Dale Morgan on Early Mormonism: book cover


	Dale Morgan on Early Mormonism: Correspondence and a New History John Phillip Walker, Editor with a Biographical Introduction by John Phillip Walker and a Preface by William Mulder Copyright 1986 Signature Books All Rights Reserved Dale Lowell Morgan 1914-1971 My viewpoint about Mormon history is that of the sociologist, the psychologist, the political, economic, and social historian. I do not expect that the average Mormon will accept in its entirety the evaluation of Mormon history that I shall make, but I do expect that he will acknowledge my integrity within what he regards as the limitations of my understanding, or point of view. On such a basis we can get along very equably, and we may find that my interpretation of Mormon history will not, after all, do such violence to Mormon ideas of that history. —Morgan to S.A. Burgess, April 26, 1943 Table of Contents Editor's Acknowledgements Preface Biographical Introduction The History Chapter One—The Calling of a Prophet Chapter Two—A Stone in a Hat Chapter Three—Portrait of a Prophet as a Young Man Chapter Four—The Golden Bible Chapter Five—A Sealed Book Chapter Six—Intimations of a Church Chapter Seven—The Book of Mormon Appendix A Appendix B The Published Writings of Dale Lowell Morgan The Letters 1942: To S. A. Burgess and Juanita Brooks 1943: To Fawn Brodie, Juanita Brooks, and S. A. Burgess 1944: To Fawn Brodie, Juanita Brooks, and Madeline McQuown 1945: To Fawn Brodie, Juanita Brooks, and Bernard DeVoto 1946: To Fawn Brodie, Juanita Brooks, and Bernard DeVoto 1947: To To Fawn Brodie and Madeline McQuown 1948: To Joseph Anderson, Fawn Brodie, S. A. Burgess, Francis W. Kirkham, and John Selby 1949-50: To Fawn Brodie, Stanley Ivins, Elizabeth Lauchnor, and Marguerite Sinclair 1951-53: To Fawn Brodie, Stanley Ivins, and Madeline McQuown 1955-70: To Fawn Brodie, Stanley Ivins, Madeline McQuown, and Wesley P. Walters cover


	For Dale Lowell Morgan (1914-71), author of such classics of American historiography as The Humboldt: Highroad of the West, Jedediah Smith and the Opening of the West, and The West of William H. Ashley, Mormonism occupied and fascinated him as no other subject could. Until his untimely death in 1971, he labored for close to thirty years on what would have been a definitive history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Unfortunately, of a projected three volumes, only the first seven chapeters and two appendices were completed. Yet despite the passage of more than twenty years, these chapters and appendices remain today as fresh and as thought-provoking as ever. Morgan’s naturalistic approach to the formative years of the Mormon church may be challenging to some readers, but it represents what was and still is the cutting edge in the study
of Mormon origins. Together with the inclusion of fifty of his letters to contemporaries such as Juanita Brooks, Fawn Brodie, Bernard DeVoto, Madeline McQuown, Stanley Ivins, and others, Dale Morgan on Early Mormonism provides a glimpse into the skill, talent, and artistry of one of America’s premier historians. back cover “I do not see things in black and white; rather, I am sensitive to the shades of gray. I am not one of those who think that Joseph Smith must be accounted either the blackest villain or the purest-hearted saint who ever lived, depending on whether Mormonism was or was not an ‘imposture.’ I don’t think he was either. I think he was a man subjected to a singular environmental pressure, and that his behavior must be interpreted as the effect of this pressure upon distinctive psycho-physiological components of his character. It seems to me a fundamental weakness of most Mormon thinking, in any broad sense, that it tends to exhibit this either-or attitude, which really reflects a viewpoint of theoretical ethics, not of personal and social psychology.” —26 April 1943 “Mormonism proceeded out of American life, from millennialism to the evangelical communisms, with religious, political, social, and economic ideas indiscriminately sucked into the vortex to be digested or spewed out, with the central energies and structure of the church always different because of what it experienced or took to itself. I don’t say that Mormonism was at best an aberration of the principal energies involved; I do say that it is an interesting vehicle for some of the social energies of its time, and that something can be learned about the nature of American society from a critical scrutiny of the Mormon phenomenon.” —2 January 1946 “Dale Morgan was one of the most productive and influential historians of the American West during the 1950s and 1960s … His studies stand today as models of historical endavor.” —Everett L. Cooley, director, Special Collections, Marriott Library, University of Utah “No one ever asked advice or direction of Dale Morgan without receiving it. He consistently encouraged writers and furnished both factual materials and expert criticism … His achievements in the field of historical research were phenomenal.” —Juanita Brooks, author of The Mountain Meadows Massacre and Quicksand and Cactus jacket flap (continued from above) John Phillip Walker lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, where he is vice-president of marketing for Magic Chemical Company. He also owns a management consulting business. William Mulder is Professor of English at the University of Utah. His publications include Homeward to Zion: The Mormon Migration from Scandinavia and Among the Mormons: Historic Accounts by Contemporary Observers. Cover picture: “Self-portrait,” by Dale L. Morgan, courtesy of Special Collections, Marriott Library, University of Utah. Book and cover design by Diane Valantine. title page Dale Morgan on Early Mormonism Correspondence and a New History John Phillip Walker, editor with a biographical introduction by John Phillip Walker and a preface by William Mulder Signature Books Salt Lake City, Utah
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		Dale Lowell Morgan 1914-1971 My viewpoint about Mormon history is that of the sociologist, the psychologist, the political, economic, and social historian. I do not expect that the average Mormon will accept in its entirety the evaluation of Mormon history that I shall make, but I do expect that he will acknowledge my integrity within what he regards as the limitations of my understanding, or point of view. On such a basis we can get along very equably, and we may find that my interpretation of Mormon history will not, after all, do such violence to Mormon ideas of that history. —Morgan to S. A. Burgess, April 26, 1943
Copyright page Copyright 1986 Signature Books All Rights Reserved Printed in the United States of America ISBN 0-941214-36-2 LC 86-60251 design by Diane Valantine frontispiece photo courtesy Utah State Historical Society