A Modern Prophet and His Times | Thomas G. Alexander, Things in Heaven and Earth: The Life and Times of Wilford Woodruff, a Mormon Prophet

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Thomas G. Alexander, professor of history at Brigham Young University and prominent scholar of Mormon studies, has completed his long-awaited biography of Wilford Woodruff. An important nineteenth-century Mormon leader, Woodruff served as fourth president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1889 until his death in 1898 at age ninety one. 

In leadership style and personality, Woodruff contrasted sharply with his three predecessors. According to Alexander, Woodruff lacked “the creative brilliance of Joseph Smith, [shied away] from the public confrontation and ridicule used at times by Brigham Young, and [eschewed] the stern and uncompromising public pronouncements of John Taylor; Woodruff [by contrast] more frequently sought private compromise and conciliation” (p. 304). Woodruff was, Alexander asserts, “arguably the third most important figure in all of LDS church history after Joseph Smith . . . and Brigham Young” (p. 331). 

Alexander effectively presents Wood ruff as a devout follower of a nineteenth century Mormon religion which promoted “a world view that unified the temporal and spiritual realms in God’s kingdom and in the lives of church members” (p. xiii). Indeed, the central theme of Alexander’s biography is Woodruff asserting a “holistic conception of the temporal and spiritual arena” within a world which he believed on the brink of imminent apocalypse—or mass destruction of all wicked peoples (that is, non-Mormons). 

Woodruff anxiously promoted the cause of Mormon millennialism as he rose through the ranks, becoming a member of the Quorum of the Twelve by 1838 and president of that body in 1880. Relent less in his missionary efforts to gather the faithful to Mormonism’s Zion to build “a new heaven and new earth,” Woodruff sought to prepare for what he saw to be the imminent millennium and Second Coming. He fervently believed that he and his fellow Latter-day Saints were literally living in “the latter-days.” 

However, by the time Woodruff became Church president in 1889, Mormon millennialistic expectations were in decline. The new president, along with other Church leaders, desired a more peaceful relationship with the secular, non-Mormon world, seeking cooperation rather than confrontation in political and economic arenas. Underscoring this changing position, the Church under Woodruffs leadership moved to abandon its controversial practice of plural marriage by issuing the so-called “Woodruff Manifesto of 1890.” By these actions, Woodruff, according to Alexander, “turned a psychic corner, completing a process begun some years before of dividing the previous holistic kingdom and separating the temporal and spiritual” (p. xiv). 

Alexander’s account of the life and times of Wilford Woodruff utilizes abundant information from Woodruffs own voluminous journals—a rich primary source dating from the mid-1830s to the late 1890s. Here Woodruff carefully chronicled his activities and impressions of what was happening around him. In addition to the journals, Alexander has effectively utilized throughout his narrative the most recent scholarship in Mormon history, American religious studies, and social history. With some admiration, Alexander presents Wilford Woodruff as a multifaceted man who, with general success, balanced his role as Church leader, businessman, civic leader, and scholar with his primary responsibility as the head of a large polygamous family of nine wives and thirty-three children. 

Alexander’s portrait of Woodruff is balanced and even-handed. This is no hagiography, as biographies of prominent Latter-day Saints are sometimes prone to be. Woodruff is presented here as a devout Latter-day Saint whose “sense of personal piety [was] unsurpassed by any nineteenth-century Mormon leader” (p. 332). Yet Alexander also discusses his faults and shortcomings. Though Woodruff was aware of “the necessity of compromise and discussion in achieving aims,” Alexander notes that the Mormon leader was “critical—perhaps even intolerant—of those who refused to enter into such dialogues” (p. 332). 

Woodruff was also so “conservative and orthodox in his views” that “he had no sympathy for friends” who wanted the church to move “more rapidly toward a pluralistic society than [he] . . . thought advisable” (p. 331). His complex family life is forthrightly presented as less than idyllic. Alexander notes that “he did not treat his wives and children equally” (p. 332). Four of his nine wives left him, and his first wife, Phebe, at best felt ambivalent about plural marriage.

Despite its overall strengths, Alexander’s biography is disappointing in places. Only nine out of the narrative’s 332 pages are devoted to Woodruffs fam￾ily background and personal activities before he was twenty–an extremely critical period of his life. Perhaps anticipating a predominantly Mormon audience, Alexander also fails to provide adequate explanation of various Mormon doctrines and beliefs, particularly within the context of Joseph Smith’s life and personality. Alexander also could have examined more fully Woodruffs attraction to, interactions with, and impressions of the charismatic Mormon Prophet, as well as of his two immediate predecessors, Brigham Young and John Taylor–strong dynamic personalities in their own right.

More serious, however, are problems with the biography’s overall presentation. While presenting his subject within a general chronological framework, Alexander’s narrative often skips back and forth in time, making it at times confusing and difficult to follow. Granted, no biography can present its subject absolutely chronologically, especially such a complex, multifaceted individual as Woodruff. However, movement back and forth in time during certain important episodes seriously disturbs the narrative flow. For example, Alexander describes the drama surrounding Woodruffs involvement in the “traditional topping-out ceremony” of the Salt Lake Temple in March 1893, then notes the formal dedication the following month (p. 290). Over the next six pages, he then skips back and forth in time, discussing difficulties with the temple architect, Joseph Don Carlos Young, during the earlier construction, and problems with dissident apostle Moses Thatcher that occurred before the temple was formally dedicated. One wishes, instead, for a smoother narrative presentation which would convey to the reader a sense of “episodic tension” important in presenting the larger epic drama of a life being lived.

Despite such problems, Thomas G. Alexander’s Things in Heaven and Earth: The Life and Times of Wilford Woodruff, a Mormon Prophet is an important, noteworthy biography of a significant Latter-day Saint-a study equal in stature to such recent biographies as Stanley Kimball’s on Heber C. Kimball (1981), D. Michael Quinn’s on J. Reuben Clark (1983), Linda Newell and Valeen Avery’s on Emma Hale Smith (1984), Leonard Arrington’s on Brigham Young (1985), James B. Allen’s on William Clayton (1987), and most recendy, Levi Peterson’s on Juanita Brooks (1988) and Roger D. Launius’ on Joseph Smith III (1988).

Things in Heaven and Earth: The Life and Times of Wilford Woodruff, a Mormon Prophet by Thomas G. Alexander (Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books, 1991), 484 pp., $28.95.