From: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com (aml-list-digest) To: aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Subject: aml-list-digest V1 #137 Reply-To: aml-list Sender: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Errors-To: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Precedence: bulk aml-list-digest Tuesday, August 22 2000 Volume 01 : Number 137 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 18 Aug 2000 23:48:49 EDT From: Larry Jackson Subject: [AML] MN LDS Reporter Awarded in First Year: Morris IL Daily Herald From: Mormon News Editor To: Mormon News Subject: MN LDS Reporter Awarded in First Year: Morris IL Daily Herald 15Aug00 P2 Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2000 23:15:00 -0400 [From Mormon-News] LDS Reporter Awarded in First Year MORRIS, ILLINOIS -- Vickie Speek, a features reporter with the Morris Daily Herald has won third place in the "columns" division in the recent Illinois Associated Press newspaper competition. Speek has also won honors in the Illinois Press Association competition in the "best school board reporting" division and the "best education reporting" division. The actual winning places in the IPA contest are not divulged until the awards presentation. This is the first year that Speek has been eligible to enter the annual competitions. She worked for several years as a freelance correspondent in Illinois and Michigan before joining the Herald staff in February. The "columns" award came from three different columns that Speek, a member of the Mormon Church, wrote in March and April dealing with genealogy and family. She writes a weekly column on family history in addition to features and hard news reporting. She is also the director of the LDS Family History Center in Morris. It was Speek's coverage of the controversy surrounding the dismissal of a tenured school nurse that won her honors in the "best school board reporting" and "best education reporting" divisions. The editorial staff of the newspaper has been honored with 13 awards for work it has done during the past year, including 10 awards from the Illinois Press Association and 3 awards from the Illinois Associated Press. Morris Daily Herald editorial staff garners 13 awards Morris IL Daily Herald 15Aug00 P2 http://www.morrisdailyherald.com/display/inn_news/news5.txt By Herald Writers [Vickie Speek is also one of Mormon News' volunteers. Congratulations, Vickie!] >From Mormon-News: Mormon News and Events Forwarding is permitted as long as this footer is included Mormon News items may not be posted to the World Wide Web sites without permission. Please link to our pages instead. For more information see http://www.MormonsToday.com/ Send join and remove commands to: majordomo@MormonsToday.com Put appropriate commands in body of the message: To join: subscribe mormon-news To leave: unsubscribe mormon-news To join digest: subscribe mormon-news-digest - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 19 Aug 2000 14:22:10 EDT From: Sally0115@aol.com Subject: Re: [AML] History and Fiction Definitely the commercialization of books and fictional historical novels are two entirely different things. I found my love of history through reading historical fiction. I still love good historical fiction. What better way to learn of the Martin Handcart Company than through "Fire in the Snow", or the Moutain Meadow Massacre, than through "Fire and Fury", or the living of plural marriage than through "Family Kingdom", or the trials and tribulations of the early saints than through "For This My Glory". For those of us that simply enjoy reading a good book, why not learn of these events by reading of them in a fictional setting? I am not a ready of heavy works, yet, my knowledge of church history and American history was definitely started based on interest stemming from these wonderful historical novels. I don't know of any of you have come across the book The Light and the Glory by Peter Marshall. It's not fiction, but I would love to see a fiction novel based on his book. Ruth Packer - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 19 Aug 2000 15:58:23 -0600 From: Thom Duncan Subject: Re: [AML] History and Fiction Katrina Duvalois wrote: > > Thom Duncan referred to "historical cheating" in livening up a true story > for entertainment. > I agree, that a certain amount of "editing" to history may be necessary to > create entertainment, but I find it disconcerting when a piece is presented > as a piece of "history" i.e., Pocahontas, the point of not even being recognizable as the real story except for the > names, or location. Let's not underestimate the power of such myth. For instance, George Washington didn't really chop down a cherry tree, but it's still a good story to tell your kids to teach them about honesty. > As for Disney, I have yet to see a story that they have taken and not > "destroyed." For example; I recently read the original Hans Christian > Anderson version of "The Little Mermaid" to my children and rather than > being depressed by the outcome (she becomes sea foam) I was moved to tears > over her obvious Christ-like charity that she showed to both the prince and > his new wife. The Disney Movie should be viewed as a separate attempt to tell the story, it seems to me, unless Disney makes it clear that they are telling THE story as it was written. The show had some great tunes, some neat animation, and that was it. > I have realized that I have to separate some stories as two separate > entities. Even the "history" our children are taught (and we ourselves have > been) is not completely accurate and we must, on our own, discover the > truths about George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee, and other > figures from the past. We already know that some scientific "theories" are > taught as "truth" to our children, thus history is sometimes tainted in a > more agreeable way to be taught in the public schools. I think this is why > the "Work and the Glory" series has been so popular, the history is fairly > accurate and yet fictional characters have been created to give emotion to > the stories. Don't get me started on the history of the "Work and the Glory." Historically, it's about as accurate as the George Washington stories. What the Work is: It's modern sensibilities projected onto a world that we know nothing about. The people in that novel are twentieth century folks dressed in nineteenth century clothes: occasionally, Lund throws a butter churn in to fool the readers they are getting history. This book is a NOVEL, one author's take on the story of the Saints. It should not be taken as history, anymore than "The Patriot" should be taken as an accurate account of the Revolutionary War. They are both entertainments. If you want history, read Arrington, or Davis Bitton, not Lund. - -- Thom Duncan - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 19 Aug 2000 16:03:53 -0600 From: Thom Duncan Subject: Re: [AML] Movie Viewing Gerald G Enos wrote: > > The only thing true in Disney's version is the names used, > period. I'm sorry, I just don't see what's wrong with that. The artist holds no (I repeat) no loyalty to history. That is the purview of historians. The only loyalty an artist has is to his or her personal muse. - -- Thom Duncan - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 19 Aug 2000 17:42:42 -0500 From: Linda Adams Subject: Re: [AML] Nudity in Mormon Art > > > Shucks, I wanted someone on the list to be the first AML streaker. > >3 am Saturday night, my place. Come watch or participate. > >-- >D. Michael Martindale >dmichael@wwno.com Oh yes, just start this up, D. M., and NEXT you'll all be getting together for AML-List Strip Poker Night. ;-) ======= Linda Adams adamszoo@sprintmail.com Writing Page: http://members.xoom.com/adamszoo Little Ones Lost: http://home.sprintmail.com/~adamszoo My new book, _Prodigal Journey,_ is now available online! Go to: http://deseretbook.com/products/4066899/index.html - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 19 Aug 2000 13:00:32 -0500 From: Jonathan Langford Subject: [AML] History and Fiction (was: Movie Viewing) Sorry I'm getting to this so late--I've been wistfully thinking about writing this post all week, in between other duties. So although others have made some of the same points, I'm going to chime in anyway... Thom stated: >I'll restate my opinion. History is history, and ought to be judged on >its accuracy as to time, and place, etc. > >Art, however, is art. Totally different rules apply. The ultimate goal >is different, too. It is not to teach, never, never to teach. It is to >entertain, inspire, cause one to think. Whereas an historian may be >looking for undiluted facts, the artist is looking for the "spirit" of >the story. I think that what Thom seems to be saying in the first part of this message is actually, do a degree, contradicted--or at least complicated--in the last sentence. In talking about the artist looking for the "spirit" of the story, Thom seems to me to acknowledge that part of the artist's concern *is* history--not at the level of strict fact, but at the level of human significance, which is still history in its essence. In other words, when a playwright creates a play about Joseph Smith, then part of the playwright's intent is to affect or draw on our existing ideas about who Joseph Smith is and/or the part he plays in our conception of ourselves. If the *sole* purpose of the playwright is to tell a story, say, about two people in love and the difficulties of their relationship, then the playwright would be better off choosing two other completely fictional individuals named John and Mary, so that the extra cultural/historical baggage about Mormon history and doctrine doesn't interfere with that story. Now, in talking about his own musical, _Prophet_, Thom acknowledges that although the main theme of the play was romantic, there were other themes relating to Joseph, Emma, and the Church. In other words, while we're watching his play, Thom *does* want us to think about not simply two purely fictional characters on the stage, but the historical figures of Joseph and Emma. I'd go further and say that although I haven't seen the play, I presume Thom either wants to affect how we feel about the historical Joseph and Emma, or wants to draw on how we already feel about Joseph and Emma in order to heighten the dramatic romantic storyline. To put it another way: I assume that it's *important* to Thom's story that his two main characters are Joseph Smith and Emma Hale Smith, not a purely fictional John and Mary. For this reason, it seems to me that concerns about the historical accuracy of a historically based play can't simply be dismissed out of hand as Thom seems to suggest. Once a playwright chooses to use historical characters, the playwright has to some degree entered onto history's territory, and can--should--be held responsible if not for every small detail, then at least for the fidelity with which he or she paints the large picture: to use Thom's words, the degree of accuracy with which the "spirit of the story" is depicted. There has to be some sort of reciprocity in these things. You can't have the benefits of writing about historical characters without incurring some related responsibilities as well. Depending on the type of fiction you're writing, you may also want to make sure that what you create fits the details of history as currently known. Personally, I rather like this type of historical fiction, though I also can enjoy the type of fiction that changes historical details as appropriate to make a good story line. I'm happiest, though, if any such changes are obvious--insertion of a specific, obviously undocumented point of view character, for example--and I have some confidence that everything I see or hear or read relating to a real-life character or period is either accurate, or at least not contradicted by what we know about history. Why? Because I like history as well as fiction, and I find it irritating to have to keep straight what actually happened versus what a writer may have changed for his or her own convenience. It requires extra work from me, and interferes with my enjoyment of the story. A writer who changes factual details, it seems to me, is writing for one of two audiences: (a) those who don't know the history and don't care about it; (b) those who already know the history so well that they can without effort tell the difference between documented historical truth and fictional distortion. For people like me, who care about the history but don't know enough about it to remember, without extra research, that Simonds Ryder existed at one point in Church history rather than another point, it's extremely annoying to have the feeling that we can't trust what we're seeing. It adds a distraction, an irritation. And so I generally choose not to read or view historical fiction that doesn't have a good reputation for accuracy, because I do care very much about keeping straight what I know versus what I don't know in history, and I don't have the time to research each time period myself to find out. It's one thing to say that you should go to fiction for enjoyment, and to history for knowledge, and not confound the two; but in practice I find it's not that simple. Besides, what we're talking about is not fiction that doesn't supply history, but that actually supplies mis-history: not absence but interference. Fiction that makes it all that much harder to keep straight the history that you think you know. (One possible way around this that I have seen is for the writer or playwright to include some sort of historical note describing what changes were made. I have liked this when I see it done--it gives me more confidence in the playwright's knowledge and faithfulness to history, so I can relax and enjoy the story.) I'm reminded a little bit of the type of science fiction that attempts to violate no known laws of the physical universe in order to tell its story. To authors of this sort, violating the rules of time and space as we currently know them is sometimes referred to as playing with the net down. I think the same type of label can be applied to those who ignore the historical details in writing stories about (ostensibly) historical characters: they're writing historical fiction with the net down, ignoring the rules of their own genre, or at least failing to rise to the challenge presented by the historical element of their writing. As such, their failing is a literary and artistic one, not merely a historical problem. My main point, though, is that even if you decline any responsibility on the level of details, there's still a responsibility, whenever you use historical characters and epochs, to be true to the spirit of the period or the person. And I think Thom's own words demonstrate that he believes in this level of responsibility as well--whether he recognizes it or not. Jonathan Langford Speaking for myself, not the List jlangfor@pressenter.com - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Aug 2000 00:06:26 EDT From: Larry Jackson Subject: [AML] MN New LDS Writer's Character Relies on God: BYU NewsNet From: Rosemary Pollock To: Mormon News Subject: MN New LDS Writer's Character Relies on God: BYU NewsNet 12Aug00 A2 Date: Fri, 18 Aug 2000 22:30:00 -0400 [From Mormon-News] [MOD: Does anyone have publication information about this book, e.g., publisher, price, etc.? Also, for anyone who reads this book, please remember that unsolicited reviews are welcome on AML-List...] New LDS Writer's Character Relies on God PROVO, UTAH -- Lois Thomas Bartholomew's book, "The White Dove," has everything "Harry Potter" does not: a character who relies on her faith in God. The inspiration for Bartholomew's heroine, Tasha, came from a dream she had one night. "I had a dream about a woman and a girl running from someone and hiding in a shed," Bartholomew said. Tasha is a princess who watches her father abdicate his throne for the sake of democracy. Tasha's father is threatened by Comnor, a man who overthrows the people's elected leader, Marko. Tasha and her small group of followers flee King Comnor and struggle to rejoin Marko. "It is an exciting book. I am a mother, so I am often tired. I think, 'I will read just a few pages.' Then I start reading and I can't put it down," said Bartholomew's daughter-in-law Amy. The book was written with a theme for a national young audience of readers with themes that promote Bartholomew's Mormon's beliefs. "Being a Mormon, my mother has put some underlining themes that you don't see in other books for children, like a faith in God," Ruth Bartholomew said. "There are certain things worth sacrificing for: family, your country and freedom," Lois Bartholomew said. "The White Dove" is Bartholomew's first published novel. She is working on a sequel to "The White Dove." There are also plans for a boy's adventure book. "It is important for BYU graduates and LDS authors to publish to national audiences. We have a responsibility to do good in the world," Lois Bartholomew said. Source: Local writes her own children's book BYU NewsNet 12Aug00 A2 http://newsnet.byu.edu/show_story.cfm?number=10622&year=current By Kami Cook: NewsNet Staff Writer >From Mormon-News: Mormon News and Events Forwarding is permitted as long as this footer is included Mormon News items may not be posted to the World Wide Web sites without permission. Please link to our pages instead. For more information see http://www.MormonsToday.com/ Send join and remove commands to: majordomo@MormonsToday.com Put appropriate commands in body of the message: To join: subscribe mormon-news To leave: unsubscribe mormon-news To join digest: subscribe mormon-news-digest - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Aug 2000 02:28:02 PDT From: "Jason Steed" Subject: RE: [AML] History and Fiction I think Katrina's view of history and fiction is the popular one, but it is a little outdated. The notion that there is a "true" history "out there", and that fiction can either maintain some fidelity to that "true" history, or it can distort it to varying degrees, has been all but abandoned by the postmodern mentality. These days, history is perceived by many as, in fact, a fiction. IOW, history is narrative--name ANY account of history that is not presented in the form of narrative--and as such, it is constructed. This means, in many cases, that a sense of causality and order is superimposed on a series of events. When we write a work of "fiction", we present scene after scene, and the implication is that one scene leads (causes) the next, or that the second somehow follows from or builds on the first--thus order is constructed, leading to a climax, resolultion, etc. A _history_ of events (say, the Revolutionary War, or the Crossing of the Plains) is a similarly constructed narrative. Events are portrayed as leading from one to another, a sense of order is constructed--voila! How is this different from fiction? You will say: "Because the events described by history actually happened!" Perhaps. Or did they? A great deal of history has undergone and continues to undergo revision. Like so many other experts in so many other fields, historians will often think they know something, only to find that they may have been wrong all along. Histories, like fictions, emanate from (or are sustained or informed by, or are constructed out of) ideologies. The history of the human race, written by a staunch racist, will differ considerably from that written by someone who believes all races are equal. Imagine comparing two histories of the Civil War--one written by a Confederate General, the other by a Southern slave. Compare these with the generic version we rely on as "true", which has been constructed from a predominantly Northern (read: Yankee), white perspective. Let's say they all describe the same sequence of events--will they be identical? I expect not, in which case, we have to ask: which one is the "true" history? The *historicity* of certain events may indeed be indisputable. But you'll be hard-pressed to find a historian who won't concede the possibility that any given *history* of events may in fact be disputable as to its *historicity*. What I'm trying to say is: there is really no way of knowing "what really happened." There is no "true" history "out there" to which fiction can (or cannot) be faithful. Talk to group of 3 or more siblings about growing up in their household and you'll get varying accounts--varying "histories" of Family X. The reason? Everyone has their own perspective of "what really happened." History is like this. To a great degree it is a matter of perspective. And our perspective is shaped in part by histories passed on to us, and we in turn pass on histories to others. Thus, we construct (and deconstruct, and reconstruct) our histories continually--and this, IMO, makes them fictions like any other constructed narrative. (The whole distinction between "fiction" and "creative nonfiction" (memoirs, etc.), by the way, is IMO a marketing ploy--the notion that "this really happened" is a big-seller, but the stories told in "nonfiction" are just as constructed and "fictionalized" as "fiction.") So, I suppose we can haggle over a novel's fidelity to the historicity of certain details, or given events (i.e. the sorts of clothes people wore, or the fact that Joseph Smith was shot at Carthage Jail in 1844); but to me it seems futile to attempt some sort of sustained loyalty, in a narrative labeled "fiction," to some other narrative labeled "history"--when that "history" is itself a "fiction", and that "fiction" becomes itself a part of "history". History is not an absolute truth, existing outside perspective (unlike, say, the existence of God--who exists whether or not your perspective allows for His existence). History is subjective. Yes, certain things happened in the year called 1971. And certain things happened in the year called 1999. This is not subjective (it is a matter of historicity). But how the events in 1999 grew out of, or resulted from, or are connected to, the events of 1971--any attempt to describe this is an attempt to impose order, to construct a narrative, and this attempt will be made from a particular perspective. This is a matter of history, and as far as I'm concerned, it is also a matter of fiction. Jason ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Aug 2000 16:48:35 -0600 From: "Morgan Adair" Subject: [AML] Card Son Obituary Deseret News Friday, August 18, 2000 Obituary: Charles Benjamin Card=20 Charles Benjamin Card, beloved son of Orson Scott Card and Kristine A. Card passed away of natural causes on August 16, 2000 in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Born July 28, 1983 in Greensboro, North Carolina. Charlie Ben was afflicted from birth with cerebral palsy, which prevented him from walking or speaking. Yet he blessed all those who knew him with his laughter, his kindness, his patience, and his love. He is survived by his parents; his older brother, Michael Geoffrey; his older sister, Emily Janice; his younger sister, Zina Margaret; his beloved friends and helpers, Erin and Phillip Absher; and all four grandparents. Another younger sister, Erin Louisa, preceded him in death. Memorial services will be held Saturday, August 19, at 3 p.m. in the Latter-day Saints meetinghouse at 3719 Pinetop Road in Greensboro, NC. Those who wish to bid him good-bye may come to the LDS meetinghouse between 1 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. Saturday. His body will be buried in the American Fork City Cemetery in Utah. Family being served by Lambeth-Troxler Funeral Service. In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts to the Gateway Education Center, where Charlie was so well served, would be gratefully received. "Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall speak." - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: (No, or invalid, date.) From: "Marilyn & William Brown" Subject: Re: [AML] History and Fiction Jonathan writes: There is still a responsibility . . . to be true to the spirit of the per= iod or the person. I agree with Jonathan and Thom. Witness Shakespeare. We know more about = those characters of history from his plays than we do from any history = books. We can only reconstruct as we can imagine. It's not always going = to be exact, but "true to the period and the person" is more possible if = one does careful research. At the moment I have been reading these history/fiction comments as I thi= nk about John Lee in my Mountain Meadows Massacre novel, THE WINE-DARK = SEA OF GRASS. The research produces a "likeness." And may I say that well= - -documented Mormon characters (like Shakespeare's well-documented royalty= ) are easier to reproduce because Mormons left so many primary sources. = But the author must still pick and choose the dramatic events that will = best make a good story line. Marilyn Brown - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Aug 2000 22:41:00 -0700 From: Jeff Needle Subject: [AML] YOUNG and GRAY, _One More River to Cross_ (Review) Review ====== Margaret Blair Young and Darius Aidan Gray, "One More River to Cross", Volume 1 of "Standing on the Promises" (c)2000, Margaret Blair Young and Darius Aidan Gray Published by Bookcraft, Hardback, 330 pages + bibliography, $19.95 Reviewed by Jeffrey Needle When it was announced that Margaret's new book had been published, I was very excited. Her previous novels, "House Without Walls" and "Salvador" were, in my opinion, some of the finest LDS writing I'd ever encountered. I wondered how this book would compare with her earlier works, given her collaboration with Darius Gray. "One More River to Cross" tells the story of several black Mormon pioneers. Elijah Abel is likely the best known. Endless discussions about Joseph Smith bestowing priesthood upon a person of color have circulated in the LDS community for years. Some are convinced Joseph never would have given priesthood to a black man. Others insist that Abel was so light-skinned that Joseph didn't realize he was black, and withdrew his bestowal as soon as it was discovered. But this book takes the position that Joseph ordained Elijah Abel with full knowledge of his race, implying that this was not an issue for the Prophet, but would only later become an issue with the Saints after Joseph's death. I think this is a reasonable reading of the history. "One More River to Cross" is a story told plainly, with an abundance of historical evidence to support the storyline. In fact, each chapter is endnoted to indicate the sources of the claims made. A cursory glance at the sourcing reveals the impressive, and exhaustive, research done by the authors in order to present an authentic account. It would be easy to read this book superficially, and gain a feeling for what it must have been like to be a person of color in 19th-century America. And it would have been easy for the authors to present the Saints' camp as a place of refuge for blacks. But the reality of the times is laid out unsparingly. Yes, slaves were whipped by their masters in the cruel, gentile world. But blacks were not always spared the lashes among the Saints, among people who should have known better. Beneath the surface of this book is a curious tension that I've still not worked out. While most of the book is told in the third person, from time to time a first-person narrator is introduced. An example: "God moves in mysterious ways." "God ain't printing handbills these days, thank you, sir." "Mysterious ways," Merkley repeated, not even smiling. For himself, Elijah was not sure he wanted to be the black part of God's mysteries. I suppose Jane Manning felt the same way. (p.88) Without going into the context of the conversation or the identity of the participants, it is the insertion of the "I" in the last paragraph that intrigued me. Who was the "I" who suddenly imposed his, or her, thoughts into this story? This switch to first person led me to believe that we were to understand this book as a memoir, not just a historical telling. But whose memoir? Oddly, the further I read, the more I began to understand that this was, in essence the story of every Latter-day Saint, regardless of race. If the Church is to address the issues of race and gender, it must acknowledge every aspect of its history as "our" history, not a history of "them." And this is true of society at large. So long as we continue to divide people according to traits they did not choose, the road to real maturity will be scarred by the potholes of selective memory. Early on, when Joseph bestows priesthood on Elijah Abel: After that meeting, Brother Joseph called him on a mission, and Elijah knew he had as much priesthood, as many blessings as any white man. He knew it from head to toe and in every sinew. That, he guessed, was what troubled Elder Merkley [Elijah's erstwhile missionary companion]; that Black Elijah understood his own worth. (p.65) This didn't strike me so powerfully until, several pages later, we learn that Elijah has an imaginary companion -- Joseph, son of Jacob. This Joseph is, to Elijah Abel, as real as any other person. And, in fact, Joseph speaks the same dialect of black English as Elijah does! One wonders if Elijah really knows that this Joseph is just a figment of his imagination. It was the juxtaposition of ideas that struck me several pages later. For a man with such a fertile imagination, could his "knowing" he had priesthood have been as much of a projection of his own wishes as was Joseph of old? Was he really imagining the whole thing? If Elijah Abel was just a dreamer, as was Joseph son of Jacob, then why not understand his priesthood as just another dream? If the authors had planned this comparison of ideas, they did a fine job of it. I found myself having to stop reading and make a decision about this Elijah Abel. I decided his priesthood was real, and that this "real" priesthood drove his missionary companion away from him. Faced with isolation and continued subjugation, how can we fault him for looking elsewhere for encouragement? Other prominent black pioneers are discussed in this book. And we are promised that their lives will truly converge in the next volume. "One More River to Cross" is a haunting, beautifully written memoir of the lives of some of Mormonism's unsung heroes. Despised by the world because of the color of their skin, they found some relief in the company of the Saints. It wasn't perfect, but it was better than where they came from. And in the sometimes lengthy and stylized conversations between these fine people, you find a strength and an integrity that served them well in their long trek across the nation. You'll likewise find a deep humanity that extended beyond the boundaries of their own people. Read this book and learn. Here you'll find people of rare grace and native wisdom. Here you'll find the despised among the despised, somehow looking beyond the cares of the day to the promise of a grand tomorrow. "One More River to Cross" is an important addition to the historical record of a people who learned to reach deeply within themselves to find a sense of purpose, a sense of worth, that only the Gospel can bring. I highly recommend this book. - --------------- Jeff Needle jeff.needle@general.com - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ End of aml-list-digest V1 #137 ******************************