about performing their various tasks).
No doubt these elements are prevalent in Battlestar Galactica because of series creator Glen A.
Larsons connection to the LDS Church. Although
I dont know what his current status in the Church
is (or what it was back then), John Muirs excellent
An Analytical Guide to Televisions Battlestar Galactica refers to Larson as a once-member of the Mormon church in one place and states that he was
brought up as a Mormon (13, 173) in another.
While Muir deftly summarizes and explains the
various mythological and theological references that
are ubiquitously scattered throughout the series,
these two brief references to Larsons Mormon background are Muirs only mention of Mormonism.
Muir may have missed or omitted the Mormon elements because they were not considered to
be a very important part of the series. Some people
have argued that the Mormon elements are trivial
and contribute nothing to the series proper. Orson
Scott Card wrote:

I found the Glen Larson approach both silly

and offensive; I also found that most Mormon
critics who have commented on my work and
Larsons make the same self-contradictory
mistake: They find Larsons approachdropping in trivial LDS referencessuperficial, and
then complain that because I dont do the
same, I am denying/concealing/ignoring my
Mormonism. (159)

With all due respect to Card (one of my three

favorite authors of all time) and to the critics he is
referring to,1 the Mormon references in Battlestar
Galactica are not trivial. they are an integral part of
the themes behind the series. The best way to show
this is to list the various LDS borrowings that Larson wrote into the show. The Battlestar Galactica
FAQ (http://www.kobol.com/archives/BG-FAQ.
html) does a good job of describing the Mormon
elements:
Glen Larson (producer and creator) is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints, hereafter referred to as the Mormon
or Latter-day Saint (LDS) Church. Some of the
ideas in Galactica are unmistakably Mormon
in origin.
1. In Battlestar Galactica, twelve tribes of
men founded the Twelve Colonies after departing from Kobol. A lost thirteenth colony colonized Earth. In The Book of Mormon, around
600 BC, the prophet Lehi took a remnant of
the tribe of Joseph from Jerusalem to ancient
America, during the time of the Babylonian
captivity and the scattering of the twelve tribes
of Israel.
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2. In Lost Planet of the Gods, it is

revealed that the [sic] mankind originated on
Kobol, the mother world of all humans. Kobol
is a rearranging of the word Kolob, which is the
star nearest unto the throne of God (see The
Book of Abraham, Ch. 3, found in The Pearl
of Great Price.) The Star Kobol was also the
ship on which armistice talks between the Colonials and the Cylons were held.
3. The episode War of the Gods, which
starred Count Iblis and the Ship of Lights,
introduces viewers to various elements of LDS
teachings. The universe is under the law of Free
Agency: We cannot interfere with freedom of
choice. His, yours, anyones. Even Count Iblis
(Satan) is bound by these laws, for he has only
control over those who had freely given him
dominion. Those who accepted Iblis words
were willing to follow him blindly provided he
guaranteed their safety. According to the Mormon account of creation (The Book of Moses,
Ch. 4, found in The Pearl of Great Price), one
of the reasons God cast Satan out of heaven
was because he sought to destroy the agency
of man.
4. The beings on the Ship of Lights are
highly evolved brothers of man, and may also
have founded Kobol. The phrase As you are
now, we once were; as we are now, you may
become is a rewording of a quote from Lorenzo
Snow: As man is, God once was; as God is,
man may become. This is an important component of the doctrine of Eternal Progression.
According to LDS beliefs, all humans are children of God, who is Himself an exalted man.
By following Gods laws, a believer can enter
the path to godhood.
5. In their sealing ceremony, Adama sealed
Apollo and Serina with these words: A union
between this man and this woman not only for
now but for all the eternities. In a Latter-day
Saint temple marriage, a couple is sealed for
time and all eternity.
6. There is a similarity in the political
structures of the Colonies and the Latter-day
Saint Church. Both bodies have a Council (or
Quorum) of the Twelve, and a President.
7. In the Galactica 1980 episode The Super
Scouts, Dillon uses the phrase The glory of
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the universe is intelligence, a rewording of a

passage in Doctrines and Covenants #93: The
glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words,
light and truth. In Experiment in Terra
aboard the Ship of Lights the angel John tells
Apollo I have no physical body, as you know
it. Apollo, pointing to Johns body, asks him
What do you call that? A reflection of intelligence. My spirit, if you will. Later on in
The Super Scouts, Dillon remarked that he
was admiring this choice land. This is a variation of the Book of Mormon description of
the Americas This land is choice above all
other lands (1 Nephi, Ch. 2. et al.)

While not all of the LDS borrowings in Battlestar Galactica are compatible with LDS theology,
they do represent a philosophical underpinning
that influences the characters and situations of the
series. The idea that the Galactica Universe is not
one in which humanity is on the run from oppressive and overpowering aliens, but is in fact a battleground for human souls between angels and
fallen angels as shown above, clearly reflects
something deeper and more essential to the plot
than a few trivial and superficial references.
However, my purpose here is not to analyze the
television show in any great depth. John Muir has
already done this very well, despite his ignorance
(whether real or feigned) of the Mormon elements.
Instead I would like to focus on the literary output
of Battlestar Galactica through the East Coast publishing housesboth as novels and that shunned
literary hybrid, comic books.
Television series spin-off novels have a bad reputation, especially in the field of science fiction.
This is largely due to the influence of the line of
Star Trek paperbacks. While the first few early Star
Trek novels were well written, the industry has
gradually deteriorated into a mass of pure hackwork that is written merely because it sells and
without much regard to quality. Though Im sure a
few gems exist, most science-fiction fans do not
feel it worth the effort to dig through all of the
garbage to find these gems. Despite a few notable
exceptions (Babylon 5 for example), nearly all of
the spin-off books in the science fiction field,

Battlestar Galactica in Books and Comics

including the Battlestar Galactica novels, suffer

from a similar reputation. This often prevents
many serious readers from ever attempting to read
these types of novels. While Battlestar Galactica
has had its share of hackwork stories, overall the
novel series manages to escape the damning stereotype of its various counterparts. One reason for this
may be that, like Babylon 5, the series creator
(Glen A. Larson in the case of Battlestar Galactica)
is the coauthor of all of the novels, hopefully
(though not always) insuring that the novels are
not contradictory in spirit to the series but are
instead more in-depth examinations of the same
characters and situations.
The first Battlestar Galactica book was a novelization of the first three episodes. It was simply titled
Battlestar Galactica. The novel was released in hardback just before or right around the time the series
was aired on TV. The material from the first three
episodes and this novel were reedited into a theatrical later on. While the novel attempts to round
out its main characters and situations, it suffers
from various attempts to create new legends and to
rework old earth legends into new forms for its
space-faring humans. One particularly galling
example is when Commander Adama tells a very
clumsy version of the story of Sir Gawain and the
Green Knightexcept in this version there are no
knights of the round tablesmerely Moon Miners.
There were other attempts to rework the Arthurian
fable into science fiction terms, but the whole story
reads very badly and makes little sense (4851).
The next Battlestar Galactica novel to come out
fared better. It was called The Cylon Death Machine
and was based on the episode Gun on Ice Planet
Zero. The television episode, though exciting and
containing many tense and humorous moments,
contained a few clichs. The main clich the episode
revolved around was the oh no! We have need for
a specialized reconnaissance, but the only people
with the knowledge and expertise are convicted
criminals clich. However, in the book, this situation is explored in far more depth, allowing the
character of Croft (the ringleader of the criminals)
to come to life and become a more actualized character, rather than a disposable stereotype.

An example of this is Crofts relationship to

Adama. At the start of the novel we read that Adama
has no idea who Croft is, though he is told that he
should know him.
Croft. Who is he? Where did he come from?
Am I really part of his memories or just a substitute for authority figures in general? Even
when he described the incident where we
crossed paths, and I pretended to remember it
because he needed for me to remember it and
I needed him for the mission, I could not recall
a single aspect of the brief adventure. . . . To
Croft that episode seems to have been the major
event in his life. Its too bad that . . . our confrontation was only a forgettable moment for
me, an entry in my journal that calls forth no
pictures of the event it describes. (12)

Despite his pretense, Croft realizes that Adama

does not remember him, and spends time attempting to remind Adama of the incident. Interestingly
enough, the novel never actually resolves this
incongruity, where Adama cannot remember ever
meeting Croft before and Croft is sure Adama was
a major player in his capture and imprisonment.
Besides this bit of emotional conflict, Croft is given
a more believable background and history
aspects which could not be explored on the limited
one-hour time slot of TV.
Glen A. Larson cowrote fourteen Battlestar
Galactica novels, with all but the last four being
adaptations of televised stories. It would be over a
decade before another Battlestar Galactica novel
would appear. In the interim, comic books ruled
the Battlestar Galactica galaxy.
The first comic series was done by Marvel
comics, one of the big three (the others being DC
and Archie). While Marvel explored characters and
relationships that the TV series had dropped or
forgotten, the series was generally unimpressive
and seemed to contradict the chronology of the
TV series, making it an apocryphal work. This
series lasted for twenty-three issues and was finally
cancelled. Even though it had an incredible
amount of subscriptions when it first came out, it
floundered because the sales began to wane once
the TV series was off the air (Anchors 31). Nearly
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fifteen years later, new Battlestar Galactica comics

appeared, although this set of comics featured a
radically revised approach to the series core concept.
Comic books are a strange literary beast. With
the exception of Archie comics, which are written
with the assumption that their readership rolls over
every few years, most comic companies create stories with the idea that they are not only gaining
new readers but are also holding on to many of their
earlier clientele. Thus, the writers and editors who
produce the stories must be innovative and creative
to keep the interest of the older and more mature
audience (who demand more mature story lines with
the same characters they knew as children) while
not straying too far from the core concept, so as not
to alienate and confuse the newer, younger readers.
Maximum Press tried to balance this dichotomy
but in a way that alienated many readers. They
kept the same names, core concepts, and continuity of the original TV series. Beyond that, they
used the same logo that the earlier Marvel comics
series used (but which was different from the TV
series) in order to appeal to the old timers. By
doing all of this, they were supposed to keep the
older die-hard fans happy and catch their interest.
But Rob Liefeld (the artist and writer behind
Maximum Press and its Battlestar Galactica titles)
knew that many of the current crop of comic book
connoisseurs would most likely be unfamiliar with
Battlestar Galactica or, at best, only faintly familiar
(they might have seen a commercial or two for the
ubiquitous reruns on the Sci-Fi channel). To grab
the interest of new readers, he radically revised the
look and focus of the series. To explain away his
radically revisionist concepts, he set the new comic
series twenty years after the last episode of the TV
series (ignoring the horrid Galactica 1980) and
claimed that the ensuing twenty years were filled
with a time of relative peace that contained radical
technology changes. The ships were given a more
baroque look, and the colonial outfits became a
hodge-podge of psuedo-Napoleonic garb, ancient
Egyptian finery, and 1960s American styles.
The series was a disaster. It spawned some decent
sales, but mostly among collectors who buy unusual
comics and die-hard fans of old who were amazed
160

that a nearly twenty-year-old TV show was being

resurrected. These fans supported it mostly because
they hoped that good sales would increase the chances
of a revival TV series, which Richard Hatch (who
played Apollo on the TV series) was pushing for.
Despite all of this, the comic book stories were atrocious, although they displayed an amazing ability
to exploit the folklore of Battlestar Galactica fans.
The first Maximum Press story line, The War
of Eden, is an example of how the series creators
exploited Battlestar Galactica folklore. The series
opens with the Galactica discovering Earth. Since
finding Earth was the whole point of the first series
it may seem odd to start off with the main goal
already accomplished but this discovery supposedly presented a whole new set of problems. At one
point while exploring Earth, Count Iblis (the
Satan figure in the TV War of the Gods story arc)
returns. He takes Sheba (now Apollos wife) back
to the wreckage site where he was originally found
by the Galactica twenty years ago. He shows her
that the wreckage contained the body of her father,
Commander Cain, a war hero the Galactica encountered and who then disappeared.
While the novelization of this episode insinuates
that the wreckage contained the body of demonlike creatures, the lore that has sprung up among
Battlestar Galactica fans is that in fact the wreckage
contained the body of Shebas father Commander
Caina position with much evidence and well
argued for by John Kenneth Muir (9092). (The
shows creator, Glen A. Larson, has discredited
these rumors in several interviews.) Sheba, angered
by this discovery, allows Iblis to control her, and
she narrowly avoids assassinating her husband
Apollo for lying to her about who was really in the
wreckage. Apollo is finally saved when Cain shows
up alive and well. By playing off of this and several
other bits of Battlestar Galactica folklore, the creators at Maximum Press attempted to show that
they were insiders who were also Battlestar
Galactica fans and would remain faithful.
But the changes that Maximum Press brought
to Battlestar Galactica wound up being too much to
bear. Rob Liefeld and the other artists and writers
began to play up the Egyptian angle (as evidenced

Battlestar Galactica in Books and Comics

by the pyramids on Kobol) and ignore the other

mythological ramifications of the series. They also
did away with the characterization of the beings
from the Ships of Light as merely highly advanced
and technologically superior. Instead they focused
on the supernatural elements, changed their name
to seraphs, and gave them an appearance that
had more in common with traditional Christian
angels (though still wingless) than the more Mormon appearance of the beings on the TV series.
The final disgrace occurred in the story line
entitled Journeys End where through a series of
badly handled and sloppily written time paradoxes
and reality shifts, the series was set back to ground
zero. The last issue ends with the Galactica in
essentially the same place it occupied just before
the first issue of The War of Eden, in essence
making the stories that occurred in all of the
comics (as well as in the TV series, since that timeline was also changed) obsolete and unnecessary. It
seems as if Rob Liefeld and the other artists at Maximum Press felt that it was time to reboot the series
and give it some new life (a much-hallowed tradition in the comics field ever since Crisis on Infinite
Earths allowed DC comics to rewrite all of their
characters). At that point, Maximum Press was
claimed by the comic book wars of the 1990sit
was itself an early byproduct of these same wars
and went bankrupt.
Chris Scalf, an artist who had done a series of
retro Battlestar Galactica comics for Maximum
Press that were set during the time of the original
series and kept the old look, acquired the rights to
create Battlestar Galactica comics and created an
independent publishing label called Realm Press.
Scalf s visual style was one of painted comics that
had a near-photo realism about them, and his writing style clearly imitated the series. He used the
comic book medium to its full extent in his new
Battlestar Galactica line, creating special effects
and scenery generally considered impossible on the
television screen. His story lines were set just after
the last episode of the original series (again, thankfully ignoring Battlestar Galactica 1980). The plots
were fairly conventional, with no new ground broken and with dialogue that could have easily been

in any of the episodes. While some of the trade

magazines criticized him for not trying to be fresh
and original, Scalf built a loyal following among
Battlestar Galactica fans because he managed to
capture the essence of the original TV series,
although he also managed to capture its flaws along
with its strengths.
Unfortunately, Scalf was unable to keep up
with his shipping deadlines; and after six issues, he
was forced to sell Realm Press to JMJ Media. After
assisting on the first issue of the new Realm Press
Battlestar Galactica series, Scalf left for other projects. This was the beginning of the end for Battlestar Galactica comics. The new JMJ Media
version of Realm Press contained stories that, while
they were decent journeymans work, were not up
to the level of Chris Scalf s work. One issue (Special Edition #1) contained a story line so similar to
Marvel Comics Battlestar Galactica #16 that JMJ
Media included a special thank you to Roger
Mackenzie and Walter Simonson (the writer and
artist from that early Marvel comic) as a way to
head off criticism and/or possible lawsuits.
JMJ Media also had a horrid reputation in the
shipping date department as they continually
missed deadlines by months and announced issue
after issue which never appeared. After three issues
of the regular ongoing series and five special edition one-shots,2 JMJ announced that it was
abandoning its Battlestar Galactica line due to low
sales. The press release failed to mention that the
low sales were due to the fact that fans could never
find the issues on the comic stands, because they
were shipped at odd and irregular intervals.
During this time, Richard Hatch, who played
Captain Apollo on the TV series, announced that
he was campaigning for a Battlestar Galactica
revival. To do this he would film a trailer that he
would shop around to various productions companies and also write a new series of Battlestar Galactica novels. To this date (24 February 2001) he has
published two of these novels (Armageddon and
Warhawk) and has announced a third one, which
will come out later in 2001 or in 2002.
Richard Hatch had previously written a story
arc for Maximum Press, which most fans believe to
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be the only decent storyline Maximum Press had

in its Battlestar Galactica line. However, Hatch
decided to ignore both Battlestar Galactica 1980
and the Maximum Press series and start fresh. He
set his novels, as Maximum Press did, twenty years
after the end of the series, but Hatch allows for little
change. Technology and styles have been updated,
but only slightly. However, like Rob Liefeld before
him, Hatch could not resist changing core concepts
of the series to fit his own worldview. The problems with Hatchs books are best summarized on
the proGlen A. Larson website: (http://members.
nbci.com/rhyder/BattlestarGalactica/ARHS/books.
html). Here are a few comments from that site:
A kind of white male Aryan power fantasy.
Pure Blooded Kobollians (those who arent pureblooded are supposed to have no soul.)
Only Pureblooded Kobollians are allowed into
Heaven. (Wait a second, since all humanity
evolved from Kobol, isnt everyone a pureblooded Kobollian?)
Apollo suddenly turns into the lost Jedi. (The only
sort of Psychic phenomenon in the series by a
human was when Adama was able to move a small
Eagle statuette across his desk. Now, in the book,
Apollo has psychic and telekinetic abilities.)
The Ships of Lights are now the 13th Tribe. (The
13th tribe was supposed to be the citizens of Earth.)

The criticisms given above are true. Hatch,

against all evidence from the TV series, gives his
character Apollo vast mental powers. This trait in
itself might not be too bad; but in the context
listed above, it becomes very similar to an Aryan
power fantasy. Only pure-blooded Kobollians are
able to develop their vast mental powers, and only
these pure-blooded Kobollians can enter whatever
afterlife there is. This scenario, of course, makes no
real sense, since all of humanity was supposed to
have descended from the inhabitants of Kobol.
This incongruity is never explained, but it becomes
a controlling motif, as the reader is constantly
reminded that only those of correct descent (like
Apollo) are capable of truly becoming like the
beings in the Ships of Light.

162

Thus the undermining of the LDS elements

begins. No longer is it As we are now, you may
become. Instead it is changed to as we are now,
only those of the correct bloodlines may become.
Unlike LDS theology, where one not of the bloodlines of Abraham can be adopted into Abrahams
seed and thus receive all of the promised blessings,
in Hatchs version of the Battlestar Galactica universe, only literal and pure descendants can obtain
salvation. Kobol (Kolob) suffers a similar fate. Suddenly, Kobol is no longer the birthplace of humans.
A planet called Parnassus becomes the true font of
humanity, with Kolob becoming only an ancient
stopping point on the way to the twelve colonies
that were introduced to us (and destroyed) in the
first episode of Battlestar Galactica.
While Richard Hatch is the most outspoken
advocate of a Battlestar Galactica revival, there is
no guarantee that his idea of the Battlestar Galactica
universe will become the official one. Glen A.
Larson has announced plans for a new version of
the show, likely to be accompanied by a new series
of books coauthored by him. The future of Battlestar Galactica is uncertain; but perhaps if Larson
is again at the helm, the Mormon elements that create its philosophical underpinnings (and its views
on the nature of the universe) will survive, rather
than be usurped as Richard Hatch and others have
already done.
Ivan A. Wolfe is a graduate student at BYU, studying
English. He chaired BYUs science fiction/fantasy symposium, Life, the Universe, and Everything, in 2001
and has been on its committee since 1997.

NOTES
1. I am not sure to whom he is referring. My research
has yet to uncover any similar statements by any critic. If
any reader knows whom he is talking about, I would
appreciate the help.
2. An industry term for comics that have only one
issuei.e., no follow-ups.

Battlestar Galactica in Books and Comics

WORKS CITED
Anchors, William E., Jr. ed. Galactic Sci-Fi Series Revisited.
Dunlap, TN: Alpha Control, 1995.
Card, Orson Scott. A Storyteller in Zion. Salt Lake City:
Bookcraft, 2000.
Hatch, Richard, and Christopher Golden. Battlestar
Galactica: Armageddon. New York: Pocket Books,
1997.
Hatch, Richard, and Christopher Golden. Battlestar
Galactica: Warhawk. New York: Pocket Books, 1998.
Larson, Glen A., and Robert Thurston. Battlestar Galactica. New York: Berkley, 1978.
Larson, Glen A., and Robert Thurston. Battlestar Galactica 2: The Cylon Death Machine. New York: Berkley,
1979.
Muir, John Kenneth. An Analytical Guide to Televisions
Battlestar Galactica. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co.,
1999.

163

Socrates Stretched on Ions Racke

Harlow Sderborg Clark

It is a little-known fact of literary history that

after Charles Dickens published Sketches by Boz he
opened a chicken restaurant with the proceeds from
the book. He was a fine cook, especially of gizzards,
and even made up an advertising jingle, which went
like this:
Were off to taste the gizzards,
The wonderful gizzards of Boz.
We hear he is a wiz with a giz,
If ever a giz there was.
If ever, oh ever, a gizzard there was,
The wonderful Boz can cook it because,
Because, because, because, because, because,
Because of the wiz with a giz he is.
Da da da da da da DA da

Now I can just hear someone out there saying, We

came to an academic conference for stand-up comedy? To which I would reply, Isnt it odd that we
love Shaxbeard and Groucho for their outrageous
puns, and yet papers about comedy, or Shaxbeard
or Groucho, are rarely very funny. Of course you
might hear that and say, But an academic conference is not a comedy club, or you might
notice that in making my defense Im using a timehonored rhetorical strategy of naming someone the
group Im addressing would consider an authority
and showing that that person indulges in precisely
what I am defending.
Thus, early in his Defense of Poesie, Sir Phillip
Sydney says that Plato was himself a poet and storyteller: And truely euen Plato who so euer well
considereth, shall finde that in the body of his worke
though the inside & strength were Philosophie, the

skin as it were and beautie, depended most of Poetrie.

For all stands vpon Dialogues, wherein hee faines
many honest Burgesses of Athens speak of such
matters, that if they had bene set on the Racke,
they would neuer haue confessed them (Sydney,
Facsimile, lls. 97105).
That is, elegantly put, Plato is a poet because
he creates words for people that they would never
speak if they werent characters in a dialogue. By
the time Socrates gets through with Ion, for example,
he has the poor guy admitting that he is absolutely
worthless as a member of society, a man with no
practicable skillsa man unable to practice his
skills unless the gods inspire him, a man who can
quote Homers descriptions of chariot races but has
no way of knowing whether the descriptions are
accurate because he knows only the art of the rhapsode, not of the charioteer.
But what would Ion say if he were a real person, not a foil in a dialogue (or a Sunstone) designed
to show Platos simultaneous admiration for poets
as inspired and sense of them as undependable
members of society because they can produce only
when the gods say so?1 He might say, Well,
Socrates, of course Im qualified to judge Homers
descriptions of chariot racing. Have I never seen a
chariot race? Have I never talked to a charioteer?
Would Homers songs have been sung all these
years if his audience, including charioteers, didnt
find his report accurate enough?
This is worth contemplating because Platos
treatment of Ion has earned him the scorn of thousands of poets. While I was meditating on this
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AML Annual 2002

insight, the eyes of my understanding were opened

and methought I saw a large white room with a
stained-glass window representing the river of endless life. Great multitudes were entering the room
through a veil, and in two chairs sat two ancient
men in deep discussion. I leaned forward, straining
to hear what they were saying:
* * *
Socrates: How is it done, Ion? How is it just
that the actions of one can be surrogate for the
actions of another? And tell me more why you
think literature and art are vicarious work of the
same kind the folk in this room perform.
Ion: Good Socrates, do not our bodies teach us?
Socrates: And how, my dear Ion?
Ion: What do we sit in?
Socrates: Chairs, of course.
Ion: And are our chairs the same?
Socrates: The style is the same, but yours is
more of a couch and mine has a high back and
open arm rests.
Ion: And are there other chairs in this room?
Socrates: There are.
Ion: And are they all the same?
Socrates: They are not.
Ion: What makes them all chairs?
Socrates: But you dont believe in the ideal
realm, Ion.
Ion: The ideal realm sits in the chair, Plato, as
witnessed by the names we give the parts of a
chairback, seat, legs, arms. We name the chair
after our bodies because the chair is a surrogate for
our bodies. A chair is a chair because of how well it
conforms to our bodies, not to some invisible realm.
Socrates: But are we talking here, good man, of
the art of making chairs or the art of making songs?
Ion: We are talking of vicarious service. Certain things must be done for each person, and certain things cannot be done by every person. Not
every person can emulate Jesusand Socrates
because not every person has heard of Jesus, or
Socrates.
Socrates: Or the Beatles.
Ion: Precisely, but baptism requires a body and
a body of knowledge; and if you leave your body
166

without having the knowledge to ask for baptism,

how can you get it? It must be done by someone in
the flesh, who offers us the gift of his body for an
hour or two.
Socrates: Except when they fall asleep. I hear
that all vicarious workers who die must give all
they worked for an account of what happened
while they slept through the ceremony.
Ion: A rite of passage.
Socrates: But surely you are not saying that the
value of literature is that it channels our words
since we can no longer write them down?
Ion: No, but that balding fellow over there is
sure trying to get them down. I am saying that
poetry and art perform the same function for us as
does a chair, as do the people who sit in them and
sleep during the film: Literature does for us what
we cannot do for ourselves.
Socrates: How?
Ion: Not many of us have had our parents
throw Thanksgiving dinner at each other, or seen
our mother beaten, had a brother executed for
murder, or another brother murdered, though he
lived for several months afterward. Not many of us
have had people tell us we should have been killed
with our brother. Mikal Gilmore wrote Shot in the
Heart to save his life. He begins with a dream of his
brother Gary coming back and handing him a
gunwith the promise of reunion. He sticks it in
his mouth and pulls the trigger. His teeth and
mouth dissolve into nothing. Gary has lied. There
is no one waiting for him.
Socrates: It is a shattering bookbut could not
someone read such a record of disaster and be overwhelmed with sorrow, or even want to live the life
of Gilmore? For all the horror of his family life,
Gilmore is nostalgic for the early family life he
missed.
Ion: We all want to know how the world
worked before us.
Socrates: Why would I want to fill my mind
with tragedy? Why would I want to yearn, with Gilmore, for the tragic family life I missed much of?
Ion: Why would you not want to mourn with
Gilmore that all he can yearn for in the pre-Mikal
existence is a violent family?

Socrates Stretched on Ions Racke

Socrates: But could not some readers be misled

by the nostalgia?
Ion: Only if they ignore the tragedy.
Socrates: But could they not also be shocked,
stunned, shaken by the unrelieved misery, by Mikals
final, terrible dream?
Ion: We must contemplate the depths of sorrow people can sink in, and the depths of evil they
can sink to, or the depth of eternity will be like an
abyss. Gilmore takes us into the tragedy but brings
us back safely, even with that final, terrible dream.
Socrates: But tell me, Ion, do people sitting on
the edge of a cliff contemplating the depths never
become dizzy and fall off the cliff?
Ion: Indeed they do, but a story is not a cliff,
and a story can only harm usor help usif we
let it. If we interpret it to harm or help us.
Socrates: Interpret the story to harm or help us?
Ion: Indeed. Tell me, Socrates, does the story
interpret itself or do we interpret it?
Socrates: Surely the teller of a story can desire a
certain reaction from us, and guide our response.
Ion: Indeed. But the story of Troys women.
Does Homer tell it the same way as Euripides or as
Virgil? Or the story of Odysseus and Cyclops
does Euripides tell it the same as Homer?
Socrates: No. Each tells the story to suit his
needs and audience.
Ion: Each interprets the story differently, then?
Socrates: Yes.
Ion: But it is the same story?
Socrates: Yes.
Ion: Then the story surely does not carry its
own interpretation. Else how could these three
interpret the same story so differently? Each reader
also interprets.
Socrates: But surely people can influence you
without your being aware of it.
Ion: Certainly. Thats why elementary school
teachers always have a unit on propaganda
devicesat least they did when that fellow was in
school.
Socrates: Do you think he enjoys hearing us talk?
Ion: Hes scribbling furiously.
Socrates: I hear hes a reporter part timeno
doubt garbling us.

Ion: Indeed. And one of his recent articles has

a quotation about Edwin Walker, head bookmobile librarian for Utah County these twenty-four
years. A friend says, I think he thinks reading is an
artthat needs to be practiced (Clark). As any art
must be practiced.
Socrates: But what of those who practice poorly,
putting their souls at risk? Even practiced racers sometimes lose control and veer into the wall and die.
Ion: But what would be the equivalent of a
reader crashing into a moral wall? A book, story, song,
painting only has the interpretation you choose to
allow it.
Socrates: But storytellers must be examples of
rectitude.
Ion: But anyone can desecrate. Anyone can take
a storyeven scriptureand use it to justify evil.
Imagine a thriller about a man who beheads drunken
men passed out in their own vomit in the street.
He has used Nephis horrifying story to justify ridding the world of winebibbers. We choose how to
receive and give out again.
Socrates: So, words dont kill peoples souls.
People kill peoples souls?
Ion: Bad analogy, Socrates. Weapons are designed
to kill or give one the capacity to kill. Words were
not designed for that purpose. Nor was art.
Socrates: But both can do great harm.
Ion: Because we need not use an idea, weapon,
object, or name for the purpose it was originally
made for. Assuredly Art is made for a purpose: To
bear witness, and the Word is not the word of
death. We must trust the stories we tell and teach
our audiences to hear them well.
Socrates: But how do we keep them from children and weak-minded individuals?
Ion: Anyone who does not believe as I do is
weak-minded, of course. Indeed, Socrates, that was
the charge against youleading astray the youth
of Athens, making the weaker argument appear to
be the stronger. But for protecting the weak-minded
and children, has not the Lord said both that the
Comforter shall reveal all things and that if it be
not right the Lord will send a stupor of thought?
Socrates: Like that balding fellow over there.
I often get a stupor reading his work. He loves a
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good pun more than anything and will sacrifice

much good sense for the sound of words cavorting.
Ion: Precisely. His style keeps out those who
might find his words too challenging. Those who
understand forgive his eccentricities for his minor
wisdom.
Socrates: But if a style can keep out, can it not
drag someone in?
Ion: Certainly. Especially if the person wants to
be dragged in. But consider your metaphor. Is a
storyteller like Achilles dragging Hector around
the walls of Troy? Is not a storyteller rather like a
man inviting us over to the fire to pause from our
work? Does not Sir Phillip Sidney say: But hee
commeth to you with words set in delightfull proportion, either accompanied with, or prepared for
the well enchanting skill of Musicke, and with a
tale forsooth he commeth vnto you, with a tale,
which holdeth children from play, and olde men
from the Chimney corner; and pretending no
more, doth intend the winning of the minde from
wickednes to vertue (lls. 82633).
Socrates: But how much literature and art
inviteth us to evil? Does not Euripides chastise
Homer implicitly for making Odysseus savagery
noble?
Ion: Indeed. But does not Homer allow his readers to recognize how Odysseus violates hospitality
by going into Cyclopss house and slaughtering his
sheep? The less the author tells us how to read, the
more we can read as we choose. We may simply
find licentious a passage the artist asks us to consider without license. Take a passage more recent
than Homer, from I Cannot Tell a Life by Florence
Child Brown. Its a bit seamy, to borrow a word
from the back cover, but rhetorically its quite remarkable, that is, worth remarking on. Shes describing a
visit to California where her son Richard offered
a tour of his new office building. Mary Pat, Richards
wife, tries to dissuade Florence:
When we got to his office, Mary Pat tried
again to stop me from going in. I wish I hadnt
gone in, because I dont think I ever was so hurt
and disgusted. On the inside door, Richard
had a picture, almost life-sized, of a naked
woman with her legs wide open so you could
168

see everything. That was bad enough, but he

had put a sign on it and the sign said, My
Mother. I literally got sick to my stomach and
dashed out of his office to the restroom. (318)

The obvious response to this situation is to say,

What kind of a son would dishonor his mother in
this way, let alone invite her into his office to see
the dishonor? But Brown doesnt say that. She
doesnt comment on it at all, except to tell us how
she reacted physically, and she describes her emotional reaction in just three words, hurt and disgusted. She has two more paragraphs about Richard
going to a porn bookstore and lighting up a joint
but reports them just as straightforwardly. The
phrase, a catalog from which sick people could
order anything that was unthinkable and downright filthy (319), is her only comment. Note that
she doesnt say, sick people like my son. Because
she doesnt say it she allows us to say it if we want,
just as she allows us to wonder what kind of a son
would think of his mother pornographically, if
we want to wonder about that. But because she
doesnt comment, she also invites us to follow her
example and show compassion for her son, to recognize his actions, then move on with the story.
Even the several passages where she describes
various people trying to kill her, including her husband swinging a 2x4 at her headOh, I shouldnt
have said that. He just wrote in the margin, To
play the low notes.
Socrates: Answering the question, Whats a 2x4?
Ion: Maybe he does have more sense for puns
than anything else at times. Well, I asked for him.
Anyway, theres a lot of casual violence in the book
mirrors the violence of the society, resonates well
with Shot in the Heart, though none of the Brown
children is a murderer, though some are very, very
upset at their mother for telling too much. But
they dont understand how other people will read
her account.
As I started to say before he fiddled in the margin, even her accounts of violence are more reportorial than emotional. She tells us what happened
but doesnt tell us how she wants us to think about
it. She rarely even tells us what she thought or thinks
about the events shes recounting. Her interest is in

Socrates Stretched on Ions Racke

telling honestly the life she cannot tell. And if she

does not spare her childrens sins, she does not
spare her own, even when she might look heartless,
as when she tells the joy she felt on hearing that her
ex-husband had died (499).
She ends the book with a miracle. She had
wanted a fitting ending, and a miracle happened in
her family. The past just seemed to melt away,
she says (515). After all the pain, beatings, and
belittling inflicted by her husband, after the slights
and insults from her children, a miracle affirms her
love for her family and the past melts away. The
book should be met with humility rather than
threats to sue.
Socrates: But how does her past melting away
have to do with how we will read the book?
Ion: Something Eugene England taught. Writing about Maurine Whipples The Giant Joshua he
said: We can even forgive Abijahs incredible cruelty in writing Clory from the mission field in
England that the deaths of their three children is
Gods punishment on her. We can because he later
admits his wrong and especially because Clory forgives him. One of the dynamics of dramatic fiction
is that characters accrue their virtues and their
credibility in part from the assessments of them by
others we trust (pt. 3).
Socrates: You mean we can forgive Florence
Browns children because she loves them and we
trust her?
Ion: Yes. Their past melts away too, and what
we are left with at the end is her statement of how
much she loves her family.
Socrates: And our time here has melted away
as well.
Ion: Shall we meet again at Westminster?
Socrates: Indeed. I always like to see how my
words are garbled.
Ion: Yes, your pupil did quite a job on our first
conversation.
Socrates: Perhaps we could stop off and say Hi
to Kolob on our way.
Ion: A quibble, Socrates! You made a quibble.
Socrates: It should please him.
* * *

Well, at this point the vision faded from my

sight. I can only hope they made it to Westminster
and I didnt garble them too badly, although, after
I recounted this vision, Dennis Clark asked me
why Socrates should not like puns. A pun is the
most abstract form of humor. Two words knocking
against each other. Why would the philosopher of
abstraction not like it? I can only assume Socrates
had spent the morning with Dr. Johnson, since his
comment about sacrific[ing] much good sense for
the sound of words cavorting echoes echoes the good
lexicographers famous comment about the Metaphysical poets in The Life of Cowley: The most heterogeneous of ideas are yoked by violence together;
nature and art are ransacked for illustrations, comparisons and allusions; their learning instructs and
their subtilty surprises; but the reader commonly
thinks his improvement dearly bought, and though
he sometimes admires is seldom pleased (470).
Of course, it is also possible that, being on Ions
Racke, Socrates was saying things he would neuer
haue confessed if he had been a true Burgess in
the temple rather than a character in a Dialogue.
Harlow Sderborg Clark, a freelance scholar, also
writes for a high-tech company.

NOTE
1. Oddly enough, religious people do not seem to be
offended by Plato; but if you take his basic argument, it
works as well for excluding religious people from political
life as poets. Just take the famous passage about the poets
inspiration and substitute prophet for poet : For the
[prophet] is a light and winged and holy thing, and there
is no invention in him until he has been inspired and is
out of his senses, and the mind is no longer in him: when
he has not attained to this state, he is powerless and is
unable to utter his oracles (1415).

WORKS CITED
Brown, Florence Child. I Cannot Tell a Life. Springville,
UT: Salt Press, 1999.
Clark, Harlow. Lindon City Council Renews Contract
with Bookmobile. Pleasant Grove Review, Lindon
Edition. February 21, 2001. 1, 12.
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AML Annual 2002

England, Eugene. Whipples The Giant Joshua: A Literary History of Mormonisms Best Historical
Fiction. AML-List. (CRITICAL MATTERS)
ENGLAND, Whipples The Giant Joshua. 4 pts.
20 Mar. 1997, pt. 3.
Gilmore, Mikal. Shot in the Heart. New York: Doubleday, 1994.
Johnson, Samuel. Excerpt from The Life of Cowley. Rasselas, Poems and Selected Prose. Ed. Bertrand H.
Bronson. New York: 46972.
Plato. Ion. Critical Theory since Plato. Ed. Hazard
Adams. New York: Harcourt, Brace Jovanovich,
1971. 1219.
Sydney, Sir Phillip. Defense of Poesie. Facsimile of 1595
edition. http://www.library.utoronto.ca/utel/rp/
criticism/defen_il.html

170

Sunstone Magazine and

Twenty Years of Contemporary Mormon Poetry
Susan Elizabeth Howe

Among the contributions Sunstone has made to

the development and preservation of Mormon
intellectual life over the past twenty years is the
publication of a significant body of poetry. Volumes 120 contain more than 370 poems written
by more than 160 poets, including e.e. cummings,
William Stafford, and Eugene McCarthy.
The poems demonstrate great variety. In
length they vary from short imagist poems, lyrics,
and elegies, to long reminiscences, retellings of myth,
and narrative poems. Most are in open forms, but
the formal poems include limericks, sonnets, a villanelle, ballads, spirituals, and one long poem in
Spenserian stanzas. In voice they range from personal expressions to prayers, philosophical and religious musings, detached observations, and dramatic
monologues. They are set in the present, in the
past, in small Utah towns, in large cities, in suburban neighborhoods, and in locations throughout
the world including a Mayan ruin in Mexico, a ski
resort in Switzerland, and two islands in Indonesia.
The longer I have studied this group of poems,
the larger its significance seems to grow. The
poems should be considered a major collection of
work that can be usefully examined from a number
of perspectives. For example, who are the poets and
what are their styles? Is there a pattern to their
work? What tensions do these poems contain?
What can they tell us about the community in
which they were written? How do these poems fit
into the larger enterprise of contemporary American poetry? Are there any forms or subjects that
seem to arise specifically from Mormon culture?

Are any of the poems in conversation with each

other in a sort of cultural dialogue? How do the
poems change across the twenty years?
All of these questions would result in interesting and useful analyses. But for this brief essay,
I would like to explain how I think these poems
work in the creation and regeneration of the Mormon community, and, by extension, to express the
importance of poetry (and, in fact, all the arts) in
preserving and extending religious communities.
People who call themselves Mormon claim some
connection to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints. The founding myth1 of the Church is
the story of Joseph Smithhis claim to have
received a visitation from God the Father and Jesus
Christ, who instructed him to restore the lost
truths of the gospel and the priesthood to the
earth. Our founding myth also includes the stories
of the early Saintstheir persecution, their journeys from New York to Ohio to Missouri to Illinois, and finally, after the martyrdom of Joseph
and Hyrum, to Utah, and their establishment of
communities all over the Mountain West.
That connection with both the founding story
of the Church and its early history must be kept
alive in generation after generation because it is the
center that holds the community together. And in
order for that story to be kept alive, it must be presented in language and perspectives that create in
the audience an emotional identification with the
events and people of the story.
As I have thought about what I know of the
process of revelation, it seems to me to include
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imagination. The intellect must be engaged to

understand the possibilities of the story, but the
story will not be vivid unless it is told in a way that
creates an emotional response in the hearer, so that,
in ones own body, one experiences emotion similar to the emotion of the person who went through
the original story. I think that a confirmation of
the Spirit is strongest and most memorable when
both the intellect and the emotions are engaged in
an attempt to understand the reality and truth of
the story.
That is where imagination comes in, because
emotional identification is the result of being able
to perceive the story as real and presentin other
words, to imagine the story vividly. Sensory imagery
is one aspect of poetry that invokes the imagination. Another is language, and a third is tone. As
one is presented with a poem that retells an important cultural story, the imagery can make the
reader feel present in the world of the story; language that is different from or that recasts the traditional language of that story can make the reader
pay more attention to it, and a tone that corresponds to the readers own outlook allows the
reader to identify with the story more emphatically. Thus, the imagination of poets, as they create
such poems, can contribute to the communitys
wholeness, its commitment to and belief in its
most important stories.
There are many poems in these twenty years of
Sunstone issues that create the effects Ive been discussing. A fine paper could be written examining
just the poems about Joseph Smith.2 One of these
poems is The Light Come Down by Bruce Jorgensen (4:3/16). (See Appendix.) Jorgensen uses
the language of a spiritual and the perspective of a
country boy (which he once was) to tell the story of
Joseph Smiths first vision. By calling Joseph a
dusty country boy, Jorgensen makes him less austere and forbidding than his prophetic calling
might make him seem to us. The vividness of the
imageryJoseph [k]nocked out flat and speechless, the light that slapped that April mud,
puts readers in the grove with Joseph and enables
us to feel both the power of the darkness that
knocked Joseph down and the power of the light
172

that delivered him. Casting Joseph as a simple

country lad and putting us in the scene with him
enable us to identify with Joseph; he was young,
[m]ixed up, and in need of help, so he took
[God] at [his] word / and asked. The poem is
encouraging to us ordinary folk because it implies
that other country boys, and, by extension, we,
too, might approach God when we are mixed up,
and that He might need our help as well:
So Lord look down on country boys
That stink and puzzle and pray,
And strike the light to blind their sight
And make their night your day.
O let the light come down,
Yes, bring the light on down.

Karl C. Sandbergs fine Requiem for a Town,

excerpts of which were published in Sunstone in
1978 (3:3/1823) is another poem that makes
alive and vivid the stories of Mormon history. This
long poem is based on Sandbergs extensive research
about the history of the town of Orderville in
southern Utah, the community that tried to live
the United Order and eventually was left desolate
when the order was dissolved. It makes vivid the
stories of the people in that area and especially
their response to Brigham Young. Sandberg turns
Brighams own words into poetry, helping readers
to know him better. For example, in the poem
Brigham says,
The first thing I want to tell this congregation
is to move that privy about fifty yards
closer to this meeting house. If someone
got taken short hed never make it.

And then Sandberg tells us,

These were words Wilda Andersen retained for
over sixty years
out of the two hour sermon.

Later in the poem, Brigham says,

And now, ye elders of Israel,
I want you to learn the mysteries of the Kingdom:
learn how to yoke together two oxen,
how to manage them across the plains,
how to get timber from the canyons,
how to make brick and how to hew stones,

Sunstone Magazine and Contemporary Mormon Poetry

and bring them into shape and position

to please the eye
and bring comfort and happiness to the Saints.
These are some of the mysteries of the Kingdom.
Learn how to reconcile the people to one another.
Learn how to mind your own business,
this incorporates the whole duty of man.

Sandberg sets these passages in both quotation

marks and italics, apparently to indicate that they
are the real speech of Brigham Young as it has been
remembered by the southern Utah Saints. The passages make Brigham both humane and human,
suggesting his personality as a practical, hardworking prophet with a sense of humor. In this way, the
poem brings Brigham into the readers present, the
readers own time. He becomes not only a historical prophet but a man for whom the reader can feel
affection and regard.
There are many other poems that re-imagine
incidents of Mormon history. Mignonette Hargans Crossing the Sweetwater (11:5/37) is a ballad in the voice of a child who has survived a
terrible wagon trek to Salt Lake City. She addresses
Brigham Young, and gradually tells what has happened on their journey:
I lost fingers to the bite of frost
Baby sisters to the flu,
I fought my tears along the trail,
Now I see the tears in you.
Winter caught us early,
Taught us Zions price.
By crossing the Sweetwater
We lost our mothers life.

Two days before the company reached the valley,

the childs mother died, and they have brought her
in the wagon to be buried with the saints. The
poem is particularly touching because this is a stoic
child; she says:
O Brigham, are you crying?
Do your tears come just for me?
Our journeys doneIm the pioneer
You meant for me to be.
Im really not too little
For this heavy load you see
Cause crossing the Sweetwater
Took the little outa me.

This poem takes the sacrifices of the pioneers,

which become all too abstract and distant in our
wealthy, busy lives, and embodies those sacrifices
in a child who tells her own heartbreaking story.
We recognize her heroism in the way she expresses
her commitment to continue rather than to give
up. Like the poems discussed above, this one teaches
us to value and learn from our collective Mormon
past, and makes that past present in our lives in a
way that we can perceive and internalize it.
In the same way that poems can make the past
vivid and present, they can create meaningful experiences of worship. A poem can be a prayer, and
many of the poems of the past twenty years of Sunstone are just that. In fact, editor Elbert Peck
requested that readers submit psalms for publication, and a psalm began appearing in each issue
beginning with Volume 13, February 1989; they
continued regularly for the next two volumes and
occasionally after that. Several of the poems appearing in issues before 1989 are also religious poems.
The traditional definition of a psalm is a song
of praise, usually written to be sung to an accompaniment. But in the pages of Sunstone, the definition of a psalm has been left up to the poets. Some
of these poems are prayers of thanksgiving, some
are supplications, some are songs of praise. These
psalms constitute an important part of the Sunstone poetry legacy, and perhaps their variety of
form and content even extends their importance.
Different poems will appeal to different readers
and make us aware of the variety of ways of
addressing God. I would like to use three of the
psalms to illustrate.
Steven C. Walkers The Lord Is Our Light
(14:6/8) is one of the shorter psalms:
The Lord glories over Mount Timpanogos in
the dawn;
the Lord glistens toward Utah Lake
through the dew of the morning.
East toward the peaks, God gleams.
West into the valley, the Lord God glows.
The Lord lights up Utah Valley
with the sunset
illuminating every serviceberry bush
in ground burned holy ground,
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haloing quaking aspen,

making irrigation ditches rainbow.
In darkest night
the good Lord shines His stars
over American Fork Canyon.
In star and dusk and dawn
the gracious Lord shines
in the light of this valley.

This poem uses the metaphor of light to represent

God, a metaphor repeated throughout our scriptures and our hymns. But by describing the light
that is actually present in Utah Valley and in the
specific landmarks of Utah Valley, Walker makes
Gods presence fill the valley like the light of the
sun, moon, and stars. The poem brings the Lord
close to us, as close as light, and celebrates that
connection.
Stanley B. Kimballs poem De Profundis: Reflections on Psalm 130 (13:1/5) is very different. (See
Appendix.) Like the biblical psalm it invokes, it is
a poem of self-examination and repentance. The early
lines express the problems of living a worthy life:
Fulfillment here, exaltation there, even Heaven
and Hell depend on the comprehension of
Thy will.
Why then does every known recorded version
of Thy mind contain internal contradictions, obscurities?
Why is the faulty human hand everywhere evident, hindering Thy children in gaining a
perfect understanding of Thy will?

Then Kimball questions his own understanding of

God and asks about his life:
Did I serve an institution more than Thee?
Did I try too hard to prove all things, to hold
that which was good?

The poem ends with a prayer of supplication and

what seems like a life-altering final illumination:
Guide my feet, O God! Bring me back, Father,
grant me time
that I may live more fully than I have, to
Thy greater glory,
that I may become a better, refined, repentant version of my old self,
174

that I may lose the pride of learning, the

vanity of mind service.
I do not require proof. I can live by faith
unobscured faith.
Is the Great Truth simply to love and serve
Thee and humanity?

This is a moving and convincing poem for many of

us because we have asked the same questions and
identify with Kimballs struggle. And because of
that identification with the poet, the reader shares
his humble prayer and the final insight that seems
to be the answer to that prayer.
Joanna Brookss psalm Via Practica (19:4/19)
(see Appendix) is an important contrast to the
other two because it is a struggle to find God in the
complexity, violence, and chaos of contemporary
life. (Brooks is about two generations younger than
Kimball and one generation younger than Walker.)
The language of the poem is significant; the poem
uses and values biblical language as representing
what is sacred but also tries to find how what is
sacred can be represented in the difficult and harmful experiences of contemporary life. How long,
O God, have I prayed to you in secret, the poem
begins, using traditional biblical language to
address Deity. But even Brookss struggle to know
God leads her outside traditional religious bounds:
I pray, digging, begging that you are secretly
kind, secretly mother, secretly father. I try to
name my hungerworking until the words are
wrung out, fervent place holders, the very shape
of hope.

Then Brooks seems to search for a metaphor for

what she hopes her prayer will do; it is an ache
that answers itself, a room she has built for God
to walk out ofa tomb to leave behind, and
finally a scarboth the shape of hurt and the
shape of healing. It is this metaphor of a scar that
can represent all the pain and damage of contemporary life, because Gods scars are both the braille
of this / worlds hurt and the signs of its sure / resurrection. Then Brooks offers a long list of the
worlds injuries that need to be healed, including
the learned wince of children raised amidst violence, backs stooped by the short handled hoe,

Sunstone Magazine and Contemporary Mormon Poetry

and fifty burnt-out churches, images that suggest

Brookss sorrow and compassion for the conditions
of life experienced by so many. But the last image
in the list is the rent veil, suggesting the resurrection and reappearance of Christ, whom she then
sees in all people, including the black man / downtown who calls himself Jesus, the / Salvadorean
seamstress on the picket line. Then she prays,
When we meet on the street, you who see in /
secret touch my lips, my hair, my scarred heart / for
all to see. She ends the poem with another biblical
phrase: I will not be ashamed of my God, for my
God is / not ashamed of me. The spiritual connection Brooks makes with God is strong and
convincing, especially because she asks to be
touched. This is a fine poem that demonstrates
how even the most difficult problems of contemporary life are not beyond the reach and notice of
God, and how genuine prayer and communion
can occur within the context of those problems
and help to heal the heart that suffers from them.
These three psalms demonstrate that a poem
can be a prayer, and that, when the poets who write
them are as skilled as Joanna Brooks, Stanley B.
Kimball, and Steven C. Walker, the reverence and
love of God expressed in the poem-prayer can be
communicated to readers through the language of
the poem.
Vivid imagery (like Brookss request that God
touch her lips, hair, and scarred heart or Walkers
light glistening throughout Utah Valley), expressions that make the act of prayer new and fresh
(like Kimballs revision of 1 Corinthians 13 in the
line I ask, seek, knock, and try to walk uprightly,
but I am no longer a child and often see through a
glass darkly), and the original tone or perspective
(like those of each of these psalms) engage the
reader in the poems sacred act. All of the above
psalms are expressions of worship that create and
bind our Mormon community as we share them.
The third way in which poems can assist in the
creation and regeneration of community is to
embody the values of the community. One of our
highest values is the love of family members for each
other, and the Sunstone poetry collection is rich with
poems that make vivid and real parents concern

for their children and the love of husbands and

wives for each other.
The best of these poems include Julia E. Barretts Water Lily Child (11:4/12), John W.
Schoutens Early Morning in Mapleton, Utah
(11:5/29), and David Paxmans Passage (15:3/57).
(See Appendix.) I would like to comment on an
untitled love poem by Colin Douglas (8:6/22)
about his wife. The poem uses the cadences and
some of the language of Proverbs 31, the wellknown passage about the virtuous woman, but
creates a poem that is contemporary in its observations and lyrical and lovely in the similes and other
figurative language it uses to describe this beloved
woman. I quote the entire poem:
A daughter of Sarah is my beloved,
A priestess in Abrahams house.
Her knee is bent to the Lord;
She dwells within the circle of his law.
For virtue she is clean as the rain,
As the streams that descend the high slopes.
Her smile is as sunlight on meadows,
Her speech a sparrows flight for gentleness.
Her counsel is heard in the congregation;
To the ears of the wise she speaks wisdom.
She gives bread to those who have not asked;
The afflicted receive comfort at her hand.
Sons and daughters she has given me,
Who bring honor and praise to my name.
Her love she has not withheld from me;
She has given me all delights.
Our covenant will stand forever;
Beyond death I shall know her embrace.
Though the earth melt at His coming,
I shall never be parted from her.

The poem uses language that expresses particular

Mormon beliefs to give value to this woman. It
first announces her as belonging to the royal lineage of Abraham and Sarah, a priestess in fact. She
is prayerful and righteous, as the lines Her knee is
bent to the Lord; / She dwells within the circle of
his law tell us. Note the power of the phrase, Her
counsel is heard in the congregation, when compared with the synonymous phrase, she speaks to
the ward. A congregation seems a much loftier
gathering to speak to than a ward, and that the
congregation hears her counsel implies that she
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AML Annual 2002

is wise and respected. The language itself increases

her stature. The end of the poem is also of particular meaning to Mormon readers, because it
affirms the eternal nature of the love between this
woman and man, and that they have made a
covenant in the temple that will enable them to be
together forever, Though the earth melt at
[Christs] coming.
The last poem I would like to use to show how
poetry can embody the values of the religious community is an astonishing creation by Steven Epperson, The Veil (14:1/5). (See Appendix.) It is about
garments, which are referred to throughout the
poem as a veil. The language of this poem creates
understanding and insight into the potential eternal significance of garments in a way I had never
considered. So, in fact, at least for me, this poem
did not just embody values; it created new religious
understanding, a deeper comprehension of a religious symbol I wear every day.
The language of the first lines makes garments
beautiful in a way I generally dont consider them
to be. They are described as a thinning cloud, from
which, because they are worn, the Holy marks of
creation and redemption are being [s]heared away.
In a similar way, the language Epperson uses to
describe the marks on the garment express new
knowledge in the very words he chooses: the marks
are cardinal points and lines, celestial lights,
and the sacred arithmetic of bearings. The poem
then says the garment was [h]and-stitched by
God for Adam and Eve, not only to cover them
but also to bring them home. In the poem the
garment is a representation of the eternal that is
joined to the mortal as we wear it.
When the garment is received it is whole, white
without blemish, / An unmarked page waiting for
the imprint of a tale. But the years of wearing
create in the garment, [a] chronicle in stains and
stitches, a joining of human mortal experience to
Gods eternal purposes. The second half of the
poem, in fact, continues to describe how, even as
our mortal activities age the garment, they can take
on eternal meaning, so that when the garment has
to be discarded, it has become holey, wholly,
holy, in all three meanings of that homonym. The
176

poem closes with the hope that our shed garments

might renew both ourselves and the earth:
We dare even dream
To take the worn and hallowed threads
Of our many veils
And stitch a mantle
For the naked shoulders of our mother earth
And with her ascend
The ladder of the firmaments.

This poem is powerful because it is about a

sacred subject, because the language of the poem
both renews the subject and treats it with reverence, and because the images in the poem create
an imaginative knowledge the reader can share, a
knowledge that becomes spiritual as it conveys
a spiritual understanding about a religious symbol.
Steven Eppersons The Veil has my vote for the
most important poem of the entire twenty-year
span of Sunstone poetry.
I hope these examples of poems that recreate
Mormon religious history, that are actual prayers,
and that embody Mormon values illustrate the ways
in which poetry can contribute to the regeneration
and cohesion of our community. If I am right, and
you as a reader consider yourself a Mormon, then
you should have been moved in some way to a
greater understanding of your Mormon heritage or
a greater commitment to your faith as you have
read the poems Ive discussed in this paper.
This is not the only way to consider the poems
of Sunstone for the past twenty years, but it is a first
way. We owe the poetry editors who have selected
the poems and the editors who have been committed to the publication of poetry throughout Sunstones history an expression of thanks for what
they have contributed to Mormon literature, and
also to Mormon spiritual and intellectual life.
Susan Elizabeth Howe is an associate professor of English at Brigham Young University, a poet, and a playwright. Her first poetry collection, Stone Spirits, was
published in 1997. She is currently working on a biography of Virginia Sorensen with Mary L. Bradford and
Sue Saffle (Virginias niece).

Sunstone Magazine and Contemporary Mormon Poetry

NOTES
1. I am using myth in the sense of a story that forms
the world view of a specific community. In this sense, the
word myth does not connote a story that is fantastic or
imagined. Rather, it is a story that creates a culture and
explains what members of that culture believe to be the
meaning of life.
2. These poems include Bryan Walley, Whitesmith,
(2:2/18) [meaning, vol. 2, issue 2, p. 18]; Susan Chock
Hartman, The Seer Bird, (2:2/27); Bruce Jorgensen,
The Light Come Down, (4:3/16); Richard Ellis Tice,
Church Historical Library, (10:10/23); Stephen O. Taylor, On the Evening of President Smiths Leaving,
(11:1/48); Michael Hicks, First Vision, (13:2/6);
Robert A. Rees, Salamander, (13:4/2627); and Orson
Scott Card, Prentice Alvin and the No-Good Plow,
(13:4/2832). It is disturbing to note that no poems
about Joseph Smith were published after August 1989.
What accounts for the disappearance of this poetic theme?

APPENDIX
The Light Come Down
Bruce Jorgensen
Just a dusty country boy
Praying in the trees,
Knocked out flat and speechless,
Again up on his knees
And the light come down,
Lord, the light come down.
Sharper than suns he sweated in,
It slapped that April mud,
It withered the one that threatened him
And stunned him where he stood.
Yes, the light come down,
Lord, it did come down.
And he was just fourteen,
Mixed up, and read your book
And took you at your word
and askedand Lord,
You let the light come down,
O Lord, a comin down

Old Adam had a farmers son

And Abraham did too
All made of mud but you made em good
And brought em home to you,
For the light come down
It always did come down.
So Lord look down on country boys
That stink and puzzle and pray,
And strike the light to blind their sight
And make their night your day.
O let the light come down,
Yes, bring the light on down.
And bless you, Lord, for country boys,
Each hungry mothers son
Treading the furrow his father plowed
Just like your single son
When you and him come down,
When you and the light come down.

De Profundis: Reflections on Psalm 130

Stanley B. Kimball
De profundis clamo ad Te Domine audi vocem meum.
When I am as harmless as a dove all is clear and
comforting.
When I try to balance the divine equation to become
serpent wise, my understanding falters.
I ask, seek, knock, and try to walk uprightly, but I am no
longer a child and often see through a glass darkly.
Fulfillment here, exaltation there, even Heaven and
Hell depends on the comprehension of Thy will.
Why then does every known recorded version of Thy
mind contain internal contradictions, obscurities?
Why is the faulty human hand everywhere evident,
hindering Thy children in gaining a perfect understanding of Thy will?
Or do I perceive it thus only because my comprehension of Thee is immature, imperfect?
I yearn for the sureties of youth, before I took thought.
Did I serve an institution more than Thee?
Did I try too hard to prove all things, to hold that
which was good?
Good, I understand, but what is best, the most true?
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AML Annual 2002

As three score and ten approaches the road shortens,

shadows lengthen.
I cannot return to the cocoon of blind faith.
Guide my feet, O God! Bring me back, Father, grant
me time
that I may live more fully than I have, to Thy greater
glory,
that I may become a better, refined, repentant version
of my old self,
that I may lose the pride of learning, the vanity of
mind service.
I do not require proof. I can live by faithunobscured
faith.
Is the Great Truth simply to love and serve Thee and
humanity?

Via Practica
Joanna Brooks
How long, O God, Have I prayed to you in secret?
When central casting trots out its god (he who
blames, he who binds up roots) to set clocks
and write new dress codes, I flee, taking you
with me. I run to the groves in my nightgown. I guard my
secret Jesus like a childhood nightlight. I tend
my faith like a precious bruise.
I pray, digging, begging that you are secretly
kind, secretly mother, secretly father. I try to
name my hungerworking until the words are
wrung out, fervent place holders, the very shape of hope.
There is nothing in hope that is not God,
nothing in hunger not holy.
This prayer is an ache that answers itselfthe
shape of things hoped for, my vote for whats unseen.
This prayer is a room I have built for you
to walk out ofa tomb to leave behind, a dry
wound in the hillside.
This prayer is a scarboth the shape of hurt
and the shape of healing.
Your scars, God, are both the braille of the
worlds hurt and the signs of its sure resurrection:
the now silver spot where my cousin, once
178

desperate, wrecked on drugs, shot himself,

between the eyes
the skid row cathedral where my great
grandfather was christened, its bell tower
cracked, the poor cast out, even the statues
wearing crowns of nails to keep the pigeons off
the learned wince of children raised amidst violence
red badlands built by erosion
backs stooped by the short handled hoe
fifty burnt-out churches
a gang kid walking with a cane
a tear drop tattooed under an eye
a Book of Mormon in a Hollywood gutter
a breast removed
a catch in the throat
callused knees
the empty seat at the table
my great-grandmothers willed silence
a lost rib
the rent veil
I run into you everywhere, God: the black man
downtown who calls himself Jesus, the
Salvadorean seamstress on the picket line.
When we meet on the street, you who see in
secret touch my lips, my hair, my scarred heart
for all to see.
I will not be ashamed of my God, for my God is
not ashamed of me.

Water Lily Child

Julia Barrett
You were Junes rose-child
until spring ended
and our short summer began.
But now I see you are of July,
the water lily month,
for you are clearly
a water lily now,
no more to be kissed in petal folds
of your perfumed baby neck,
dark lashes flitting like butterflies
across the sky of your eyes.

Sunstone Magazine and Contemporary Mormon Poetry

That morning when you changed

from rose to lily,
so suddenly, in the night
while I slept smiling,
I tried to reach out
over the water,
to catch you, net you into shore,
but even my breath,
thing as porcelain,
made little waves
that widened and carried you further
in its anxious rippling.
Please dont go, I whispered,
but you, lovely water lily,
lovely lotus of the pond,
my water lily child,
had already said goodbye.
So waxen-clear, unbruised,
you had to drift.
I remember rose days
you asked me to walk
with you to school
up the hard hill
together hand in hand
then you saw your friends,
skipped ahead, waved goodbye,
and I walked home,
wondering at my tears;
I sat at your feet
on your narrow attic bed,
in cozy twilight or in storm,
we read, talked, I tucked you in,
kissed you, said, I love you,
turned out the light.
And thenI was at your feet again,
kneeling as you shimmered above,
blooming and unfolding,
your radiant face, the center blush,
stained arms like petals
and I, slowly rising to meet your eyes,
fingers stumbling on twenty-four pearls,
each loop closing over, finishing,
to clothe you in your wedding dress.

I felt alone and old,

wondered if my mother
felt the same when she saw me
transformed into the same bloom.
When she looks at me, sometimes,
I see myself reflected,
growing smaller, sailing fainter
in watery ponds of her aging eyes.
Perhaps I can remember you as a rose
for I shall keep scented petals
in a painted ginger jar.
Early Morning in Mapleton, Utah
John W. Schouten
Its cool, cold
for June. The chill
wakes us. I put a quilt on the bed,
we make love, you curl
into sleep.
into sleep. At the window I hear
soft conversations, trees waking.
Color bleeds into the valley,
you turn,
you turn, breathe
deeply, and resettle, the canyon
walls are two cupped hands
filling with milk.
Buttoning my coat I close
the door behind me, the canyon
breeze
rolls off a slow
hill of rye. I cross the road, climb
the neighbors gate and shake
hands with the tall
grass
on the ditchbank, cows watch
with white faces.
At a rise in the pasture
I turn
to see the house, white, still,
I think of you sleeping.
Dew flashes
on the grass, the back
of my neck grows warm
and suddenly, I feel planted.
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AML Annual 2002

Passage
David Paxman
To Isaac and Jon, at the Farewell
If we were tribesmen, I would sit you by the fire
And tell you stories from communal memory:
Clan mothers that bore our clever race,
Pride of walking upright among the beasts,
War clubs and boats with names, journeys
Made into empty heavens, sometimes over water,
Sometimes over land, always with risk.
The other men would join us to act out
Dramas of the sun and moon, hunting and planting.
As we watched the embers, we would speak to you
Of sacred things, of those who wrestled gods
And won a lasting place for us on earth.
Our scars would show you how much pain to bear.
We would rehearse the changing leaves and tell
How death makes life again, and we would place
Words in the sacred parts of memory, so one day
You could restore life, though you would die.
You would understand belonging, not only
To the clan, and to all that walked erect,
But to all that shared lifes spirit.
Very late, while the women and children slept,
We would chant together, our clear high strains
Calling up the happy times of plenty,
Arrival at old havens after fearful journey,
Safety at night among the cooking fires.
And we would wail long and forlorn for children
Slain at the side of streams by fang or claw,
For cold and empty fire pits that mark
Where our own people fought and killed each other,
For gods we do not fully understand,
For all desire that cannot be fulfilled
Yet will not go away by day or night.
Later, you would like awake, wanting
To have your story told by distant firesides,
Though the wood they burn is growing green,
And your story not yet lived.
Here in the chapel, I am desperate.
I lack scars, fear fabrics, measure
Tales by the truths I know, and clock time.
Yet down this polished wood I want to flow
All that ancient fathers felt, all their
180

Sons drank in from ritual and story.

I know whose hand you want to feel,
But I can only give this charge and blessing:
Strong one of tomorrow, our priest to be,
You rode upon our backs; and now we count
On you to show we are worth saving.
When our tongues grow feeble and we limp
With age, we will record your deeds. Walk steady,
And tell our story clear before your kind.
The Veil
Steven Epperson
Sheared away from the thinning cloud in my hand.
They fall to my lap like ragged fragments of snow
Holy marks of creation and redemption sewn
Into the fabric of the veil Ive borne upon my body.
The veil is a raiment adorned with cardinal points and
lines.
A firmament incised with celestial lights
The weave scarred by the sacred arithmetic of bearings
Hand-stitched by God when he drove our parents
from the garden
To shelter and to cover their glory and their sorrow,
And to bring them home.
I received this garment whole, white without blemish,
An unmarked page waiting for the imprint of a tale.
Tarnished now, unravelling, darned at the crotch,
worn smooth,
The years of wandering, worship and work
Have burnished in this vestment a recitation,
A chronicle in stains and stitches
An off-white text in limpid cloth:
Sweat stained by gestures of labor and loving
Ink stained by the traces of errant scrivening
Ragged welts of thread, mends in the rent fabric
Of this holy, earthly veil,
A priestly mantle a winding shroud.
The weave of revelation
Concealing
Like the veils of Moses and Muhammed;
Revealing,
Not only in marks of orientation,
But shed eternally for the glory of conjoined intimacy.

Sunstone Magazine and Contemporary Mormon Poetry

The earthly texts gather around

The primordial, sacred embroidery of signs
Until the gossamer threads of the whole cloth
Can no longer carry the burden, the blessing
Of our tales and the signs that bid them on.
So the marks drop from the diaphanous firmament
Like old stars,
And now the veil is a rag
Holey, wholly, holy.
We then take up another garment
Whole, without blemish,
An unmarked page expectant . . .
We dare even dream
To take the worn and hallowed threads
Of our many veils
And stitch a mantle
For the naked shoulders of our mother earth
And with her ascend
The ladder of the firmaments.

181

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