Winter 2010
The Winter 2010 issue begins with Christopher Smith and Andrew Cook looking at Facsimile 1 in the Book of Abraham, further elaborating on the origins of the papyri recovered by Joseph Smith known as the Scroll of Hôr. This is followed by a look at Joseph Smith's letter from Liberty Jail as a literary work and the theological implications from the letter. After this Kenneth Cannon explores the dynamic sex played in the early church in his article "Wives and Other Women: Love, Sex, and Marriage in the Lives of John Q. Cannon, Frank J. Cannon, and Abraham H. Cannon," which provides an up-close and personal perspective to Brigham Young's second in command. Finally Barry Laga writes on Mormon monuments, and how the Mormon community and collective memory has shaped how they remember and teach about their past. The Winter 2010 issue ends with several beautiful works of poetry, multiple reviews, and a sermon from Christian N. K. Anderson.
Carrol and Edwin Firmage contributed papers to the fall issue that review Mormon history during the nineteenth century and early twentieth centuries and scriptural precedent, in an attempt to motivate a Mormon audience toward improved ecological fidelity: Edwin Firmage Jr., “Light in Darkness: Embracing the Opportunity of Climate Change” and Carrol Firmage, “Preserves” (43, no. 3 [Fall 2010]: 100–127 and 128–65).
Dialogue 43.4 (Winter 2010): 1–42
The purpose of this paper is to introduce a robust methodology that eliminates the guesswork in determining winding locations by visual inspection of crease marks or lacunae features, and to determine whether the missing interior section of the Hôr scroll could have been long enough to accommodate the Book of Abraham. Fortunately, this is a question that can be definitively answered by examining the physical characteristics of the extant portions of the scroll. The haste and greed of Michael Chandler provide the key to unlocking this mystery.
Joseph Smith may not have ever spoken the word “rhetoric,” but his participation in juvenile debating societies probably brought him some contact with rhetoric’s long tradition.Regardless of his knowledge of this tradition, it is obvious that Smith knew how to persuade people through speech and writing. In addition, his writings instruct readers about how to persuade in a manner consistent with the restored gospel of Mormonism.
John Q. Cannon, Frank J. Cannon, and Abraham H. Cannon were the three eldest sons of George Q. Cannon, the man viewed by historians as second only to Brigham Young in prominence in late nineteenth-century Mormon Utah. George Q. Cannon was a man of unusual talents and skills, whose far-flung influence extended to ecclesiastical, political, literary, journalistic, and business matters in Utah and the West, and each of the three sons inherited much of their father’s brilliance, culture, and charisma.
As a missionary in France and Belgium, I frequently encountered devout Catholics who would describe their journeys to Lourdes or Fatima. “Ah, oui! J’ai vu la grotte, la grotte où la Vierge s’est apparue à Bernadette! J’étais lá!” While these humble women, dressed in robin-egg-blue housecoats, could not bring home a piece of the cross, they could show me their holy water, rosary beads, or skinned knees, emblems of their devotion and commitment. Their pilgrimage was no trite tourist trip. They didn’t watch the spectacle with ironic detachment, rolling their eyes at the commodification of sacred space. Non! They walked on holy ground. I nodded and smiled. But I confess that the stories amused me. Holy water indeed.
Although it had never been formally declared or written in cursive on a piece of parchment, Jolene understood her place in the family hierarchy. She was right there between the ancient golden retriever and the…
Kristine: As you well know, Mormons are always interested in famous Mormons’ relationship to the Church. From what I’ve read, it seems that you like the Church, like Mormons, but never were really a believer, never “gained a testimony,” in the vernacular.
Brady: That’s right. I grew up in the Church, went on a mission. I’m proud to be a Mormon. I did what you’re supposed to; I prayed and hoped to be a believer, but it just never took.
George Borrow, an English travel writer, descended from the hills one evening in 1854 to report on Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, at that time the busiest iron smelting and coal town in the common wealth. I imagine he used a walking stick, picking his way through the mountain brush of the South Wales hills to a valley of light and a hillside of blazes. On reaching the valley, he identified the source of brilliance to be lava-like material that zigzagged down the hill above him.
After school the Greer boy and I
run home past the bottling plant
where I glimpse through the plate-glass
the endless capping of mouths.
As a semi chugs past, we notice
the trailer looks funny—cocked back
The missionaries stay in an old apartment.
The shades are yellow as runny yolk.
The afternoon sun is beating to get in.
You’d like to maintain innocence—
The mushroom path of fingerprints
Impressing your distinct presence
Now entered into evidence;
Mud to the horse’s knees,
miles with only the moon
and then his patient screaming,
the leg red and swollen
and only amputation to offer.
He would not do this again,
In response to a review by Jan Shipps of Richard Lyman Bushman’s Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling, Bushman remarked: “As more and more historians work to situate Mormonism in American history, Mormons like me want to join the discussion. We will write better if we are less defensive, more open to criticism, more exploratory and venturous, but even with our inhibitions and parochialisms, we should come to the table with our Mormonism intact.”
Brady Udall has always been a highly readable writer, one who engages his audience with the immediate appeal of his narrative voice and the sometimes quirky attraction of his narrative settings and semi-misfit characters. Like…
The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance: A Memoir by Elna Baker is a book about Mormons for an audience of non-Mormons; for that, everyone who works in the field of Mormon literature should…
Buenos días, hermanos y hermanas. Para los que no me conocen, me llamo Cristian Anderson. Nací en el Lago Salado, Utah, y viví allí hasta los 18 años cuando fui a San Francisco para estudiar biología. Después de un año de estudios salí de misión a Houston Sur en el estado de Texas. Al regresar a la universidad conocí a mi esposa, Marina Capella. Ella nació en Los Ángeles y pasó la mayor parte de su vida en un suburbio que se llama Fontana, hasta que salió a estudiar en la misma universidad que yo. Nos conocimos en octubre y nos casamos en septiembre del siguiente año en el Templo de San Diego, hace 7 años. Todavía somos estudiantes, pero en menos de dos meses Marina recibirá su doctorado de médica pediatra y vamos a mudarnos a Boston, al otro lado del país donde ella estudiará medicina en Harvard y yo trabajaré en el Museo de Historia Natural.
