Mormon Enigma

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Mormon Enigma: Emma Hale Smith
Mormon Enigma.jpg
Cover of the first edition
Authors Linda King Newell
Valeen Tippetts Avery
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Subject Emma Hale Smith
Publisher Doubleday & Company, Inc.
Publication date
1984
Media typePrint (Hardcover)
Pages394 pp (first edition)
ISBN 0-385-17166-8
OCLC 10376019
289.3/092/4 B 19
LC Class BX8695.S515 N48 1984
Followed by1994 2nd edition 

Mormon Enigma: Emma Hale Smith, Prophet's Wife, "Elect Lady," Polygamy's Foe is a biography of Emma Hale Smith, wife of Joseph Smith Jr., written by Linda King Newell and Valeen Tippetts Avery.

Biography Written account of a persons life

A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or curriculum vitae (résumé), a biography presents a subject's life story, highlighting various aspects of his or her life, including intimate details of experience, and may include an analysis of the subject's personality.

Linda King Newell is an American historian and author.

Valeen Tippetts Avery was an American biographer and historian best known for her work on Western American and Latter Day Saint history. With biographer Linda King Newell, she co-authored Mormon Enigma: Emma Hale Smith, a biography of the wife of the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, Joseph Smith.

Contents

Generally accepted as a groundbreaking biography, the book places Emma Smith into a context that has better explained the trials and sacrifices of the members of the early Latter Day Saint church. The work made possible, along with other more recent historical works, a major reinterpretation of the formative period of Mormonism.

Church of Christ (Latter Day Saints) original name of the Latter Day Saint church

The Church of Christ was the original name of the Latter Day Saint church founded by Joseph Smith. Organized informally in 1829 in New York and then formally on April 6, 1830, it was the first organization to implement the principles found in Smith's newly published Book of Mormon, and thus represents the formal beginning of the Latter Day Saint movement. Later names for this organization included the Church of the Latter Day Saints, the Church of Jesus Christ, the Church of God, the Church of Christ of Latter Day Saints, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Mormonism Religious tradition of the Latter Day Saint movement

Mormonism is the predominant religious tradition of the Latter Day Saint movement of Restorationist Christianity started by Joseph Smith in Western New York in the 1820s and 30s.

The book won the 1984 Best Book Award for interpretive history by the Mormon History Association. [1]

The Mormon History Association (MHA) is an independent, non-profit organization dedicated to the study and understanding of all aspects of Mormon history to promote understanding, scholarly research, and publication in the field. MHA was founded in December 1965 at the American Historical Association (AHA) meeting in San Francisco under the leadership of Latter-day Saint and historian, Leonard J. Arrington. In 1972, MHA became an independent organization with its own annual conferences and publications. The Journal of Mormon History, the official biennial publication of the association, began publication in 1974. MHA also publishes the quarterly Mormon History Newsletter and is an affiliate of both AHA and the Western History Association.

Avery and Newell provided the following note in the book's introduction:

Early leaders in Utah castigated Emma from their pulpits for opposing Brigham Young and the practice of polygamy, and for lending support to the Reorganization. As these attitudes filtered down through the years, Emma was virtually written out of official Utah histories. In this biography, we have attempted to reconstruct the full story of this remarkable and much misunderstood woman's experiences.[ citation needed ]

Despite its quality and recognition, the biography was startling and controversial among leaders, administrators and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Shortly after publication, Avery and Newell, both participating members in the church, were refused any opportunity to talk about their research or book in church meetings. [2] In the preface to the second edition of the book, the authors wrote: «After a ten-months stalemate Linda Newell successfully petitioned church leaders to reconsider the prohibition. On April 26, 1986, she was informed that the restrictions ... were no longer in effect.» Yet the fact that the lifting of that ban was not reported by the church-owned newspaper Deseret News led them to say that it «gave the unmistakable message to faithful church members that both the book and its authors were still suspect.»

Publication information

International Standard Book Number Unique numeric book identifier

The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a numeric commercial book identifier which is intended to be unique. Publishers purchase ISBNs from an affiliate of the International ISBN Agency.

Notes

Related Research Articles

Mormonism and polygamy formerly allowed practice

Polygamy was practiced by leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for more than half of the 19th century, and practiced publicly from 1852 to 1890 by between 20 and 30 percent of Latter-day Saint families. Note that there are various denominations that are considered Mormons and they have different beliefs and practices.

Emma Smith first wife of Joseph Smith Jr. and early leader in the Latter Day Saint movement

Emma Hale Smith Bidamon was the first wife of Joseph Smith and a leader in the early days of the Latter Day Saint movement, both during Joseph's lifetime and afterward as a member of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. In 1842, when the Ladies' Relief Society of Nauvoo was formed as a women's service organization, she was elected by its members as the organization's first president.

Hyrum Smith American Mormon leader

Hyrum Smith was an American religious leader in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the original church of the Latter Day Saint movement. He was the older brother of the movement's founder, Joseph Smith, and was killed with his brother at Carthage Jail where they were being held awaiting trial.

Origin of Latter Day Saint polygamy Overview of the inception of plural marriage in the Latter Day Saint movement

Polygamy, or plural marriage, in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is generally believed to have originated with the founder of Mormonism, Joseph Smith. According to several of his associates, Smith taught that polygamy was a divine commandment and practiced it personally, by some accounts marrying more than 30 women, some of whom had existing marriages to other men. Evidence for Smith's polygamy is provided by the church's "sealing" records, affidavits, letters, journals, and diaries. However, until his death, Smith and the leading church quorums denied that he preached or practiced polygamy. Smith's son Joseph Smith III, his widow Emma Smith, and the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints challenged the evidence and taught that Joseph Smith had opposed polygamy. They instead claimed that Brigham Young, the head of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, introduced plural marriage after Smith's death. In 1852, leaders of the Utah-based LDS Church publicly announced the doctrine of polygamy.

Frances Ward ("Fanny") Alger Custer was possibly the first plural wife of Joseph Smith, the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, although scholars have disagreed about whether Smith's relationship with Alger was an early plural marriage or simply a sexual indiscretion.

David Hyrum Smith American RLDS Church leader

David Hyrum Smith was an American religious leader, poet, painter, singer, philosopher, and naturalist. The youngest son of Joseph Smith and Emma Hale Smith, he was an influential missionary and leader in the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He was born approximately five months after the murder of his father. Joseph told Emma before he died what the child's name should be. Beginning in December 1847, he was raised by his mother and her second husband, Lewis C. Bidamon.

Life of Joseph Smith from 1831 to 1834 Overview of Smiths early ministry in the Latter Day Saint movement

The life of Joseph Smith, Jr. from 1831 to 1834, when he was 26–29 years old, covers the period of time from when Smith moved with his family to Kirtland, Ohio, in 1831, to his return from Zion's Camp in 1834. By 1831, Smith had already translated the Book of Mormon, and established the Latter Day Saint movement. He had founded it as the Church of Christ, but was eventually instructed by revelation to change its name to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Lorin C. Woolley Mormon fundamentalist leader

Lorin Calvin Woolley was an American proponent of plural marriage and one of the founders of the Mormon fundamentalist movement. As a young man in Utah Territory, Woolley served as a courier and bodyguard for polygamous leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in hiding during the federal crusade against polygamy. His career as a religious leader in his own right commenced in the early twentieth century, when he began claiming to have been set apart to keep plural marriage alive by church president John Taylor in connection with the 1886 Revelation. Woolley's distinctive teachings on authority, morality, and doctrine are thought to provide the theological foundation for nearly ninety percent of Mormon fundamentalist groups.

Life of Joseph Smith from 1834 to 1837 Overview of Smiths life in years of Latter Day Saint conflict

The life of Joseph Smith from 1834 to 1837, when he was 29–32 years old, covers a period from when Smith returned home to Kirtland, Ohio from Zion's Camp in 1834, until he left Ohio for Missouri early in early January 1838.

Life of Joseph Smith from 1838 to 1839 Transitional period in the life of Joseph Smith, Jr.

The life of Joseph Smith from 1838 to 1839, when he was 33–34 years old, covers a period beginning when Smith left Ohio in January 1838 until he left Missouri and moved to Nauvoo, Illinois in 1839.

Children of Joseph Smith Offspring of Joseph Smith, Jr.

The children of Joseph Smith Jr., the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, and his wife Emma Smith, are historically significant because of their roles in establishing and leading the Latter Day Saint Movement, which includes The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, The Church of Jesus Christ (Bickertonite), the Church of Christ and several other sects. Several Latter Day Saint sects, including the RLDS, believed that leadership of the church would flow through lineal succession of Smith's descendants. In 1860, Joseph Smith III became its prophet and president of the RLDS Church, although they no longer adhere to this practice. The larger LDS Church did not follow that practice, and it was led after Joseph Smith's death by Brigham Young.

Sarah Marinda Bates Pratt American Mormon critic

Sarah Marinda Bates Pratt was the first wife of LDS Apostle and polygamist Orson Pratt and later a critic of Mormon polygamy. She was a founder of the Anti-Polygamy Society in Salt Lake City and called herself a Mormon apostate. She was born in Henderson, Jefferson County, New York, the first daughter and third child of Cyrus Bates and Lydia Harrington Bates.

Joseph Smith American religious leader and the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement

Joseph Smith Jr. was an American religious leader and founder of Mormonism and the Latter Day Saint movement. When he was 24, Smith published the Book of Mormon. By the time of his death, 14 years later, he had attracted tens of thousands of followers and founded a religion that continues to the present.

Newell G. Bringhurst is an American historian and author of books and essays. Most of his writings have been about Mormonism— particularly topics and figures of controversy, such as blacks and the priesthood, Fawn Brodie, polygamy, and schisms within the LDS movement

This is a bibliography of works on the Latter Day Saint movement.

References


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