Blood of the Prophets; Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows

Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2002. First Edition, 1st Printing. Fine/Near Fine. SIGNED [10.25x7.25in]; xxiv, 493 pp., 36 illustrations and images, 5 maps, appendix, bibliography and index; Brown speckled beige paper on boards with linen cloth back strip, embossed red ink lettering on front and spine, brick red end papers, all edges trimmed; Pictorial dust jacket with 1877 Sibley Redmond color lithograph illustration by Henry Steinegger, black, red and white lettering in front and spine with reviews on back; Minimal shelf wear with slight rubbing to top and bottom spine, minor wear to dust jacket with small closed tear at lower back corner, signed on half title by author, Will Bagley 28 July 2002", tipped in University of Oaklahoma prospectus, bookmark and card, and book signing advertisement. From the dust jacket, the massacre at Mountain Meadows on September 11, 1857 was the single most violent act to occur on the overland trails. This book is a riveting account of the attack on the Baker-Fancher wagon train by Mormons in the local militia and a few Paiute Indians. Based on extensive investigation of the events surrounding the murder of over 120 men, women, and children, and drawing from a wealth of primary sources, Bagley explains how the murders occurred, reveals the involvement of territorial governor Brigham Young, and explores the subsequent suppression and distortion of events related to the massacre by the Mormon Church and others.

At Mountain Meadows, local settlers and Southern Paiute warriors waylaid the Francher party, a wagon train bound from Arkansas to California. Pinned down in a circle of wagons in a remote corner of southwestern Utah, some forty men, thirty women and seventy children fought for their lives for five days before surrendering under a promise of safe conduct. As the Mormon militia and their Indian allies escorted the emigrants away from their wagons, they killed all of them except seventeen children below the age of seven.

Will Bagley (1950-2021) was an independent historian who has written about overland emigration, frontier violence, railroads, mining, and the Mormons. Bagley has published extensively over the years and is the author and editor of many books, articles, and reviews in professional journals. Bagley is the series editor of Arthur H. Clark Company's documentary history series, KINGDOM IN THE WEST: The Mormons and the American Frontier. Bagley has been a Wallace Stegner Centennial Fellow at the University of Utah and the Archibald Hanna, Jr. Fellow in American History at Yale University's Beinecke Library.  Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows has won numerous awards including a Spur Award from Western Writers of America, the Bancroft History Prize from the Denver Public Library, Westerners International Best Book, and the Western History Association Caughey Book Prize for the most distinguished book on the history of the American West. .