Where are the lost diaries of 2 of Modern Mormonism’s most famous authors: Juanita Brooks & Michael Quinn? Joe Geisner tells us. Joe also gives a sneak peek to Writing Mormon History Volume 2. Check out our conversation…
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Juanita Brooks
Joe 00:43 These last two are the two great Mormon historians. We’ve talked quite a bit about them throughout this paper. We’ve talked about them as being amazing. Everything about them [is amazing.] I never got to know Juanita Brooks. By the time I became interested in the new Mormon history, she was in a rest home and had severe dementia. She died shortly after. Mike Quinn, I had a friendship with him from 1981 until he died. This is the two great Mormon historians from there. Now this first is from Lindsay Hansen Park’s forthcoming volume that’s going to be published by the University of Utah Press. Lindsay writes beautifully, as you’ll see from this.
Joe 01:53 I’m quoting Lindsay’s book, but she has intermittent quotes from Juanita Brooks. “Few writings of this time exist…” This is Juanita Brooks’s early life. “…because she desperately tried to conceal her pain. Emblematic of a new marriage, Juanita began this chapter of her life with a new journal to record her thoughts in. On June 27, 1933, she opened the first entry with tepid despair. ‘I don’t know whether I dare begin another diary or not.’ She explained that she had earlier kept a diary for two years, writing only the things that mattered to her, to conceal nothing and to be honest with herself. She wanted it to be a record of her inner life, but shame got the best of her. ‘After I had nearly 200 pages, I became panicky lest someone should get it and read it,’ she later confessed, ‘because it was most intimate, the only recourse was to burn it to ashes. There wasn’t a soul in the world.’ she justified, ‘to whom I would have shown it. Now I began one equally as futile,’ And yet she lamented that she still had to write ‘as I have no other safety valve.’ As a Mormon and emerging researcher, Juanita understood how her religious community encouraged everyone to be a record keeping people. Her propriety, however, demanded something else. Juanita felt a deep nakedness about revealing her emotions to anyone but herself. Her honest thoughts weren’t fully integrated with her outer life. Her path increasingly placed her in position to probe more authentic, honest, and raw history, and yet her heart and experiences sought exceptions for her own life. Destroying the diary erased the historical record of her true feelings. What remained was the scattered elegy of a woman struggling in her new role as wife and mother in a blended family.”
Joe 04:03 One other thing…
GT 04:06 Well, let me ask really quick.
Joe 04:09 Yeah. Let that sink in. Right?
GT 04:10 But as historians, we love it when we can get journals. But are we hypocrites because we don’t want anybody to see our own?
Joe 04:18 Yeah. Gary always asked me. He said, “Joe, are you going to let your journals?” I said, “I’m going to be dead. I don’t care.” Seriously, I’m going to be dead. So, I mean, I’m not a really good journal keeper. I only write down what I want to write, which is usually conversations like with Eldred Smith or something. I’ll write that kind of stuff down. Mike Quinn, a lot of times I’d write down our conversations. But beyond that, I’m not a great [writer.] I don’t write my personal stuff. Maybe because I’ve done enough research, my mission letters, I wouldn’t even read them.
GT 05:01 I’m the same way.
Joe 05:02 You can ask my wife. You can ask my wife. I refuse. There are love letters between the two of us, because we actually knew one another before my mission.
GT 05:12 Oh.
Joe 05:13 I will not read them. I’m so embarrassed about what I wrote that I will not look at them. She goes, “These are letters I cherish.” It’s like, I don’t. I do not want to look at them.
GT 05:30 See, and I’m going to tell you this. I interviewed Richard and Claudia Bushman. Claudia said to me, “Rick, are you keeping a journal?” I was like, “I’m not, Claudia. I’m sorry.”
Joe 05:42 Yeah, you are. {Joe points to the camera.} You’re keeping one on [Youtube.]
GT 05:44 Yeah, but, I always try to keep my personal feelings out of it.
Joe 05:47 I know.
GT 05:48 So, there’s nothing to burn, first of all. But secondly, when I did keep a journal, like on my mission, or even when I was a teenager. Actually, I will say this. I think it was about the fifth grade. We’re supposed scared to keep a journal. This is how my journal was. “Today was Sunday. I went to church. Cowboys, 28 Steelers, 6. Or, Dodgers 7 Yankees 4, or whatever.” It was just scores.
Joe 06:23 Those are actually way better than mine, because mine are, ”I went tracting today, not happy.”
GT 06:32 On my mission. I wrote when things were really bad, and they’re going to think this guy is just depressed.
Joe 06:37 That’s what mine is. When you read mine, mine sound like I’m manic, depressed.
GT 06:43 Well, exactly. That’s why I don’t want to read them. But every time I wrote, it was when I was upset. When things were good, I didn’t write. And so they’re going to get a really skewed opinion of me, especially if they just read [my journals.] I will say this. Well, I was just telling somebody at Sunstone. I don’t even remember her name, but she goes, there’s this little thing. You just write, like, three sentences every day.
Joe 07:07 Right.
GT 07:08 I was like, oh, maybe I can do that. But my dad passed away in 2018. He had written, by the time he was younger than me, than my current age, he had written two life histories.
Joe 07:22 Wow.
GT 07:23 And it was great.
Joe 07:24 Wow.
GT 07:25 It was really helpful for the funeral. It did inspire me to write a life history, but the problem is, I wrote too much, and I only got up to my mission, and then I’ve gotten busy.
Joe 07:36 And then you just stopped. Right, right.
GT 07:39 [The mission] was all the depressing. {chuckles} Although I tried to be a little bit reflective.
Joe 07:45 Well, I write. Actually, both the forthcoming volume of Writing Mormon History [Volume 2] and this one [Volume 1]…
GT 07:54 We need to talk about this book too {holding up volume 1}, and it’s already been what? I’m trying to look here. [We’ve talked] two and a half hours.
Joe 07:59 Well, people are bored out of their mind, I’m sure. But I do write some personal stuff. My first meeting with Leonard Arrington, I write about that and stuff.
GT 08:12 We do write a couple of interesting things.
Joe 08:14 I try. So there’s at least something there. But missionary journals…
GT 08:22 They are hard. It’s a hard time of your life.
Joe 08:24 They’re not very interesting most of the time. I’ve read a lot of them. Though the Hawaiian Mission journals are little bit different story.
GT 08:36 You’re talking about Joseph F. Smith.
Joe 08:37 Well, all of them: Francis Hammond, all those guys, they actually kept their [journals.] George Q Cannon’s Hawaiian journal, and we’re getting off topic again. But the George Q. Cannon Hawaiian journals are so fun because what the missionaries would do in their conferences that the missionaries had, they would get together. They had journal parties, and they would share journals. What the fun part is on that is George Q. Cannon journals are redacted in certain things. There’s a whole excommunication of the most important Hawaiian in the Hawaiian Mission, because he’s out going through Lahaina. He’s hitting every whore house and bar…
GT 09:25 Oh no.
Joe 09:26 …in the process. Then he confesses, and they have to excommunicate him. So, there’s this whole write up that’s all redacted from the George Q Cannon journals. You go to the other Hawaii missionary journals, the entire details [are there] because they were copying each other’s mission journal, and so you have the exact account word for word that George Q. Cannon would have had redacted. it is in the other missionary journals.
GT 09:54 Oh, wow.
Joe 09:55 It’s fun. That’s what makes Mormon history fun. Because when the Church is trying to cover something up, it’s like putting fingers in the holes in the boat. Because that boat’s going down. They’ve got all these people at the Church History Library trying to plug those holes. The problem is, there’s a leak over there that nobody can reach. It’s still leaking information. My friends at the Church History Library are not going to be very happy about me, but anyway. Yeah, that’s what they did. So yeah. Pretty much everything that they redact in George Q. Cannon’s journals, the Hawaiian journals, you can find other journals, almost everything.
GT 10:45 Oh, wow. Because wasn’t your presentation To Redact or Not to Redact?
Joe 10:49 Yeah. That is the question.
GT 10:50 I remember!
Joe 10:51 That is the question!
GT 10:52 That was a good question.
Joe 10:53 I was playing around with Shakespeare. I can’t remember. Somebody said to me, that’s a really dumb title. I told Lindsay Hansen Park. She goes, I love the title. Leave it.
GT 11:08 It was good. I liked it. I was there.
Michael Quinn
Joe 11:11 Well, the other great Mormon historian, D. Michael Quinn; this comes from the published Memoirs Signature Books just did. You can read this in that. I’m pretty sure it’s all in there. I added some of Mike’s diaries to different things.
GT 11:38 This is Michael Quinn you’re talking about.
Joe 11:40 Mike Quinn, sorry, yeah. But this is from, I’m pretty sure, and I really highly recommend people get that memoir of that Signature just published. It’s a wonderful book.
GT 11:53 I have a chance to read it yet.
Joe 11:55 Neither have I, but I read a bit. I’ve read things that interest me. Mike writes, “I think that in some ways, this talk with Bart led to my decision to remove any hint of homosexuality from the personal journals I had kept daily from age 18 until after my mission, My bride,” who by the way, is Jan. “My bride, was willing to type them in an edited form to conceal the real purpose. I told Jan that I wanted to remove all the boring stuff as well as certain entries about other people. In fact, I did line through all the routine stuff and the negative comments about other people. More important though to me, I lined through the many indirect references to my homosexuality. This included my comments about being different from other guys, my fasting and prayer praying to change; my frequent depression. I asked Jan not to read the sections I deleted, and bless her heart, she also agreed to that request. These deletions totaled three quarters of my original journals.”
GT 13:18 Wow.
Joe 13:20 “After four years of on and off typing.” Mike was a phenomenal typer. Jan ran circles around Mike in typing. This had to have been one heck of a lot of pages. Okay. So anyway, back to [the journal.] “After four years of on and off typing, Jan completed the edited version of my journals. It had been a labor of love, but she objected when I said that I would now destroy the originals. She said that I might change my mind about the need to delete three quarters of the entries. I countered that I wanted my children and others to read the edited diaries as a faith promoting record of my life. I didn’t want them to be distracted by all the boring stuff or the unkind things I had written about other people. One evening, I tore up every page of my original journals into small pieces and threw them in the dumpster of our apartment building. Jan just shook her head. It wasn’t long before I realized she was right. I also saw the historical irony of a decision I soon regretted. As a result, the personal journals I kept daily from the next year onward were increasingly candid and detailed. But irretrievably lost were those daily notations that demonstrated a fuller view of me as a teenager and young adult. Both God and the devil are in the details, and I should have allowed the future readers my use of original diaries to decide where they saw one’s influence or the other, or perhaps both. Too late, my awareness, which I’ve tried applying in this self-biography, let the chips fall where they may.”
Joe 15:19 It broke my heart when I read that. Obviously I didn’t read this until after Mike’s passing, because it wasn’t available. As a matter of fact, we’re very lucky that that wasn’t lost because Mike had written it. Mike was not much at computers, but he worked hard to learn. He and I could share. I was always sharing stuff with him. He was always sharing stuff with me. As a matter of fact, my complete thing of the George Q Cannon, and I sent him, though I don’t know if he ever leave him looked at it because he was so mad about the redactions.
GT 15:56 Oh.
Joe 15:57 He was mad. He was so mad about those. And so he said, I don’t know if I could ever look at them because of what the Church did. But yeah, so anyway, it was tough to read, tough to read. It breaks your heart because you know that if you just listened to Jan. Now,
GT 16:24 [Points at camera.] So, write your journal and don’t destroy it.
Joe 16:26 Yeah, don’t destroy it. That’s right. We’ve talked about those that have been lost. There is a common. My goal is to check and see if we’re right about things, if what we’re saying [is right.] Even my good friend Will Bagley, who I found to be an amazing historian and one of the great intellects that I’ve ever experienced, made mistakes. I would tell Will. He would say things that would irritate me and I would say, Will, you can’t say that. You’re going to hurt somebody’s feelings. Will, for all of his…
GT 17:16 He did that a lot in the Facebook group called Mormon Historians.
Joe 17:20 Yeah, for a lot of for a lot of the things that Will would say that were bad, at least he admitted that they were bad and often apologized. I appreciate will for that. Will said to me often, and to others that Kate Carter, and Will wasn’t the only one. But I’m using Will because I respected Will so much. Will would say that the Kate Carter of the DUP would destroy records. I always believed that Kate Carter had done that. When I was doing this paper, , that was one of the things I looked into because I had been told that Kate Carter had destroyed records. I wanted to know what those records were. It’s untrue. When I dug into it, the reason I know it’s untrue is, first of all because the source that everybody uses is Juanita Brooks, condemning Kate Carter and the DUP for editing and censoring documents. But she never uses the word destroy.
GT 18:49 Ahh.
Joe 18:50 Richard Saunders then looked into that. Richard is a brilliant historian, a good friend of Will’s, just like I was, and edited two volumes of the of the Kingdom in the West series about Dale Morgan,[1] and actually just came out with a biography of Dale Morgan, who really is the Great Western historian. Dale Morgan was truly an amazing person and was Juanita Brooks’s mentor. Richard looked into it and found a letter that the Kate Carter wrote in which she admits that she censors and edits for publication, but she makes it clear that she never destroyed the documents.
GT 19:45 Okay.
Joe 19:46 So that that puts that to rest. She never did that. So, I think it’s important that it be clear that she didn’t do that. Yeah, okay. This is just a list for all of us.
Fundamentalist Diaries
Joe 20:08 This is again from Mike Quinn to me. He said when it comes to fundamentalist missing journals and other records. These people, like Judson Tolman, was a patriarch. Okay? But all of his journals to 1912 and his records are all gone. Most likely the family destroyed them.
GT 20:37 Okay.
Joe 20:40 Judson Tolman was one of the big [leaders.] As a matter of fact, he was brought before the Quorum of the 12 and was just hammered over his performing plural marriage into the 1900s to 19-teens.
GT 21:00 Okay.
Joe 21:02 He has a connection with Heber J Grant. That’s an interesting one. Because he is the patriarch under Heber J Grant’s brother, in the stake that his brother is the stake president of. So these guys are all [connected.] I mean, new plural marriage, which is what Lindsay and Brian [Buchanan] are really working on, it’s like what Mike Quinn said when he read his new plural marriage and church authority article. He actually read the entire thing to Gordon Hinckley in his office. Or maybe he read extracts of it. I don’t think he read it all, but he read a lot of it and listed all the people. He said Hinckley just sat there with his mouth to the floor and was like, you’ve got to be kidding me. She babysat me. You’ve got to be kidding me. She was my mom’s best friend. Or that was my dad’s friend. He had no idea that he was surrounded with new plural marriage people.
GT 22:19 Yeah.
Joe 22:20 [He had] no idea that they had been married after the Manifesto. So anyway, back to the list. Okay, so John W Woolley, Lorin C Woolley, Daniel R, Bateman, Samuel Eastman, Joseph Musser, Henry Tanner, Nathan Clark, Joseph Silver, David Jeffs, LeGrand Woolley, John Burt, John Barlow, John Leslie Broadbent. At least some, if not all, of some of those people’s journals….
GT 22:52 Those are all big names in fundamentalism.
Joe 22:54 Yeah, yeah. Brian Buchanan and Cristina Rosetti are doing a scholarly edition of the Musser journals. So they’ve got quite a bit, but there are some…
GT 23:11 Cristina announced her retirement on my podcast.
Joe 23:13 Yeah, I know.
GT 23: 15 She is leaving, but she’s not gone yet.
Joe 23:17 I’m sad. I adore Cristina. Cristina, that’s really bad of you.
GT 23: 24 I agree.
Joe 23:25 I’m disappointed in you. You need to repent.
GT 23:31 Just come back. I told her it was fine to take a year off, or something. Come back.
Joe 23:36 That’s right. Now, this one I found, and the only reason I picked it up is this one I found in Leonard Arrington’s diary. It’s just weird. It’s just a very, very weird account: Mathoni Wood Pratt. “Mary Christensen, 34, who works in the Lion House, came in this afternoon to ask about the marriage record of her mother and father. Her father was Mathoni Pratt, the youngest son of Parley Pratt. He had married two women before them.” Now this is Mathoni. Parley is already dead, obviously. His father is dead, so she’s now talking about her father. “He had married two women before the Manifesto in 1890. According to her, as told by her mother and father to her, her father was called in by Church authorities in 1902 and asked to carry on the principle of plurality, of marrying another wife. He did marry a third wife, Elizabeth Sheets. She, Mary Christensen, is a child of that marriage.”
Joe 24:58 “Then, of course, occurred the Manifesto of 1904 which ended these marriage approved by officials of the Church. Mary was born in 1903 apparently. Sister Christensen has never been able to find any record of that marriage. Her father’s papers were all burned except one record book.” This is where it’s the Lost document which gives a date of the marriage. The place says, EH.”
Joe 25:28 I can’t remember who EH is. Oh, and I’m sorry, Endowment House. Okay, that’s what it is. I’m sorry. It’s not a person.
Joe 25:38 “Her father’s papers all burned, except one record book, which gives a date for the marriage and for the place as EH.
GT 25:45 Which is Endowment House.
Joe 25:47 Leonard is going. This could not mean the Endowment House.
GT 25:51 Oh.
Joe 25:52 Because the Endowment House was torn down before that, which is also accurate. But what it could be is they’ve dedicated a place to be an endowment house.
GT 26:01 Temporary.
Joe 25:52 Yeah, a temporary endowment house, and that’s what Leonard’s expected. Perhaps it meant some building near Temple Square which served as an a temporary endowment house, which is very good possibility, actually.
GT 26:17 I mean, you know that with the Salt Lake Temple renovation, or maybe you don’t. Normally they have that big assembly room, the Quorum of 70 and the apostles meet in, but they’re remodeling it, which irritates me. But anyway.
Joe 26:35 You and every other person cares about history, yeah.
GT 26:39 But they’ve, they’ve dedicated a room. Well, the Hotel Utah is now called the Joseph Smith Building.
Joe 26:44 Right, right, right.
GT 26:45 But they’ve dedicated a room so that they can meet in there while the temple is [being renovated.]
Joe 26:49 {Sarcastically} No they can’t do that. They serve coffee and cigarettes and all kinds of things.
GT 26:56 Cigarettes?
Joe 26:57 Yeah, they used to have a machine in there. You could buy the cigarettes.
GT 27:01 Really? I didn’t know about that.
Joe 27:03 No…. And they had a bar too.
GT 27:06 Remember the Hotel Utah?
Joe 27:08 No, yeah, I don’t believe you, Rick. {chuckles}
GT 27:13 So anyway.
Joe 27:18 They couldn’t dedicate. No. Anyway, I love sacred space. I love sacred space. Anyway. Okay, “Mary is certain based on what her parents told her that the marriage took place in Salt Lake City. She’s also certain that Joseph F Smith, as President of church, was aware of the marriage and approved it because of the time of the marriage he gave Mary’s mother and father a portrait of Joseph Smith, which also conveys his signature and best wishes. This would suggest that perhaps a group of people were called to practice polygamy by Joseph F Smith, or by someone designated.” Now I’m reading this first of all, because it’s fascinating, because Leonard’s finally going, oh, wait a second. There really was new plural marriages. Because Mike had told him this stuff, but I think Leonard was reluctant to believe it. Now all of the sudden, he’s got [real evidence.]
GT 28:17 All right, we know we got cut off there. Like I said, My phone battery died. We’re running on a charger. But of course, hopefully the volume sounds okay. We don’t know. We’re using the cell phone thing here. Hopefully, Joe said everything he was going to say.
Joe 28:36 Yeah.
GT 28:37 There are no more lost manuscripts that he is aware of.
Joe 28:40 That’s right, that’s right, that’s right. There will be.
Sneak Peek at Writing Mormon History 2
GT 28:44 We want to spend a couple minutes on Writing Mormon History. I’m taking off the shrink wrap right now. Joe’s going to sign it, but I thought we could just go through. Joe’s going to just give a very brief overview of this book, and he’s going to share something with us. Right?
Joe 29:04 Sure.
GT 29:05 Okay.
Joe 29:06 That sounds good to me.
GT 29:08 There you go. Those pens are terrible. The Marriott pens are terrible.
Joe 29:14 Okay, then I will use your pen.
GT 29:15 Hopefully it’s okay too.
Joe 29:16 The authors for this book are really…
GT 29:21 Joe is the editor, that
Joe 29:22 I’m the editor with the help of Signature Books. I’m not that good. But Signature Books is. This is really a who’s who. This first volume, somebody was saying to me today, they could not believe the quality of this. It really is. It’s a who’s who. Unfortunately, we’ve lost three of the people.
GT 29:52 Oh!
Joe 29:53 …that that have chapters. Thank goodness, though we still have [counting] eight of the authors. No, no. There’s more than that. I’m sorry, I don’t know what I was thinking.
GT 30:13 That was on the first page.
Joe 30:14 Yeah. So that eight. There were 14 authors in this book. Volume Two is going to have 18 authors.
GT 30:27 Which comes out in October.
Joe 30:28 17 chapters, but 18 authors, because two of the authors write one chapter. Polly Aird, Will Bagley…
GT 30:38 Who we’ve lost.
Joe 30:39 I’m going to let you say that part. Todd Compton, Brian Hales, Melvin Johnson, William McKinnon, Linda King Newell.
GT 30:48 We just barely lost her.
Joe 30:54 Greg Prince, Craig Smith, George D Smith, Vickie Cleverly Speek, Susan Staker, Daniel Stone and John Turner, and D. Michael Quinn, in there? Oh, right there. Sorry, missed Mike Quinn, who we’ve lost? Of those 15, we’ve lost three and that’s really a who’s who.
GT 31:25 Yeah, it really is.
Joe 31: 62 That really is an amazing group of people.
GT 31:30 There are several Gospel Tangents guests on there.
Joe 31:32 As I said when we were talking about personal journals and writings, my introduction is pretty intimate. So let me sign this. There we go!
GT 31:58 All right, so there’s a signed copy. This book is for one of you go to gospeltangents.com/contest. Were you going to share the introduction?
Joe 32:06 Yeah. I mean, this is the first time ever in public. Now I ‘ve got to get my fun laptop, which I really am horrible at using.
GT 32:22 I usually like to read the book before I talk to the guests. But, these are all fantastic authors. The purpose of the book was to talk about the books you’ve written.
Joe 32:37 Yeah, yeah, yeah. This really is a beautiful thing, meaning everybody who has read this book; here’s an experience I had at MHA in Cleveland. I had multiple. What was fun was they were young people. They weren’t old people like me. They were young. They were young scholars. Every single one of them said things to me you’re writing Mormon history.
GT 33:21 You’re doing the introduction for Mormon History 2, which is coming out in October.
Joe 33:29 October 28, yeah. So this is what I’m saying. [Volume 1] anybody can read.
GT 33:35 So this is the first time in public Writing Mormon History 2.
Joe 33:40 Yes, yeah. But every single one of them basically said the same thing: Writing Mormon History changed their academic life. Every single story there taught them something about being a researcher, being a historian, being a writer, all of those things. Talk about making me feel good. I mean that that is something. It’s exciting to see these young people fascinated with something that that I was able to be a part of.
Joe 34:25 This is the introduction. I’ve had a few people say this is heartbreaking. This was important for me to write. “The year 2021-2022 was a period of painful loss in my world of friends and family. I lost my beautiful wife of 39 years, my stepfather who raised me, my uncle and my brother-in-law, all people who played major roles in my life. The Mormon history and book communities. Lost many people this that same year as well. Those who passed away and had the greatest impact on me were D Michael Quinn, Hugh McKell, Curt Bench and Will Bagley Two—Quinn and Bagley—wrote chapters for the first volume of writing Mormon history. I will forever be grateful they were able to be a part of that book and that readers have access to their story.
Joe 34:25 I met Mike Quinn in 1981 I just returned from a two-year LDS mission in the Denver area and started back to school that fall. The Mark Hofmann document, the Joseph Smith, III blessing, which was later shown to have been forged, had been made public earlier in that year, and Mike took on the task of putting the document as text in historical perspective. I recall sitting in the DeJong Hall on the campus of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, mesmerized by Mike explaining what the blessing meant to a believing Mormon and how God had guided Brigham Young to lead a large body of Joseph Smith’s followers in 1847 to what would become Utah. I was hooked. I told Mike decades later about my being at this lecture.”
Joe 36:12 (It actually couldn’t have been that many decades anyway.) ”Mike laughed and said, ‘Yeah, the lecture I gave where nobody showed up.’ Unfortunately, this was true, but I think it gave him some consolation when I told him about the effect of his lecture on me that fall. The last time I talked with Mike was in January 2021. He was being safe with COVID-19 only going out to buy groceries once a month and anticipating getting his vaccine. Mike passed away three months later, on or about April 22 from a heart attack.
Joe 36:52 I learned of Salt Lake City bookseller Curt Bench when I was attending the 1988 Sunstone West in Concord, California. One of my friends introduced me to Ann Wilde and her husband, Ogden Kraut. Anne saw in me someone who craved a place where I could buy Mormon scholarly books. She happened to work at a new bookstore in Salt Lake City, near the old Rio Grande train station. Anne gave me a card bearing the Benchmark Books address and telephone number. I made my first of dozens of treks to Curt’s bookstore and later a store on Main Street. I spent hours with Curt regaling me about his experiences with various authors, various first edition books, various hard to find books and Mark Hofmann. The last time I saw Curt was at the Salt Lake City Sunstone Symposium on July 30, 2021. We talked about how much he enjoyed writing a blurb for the first volume of Writing Mormon History, and how much he enjoyed reading the book. On Monday, August 1, Curt texted me that he had forgotten to have me sign his personal copy of the book. I replied that I was leaving for home but could swing by a store on my way out of town. He got busy and did not text me until I was 30 miles west of Wendover, Nevada. Curt’s final words were to me, ‘I’ll have you sign the book the next time you’re in Salt Lake City.’ Curt died from a congenital heart defect a little more than two weeks later, on August 17.
Joe 38:28 On June 11, 2021, I received a copy of a fine Press book published by Bear Hollow Books, owned and operated by my friend Hugh McKell. The book titled Jacob’s Reminiscences: a Little Known Short History written by Lynn Jacobs about his experience with Mark Hofmann. Hugh published 100 copies, a relatively common number for fine book world. I called Hugh that day to let him know my copy had arrived and to tell him that he had published another beautiful book. My call went to voicemail. I tried to reach him again on Saturday and again, my call went to voicemail. I found out later that day that Hugh had passed away a few days earlier. Hugh taught me to love fine books and to have as my goal to buy books that were in very good or better condition and with dust jackets, if possible. He would often sell me as duplicate copies; many of my most prized books were once owned by Hugh; each in very good condition. All are important.
Joe 38:28 On Saturday, September, 29, 2021 at 1pm I received a text from John Gary Maxwell, author of Utah history and biography works, also a well-known surgeon that our mutual friend Will Bagley had passed away. A short time later. Mike Homer, one of the authors in this volume, texted me about Will’s passing, then Laura Bayer, Will’s wife called as well, and we had a healing talk about Will’s final days. He had a massive stroke that took his life. Will had battled type one diabetes for decades, and knew his life was tied to this disease. In fact, Will and I had talked about this, including on his birthday in 2010 when I was privileged to celebrate with him. Will asked me to find a place where he could have a traditional San Francisco Bay Area seafood dinner. Since will was staying in Berkeley, we went to Springers Fresh Fish Grotto, where Will ordered the Dungeness crab dinner. One of the beauties of having a Dungeness crab dinner, in my opinion, is that it takes two to three hours to complete the meal. This leaves a lot of time to talk. Though he wore a bib, Will managed to get crab juice all over himself. He was he was quite the sight.
Joe 41:02 The last time I saw Will was on July 31, 2021, in his assisted living apartment building in the Salt Lake Valley. I had picked him up earlier in the day and had taken to his home in the avenue neighborhood where Connell O’Donovan, (another author in this volume) Laura, Will, and I ate lunch. It was a wonderful day. We had an incredible time. Will was excited to get back to his apartment because he was scheduled to play chess. After dropping Will off, I realized I’d forgotten to have him sign my advanced reading copy of River Fever, (2019.)
Joe 41:43 Will’s memoir of the several years he had spent as a young man on the Mississippi and other rivers. I returned to his apartment building and found him in the top floor Recreation Area playing chess in front of a wall to ceiling windows looking out at the stunning Rocky Mountains. I walked over and asked Will to sign my book. He introduced me to his chess playing friend and said that I was a Mormon historian who was doing good things. I told this friend that Will was a great Mormon history and had been my teacher and mentor. Will said, ‘Joe, many people have been your mentor.’ I said, yes, and I am lucky to have you, as well as many others. This proved to be our final exchange.
Joe 42:26 I know this is not a typical editor’s introduction, but if it were not for these four people, Writing Mormon History edited by myself, would not exist. Many other people have been a part of the process of my historical education, but these four were mentors in my life of Mormon studies. Not to remember them in this editor’s introduction to the second volume of Writing Mormon History would for me being egregious moral failing.
Joe 42:58 As I wrote an Introduction of the first volume of Writing Mormon History, I seek to be inclusive, and in some ways, I think I accomplished this in volume 2. In other ways, however, I fear I may have fallen short. The most glaring omission in the first volume were persons of color. In the Second Volume, readers will discover Elisa Pulido’s essay about her award-winning book on the life and thought of Margarito Bautista, a Hispanic Prophet and religious innovator. Elisa writes about her experience in the intriguing area of Mormonism and the life of all but forgotten, important figure. Alice Faulkner Birch has a chapter about her award-winning book as well, my Lord, he calls me stories of faith by black American Latter-day Saints. Additionally, we have P Jane Hafen and Brendan W Resnick chapter on their collaboration of essays called Essays in American Indian and Mormon history. This volume is an award winner as well. Also included here is Roger Launius essay about African American people in the Community of Christ, formerly RLDS Church. Roger begins with a traumatic yet enlightening childhood experience, then reveals his search for those mostly invisible restoration saints. I am quite pleased with these chapters in the effort to create racial diversity in the volume.
Joe 44:26 Another area I hoped to feature was the experience of an openly gay historian and their work in documenting the LGBTQ+ community in Mormonism. Thankfully, Connell O’Donovan provides an essay that brings readers into his world of pioneering research and writing on this previously neglected history. Connell’s work has appeared in monographs, on websites and in journals. His studies are often cited by scholars and historians.
Joe 44:56 The present volume also opens up readers to the contributions of Mormon women and their significant organizations, the Women’s Relief Society. Jill Mulvay Derr narrates the story of writing women of covenant. This history released by the LDS church publishing arm, Deseret Book functions as a near official history of LDS women. Jill takes readers through the process of writing such a history and offers the important insider’s perspective. Additionally, Bernadette Rigal-Cellard, one of the best known specialists of new religious movements in France academia, details her experience as an outsider of Mormonism. In peeling back Mormonisms many layers to discover what lies close to the heart of this very American religion.
Joe 45:49 Continuing the theme of outsider perspectives, William Morain, a member and historian of the RLDS/Community of Christ tradition gives readers insight into studying the early life of Mormon Church founder Joseph Smith, especially Smith’s traumatic experience of undergoing a painful operation on his leg as a young boy, and how this experience may have played on the psychological developments. Bill’s important study continues to provoke discussion and controversy. Gary Topping past archivist for the Catholic Diocese in Utah, is a historian’s historian. He has done seminal work on the lives of Western historians in their own historical studies. Gary’s skillful treatment of the challenge of such endeavors is fascinating and engaging.
Joe 46:37 Mike Homer details his work on Mormonism’s connection to Italy, and foreign tourists to Brigham Young’s Mormon Zion and Mormonism. Relationship to masonry. Rick Grunder, a rare book dealer whose erudite, informative catalogs are a genuine delight to read, gives intimate detail about his adventures of finding long lost important newspapers, letters, broadsides and books. His essay reads like a Saturday matinee adventure movie. Until he retired, Bruce Van Orden worked for the LDS Church educational system. His chapter details the challenges such employment can create for the scholarly historian. Bruce also candidly discusses an especially painful experience in his life as an LDS historian.
Joe 47:26 I am proud to feature three historians from the newer generation of scholars. Matt Bowman describes his writing The Mormon People, an important book, much needed, new survey of Mormon history for the general public. Konden Smith Hanson details his Frontier Religion (2019) as a look of early Mormonism, his intimate story of friendship with and mentorship under Valeen Tippetts Avery, co-author of the path breaking biography of Emma Smith. Mormon Enigma is equally memorable and touching. Val’s co-author Linda King Newell describe their experience in the first volume of Writing Mormon History. Taylor Petrey chronicles the story of writing his award-winning book, Tabernacles of Clay (2020.) An important study of gender and sexuality in modern Mormonism.
Joe 48:15 I invited Gary James Bergera to write about the history of BYU Independent newspaper, the 7th East Press, though not a work of modern history per se, this shortlived 1981-83 paper impacted future writers of Mormon history, and in my opinion, deserves scrutiny. Gary wrote a column for the paper during the first year and recalls the Press fondly. I hope that his essay serves as an invitation for others to document this important period. Dean Huffaker graciously wrote a companion piece to Gary’s essay about his experience with the 7th East Press and its role in his intellectual formative years.
Joe 48:53 I thank each of these authors who contributed the book. I suspect it was not always easy for some to write about intimate life experiences, and I admire them for their courage in being honest and open. Perhaps because they are historians, they understand the importance of sharing their lives and their formative experience with readers. I also thank Signature Books for helping me to shepherd this second volume from conception to publication. I am honored by their trust. To me, this book is now in the hands of readers, because Signature’s incredible team.
GT 49:30 We love Signature. Thank you once again.
Joe 49:33 Thank you. Thank you, Rick for tolerating me.
GT 49:38 We’re going to give away a copy of Writing Mormon History Volume One. I guess that’s not part of the official title, but it is the first volume. Go to gospel tangents.com/contest. You can get this freshly autographed copy right here. I’m going to get$ you to sign mine after this too. It says here October 28. Pre-order your copy today. Hardback is 35.95. The eBook is $9.99. You can get that at SignatureBooks.com. I’m sure Amazon will have it.
Joe 50:12 Amazon, yeah.
GT 50:14 Go to Benchmark. Support Chris Bench.
Joe 50:16 Yeah.
GT 50:17 It’ll probably be autographed. So anyway, [it’s available at] all the places you go. It’s so great to talk to you, Joe, as always.
Joe 50:27 Oh, Rick.
GT 50:17 You’re just such a [fun guy to talk to.] I don’t think I’ve told people this. When we were in Independence, I needed the place to record. I was interviewing Todd Compton, and Joe said, take my hotel room. We’ll do a late checkout. And so thank you. People probably don’t know that, but I really appreciate that. So that was awesome.
Joe 50:50 I’m glad. That was a great interview, and Todd had a great time.
GT 50:58 Todd was awesome. The only problem was he left his sport coat in my car. He didn’t get it back. But anyway, so thanks again. Get your Writing Mormon History 1 and 2. we’ll have to talk to you again, because it’s always fun to talk to Joe.
Joe 51:17 Well, thanks, Rick. Thanks so much.
GT 51:18 Thanks or being on Gospel Tangents.
Joe 51:19 Have a great night.
[1] Volume 1: https://amzn.to/44PyrAS and Volume 2: https://amzn.to/3MWdI8j
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