Comments on: Best LDS Biographies

By: larryco_

larryco_ — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 22:08:50 +0000

“what scholarly biography have you read that leaves you nonetheless wishing for a better, more scholarly and literary treatment?”

such a good question; my answer would be:

B. H. Roberts/Truman Madsen

George Q. Cannon/Davis Bitton (this one, in particular, was filled with “facts”, but I never felt like it answered the question of how really powerful Cannon was and how he got that way)

and a whole slue of “faithful” biographies of presidents of the Church which have great stories for sacrament meeting talks but give little understanding of person and milieu.

On a personal note, I’m still waiting for someone to nail Nauvoo. Flinders came the closest, but Leonard’s is much like Bitton’s (in my opinion) in
discussing all the trees and missing the forest.

By: Ben

Ben — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 14:19:55 +0000

MD (37): I think the lack of mentioning comes as a slip on our part rather than a conscious decision. I agree that Mormon Enigma is a great book and was a significant step in Mormon studies.

By: MormonDeadhead

MormonDeadhead — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 14:16:19 +0000

Total Amateur here, but I didn’t notice a mention to “Mormon Enigma” by Newell and Avery. I quite enjoyed it as a narrative about Mormon beginnings from Emma’s (rather than the usual “Joseph’s”) point of view. Not as footnoted as I would have liked but a great read nonetheless.

By: Chris H.

Chris H. — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 00:38:18 +0000

I think the question is not who wrote it, but what are good biographies to read.

By: Will Bagley

Will Bagley — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 00:29:38 +0000

Arrington’s biography “From Quaker to Latter-Day Saint: Bishop Edwin D. Woolley” is indeed worthy of comment, since he wrote virtually none of it. As he explained to a biography symposium I attended in 1990 or 91, Rebecca Cornwall (later Batholomew) wrote it (along with Carl Arrington) and Leonard didn’t object when Roland Rich Woolley, the divorce attorney to the Stars who bankrolled the project, insisted only Arrington get credit.

I’m not complaining: he gave Abner Blackburn the Evans Manuscript Prize, $1,000.

By: Clark

Clark — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 20:55:09 +0000

I’m really looking forward to the new Pratt bio myself.

The Four Zinas is a great book. Zina Huntington has long been a hero of mine though so I might be somewhat biased.

By: Chris H.

Chris H. — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 16:00:20 +0000

I had the Clayton bio in my yard sale pile. It is now packed with the keepers.

By: Blaue Blume

Blaue Blume — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 12:43:09 +0000

Arrington’s biography of Edwin Wooley, From Quaker to Latter-day Saint, is worthy of comment. But perhaps another question along this line: what scholarly biography have you read that leaves you nonetheless wishing for a better, more scholarly and literary treatment? I have been left with that empty feeling a number of times, most recently with Watt’s The Mormon Passage of George D. Watt. A very complicated, significant and little known life that should be dealt with with much better style, depth and understanding. Sometimes the subject matter wants for the talent and the intellect to do it justice.

By: Ben

Ben — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 07:34:04 +0000

Well, it seems the take home message–for me, anyway–is to make an excuse to read the David Hyrum Smith bio and wait excitedly for the exciting forthcoming volumes.

By: John Hamer

John Hamer — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 06:26:54 +0000

The David Hyrum Smith bio is really well written, I want to add my thumbs up. (Also the Launius Joseph III bio.)

I just re-read the Andrew Smith biography of John C. Bennett — that’s actually a fascinating and wonderful read, even though it leaves me wanting more.

Erin Jennings and Connell O’Donnovan are working on a bio of William Smith and all his plural wives (a la In Sacred Loneliness) that promises to be incredible — can’t wait for that.