The Personal Writings of Eliza Roxcy Snow

Known variously as "Zion's poetess," "priestess," and "prophetess," Eliza Roxcy Snow is the first lady of Mormon letters. Secretly married to Mormon Church founder Joseph Smith in 1842, and wed after Smith's death to his successor Brigham Young, she was also the sister of Lorenzo Snow, fifth president of the church. Her list of credentials is long: president of the Relief Society from the time of its reorganization in Utah, author by her own count of nine published volumes, president of the Deseret Hospital Association, organizer of the Young Ladies' Mutual Improvement Association, the children's Primary Association, and the Woman's Commission Store, Snow lived a long life of real accomplishment. This volume brings together for the first time her life writings. They present Snow's life from different times and from differing points of view, and are interesting not only for what they reveal about Eliza R. Snow, but for what they suggest yet do not reveal about a public woman who wished to maintain her privacy.

Maureen Ursenbach Beecher is a professor of English and research historian in the Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Church History, Brigham Young University.