John Doyle Lee - Softcover

Brooks, Juanita

Softcover

ISBN 10: 087421162X ISBN 13: 9780874211627

Publisher: Utah State University Press, 1992

Synopsis

This classic biography is now in its fourth USU Press printing. It is unparalleled in providing a thorough and accurate account of John D. Lee's involvement in the tragic 1857 Mountain Meadows Massacre.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

John D. Lee is most often remembered as the only man executed for his role in the infamous 1857 massacre by Mormons of a California-bound emigrant train at Mountain Meadows in southern Utah. This classic biography examines the circumstances and events which brought Lee to that end. It also, however, looks at the other dimensions of his active life, showing that he was a far more important and complex man than subsequent generations, eager for a dark symbol, have acknowledged.

He was a leader in the Mormon colonization of southern Utah and northern Arizona. With the title, Indian Farmer, he became his church's emissary to Indians in the area. During and prior to the Mormon migration west, he participated in and kept detailed accounts of the conflicts and other events in Missouri, Illinois, and along the trail. An early practitioner, and recorder, of the custom of plural marriage, he was the adopted son of Brigham Young and a close associate of other Mormon leaders. His occupations included builder, farmer, missionary, ferry operator, town founder, and faith leader.

Using Lee's extensive diaries, bolstered by numerous supporting accounts, Juanita Brooks has not only written a thorough and objective portrait of one man's life, a life which would be worthy of study even if it were not controversial, she also has provided numerous insights into early Mormon society and culture. Anyone interested in Mormon polygamy, family life, leadership, relations with Indians, or other aspects of their frontier existence will find this a storehouse of information.

About the Author:

Juanita Brooks (1898-1989) was born in the Mormon village of Bunkerville, Nevada, which was linked culturally, commercially, and spiritually to Utah's "Dixie," the St. George-Zion Park area which was colonized by Mormons in the 1850s. A respected authority on Utah and Mormon history, she has published many books, articles and stories, including The Mountain Meadows Massacre, Quicksand and Cactus: A Memoir of the Southern Mormon Frontier, Jacob Hamblin: Mormon Apostle to the Indians, Emma Lee, and A Mormon Chronicle: The Diaries of John D. Lee.

About this edition

• Publisher: Utah State University Press
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 087421162X
• ISBN 13: 9780874211627
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 404