Reviews 163 The Harlan-Young company was become tedious, but history students the first to take wagons over the "cut- will find the effort well rewarded. off." The "Journal of Heinrich Lien- Korns and Morgan believed that hard" reports on the struggles and Hastings's map, drawn for the Mor- heroics of their trip through the mons, as well as his "way bill," might mountains and across the salt flats be- be held in the LDS church archives; tween 26 July and 8 September 1846. however, they were not able locate This "Journal" also provides new in- them. After 1976 the LDS archives sights into the information contained "catalogued" the Hastings's materials, on the T. H. Jefferson map. The editors and their existence came to the atten- have included a copy of that map in a tion of the current editors in 1991. pocket inside the back cover, along Copies of these documents have been with an updated trails map correlated included in this edition, as well as an- to current road maps. other "map," drawn also by Thomas The next materials are "excerpts" Bullock, of Miles Goodyear's sug- from the "Journal of James Frazier gested route into Salt Lake Valley. Reed/' of the tragic Donner-Reed "The Golden Pass Road," which party, which left the Fort Bridger area came down Parley's Canyon into the 31 July. His account ends 4 October 1846. A brief epilogue contains a re- valley, was promoted by Parley P. port of their trials by his daughter Vir- Pratt in 1850 but with limited success. ginia Reed to her cousin. The final chapter introduces new in- formation about the "Salt Lake Cut- While these "journals" provide off," the route around the north end of important information about these routes, the history is complete only be- the lake, reflecting recent scholarship cause of the excellent introductions in that area. both to the book itself and to each of West from Fort Bridger is the major the documents used. Of equal signifi- work dealing with these routes into cance are the extensive and careful foot- Salt Lake Valley and on west into Ne- noting and correlating of data from vada and California. It has an excel- these sources with other historical doc- lent index, extensive illustrations and uments. Bagley and Schindler have pictures, and a wealth of information provided the latest scholarship in for anyone interested in this aspect of their update. For some readers the task the westering of Americans a century of reading all of these footnotes may and a half ago. A Collective Yearning Tending the Garden: Essays on Mormon Reviewed by Thomas J. Lyon, Literature. Edited by Eugene England Professor of English, Utah State Uni- and Lavina Fielding Anderson (Salt versity, Logan. Lake City: Signature Books, 1996). THERE IS A COLLECTIVE YEARNING 164 Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought here, a palpable sincerity, that you Mormon Literature," says that "One can't help but like and respect. The of the mysteries of literary life in desire that practically radiates from America is why Mormons have con- these pages is for Mormon literature tributed so little to it" (13). He goes on to be taken seriously, both by outsid- to propose an answer to the mystery, ers and by members (the latter may be and by the way to state the essential a harder nut to crack), and for litera- theme and position of Tending the Gar- ture, period, to mean more in our den: "But significantly, when thought lives. By engaging the Socratic ques- of as having a message, a moral point, tion of what sort of "imitation" ought a communication to make, most litera- to be allowed in the ideal republic, ture is going to be thought of by the these Mormon critics ask some deep church as being irrelevant, perverse, questions. What is fiction, and what untrue, pornographic, for as a work is truth? How much, and in what way, explores personal experience or a per- does literature really count for us? sonal point of view, it will naturally How then shall we live? This is a Puri- diverge from the authoritative doctri- tan book, in the best sense—a soul- nal norms of the church. Literature searching, and a culture-searching. does not have meaning; rather it pro- First come the overview and vides one with the Christian exercise some history. In his introduction, of getting into someone else's skin, "Critical Issues," editor Eugene En- someone else's mind, someone else's gland says that the theologically dis- life" (18). tinct Mormon ideas, coupled with That "Christian exercise," the "the dramatic and mythically potent great dare, is very much at the heart of Mormon history" and with the "de- three fine essays here by Marden J. mands of service, covenant-making, Clark, Bruce W. Jorgensen, and Tory and charismatic experience in the C. Anderson. These essays affirm the Mormon lay church" (xvi), make a relational feeling and the relational rich resource for fine writing: "Mor- world; they haven't divided existence mon writers, then, certainly have at into an "us and them" thing—all is hand sufficient matter with which to fundamentally in order, logical, inte- produce a great literature. But does grated, in a sense "friendly." But the Mormonism also provide insight into hard thing is to perceive in wholes, for the resources and limitations of the to move toward what Clark calls means of literature: language, form, "family" or "that one great whole" style, genres, critical perspectives?" (16, 18) requires that love, and not (xvi) thought- and idea-generated identity, Matter and means ... but there is be our guide. Bruce Jorgensen writes something else that makes it all work, of the generosity of spirit found in and that something else is really what Homer and in the gospel authors and this book is about. That something is of course in Jesus Christ: it is stranger- the freedom to discover, to engage the welcoming. "The imagination of Jesus, world with the love that is beyond the I'm suggesting, which is the ordinary range of thought and ideas and the Christian and Mormon imagination, merely social-historical level of exist- will take precisely the risk Socrates ence. Karl Keller, in "On Words and warns against as the ruin of the soul: the Word of God: The Delusions of a to understand an other, whoever the Reviews 165 other is, however bad or mixed" (59). 'Jack Fiction': Recent Achievement in And Tory Anderson (using Madame the Mormon Novel" best demon- Bovary as his main text) speaks of the strate the very high-minded and uni- truth of action as experiential—much versal aims of the book's first, more profoundly involving, more theoretical section. Although I think complete in terms of consciousness, Cecilia Conchar Farr and Phillip A. than ideas and judgments. "This is Snyder are incorrect to say that Henry where fiction comes in. Good fiction is David Thoreau "looks to Nature as a refined life. It gets at the heart of the singular Other to his Self" (205), I see meaning of life without ever talking what they're after in doing a compari- about it like sermons do" (73). son-and-contrast between Thoreau The first part of Tending the Gar- and Terry Tempest Williams, whom den, then, establishes the significance in religious life of truly free reading they regard as a "Self-in-Relation." and writing. The second part deals in They are promoting relational percep- practical criticism, bringing specifi- tion, and in a way this is what Tending cally Mormon examples under scru- the Garden is all about: seeing the tiny. Here, to my mind, Levi Peterson's world relationally means to transcend tribute to Juanita Brooks's courage the dualistic, egoistic identity. It and overriding faith, and Eugene En- means to live freely, moved by empa- gland's discerning, hopeful "Beyond thy. Fiddler with a Cause Leroy Robertson: Music Giant from the commenced work on her father's bi- Rockies. By Marian Robertson Wilson ography and either performed in or (Salt Lake City: Blue Ribbon Publica- conducted many performances of his tions, 1996). works during my twenty-two-year tenure with the Utah Symphony. Reviewed by Ardean Watts, Pro- Marian Robertson Wilson's book fessor Emeritus of Music, University is essential reading for those who of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah. would understand music in the Amer- LEROY ROBERTSON WAS ONE OF MY ican West during her father's lifetime mentors. I played in the Brigham and since, for that matter. Her per- Young University orchestra under spective as a devoted daughter is him in 1945-46, studied music theory seasoned by her own professional from him as a graduate student at the competence as a language scholar and University of Utah in 1955, and was editor. The book is replete with detail, appointed to the U of U music depart- amply documented, and yet provides ment as a faculty member during his intimate access to Robertson's private chairmanship in 1960. I was inter- life—fortuitous for the reader since viewed by the author shortly after she he granted glimpses of his personal.