CHILDREN OF GOD An American Epic

New York and London: Harper & Brothers, 1939. First Edition. Decorated with illustrated end-leaves. 8vo, publisher's original brown cloth, backed in original off-white cloth, black lettering label gilt to the spine panel, the upper cover lettered and decorated in gilt and black, in the original pictorial dustjacket. [viii], 769, [1], [2] pp. A fine copy with very little evidence of age or use. FIRST EDITION IN VERY PLEASING CONDITION OF THIS FINE WORK WHICH WON THE HARPER PRIZE FOR 1939-1940. The author has given us a story that is one of the least known in American history. CHILDREN OF GOD, relates the history of the Mormons, of their beginnings and the rapid growth of the society and culture. The book relates the persecution and heroism and the mass migration that took them across the country and the trackless Western plains offering suffering anguish, prejudice, life-threatening dangers and intense persecution.
The author's approach is written mainly in terms of the two dominating figures of the movement--Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. Joseph Smith was the mystic who wanted a better life for his followers. It is the story of Emma his wife, who espoused the doctrine of plural marriage which set the country against her husband and which led to his death at the hands of a mob.
Brigham Young was the great strategist who took over after Joseph Smith's death and who led the Mormons out of the then extant United States and into the promised land of Utah. The Mormons had been murdered, pillaged, raped and suffered immense prejudice in the lead-up to the great migration to Utah. Brigham Young was the practical man who made the desert bloom. This is a chronicle of one of the great events of the American diaspora and it is a novel of strong substance.