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Eugene England and the Rise and Progress of Mormon

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Eugene England and the Rise and Progress of Mormon SUNSTONE phenomenal accomplishments as a founder, organizer, editor, and promoter of literary His contribution to Mormon journals and institutions; as a teacher, literary letters and culture is indelible, scholar, and anthologizer; and, above all, as a incomparable, and enduring. superb writer of personal essays. Still, Gene is larger than the aggregate of his contributions. FOUNDER AND PROMOTER The gospel oflesw Christ that OF JOURNALS AND INSTITUTIONS he embraced was an all- encompassing social and spiritual N 1966, Gene rallied a small coterie of gospel. He practiced what he like-minded LD~students at Stanford preached. He was afriend to all, I University to found, edit, and publish and so much more so ij we were Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. The the underdog, the downtrodden, first issue created a sensation among Mormon intellectuals, and the journal soon the oppressed, the waq, the heart- boasted nearly eight thousand subscribers. hurt or soul-sufferel: Balogue gave voice to young Mormon thinkers seelung to find a course between the heady and decidedly liberal doctrines of Mormon etemalism and continuing revela- tion, and the nagging anguish evoked by the Church's conservative policies that, among EUGENEENGLAND AND THE other things, prohibited Blacks from holding the priesthood. Gene was aghast when his RISE AND PROGRESSOF pure intentions for effecting honest and open dialogue turned divisive and garnered the opprobrium of leaders he loved and hon- MORMONLETTERS ored. Indeed, reading Dialogue became, for some, an indicator of faithlessness and dis- loyalty, a transgression on par with reading the Salt Lake Tribune or voting Democrat. By Richard H. Cracroft Gene's move to St. Olaf College in 1970 ne- cessitated his relinquishing the editorship to Robert Rees. For years I have been waiting for writers to do justice to the story of the Dialogue opened the door for other publi- someone to do justice in recording Restoration (see quote ab~ve).~Equally cations, such as Carpenter, Exponent 11, in song and story and painting and noteworthy, Mormon literary criticism also Mountainwest, Seventh East Press, Student sculpture the story of the began to blossom about this time. Indeed, Review, This People, and SUNSTONE.Gene's Restoration, the reestablishment of Gene's remarkable contributions to these involvement with the Sunstone Foundation the kingdom of God on earth, the ends constitute the single major literary would reap for Gene an even stronger whirl- struggles and frustrations, the force and influence during the last quarter wind, when, in the early 19905, BYU and CES apostasies and inner revolutions of the twentieth century-an era in which faculty were cautioned not to participate in and counter-revolutions of those Mormon letters, slow aborning, stood up, Sunstone symposiums. This restriction first decades [of Mormonism]. stretched, and self-consciously fluffed its pained Gene, who by then was serving on -Spencer W ~imball' youthful feathers. And, "Mark this, Brother the Sunstone board of trustees. Gene only Rigdon," future literary historians will bear very reluctantly agreed to comply when per- UGENE ENGLAND, IN his 1995 me out: Eugene England was the principal sonally asked by then-BYUPresident Rex D. essay, "Mormon Literature: Progress fluffer! Lee. But in the last few years preceding and Prospects," noted, "It is remark- Gene England was for Mormon belles let- Gene's final illness, he had retired from Bm able that what many see as the first major tres what his friend and contemporary and was working as Writer in Residence at blossoming of a mature Mormon literature Leonard J. Anington was for Mormon his- uVSC. And continuing to believe in the need commenced about the time" President tory-and more so. The following is a clus- for independent LDS journals, Gene again be- Kimball called upon Mormon artists and tering, though not comprehensive, of Gene's came very active in Sunstone, trylng to revi- talize the sagging organization. RICHARD H. CRACROFT recently retired as Nan Osmond Grass Professor in English emeritus On 27 February 1999, BWStudies held its from Brigham Young University after thirty-eight years. While chair of~YU5English department, he fortieth anniversary celebration, at which hired Eugene England in 1977. A former associate editor of Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Gene was honored as the all-time most-pub- Thought, he has sewed as president ofthe Associationfor Mormon Letters and was gven Honorary lished contributor. The honor uncovered a Lqetime Membership in the AML in 2001. delightful academic irony, as the success of PAGE 42 JANUARY 2002 SUNSTONE Dialogue had inspired BYU President Dallin American West lecture, "'The Dawning of a efforts to reprint important works of H. Oaks to upgrade the BW Studies budget Brighter Day': Mormon Literature After 150 Mormon literature under the imprint of and emphasize its importance in a conscious Years," Gene defined Mormon literature, ex- Tabernacle Books. He was proud of his and attempt to give LDS scholars an acceptable plored the sources and literary potential in Dennis Clark's anthology, Harvest: and viable alternative publication venue to Mormon theology, history, and culture, and Conternporary Mormon poems," the only an- Dialogue. (Indeed, some of us had dubbed suggested the possibilities for the "dawning thology of its kind; and of his Bright Angels Gene the "inadvertent midwife" to the rebirth of a brighter" literary day.3 Fifteen years later, and Familiars: Conternporary Mormon of a rejuvenated BWStudies.) in "Mormon Literature: Progress and stories,12 in which he collected stories by Gene was also an enthusiastic supporter, Prospects," he incisively surveyed LDS lit- Mormon authors he thought deserved to be contributor to, and board member of erary history and assessed how far we had described as literary He took every opportu- Wasatch Review International, and he recently come and our hopeful prospects. These land- nity to encourage and to tout the work of de- performed important roles for Irreantum, the mark essays will be a foundation and en- serving Mormon authors. I again note his official journal of the Association for during point of departure for future literary and Lavina Fielding Anderson's compilation Mormon Letters. For several years, Gene historians. In 1996, Lavina Fielding of literary criticism, Tending the Garden: published a well-received book review Anderson teamed with Gene to edit Tending Essays on Mormon Literature. column in This People, and he was a frequent the Garden: Essays on Mormon ~iterature.~ contributor to Exponent 11. He also regularly This volume collected the best in late twen- contributed to Literature and Belief, the tieth-century Mormon literary criticism and MORMON ESSAYIST journal of BYUk Center for the Study of will be the basis for Mormon literary studies Christian Values in Literature. of the twenty-first century. In 1976, Gene joined other LDS literary Among his several scholarly articles on UGENE'S most notable contribution scholars in founding the Association for Mormon literature are "[Douglas] Thayer's to Mormon belles lettres and culture is Mormon Letters. He became one of its first Ode to a Redtail ~awk"~;"Wilderness as Ein the personal essay-unquestion- presidents, served for several years as a Salvation in [Levi] Peterson's The Canyons of ably Gene's personal favorite among literary member of its governing board, and regu- race"'; "Beyond 'Jack Fiction': Recent genres. He wrote and published a small larly presented papers or participated in Achievement in the Mormon ~ovel";'and number of fine poems, some of which are in- panels at the annual meeting of the associa- his recent "Born Square: On Being Mormon, cluded in Harvest: Conternporary Mormon tion. Gene also helped establish an AML sec- Western, and Human," about Wallace Poems, but again and again he'd press the tion of the Rocky Mountain Modern Stegner and Mormon literature.' Among his personal essay He wrote in "Mormon Language Association. In 1998, he was several treatises (and a book of testimonies) Literature: Progress and Prospects," named an Honorary Lifetime Member of the on the Book of Mormon as literature is his It is the personal essay that seems AML. "A Second Witness for the Logos: The Book to me to have the greatest potential of Mormon and Contemporary Literary for making a uniquely valuable Criti~ism."~Gene also wrote three short bi- Mormon contribution both to TEACHER, CRITIC, ANTHOLOGIST OF ographies of Levi S. Peterson, Leslie Norris, Mormon cultural and religious life MORMON LITERATURE and Douglas H. Thayer for the Dictionary of and to that of others. Our theolog- American Biography: Twentieth-Century ical emphasis on life as a stage American Western Writers. In fact, one of my where the individual self is both OON after joining the English depart- last conversations with Gene before his tested and created and our history ment at Brigham Young University, death concerned the proofs of a biography of close self-examination in jour- SGene began teaching, among other for the dictionary of his dear colleague, nals and testimony-bearing provide courses, "The Literature of the Latter-day friend, and fishing buddy Douglas H. resources that have mainly been re- Saints." Gene usually taught two large sec- Thayer. "I want to be sure that is pub- alized in great sermons and various tions of the popular course each year, often lished," he said. It was.'' forms of autobiography but in- inviting many LDS and other contemporary creasingly find expression in pow- writers to speak to his classes. He continued erful informal essays and personal this practice when he moved to WSC, and family ~torytelling.'~ quickly establishing the Mormon literature Fortunately for all of us, Gene gathered course. While there, he was also instm- his personal essays into four fine collections. mental in laying the foundation for a reli- The first, Dialogues with Myself: Personal gious studies program at UVSC.
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