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Show Story of Joseph Smith's wife ! is a look at a woman's heart Book Review .' : i. ' by JANICE PERRY , '.. ' - " I Record editor Mormon Enigma: . Emma Hale I Smith, Prophet's wife, "Elect J Lady, " Polygamy's Foe, Linda King I Newell and Valeen Tippetts Avery, I Doubleday, 309 pp. plus references, I (19.95. Mormon Enigma: Emma Hale Smith is the biography of what the I authors contend is one of Mor-J Mor-J monism's most misunderstood I women. I Emma was castigated from the pulpit by Mormon pioneer leader I Brigham Young as "one of the damndest liars I know of on this J earth," accusing her of twice trying to kill her husband Joseph Smith the founder of the Mormon Church. , She has been characterized in ' Mormon history as a jealous wife . ; who put her feelings above Joseph's ' revelation on plural marriage and worked to block the perpetuation of polygamy. She has been cast as devious, greedy and unfaithful to the church. But Newell and Avery in their biography try to present another picture pic-ture of Emma as a strong-willed and compassionate woman whose deep and intense love for Joseph guided her life. True, she was polygamy's foe. The book chronicles her struggle with Joseph who began the practice in secret, at times with other men's wives and how she disregarded his contention that instructions to take multiple wives came directly from God'.,.- .' , ; : ' ' She believed, in short, the revela-. tion was hogwash and told Joseph so repeatedly. "Thus saith the Lord" may have held sway with many of Joseph's followers, but convincing a wife was another matter.' The book starts with Emma Hale's , upbringing in Harmony, Penna., and ' her meeting of Joseph. The gangly.. young man was hired by New York businessman Josiah Stowell to dig for treasure using a smooth, striped "seer stone" Joseph found while digging dig-ging a well. As the book chronicles the development of the Mormon Church, Emma, emerges as a dauntless pioneer who lost four of her first five children including a set of twins who died at birth. Soon after, she adopted a set of twins whose mother had perished during their birth. She eventually lost one of those children and others. In later life, she had to contend with the insanity of one of her adult sons. The authors, citing numerous historical sources, show Emma was a deeply loved and revered woman among the Mormon people, continually con-tinually taking in other people's children to raise and always ready with a meal for the hungry or shelter for the homeless. But the advent of polygamy stressed stress-ed her marriage to Joseph and eventually even-tually led her to threaten divorce if it did not cease. Joseph relented, prr .. rnised Emma he t would cease the practice, but' continued it behind her' back, the authors say. When Joseph and his brother, Hyrum, were murdered in the Carthage Car-thage jail, Emma was left pregnant, with four children for which to care. She also was left in a precarious financial state, with Joseph's property pro-perty intermingled with that of the church but his $70,000 in debt ($500,000 in today's dollars) rested firmly on her shoulders. . It was at this time the rift between Emma and Brigham Young began and slowly widened. The dispute centered on Young's perpetuation of "the principle" of polygamy, but . other, more temporal matters also t . were involved. The distribution of Joseph's pro-, perty became a. major source of irritation ir-ritation between them. Young often would, refer to Emma's ''wealth" , without taking Joseph's debts into ', consideration, the authors say. " ,' Other points of contention involv-, involv-, ed whether Joseph's personal papers belonged to Emma or to the church. Emma believed the writings 1 of her late husband were hers, but Young who had them in his possessionrefused posses-sionrefused to relinquish them; . The book also tries to put to rest the standard Mormon Church belief that Emma manipulated her sons into in-to heading up the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The book, citing historical sources, shows her sons were drawn into the reorganization movement by its founders and Joseph III (who headed the new church) had little, if any, knowledge of his father's participation par-ticipation in polygamy. Avery and Newell note Emma left no diary or journal. Some family papers mention her only briefly. Joseph's diary refers to Emma and their children. Twenty-two letters written between them exist. A few letters written after 1844 and one page of "blessings" she desired represent her only personal statements. The authors say other documentation documenta-tion was extensive but widely scattered, scat-tered, leading them on a nine-year . , quest to reconstruct her life. , ; The authors are very protective of . ' Emma and attempt openly to cast her in a favorable light. When a historical source describes her in less than flattering ways, the authors counterpoint with other facts to show why she acted that way. But lacking such facts, they sometimes simply suppose what her motivation could have been. It is here one tends to wonder how objective the authors have been. But the authors both of whom are Mormon also strive to present the events as they happened and not as traditional church history depicts , them. , "We ... recognize the difficulty of maintaining balance in describing historical events that many people hold sacred," they write in the ' book's introduction. "... we have written neither ' to support nor to i dispute doctrine and have used ac-' , counts favorable to and critical of the new religion." ' ... The book is written in a scholarly, rather than fluid, novel-like style and is rather slow reading. But the Emma that emerges is a crisp portrayal por-trayal of a woman who suffered, yet persevered. What also is clear from the book is the deep love Joseph had for Emma, and she for him. Mormon Enigma, then, is a love story. It is a story about a woman who loved her husband and his church, but who felt betrayed by ' both. For Mormon history buffs, this is a must-read. |