Reminder: This event is scheduled for this Friday, November 20.
Through the words of this witty woman poet come insights into the daily life, the courage and ambitions of early Utah people. Jill and Karen highlight the features, the fame, and even the fun of Eliza’s writings. They have arranged for talented musicians to help interpret her lyrics. This will be an evening of ideas and sociability. Free admission.
Original announcement (October 23):
From Cherry Silver of the Mormon Women’s History’s Initiative:
Dear friends of Mormon women’s history,
I am writing to invite you to an evening event with Jill Mulvay Derr and Karen Lynn Davidson in honor of their wonderful new book, Eliza R. Snow: The Complete Poetry (BYU Press and University of Utah Press, 2009).
Jill and Karen will describe Eliza and her world to us and give us insights through her poems into the personalities and events of the nineteenth century Church. They have distilled the features, the fame, and even the fun of Eliza’s writings. This will be an evening of ideas, historical views, music, and socializing over refreshments following the presentation.
Mark this date and location: Friday, November 20, at 7:00 p.m. at the Sons of the Utah Pioneers Building, 3301 East Louise Avenue (2920 South, a few blocks north of Smith’s Marketplace on 33rd South), Salt Lake City. Admission is free. You are welcome to bring friends and family.
The Mormon Women’s History Initiative is hosting the event. Co-sponsors are the Association for Mormon Letters, BYU Studies, the Harvard Alumni Association of Utah, International Society Daughters of Utah Pioneers, and Sons of Utah Pioneers.
This sounds like a wonderful event. I wish I could be there. I will look forward to reading a report on what Jill and Karen have to say.
Thanks for the heads up. I plan to attend. Have you or do you intend to read the book? I have pondered getting it but have such a tall stack on deck that I am not yet persuaded. Is it, in your opinion, a must read?
[mindless ramblings on a lazy morning — sorry for the length]
sanford, it’s not a book you would read cover to cover even if you like poetry even more than I do. It’s a LOT of poetry, some of it of very uneven quality, and repetitious.
But I’m glad to have it in my home library, and I’ve dipped into it quite a bit in the past couple of months. JMD and KLD have written introductions to the different periods in ERS’s life, and introductions to the individual poems, that are interesting and helpful. ERS commented so much on what was going on around her, whether it was the death of a neighbor child or a great theological debate or the invasion of an army or the return of a missionary, and those introductions help me to see ERS as a commentator on those events as much as any diarist or journalist or General Conference speaker. It’s a new (for me) and sometimes enlightening experience to read about a familiar event or issue in verse and from a woman’s point of view — and what a woman.
We all probably think we have a general idea of who ERS was, in large measure from her poetry that we sing as hymns. The faith and doctrine in those hymns *is* a large part of who she is. But her poetry shows other dimensions — she struggled with doctrine sometimes, examining and trying to resolve conflicts through writing about it. She got angry, and indignant, she even crowed a bit over the downfall of opponents. She helped people mark the milestones in their lives by presenting them with short verses about birth and death and marriage and missions and other callings. It’s a real pleasure to discover new angles to ERS’s life. She’s so much more than the dour old lady wrapped in black that she appears in familiar photos.
Because it *is* poetry, and because so many of us are inexperienced at enjoying poetry, I would hesitate to say this is a must read for very many people. But if a student were working on a paper about a particular historical event or period or doctrinal development that overlapped ERS’s life, I’d say reading the appropriate chapter in this book is a must for that student. If you’re looking for a woman’s perspective on issues of her day, it’s a must read. If you’re struggling with a gospel principle or with the unfairness of life, you may take courage from the way ERS tackled her demons, knowing that for her everything was going to come out all right in the end.
And if you had ancestors in Salt Lake during ERS’s life, you should see if she didn’t write a verse or two dedicated to someone in your family. I’m amazed at how many people she did honor that way.
And if you had ancestors in Salt Lake during ERS’s life, you should see if she didn’t write a verse or two dedicated to someone in your family. I’m amazed at how many people she did honor that way.
[getting my Keepa fix tonite]…how would you recommend going about researching this?
(p.s. Ardis — been thinking of you this week…have had some fun on the New Family Search this week as it rolled out in my area. And found some old family letters, too, that I thought you might get a kick out of….???)
I’ve just put it up at MormonConferences.org. Should be a good one!
m&m, I’d spend some time with the book (it’s in the church history library), going through the index and looking for familiar names. There may be occasional people referred to by, say, their initials, that JMD and KLD couldn’t identify, but there weren’t many of those — the introductions to the individual poems very often name the “honorees” and describe the circumstances of a poem’s having been written.
Kent, I’m sorry that I didn’t think to notify you of this. I’m glad you keep an eye out for events to add to your calendar.
Waaaa! Sunstone, Steve Peck, Jan Shipps, and now I miss this!
The problem with reading the Bloggernacle out here in the so-called mission field is that I’m constantly reading about interesting events I can’t attend. 🙁 (I haven’t even seen _Nobody Knows_ yet.)
Oh, well, even if I lived in Utah I’d have to arrange for babysitting, so I’m sure I couldn’t attend them all anyway. At least I’ll comfort myself with that thought.