A Reader's Library: Hugh Nibley: a Legend in His Own Time

Journal of Book of Mormon Studies Volume 12 Number 1 Article 14 1-31-2003 A Reader's Library: Hugh Nibley: A Legend in His Own Time Mary Lythgoe Bradford Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/jbms BYU ScholarsArchive Citation Bradford, Mary Lythgoe (2003) "A Reader's Library: Hugh Nibley: A Legend in His Own Time," Journal of Book of Mormon Studies: Vol. 12 : No. 1 , Article 14. Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/jbms/vol12/iss1/14 This Departments is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Book of Mormon Studies by an authorized editor of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. Title A Reader’s Library: Hugh Nibley: A Legend in His Own Time Author(s) Mary Lythgoe Bradford Reference Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 12/1 (2003): 108–10, 120. ISSN 1065-9366 (print), 2168-3158 (online) Abstract This review enthusiastically endorses Boyd Petersen’s biography of his father-in-law, Hugh Nibley. Petersen intersperses narrative chapters with thematic ones in Hugh Nibley: A Consecrated Life. A READER’S LIBRARY Mary Lythgoe Bradford Hugh Nibley: A Legend in His as a defender of the faith. I don’t I interviewed him for Dialogue, I Own Time disagree, but like most labels, these was impressed with his purple It is tempting to call Boyd Jay are too simplistic. As Bennion’s running shoes and his satirical Petersen’s book Hugh Nibley: A biographer, however, I noticed yet lovable personality. I was Consecrated Life (Salt Lake City: many parallels in the lives of thrilled when he handed me a Greg Kofford Books, 2002) a Bennion and Nibley, which can speech—one he had delivered monument to a monument, but be summarized as a devotion to on the occasion of the church’s that would sound too much like a “the things that matter most.”1 sesquicentennial—with the words, stone effigy, and this is a biogra- As a biographer, I can only “I want you to publish this” (see phy that lives and breathes with stand back and marvel at Boyd “How Firm a Foundation! What the verve and wit of its subject. Petersen’s achievement. At first, I Makes It So,” Dialogue: A Journal As an artifact, it is a beautiful ex- read through all of the footnotes, of Mormon Thought 12 [winter ample of the bookmaker’s art, thinking that they and likely other 1979]: 29–45). with its mosaic portrait of Hugh portions of the work could stand a Petersen reports that, not long Nibley on the cover and its bit of pruning. But upon reading after entering the Nibley family smooth, readable typeface. The further, I found myself unwilling circle, he noticed that no one many photos add immeasurably to part with any part of the book, seemed to be archiving the family to its beauty. from its lengthy footnotes and records. He began the task as a Boyd Petersen, Nibley’s son- quotations to its stunning photos service to his children, but soon in-law, has written a personalized and insightful commentaries. realized that he was on the tip of account that manages to be a Petersen’s introductory chap- an iceberg. When he dipped into professional and brilliant evoca- ter on Nibley’s legendary status the treasure house of letters Nibley tion of the life and times of one among Latter-day Saints is pref- had preserved—letters to and of Mormonism’s most celebrated aced by a disarming essay by from his mother, his best friend, scholar-thinkers. When I say “one Hugh’s daughter Zina, Petersen’s his children—Petersen realized of,” I find myself trying to come wife. Her amusing “vignettes” that he had the makings of a up with the names of others in from her life with her father will first-rate biography. When Boyd his class. There are only a few inspire readers to recall their own and Zina Petersen came to study who could stand with Nibley. encounters with Nibley. Even I in the D.C. area, they became my Leonard Arrington once placed have Nibley vignettes to add. For helpful friends. As Boyd and I him in the company of Lowell example, I was present at the first compared notes on the Bennion Bennion and Sterling McMurrin, East Coast Sunstone symposium, and Nibley projects, I realized calling them the three “leading when, as described by Petersen, that a son-in-law could write the Mormon intellectuals of the late Nibley addressed 600 puzzled but definitive biography of a revered twentieth century.”Arrington’s admiring listeners (p. 398). We figure like Hugh. As a family mem- taxonomy emphasized McMurrin were so awed by his knowledge ber, Boyd had access to all of the as a defender of ideas, Bennion as that we forgave him for being in- records, all of the writings, and a defender of people, and Nibley scrutable. A few years later, when all of the relatives, friends, and 108 VOLUME 12, NUMBER 1, 2003 colleagues of this amazing man. and second counselor to President the sport of hunting. His warn- The book’s lively quality stems Heber J. Grant. The elder Nibley ings fell largely on deaf ears, partly from the fact that “most of was a successful businessman who, Petersen observes. the information in this book ironically, advised Hugh to stay Nibley’s later service in the comes from sources that have out of business. Hugh took his Army Air Force, during which he never seen print before” (p. xii), advice because he had inherited a survived D-day on Omaha Beach offering the authentic thrill that respect and love for church leaders. and was exposed to the horrors primary sources bring to the In fact, his middle name, Winder, of war on both sides of the war, narrative. was bestowed after his mother re- made him a pacifist. Petersen In selecting a way to present ceived a blessing from John R. writes that Hugh “witnessed the the massive amount of informa- Winder, who was president of the atrocities of the European cam- tion available to him, Petersen hit Salt Lake Temple. paign [and] later visited Dachau on the congenial plan of inter- From that point on, the book and German cities firebombed by spersing narrative chapters with is an exciting journey through the British. These scenes left him thematic ones in “sort of a mo- Nibley’s remarkable life. Accounts with memories so horrific that he saic” (p. xii). As a result, the long of his childhood and youth show refuses to talk of them to this recital of life events is broken up his early talents for poetry, art, day.” The account of his military into manageable pieces of back- and scholarship combined with a career is told mainly through elo- ground information explaining love for the wilderness. Experi- quent letters. The astute chapter how and why the themes of ences with his family’s lumber on Nibley as social critic grows Nibley’s life and thought devel- business led him to become an naturally from his youthful expe- oped as they did. The theme environmentalist who opposed riences and military service. His chapters could make a separate the cutting of trees and even the writings have a prophetic quality, book, but they blend in well with killing of any living thing. He be- painting pictures of the future the narrative ones and enliven came a voice in the wilderness for very much like scenes from the them with portraits of Nibley as the wilderness. As a young man Book of Mormon and other an- social critic, naturalist, and sharp he slept in the woods and still cient texts. His writings reveal his wit. There are also chapters on his carries the scar from a wolf bite conviction that the scriptures are life of faith and his scholarship on to show for it. One of his reasons constantly teaching valid lessons the Book of Mormon, the Pearl for accepting an appointment to for today. of Great Price, and the temple. Brigham Young University was When Nibley arrived on the There is an astounding chapter the attraction of the Wasatch BYU campus on May 25, 1946, on his pacifism. (I found his war Range and its healing qualities. he found a campus in the middle experiences to be totally riveting, He also grew to love the deserts of a postwar boom. He was 36 worthy of movie treatment.) of Utah and Arizona and the and unmarried. Having survived Another chapter covers his rela- Hopi people who lived on the a few failed romances, he was tionship with the Hopi. Through Third Mesa. Petersen believes ready to take the advice of Elder this appealing organizational that Nibley could have been a na- John A. Widtsoe, who advised structuring, Petersen succeeds in ture writer, for “the same drive him to marry soon. In fact, Hugh his ambition to present a “coher- and determination that pushed went further by vowing that he ent portrait of the man and his him to learn another language, or would marry the first young views on particular issues” (p. xii). read another book, or write an- woman he met on campus. She Nibley’s ancestry is gracefully other article also pushed him to turned out to be Phyllis Draper, a sketched—material that could explore another canyon, climb student working in the housing have been tedious is presented another mountain, or hike an- office where he went to look for creatively.

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