Utah History Encyclopedia
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UTAH LITERATURE Utah literature may be said to begin with the travel journal of Francisco Atanasio Dominguez and Silvestre Velez de Escalante which, in 1776, provided the first written descriptions of Utah′s geography and people. For the next seventy-odd years, Utah′s literature consisted of the accounts of trappers, traders, and explorers, most notably John C. Frémont′s Report of the Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, conducted in 1843 and published in 1845. (John Wesley′s Powell′s notable Report on the Lands of the Arid Regions was published in 1878.) Formal literature, however, may best be dated from the arrival of the Mormons in 1847, and the arrival of a printing press for the Deseret News in 1850 For almost a century thereafter, Utah′s literature could be divided into "insider" writings by the often beleaguered Mormons and intended for internal consumption and "observer" writings intended to explain or sometimes denounce Utah to the larger society. Notable examples of nineteenth-century observers include American journalist Horace Greeley′s letter series, published in 1860 as An Overland Journey, French botanist Jules Remy′s and British naturalist Julius Brenchley′s Journey to the Great Salt Lake City (1861), Richard F. Burton′s The City of the Saints (1861), and Fitz Hugh Ludlow′s literate and vivid observations, made in 1864 and published in 1870 as The Heart of the Continent, with illustrations by Albert Bierstadt. Perhaps most sympathetic to the Mormons was Elizabeth Kane′s Twelve Mormon Homes (1874), an account of her tour of Mormon settlements from Salt Lake City to St. George in Brigham Young′s company. Mark Twain (Roughing It, 1871) and Artemus Ward ("A Visit to Brigham Young," 1866), created satirical sketches of Mormon life that are still amusing. Twentieth-century continuations of this rich vein of travelers′ descriptions and naturalists′ observations include Alfred Lambourne′s nature poetry and essays (Bits of Descriptive Prose, 1891), native-son Claude Teancum Barnes′s (1884-1921) delicately penned observations 1 of 9 and appreciations of Wasatch flora, fauna, and seasons (The Natural History of a Wasatch Summer/Fall/Winter/Spring, compiled and published in 1957 as The Natural History of a Wasatch Year), The Wending Year (a short nature poem for each day of the year, 1940), and essays published in both local and national periodicals from 1913 to the 1930s. Edward Ruess′s sensitive and impassioned descriptions of the Southwest, especially northern Arizona and southern Utah, are preserved in his letters and diary from 1930 to 1934 and many were collected by W.L. Rusho in Everett Ruess: A Vagabond for Beauty (1983). He disappeared without a trace in November 1934 from Escalante. Edward Abbey′s Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness (1955) celebrates the wilderness of southern Utah and laments its exploitation (see also his Slickrock, 1963), while Terry Tempest Williams′ s more recent nature essays and books, including The Secret Language of Snow and Coyote¢s Canyon and Refuge, evoke the mystery and ecological delicacy of the larger planet although often the subject is part of Utah. Belles-lettres in Utah can be divided for the sake of convenience into three periods: territorial (1847-96), early twentieth century (1896 1945), and contemporary (1945-present). Throughout all three periods, the literary fields of journalism, letters, diaries, sermons, polemical exposés and equally polemical defenses, biography and autobiography, and history have formed rich substrata that have nourished Utah′s literature. Although only poetry, fiction, and personal essays are discussed here, personal writings, biographies, and histories in many instances have been among the most distinctive and impressive forms of Utah "literature." During the territorial period, the main publishing outlets for poetry were provided by newspapers and periodicals, primarily the Deseret News, the short-lived Peep o¢ Day (1864), and the Woman¢s Exponent (1872 1914) for Mormons, and the Valley Tan (1858-60), Union Vedette (1863-67), and still thriving Salt Lake Tribune (founded 1870) for non- Mormons, especially in the nineteenth century. Mormon writers, many of them transplanted New Englanders, often wrote didactic poetry, describing their new Zion as well as their religious beliefs. Notable among this first generation were Eliza R. Snow (ten volumes), Sarah Elizabeth Carmichael (Poems, 1866), Hannah Tapfield King (Songs of the Heart, 1879), and Orson F. Whitney, who in addition to numerous shorter works composed the ambitious Elias, An Epic of the Ages (1904). Although fiction during the early territorial period was regarded by 2 of 9 Mormons with some puritanical misgivings, by the late nineteenth century they had assigned to their "home literature" the role of improving the community′s morals. This period saw a flood of cautionary tales by such authors as Nephi Anderson (also author of seven novels between Added Upon in 1898 and Dorian in 1921), Orson F. Whitney, Susa Young Gates, Josephine Spencer (The Senator from Utah, and Other Tales of the Wasatch, 1895), and Augusta Joyce Crocheron (Wild Flowers of Deseret, 1881). Their short stories, poetry, and serialized longer works appeared in such Mormon periodicals as The Contributor (1879-95), the Woman¢s Exponent, the Young Woman¢s Journal (1889-29), and the Improvement Era (1897-1970). The first Utah novel seems to have been Susa Young Gates′s romance, John Stephens¢ Courtship: A Story of the Echo Canyon War (1909). Unlike Arthur Conan Doyle′s 1895 thriller, A Study in Scarlet, in which Sherlock Holmes unravels a revenge-murder prompted by the death of a woman forced into polygamy, Gates′s historical novel does not mention Mormonism′s peculiar institution. During the early and middle twentieth century, "home literature" surfaced regularly in the pages of such Mormon periodicals as the Relief Society Magazine (1912-70) and the Improvement Era (which was combined with the Young Woman¢s Journal in 1929 and continued until 1970). The first especially provided an important publishing outlet for many Utah women, including Alice Morrey Bailey, Christie Lund Coles, Vesta P. Crawford, Alice Merrill Horne, Caroline Eyring Miner, Veneta Leatham Neilsen, Anna Prince Redd, Helen Candland Stark, Ivy Williams Stone, and Eva Willes Wangsgaard. At the same time, more serious fiction, essays, and poetry also appeared, much of it written by college-educated and ambitious young writers who perceived the tensions inherent between a monolithic religion and personal individualism. Often they became expatriates, either literally or figuratively, unable to be both accepted members of an orthodox religious community and honest practitioners of their craft. One of the best of these is Virginia Sorensen. In addition to her evocative collection of short stories, Where Nothing Is Long Ago: Memories of a Mormon Childhood (1963), her Mormon novels deal sensitively with the pressures toward conformity in small Utah towns; they include A Little Lower Than the Angels (1942), On This Star (1946), The Evening and the Morning (1949), Many Heavens (1954), and Kingdom Come (1960). 3 of 9 Maurine Whipple, a native and lifelong resident of St. George, captured Dixie′s folklore, landscape, and culture in The Giant Joshua (1941). Dealing with the founding and subsequent history of St. George through the eyes of a young plural wife, this book, Whipple′s only novel, is considered by many critics to be the finest Mormon novel yet produced. Bernard DeVoto, born in Ogden in 1897, spent his professional life writing in the East, producing an iconoclastic monthly column for Harper ¢s called "The Easy Chair" and winning a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award for two of his western histories. References to Utah run throughout his work, though they do not dominate. Wallace Stegner, educated in Utah, taught for a time at the University of Utah and set two of his novels, The Big Rock Candy Mountain (1943) and Recapitulation (1979), in the state. His Mormon Country (1942) and The Gathering of Zion (1964) are eloquent and sympathetic works dealing with Utah and Mormonism. Also writing in the same period and overlapping into the contemporary generation have been Blanche Cannon, (Nothing Ever Happens Sunday Morning 1948), Elsie Chamberlain Carroll, Paul Dayton Bailey (Song Everlasting, 1946, and For This My Glory, 1952), Wayne Carver, Vardis Fisher (his Harper prize-winning Children of God: An American Epic of 1939 follows the Mormons to Utah), Helen Hinckley Jones (The Mountains Are Mine, 1946), Ardyth Kennelly (The Peaceable Kingdom, 1948), Lee Neville (Poplars across the Moon, 1936), Elinor Pryor (And Never Yield, 1942), Frank C. Robertson (author of dozens of western novels and a spritely autobiography, Ram in the Thicket: The Story of a Roaming Homesteader Family on the Mormon Frontier, 1959), Richard Scowcroft (Children of the Covenant, 1945, and his comic The Ordeal of Dudley Dean, 1969), George D. Snell (Root, Hog, and Die, 1936), Lorene Pearson (The Harvest Waits, 1941), Ora Pate Stewart, Samuel W. Taylor (Heaven Knows Why, 1948, and Family Kingdom, 1951), Richard Young Thurman, Ray B. West, Jr. (also editor of the anthology Rocky Mountain Reader, 1946), Jean Woodman (Glory Spent, 1940), and David L. Wright, among others. Until the twentieth century, much of Utah′s literature by non-Mormons took the more ephemeral forms of letters, journalism, and speeches with political and social emphases. These writers frequently sought publishers outside the state, which has sometimes lessened awareness within Utah of their contributions to literature. In the contemporary period, however, poetry, personal essays, and fiction have all flourished with much less emphasis on religious differences. Many Mormon writers 4 of 9 have been able to combine their faith and their craft successfully. More outlets for literature within the state have flourished, and many Utah writers have found national markets for their products.