Eliza R. Snow: The Complete Poetry
Provo: Brigham Young University Press, 2009. Hardcover/dust jacket. 1333 pp. Includes 507 poems by Snow (each with historical context) with an introduction.
Eliza R. Snow first published her poetry pseudonymously in an Ohio newspaper in 1825, when she was twenty-one. Her last poem was published in 1887, when she was eighty-three. In the intervening sixty-two years she wrote more than 500 poems. Her early work covered such various topics as the fight for Greek independence, the plight of the American Indian, and the deaths of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams on the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Her themes changed when she joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1835, as her poetry began to reflect her new experiences, including poems about Nauvoo, the trek of the Mormon pioneers to the valley of the Great Salt Lake, and the religious community building that ensued. No public event in the community was complete without her contribution, and some of her poems became the texts for Mormon hymns. When she died on December 5, 1887, the New York Times noted the passing of “the Mormon Poetess . . . one of the central figures of the Mormon galaxy.”
Snow’s poems, varied in style and subject matter, reflect both Mormon and quintessentially American experiences of the nineteenth century. This volume, Eliza R. Snow: The Complete Poetry, presents each poem with contextual information, making it as much a biographical, historical, and theological collection as a literary one, and offering readers the opportunity to enjoy all of the lyrical and powerful poems of this iconic Mormon figure. Now out of print, this exhaustive compilation has quickly become collectible. Condition: Fine. Item #19259
Price: $125.00