Reminiscences of Latter-Day Saints.; Giving An Account Of Much Individual Suffering Endured For Religious Conscience
Logan: The Utah Journal Co., Printers, 1888. First edition. Cloth. 208 pp. Flake-Draper 4960. Light purple cloth with a blindstamped 4 line border along top and bottom edge of the front cover as well as a round design with small branches and flowers extend above and below the center of the front cover with title in gilt extending across front cover; small gilt circle of a forest scene in the bottom right corner of the front cover; blindstamped designs at head and foot and middle of spine; decorative endsheets.
Cloth along spine is slight sunned and has several tears; bumped and rubbed corners; front decorative endsheets pasted down;front hinge is tender and rear hinge is cracking; small dark stain to top edge (text is not affected); scattered underlining in blue.
It appears that this copy was once housed inside the Logan Temple. On the verso of the front endsheet is written "Logan Temple 1888."
Lyman Littlefield's Mormon experience was certainly quite the ride. After the family encountered Mormonism in Michigan, teenage Lyman signed on and marched with Zion's Camp. He traced the traditional route through Missouri to Nauvoo where he again used his newspaper talents while working for the Times and Seasons. It was while working there that his troubles began. After publishing a fairly suggestive followup to a marriage notice, he was forced to publish a letter absolving Joseph Smith of any involvement. Smith actually brought slander charges against him but the heat was just beginning to be applied. A couple months later, Littlefield came before the high council under accusations of shenanigans swirling around John C. Bennett. He was excommunicated but then rejoined not long after. His first wife divorced him and was then sealed to Brigham Young (for time) and Joseph Smith (for eternity). Despite all this, Littlefield continued to follow Brigham Young and came to Utah. Having long fancied himself a poet and writer, Littlefield published these memoirs in his Cache Valley home. Despite his claim that "no pretensions are made to that elegance of diction which adorns the pages of many able writers," this is how he described his youth (ch. 2): "in that neighborhood he made his infantile debut upon this terrestrial globe." Interestingly, when he treats John C. Bennett, he moralizes that "his lechery had debauched every virtuous sentiment that morality had ever taught him" without, of course, noting that he had been excommunicated himself for just such conduct. This particular copy is doubly collectible due to it having been part of his hometown Logan Temple library at some point. Condition: Very good. Item #37628
Price: $350.00