Dale L. Morgan-Fawn M. Brodie, 1944-1949

File — Box: 2, Folder: 21

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

Morgan writes to Brodie of rare books and pamphlets on Mormonism including Abominations of Mormonism Exposed, Life Among the Mormons, and The Destroying Angels of Mormondom. He extracts at length from the latter, 1947.
Letter about dates for Joseph Smith's wives, 1944
On reading John C. Bennet's History of the Saints, Morgan has found a note on the wives of Joseph Smith. The women were listed by initial only, but he thinks that in conjunction with other evidence, they can be positively identified. This interesting piece of detective work later appeared in No Man Knows My History. Dale also calls Fawn's attention to a letter from Joseph Smith to Prescinda Buell in the History of the Church, 1944
Morgan's critique of the manuscript of No Man Knows My History. "The research is wide and deep without being ostentatious; the prose is clean and on the whole admirably muscular; it is frequently full of stimulating ideas, and at all times it moves rapidly." His objection to the original manuscript was that it was a history of Joseph Smith's life, not a biography, but in the second draft, he says that defect has been effectively dealt with. He feels the chapters on Nauvoo need some reworking, particularly the material on John C. Bennett and on polygamy. A final analysis of Smith's character is missing from the book and Morgan encourages Brodie to make such an analysis by offering his own brief but sweeping impressions of the Smith personality. He warns her against generalizations that could leave her open to attack by opponents of the book.
Letter on tithing and consecration, also some speculation on the relationships between Zina Huntington, Joseph Smith, and Brigham Young, 1945.
Letter on consecration, 1945.
Morgan has finished examining all the newspapers in the Library of Congress published before 1849 in the states of Ohio, Illinois, Missouri, and Iowa, and the result is that "there is hardly a phase of trans-Mississippi history for that period that I could not rewrite." (For a copy of Morgan's newspaper file see Boxes 44-48.) The work was extremely arduous, but necessary. "I think that newspapers represent probably the greatest source of untouched material yet awaiting researchers in Mormon history, so this particular job is my contribution to research in general . . . " The newspapers offer many bits of new information--from the origin of the term "Jack Mormon" to the earliest anti-Mormon pamphlet, 1947
Morgan has become interested in a new aspect of Mormon history- -the impact of Mormonism on the American religious press, 1830-1844. (See Boxes 46-47 for Morgan's extracts from religious newspapers.) 1947.
Letter about Morgan's three-volume work, 1949.
Letter verifying information
Letter with Charles Walker and consecration notes

Dates

1944-1949

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