Maurine Whipple

MAURINE WHIPPLE (1903–1992) was a novelist, essayist, and short story author best known for her historical novel The Giant Joshua (1941). She also created the illustrated guide This is the Place: Utah (1945) and wrote articles that appeared in Life, Look, Collier’s, and Saturday Evening Post. A Craving for Beauty: The Collected Writings of Maurine Whipple (edited by Veda Hale, Andrew Hall, and Lynne Larson) was recently published by By Common Consent Press.

Mormon Saga

Articles/Essays – Volume 53, No. 4

Dust clogged my nose and the strong smell of horses, the clump, clump of their hoofs regular-like and slow, the heavy creak of the wheels, and over and above everything else, like sad heartbeats, the solemn thud, thud of the muffled drums. A sort of sigh went over all the multitude, and a woman sobbed out loud once. But mostly folks were quiet. A hush and a fear like the day of doom. You didn’t dare look, and yet it was like something glued your eyes toward that wagon passing, the stars and stripes with the black crepe edgings fluttering clean to the wheels.

They Did Go Forth

Articles/Essays – Volume 24, No. 4

Tildy Elizabeth sat by the cradle, Book of Mormon open on her knee. One hand rocked absently while the other traced in painful concentration the small print, dim in the yellow lamplight. Some time ago…