It’s easy to raise a discussion about what [some] adults think children should not read: Harry Potter? Huckleberry Finn? And what about Brigham Young’s railing against novels? (… while at the same time alluding to various Charles Dickens novels in his correspondence).

Less provocative, perhaps, is the discussion about what children should read – but that’s a question that has been of frequent concern in Mormon history. That question was one of the motives for founding the Juvenile Instructor in 1866, and its pages hosted many stories modeling childhood virtues and teaching young Latter-day Saints about their faith and its leaders. That was what propelled the first book series for Mormon children, “The Faith Promoting Series,” which eventually reached 17 volumes:

1. My First Mission, by George Q. Cannon (1879)
2. A String of Pearls: designed for the Instruction and Encouragement of Young Latter-day Saints (1880)
3. Leaves from My Journal, by Wilford Woodruff (1881)
4. Gems for the Young Folks (1881)
5. Jacob Hamblin: A Narrative of His Personal Experience as a Frontiersman, Missionary to the Indians, and Explorer, by Jacob Hamblin and James A. Little (1881)

6. Fragments of Experience, (1882)
7. President Heber C. Kimball’s Journal (1882)
8. Early Scenes in Church History, (1882)
9. The Life of Nephi, the Son of Lehi: Who Emigrated from Jerusalem, in Judea, to the Land Which is Now Known as South America, about Six Centuries Before the Coming of the Savior, by George Q. Cannon (1883)
10. Scraps of Biography, (1883)
11. The Myth of the “Manuscript Found”: or, The Absurdities of the “Spaulding Story”, by George Reynolds (1883)
12. Labors in the Vineyard, (1884)
13. Eventful Narratives, (1887)
14. Helpful Visions, (1887)
15. Treasures in Heaven, by George C. Lambert (1914)
16. Precious Memories, by George C. Lambert (1914)
17. Gems of Reminiscence, by George C. Lambert (1915)

[I’ll update this post to include links to as many of these books as I can find.]

Obadiah Higbee Riggs (David O. McKay’s father-in-law) was Utah Territory’s Superintendent of Schools in the 1870s, and one of his major concerns was selecting – or trying to have written – books for Utah’s (okay, Mormondom’s) schoolchildren that would include their own region’s heroes in the larger American and Western story.

That was still the concern in 1904 of Howard Driggs, working at the behest of A.C. Nelson, the state’s Superintendent of Schools, to select a list of books for the district schools of Utah. Driggs had then received

many samples from which to choose, from various publishing houses. Among them are many biographies of Pioneers of the West – stories of pioneer life, and settlement of the frontiers, but in none do I find mention of the men and women who really opened this part of our country. The Mormon heroes are ignored. Of course it is easy to understand why outside people should do this.

Driggs could give no good reason

for depriving the children of Utah of books that would enable them to know the lives of their fathers and mothers – and what they have done for this state and region. Certainly the material we have would furnish stories of heroism, of fortitude, of toil and suffering as noble as any the world has to give us. And it means more to our boys an girls than tales from afar.

But search as he might, Driggs could not find “anything that is in proper for the younger readers.”

The nearest approach to it is Nephi Anderson’s “ History of the Church.” ((1916 edition of the 1889 original.)) That book appeals to boys and girls; I have used it in Mutual work. The only objection I can see to introducing it I the title, which might create a stir.

He wondered if it would be possible to publish that book with the title “A History of Utah.”

Driggs also sought

a carefully edited selection of biographies, sketches of early life in Utah and similar material, published as an attractive volume for young people. There is an abundance of such material in the Juvenile, the Era, the News, and Contributor. It should be put into form by some whole-souled, God-fearing teacher, and we have many such.

Latter-day Saints had put in an effort to meet the reading needs of older people. “Can we not have some good books for the boys and girls now?”

Whether it was in direct response to Driggs’s 1904 appeal, or otherwise, the Church published a book in 1907, called Black Gipsy, written by John Henry Evans, who served on the board of the Church Religion Class.

Religion Class has been generally forgotten now, but from 1890-1929 it was an important feature of Utah life (it didn’t extend beyond that), and was as much an auxiliary of the Church as the MIA or Sunday School. You can read about it in Brent D.’s post at the Juvenile Instructor blog. In brief, it was a class held for elementary age school children, at the end of the school day once a week, using public school facilities and, often, LDS public school teachers. From the LDS point of view, it was a class offered by the Church to its own children, using public facilities supported by its members; from the point of view of many non-Mormons, however, it was an uncomfortable mix of the public and the private, and by 1907 the Religion Classes were no longer meeting in public schools, but in chapels.

Black Gipsy, produced for use of the Religion Classes for readers 8-10 years of age, was a collection of stories intended to teach children but also to engage them in interesting literature. A Juvenile Instructor review from 1908 says:

Under the caption Black Gipsy and Other Stories appears a neat little book, written by John Henry Evans at the request of the General Board of Religion Classes. Brother Evans is already known to the literary world as the author of One Hundred Years of Mormonism, Tales of a Grandmother, Short Stories from Church History, and numerous magazine articles.

Black Gipsy is an excursion into the field of juvenile literature, of which, as the author remarks in the Introduction, there is a noticeable lack among the Latter-day Saints. The story of the pet pony, Black Gipsy; of Willie’s Pumpkin and the wonderful case of healing; of the founding of the Church; of Peter Van Tromp, the afflicted boy of Holland, of Mahonri Moriancumer and his almost unexampled faith; together with other interesting things, told in a way to fascinate the children. Occasionally the author enters upon dangerous ground, as when he attempts to put in story form a case of remarkable healing – a thing that should really be substantiated by evidence. But on the whole, the stories form a notable and worthy attempt to fill a long-felt want in our midst. Black Gipsy and Other Stories should find more than one friend in every home. And we hope that this will not be the last effort to supply our children with suitable literature. There is an abundance of material in our Church. May we not hope that others, too, will use their talents to help the young.

As noted, the book contains stories of children modeling virtuous behavior for young people, a story of American patriotism, stories from Church history, and stories drawn from scripture.

The one I find most interesting – and the one I recommend you read – is that of Peter Van Tromp, a Latter-day Saint boy in Rotterdam, Holland, whose lost eyesight was restored by a blessing given by Joseph F. Smith. I was surprised to find this story there. It is a story that was controversial in Holland and elsewhere at the time it happened – missionaries collected affidavits of the boy’s previous blindness and his restored sight, which were used in a perhaps unfortunate public way to “prove” the truthfulness of Mormonism; the non-Mormon press responded with ridicule and affidavits of their own. One of these days I’ll have to put the whole story together for Keepa; in the meantime, it really was fun to find this story there – I hadn’t heard of it outside of the primary documents that I have come across in the course of reading whatever I can get my hands on from that era.

The full text of Black Gipsy is posted on Keepa here – use your browser’s search function to find and read any particular story from the table of contents. The Introduction telling of the purpose of the book is also interesting. Then please return to this post for comments.

I find the question of what should we read to be far more interesting than what we should not read, and was delighted to run across this early 20th century attempt to answer that question.