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On Wednesday, February 22, Signature will host a panel discussion about a mysterious incident in 1977, in which an anonymous writer printed hundreds of pamphlets refuting Jerald and Sandra Tanner’s Mormonism––Shadow or Reality?, placed them in a storage locker, then mailed the key and a letter to bookseller Sam Weller, asking him to distribute them. The story of what happened next––told from three different perspectives of the event’s key players––unfolds in episodes published in three Signature Books titles: Ronald V. Huggins’s Lighthouse: Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Despised and Beloved Critics of Mormonism (2022); Confessions of a Mormon Historian: The Diaries of Leonard J. Arrington, 1971–1997 (2018), edited by Gary James Bergera; and D. Michael Quinn’s memoir, Chosen Path (forthcoming this year), annotated by Barbara Jones Brown et al. Panelists Tanner and Huggins, Bergera, and Brown will share what each of these participants had to say about the incident, then evaluate what it all meant and what the incident said about Mormon studies in the 1970s.
These books will be available for sale and author signings or, in the case of Chosen Path, for pre-order. Copies of the now-infamous 1977 pamphlet, “Jerald and Sandra Tanner’s Distorted View of Mormonism: A Response to Mormonism––Shadow or Reality?, by a Latter-day Saint Historian,” will also be available.
Quinn Event Now Available as Podcast Episode and YouTube Video
Signature hosted an event at its offices on January 19, launching our new anthology, DNA Mormon: Perspectives on the Legacy of Historian D. Michael Quinn. Benjamin E. Park, the book’s editor, along with seven contributors to the volume, shared their thoughts on Quinn, his scholarship, and his influence––Maxine Hanks, Patrick Q. Mason, Gary James Bergera, Martha Bradley-Evans, Brianna Bratsman, Calvin Burke, and Millie Tullis. More than fifty people attended, and both Signature and Benchmark Books, who partnered together for this event, sold books for the authors to sign.
Recordings of the event are now available here as the latest episode of the Signature Books Podcast, and on Signature’s YouTube channel, available here.
With a total of fifteen essays, DNA Mormon is available for $18.95 in paperback and $9.99 as an ebook.
February to See Two Poetry Releases; Reading to Follow in April
This month Signature is releasing two poetry collections by Dayna Patterson and Utah Poet Laureate Lisa Bickmore. Patterson’s O Lady, Speak Again is her second collection published by Signature. To see a beautiful trailer for the book, click here. Her first Signature publication, If Mother Braids a Waterfall, was released in 2020 during the COVID pandemic. Since the pandemic forced her to cancel all signings, she’ll also discuss that book. Scroll to the bottom of this newsletter for a Q&A featuring Dayna and her newest release.
Lisa Bickmore is issuing a second edition of her book Haste, with her new foreword. Signature originally published this book in 1994, and we are excited to see it back in print!
Save the date for Signature’s poetry night at our offices on Wednesday, April 26, at 7:00 p.m. Dayna Patterson and Lisa Bickmore will be there, as will other poets who have published with us. This promises to be an uplifting, enlightening, and thoughtful evening as these authors share their works and display their creative talents with us. Any up-and-coming poets who want to attend can get a few pointers and a little advice.
Two New Audiobooks Available
Two of Signature’s latest releases are now available as audiobooks: Dr. Martha Hughes Cannon: Suffragist, Senator, and Plural Wife, by Constance L. Lieber, and Eight Myths of the Great Apostasy, by Gregor McHardy. Each book is read by the author.
Martha Hughes Cannon was an important figure in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Mormonism, making national history when she became the nation’s first female state senator in 1896. The cost for the audiobook is $14.95. The book is also available in paperback for $9.95 and as an ebook for $4.99.
The “great apostasy” is a subject often discussed with the establishment of the Mormon movement because it provides context and a need for a Restoration. But are there popular ideas about the apostasy that do not hold up to historical evidence? Eight Myths of the Great Apostasy provides some answers and urges a more charitable view of ancient Christianity. The audiobook is $14.95, as is the paperback. You can purchase the ebook for $9.99.
Michael Hicks Featured on Latter-day Faith Podcast
to Discuss Memoir
Signature author Michael Hicks recently spoke at length with Dan Wotherspoon on the podcast, Latter-day Faith, about his new memoir Wineskin: Freakin’ Jesus in the '60s and '70s. In this interview, Hicks discusses growing up in San Francisco, his years as an evangelical, and his conversion to Mormonism. His early years in the faith were far from conventional. We agree with Wotherspoon, as he introduces the episode, that “Michael is someone very much worth getting to know!”
You can also read a review of Wineskin on the Wheat and Tares blog by clicking here. That this is not a typical Latter-day Saint memoir is obvious when the reviewer asks, “By halfway through Wineskin, I asked myself how on Earth this young man––self-professed thief, drinker, and avid Evangelical––could ever end up a professor at BYU? Even when Hicks was sober and not breaking the law, he spent much of his youth fellowshipping with Jesus Freaks whose literature included anti-Mormon pamphlets.” Spoiler alert: Although the book chronicles Hicks’s life through 1980, he stayed at BYU until his recent retirement and remains active in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Dialogue Reviews Brigham Young Diaries
In the Fall 2022 issue of Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Katie Ludlow Rich reviewed Brigham Young, Colonizer of the American West: Diaries and Offices Journals, 1832–1871, edited by George D. Smith, calling it "a more complex picture of the life of the pioneer prophet." For more fascinating reviews, articles, poetry, and art, subscribe to their newsletter today!
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