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Show Twelve Mormon Arizona. Homes By ELIZABETH Visited in Succession WOOD KANE. Utah to Introduction and notes by EVERETT on a Journey through L. COOLEY. Utah, the Mormons, and the West Series, no. 4. (Salt Lake City: T a n n e r Trust Fund, University of U t a h Library, 1974. xxiv + 149 pp. $12.00.) How delightful that a reprint of Elizabeth Wood Kane's 1872 edition of Twelve Mormon Homes . . . is finally available. T h e editor and the T a n n e r Trust Fund of the University of U t a h Library are to be congratulated. T h e book is tastefully designed, with fine paper and choice of typeface, the dust jacket and warm color of the hardcover all combining to form a package befitting Mrs. Kane's sensitive, and often poetic, observations of Mormon society. As one who can remember early discussions at the U t a h State Historical Society of hopes and plans t o bring that rare little book back into the mainstream of Mormon literature, this reader is especially pleased to see it. Mrs. Kane's observations of Mormon life, personalities, philosophy, theology, industry—scarcely a facet escapes her probing eye—are subjective; yet she manages to fit them all into the context of the larger American scene. There are literally dozens of subjects around which one could base a lengthy essay or research paper. (This latter fact is evidenced by the footnotes provided by the editor that are, in fact, a bibliography of Mormon scholarship of recent years.) However, in the interest of space limitations and with some editorial self-discipline, only brief mention can be made here of a few of the appealing aspects of the book. Mrs. Kane's discussions ranging throughout the book on the status of the Mormon woman, as plural wife and mother, in the church and in the community, provide material that could touch off fiery debate in contemporary times, both within and without the "women's lib" movement. Her descriptions of the physical environment of Mormon country, the climate, the geography, are so clear and exact that even today one far from home who has traversed many times that same route on the modern freeway can feel the crisp air, the wind sweeping across a forbidding landscape, can smell the sage, and see the mountains etched against a morning or evening winter sky. And, with all her insight, how could Mrs. K a n e possibly know with what effort a n d design the couriers must have raced ahead of Brigham Young's party as it wended its slow way from Salt Lake City to St. George that December of 1872 to provide for his guests the comforts a n d niceties described in this little scene on a frosty night at Cove Fort: Our room was nicely furnished, and looked very cozy as we drew our chairs around the centre-table, which had a number of well-chosen books upon it. The children were pleased to recognize another of the pretty pink-fringed linen table-covers of which so many had already greeted us on our journey, and wondered whether the "Co-op" had bought a large invoice from Claflin that we found them thus broadcast through the territory. It made us feel New York quite near us. |
