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Typed transcript of a taped interview with Juanita Brooks conducted by R. T. Reilly and E. R. Reilly. In the interview, Brooks recalls her early life as she grew up in Bunkerville, Nevada.

Scope and Contents Morgan warns Brooks to be sure of the accuracy of the sources she quotes in her work. He suggests that she check other sources to reinforce the materials from the Ginn manuscript and suggests several sources that might be useful. Brooks had asked Morgan about Bleak's Annals of the Southern Utah Mission. He tells her again to be careful to verify facts from it. Morgan has read Brooks' chapters on Jacob Hamblin and tells her that she must write, "not for Mormons," but to interest others in the...

Scope and Contents Morgan speaks of Brooks' visit to Salt Lake City and of showing her where to find materials for her writing. He comments on her belief that he is unselfish by saying that he gets as much from other people as he gives to them. Morgan tells of some of the people he has learned from: a folklorist in Los Angeles, a Nevada highway employee, Wallace Stegner, and Bernard DeVoto. Morgan states that he likes Brooks' interest in southwestern Utah because he himself knows little about it. He is...

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Morgan has sent off his Humboldt River manuscript and is ready to leave Salt Lake City and go east to live. He has returned Brooks' Mountain Meadows massacre piece and outlines eight points he feels she should establish as she develops it. Morgan states that he will send notes or excerpts if he finds any material on the Mountain Meadows massacre while he is researching in the Library of Congress.

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Morgan reports having checked several California newspapers at the Library of Congress for information on the Mountain Meadows massacre.

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Morgan has been to New York City to use the public library files there. He lists a number of books he has used, and asks Brooks to find out what has happened to the original trial records of the second John D. Lee trial. He sends Brooks The Crimes of the Latter-day Saints published in 1884, and tells her of other materials that may be of interest to her.

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Morgan has just come from the Library of Congress. He tells Brooks to try to contact Layman R. Martineau of Los Angeles for his journal. Morgan reports having trouble getting materials at the Library of Congress, since much of it was in storage for the duration of the war.

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Morgan reports that there is no Hamblin material in the Library of Congress. He has checked on Judge John Cradlebaugh's speech of 1963 on the Mountain Meadows massacre and sends a copy of a note in the Wagner-Camp bibliography, The Plains and the Rockies.

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Morgan writes that he has received a letter from Dutton Publishers about Brooks' Mountain Meadows massacre book, but that Farrar and Rinehart are to have first chance at it. Morgan has been in contact with four publishers interested in books by western authors with western themes.

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Morgan suggests that Brooks talk to David O. McKay and tell him that it will be better to have a friendly book by a church member than an adverse one. He states that Charles Kelly claims to have access to material on the Mountain Meadows massacre that no one else has or ever will have.

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Morgan sends Brooks the microfilm of the second John D. Lee trial. He tells her that the record of the first trial is at the Huntington Library and in the Charles W. Penrose pamphlet.

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Morgan has been to New York City to check New York Public Library files. He was interested in the Frederick S. Dellenbaugh diaries, books, and manuscripts. He found a letter to the Buffalo Express pasted into one of the diaries telling of John D. Lee's story of the Mountain Meadows massacre. The letter tells of the wagon train at Spanish Fork and at Cedar City, and of poisoning the springs to kill the Indians. It also states that the attack was planned by the Cedar City Council.

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Morgan states that Darel McConkey has returned Brooks' manuscript to him. He will read it and send it to Brooks for revision. Morgan requests that she send it back to him so he can make publication arrangements.

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Morgan writes that he has finished his book. Fawn Brodie has been in Washington and he has visited with her. Morgan tells Brooks to go to the Tribune-Telegram library and go through the papers from John D. Lee's capture to his execution. He also sends additional notes on the Mountain Meadows massacre.

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Morgan writes again that he has finished his book. He states that he had to cut it down considerably and tells Brooks how difficult it is to cut a manuscript.

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Morgan writes that he is waiting for advanced copies of his book and will send one to Brooks as soon as they arrive. "When I write my big Mormon job, I am going to seek the most searching criticism of it I can find, which will mean Mormon criticism."

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Morgan is back in Salt Lake City. He is returning five chapters from the Mountain Meadows massacre manuscript to Brooks and tells her to eliminate repetition. He also tells her to emphasize the "frontier aspects" of the Mountain Meadows massacre and to play up some aspects of Mormon culture, namely obedience to authority and loyalty to the group.

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Morgan returns Brooks' manuscript and writes his criticism of it. He makes suggestions for getting it into shape to send to the publisher as well as making suggestions on the form of the bibliography.

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Morgan tells of writing a popular article on the mosquito to earn money to pay his debts. He states that he has been rereading the Bible and the Book of Mormon.

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Morgan states that he has finished reading the revised Mountain Meadows Massacre manuscript and that Brooks has much improved it by cutting it down in length. He tells her that he will return all but the bibliography to which he wants to add some information from his own notes.