Kathryn M. Daynes

Kathryn M. Daynes {[email protected]} is associate professor emerita of History, Brigham Young University. She is a past president of the Mormon History Association. Among her publications is More Wives Than One: Transformation of the Mormon Marriage System, 1840–1910, which received the “Best Book of the Year on Mormon History” Award for 2001 from the Mormon History Association and “Best Book” Award for 2001 from the Utah State Historical Society.

Letters to the Editor

Articles/Essays – Volume 14, No. 2

Shifting Attitudes: Nauvoo Polygamy | Merina Smith, Revelation, Resistance, and Mormon Polygamy: The Introduction and Implementation of the Principle, 1830–1853

Articles/Essays – Volume 47, No. 3

Merina Smith’s book continues the fascination with Nauvoo polygamy. Other authors have considered such topics as Joseph Smith and his wives, the experience of those entering polygamy in Nauvoo (as well as the numbers and names of those who did so), the theology underpinning plural marriage, and much more. The major question Smith deals with is how Latter-day Saints “were persuaded to shift their understanding of marriage not only to accommodate polygamy, but to regard it, at least officially, as the ideal form of marriage” (2). Larry Foster has dealt with this question, though Smith explores it in more depth and frames her answer with theology rather than theory.