Signature News July 2023

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View this email in your browser Vol. 4  |  No. 7 July 2023 Signature Authors to Present at This Month’s Sunstone Symposium This year’s Sunstone Symposium will be held July 27–29 at the Mountain America Expo Center in Sandy, Utah. Signature Books will have a table there where you can browse and buy a large collection of Signature titles. Please stop by and say hello!  Several of our authors will  be presenting at the symposium. On Friday, July 28, at 4:25 p.m., Session #164 will feature a discussion on Dan Vogel’s Charisma under Pressure: Joseph Smith, American Prophet, 1831–1839. Vogel will join the discussion via Zoom.   If you missed our event in May featuring Signature biographers, several of them will gather for a panel discussion about their work. Session #173, “The Mormon Lives Series: From Apostles to Apostates,” will be held Friday at 5:55 p.m. Come listen to Newell G. Bringhurst on Harold B. Lee: Life and Thought; Gary Topping on D. Michael Quinn: Mormon Historian; Stephen Carter on Virginia Sorensen: Pioneering Mormon Author, and Kenneth L. Cannon II on George Q. Cannon: Politician, Publisher, Apostle of Polygamy.  Their books will be available for purchase during the symposium and immediately after this session, and the authors will be happy to sign them. Then on Saturday, Session #265, “Spiritual Paths of the September Six Thirty Years Later,” will feature Sara M. Patterson, whose book, The September Six and the Struggle for the Soul or Mormonism will be released this fall on the thirtieth anniversary of these disciplinary actions. Seven others will join her for this important discussion: Maxine Hanks, Paul Toscano, and Lynn Whitesides, three of the “September Six”, and Janice Allred and Margaret Toscano, who were later disciplined by the LDS Church. Signature director Barbara Jones Brown and former Sunstone editor Elbert Peck round out this panel.    Signature Authors Win Awards at Mormon History Association Conference The Mormon History Association conference held in Rochester, New York, in early June was a glowing success, but for Signature Books and a few of its authors, it was that and more. Two of our titles won awards, a significant accomplishment, but hardly a surprise. Signature strives to publish the best in Mormon studies, and once again, we feel like we have done it.          Winner of Best Memoir was Michael Hicks, Wineskin: Freakin’ Jesus in the ’60s and ’70s. Hicks, a retired professor of music at Brigham Young University, is a convert to the LDS Church whose early experiences in, out, and back into the church make up much of this volume. BYU professor Steven Peck said, “I can rarely say of a memoir, ‘I could not put it down.’ I could not put this one down. Michael Hicks’s story is marvelously compelling. Every life plays out in a sequence of intended or accidental events, and the pull of the Tao into places unexpected and uncanny. But here? Get ready. There are many surprises ahead.”          MHA gave its Best Biography Award to Ronald V. Huggins for his book, Lighthouse: Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Despised and Beloved Critics of Mormonism. Why are the Tanners despised? Why are they also beloved? This book tells the story of the Tanners’ fascinating ride, right in the heart of Mormondom. Cristina Rosetti says that Huggins’s “empathetic approach to the subject uncovers the way religion is not only shaped by its leaders and faithful, but also by its most vocal dissenters.” Have the Tanners helped shape Mormonism? Unequivocally, yes. Read this book to understand why. Lighthouse is now available also as an ebook, which you can order here.   George Q. Cannon Biography to Be Released This Month  This month will see the latest release in our Brief Mormon Lives series when Kenneth L. Cannon II’s long-anticipated book, George Q. Cannon: Politician, Publisher, Apostle of Polygamy soon comes off the press. The author has done extensive research into the Cannon family—through which he descends—for years.          George Q. Cannon was one of the most influential leaders in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for many years, serving in the First Presidency under Brigham Young, John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff, and Lorenzo Snow. Beyond his work directly with the church, he served Utah Territory as its delegate to Congress and as an editor of the Deseret News. In business, he ran the largest publishing house in Utah and successfully led several other businesses. A staunch defender of polygamy, Cannon was a key figure in propagating the practice both before and after Wilford Woodruff’s 1890 Manifesto which publicly––but not entirely––discontinued the practice.            George Q. Cannon joins five other biographies now available in this series: Newell G. Bringhurst’s Harold B. Lee: Life and Thought; Gary Topping’s D. Michael Quinn: Mormon Historian; Constance L. Lieber’s Dr. Martha Hughes Cannon: Suffragist, Senator, Plural Wife; and Stephen Carter’s Virginia Sorensen: Pioneering Mormon Author. Look for Thomas G. Alexander’s John A. Widtsoe: Scientist and Theologian later this year.   Latest Podcast Releases  In June we released two more podcast episodes! The first, released on June 6, was of the author night held at Signature’s offices in May. The panel featured Kenneth L. Cannon, Stephen Carter, Constance L. Lieber, and Gary Topping, who discussed their books in our Brief Biography series (see titles mentioned above) and conversed with one another about how the lives they wrote about intersected. The podcast can be heard here and watched on our YouTube channel here. It was a great evening and the authors shared fantastic insights into their subjects.  On June 27 we also released an interview with Dan Vogel about his book, Charisma under Pressure: Joseph Smith, American Prophet, 1831–1839, which you can listen to here or watch on YouTube here. This biography covers Smith’s years overseeing the church in Kirtland, Ohio, and the Mormon settlements at Independence and Far West, Missouri. This book, several years in the making, completes Signature’s three-volume project detailing the life of Mormonism’s founding prophet. Charisma under Pressure is nearly 1,000 pages long and covers this period of Smith’s life as no one has. The other two volumes in the series are Richard S. Van Wagoner, Natural Born Seer: Joseph Smith, American Prophet, 1805–1830, and Martha Bradley-Evans, Glorious in Persecution: Joseph Smith, American Prophet, 1839–1844.  Q&A with Kenneth L. Cannon about his book George Q. Cannon Q. Why a book about George Q. Cannon? A. From about 1860 through the end of the nineteenth century, George Q. Cannon was at the center of virtually everything of importance to his church and its people. He is generally acknowledged to be the second most prominent figure in Mormon history in the last half of the nineteenth century, behind only Brigham Young. Ben Park recently opined that Cannon may be the most important political figure in the history of the church. He was not only the leading political figure as Utah’s territorial delegate for ten years and as the mastermind of political activities relative to Utah and the church. He was probably the most important propagandist for the church as editor of the Deseret News for decades, the publisher of the largest publishing house in Utah, and the most effective speaker in the church. He came to the attention of Brigham Young and other senior church leaders through an extraordinarily successful mission in the Sandwich Islands where he and a few fellow missionaries baptized over 4,000 people, mostly native Hawaiians. During the last period of his mission, he found the time to translate the Book of Mormon into Hawaiian, with the help of two educated Sandwich Islanders. He served as first counselor in the First Presidency under John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff, and Lorenzo Snow, each of whom acknowledged his important role. He described himself as an “ultra” adherent of plural marriage who nonetheless played a critical role in the official end of the practice. After the Manifesto of 1890, he oversaw the secret solemnization of new polygamous marriages. He was the person most responsible for Utah becoming a state. With charisma, charm, intelligence, and wit, he impressed and ingratiated himself with many members of Congress, editors, businessmen, and many others, including Charles Dickens, several US Presidents, and British adventurer  Archibald Primrose, who as Lord Roseberry later served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Cannon was a complicated man who often engendered controversy. Long-time Salt Lake Tribune editor C. C. Goodwin once referred to him as “the sweetest, smoothest, and most plausible sophist in all this round earth,” and the Washington Post suspected that his benevolent bearing hid the “blackness of his soul.” Mormons mostly loved and revered George Q. but sometimes he generated opposition and bad feelings among fellow apostles such as Heber J. Grant and Moses Thatcher. A number of less senior church leaders engendered his anger if they criticized his children. Others were uncomfortable with his sometimes-heavy-handed leadership style in business and church. He was direct and would address challenges head-on. When he learned of his oldest general authority son’s adulterous relationship, he had his stake president brother publicly excommunicate him at the regular Sunday-afternoon meeting in the Salt Lake Tabernacle. Q. You mentioned George Q. Cannon served as Utah's Territorial delegate to Congress for five terms in the 1870s. During that time he successfully defeating all but one anti-polygamy bill.  Were his elections contested? A. Each of Cannon's five elections was hotly contested. His opponents, all members of the so-called "Tribune Ring," all argued that Cannon could not be elected because he was a polygamist, because ballots were marked, and because women were permitted to vote (and that many of those who voted for him were not American citizens). Eventually, his opponents also argued that Cannon was not a citizen. Deftly utilizing his extensive political skills, George Q. argued that he had received more than 90 percent of the votes, that he had never even been legally charged with unlawful cohabitation, that those who voted for him were American citizens, that women were entitled to vote in Utah, and that he had properly been made a citizen shortly after returning to Utah from the Sandwich Islands, producing his certificate of citizenship. Each time, the House of Representatives either decided that he had in fact been properly elected or, sometimes, the House never got around to voting on the issue. When he was excluded from serving under the terms of the Edmunds Act in 1882, Congress decided, much to the unhappiness of his opponent, that it would not seat a delegate who had received less than 10 percent of the vote and John T. Caine, a monogamous Mormon, replaced Cannon. Q. What distinguished George Q. Cannon? A. George Q. Cannon was essentially fearless. When he spoke in the Tabernacle shortly after being being released from the Territorial Penitentiary for unlawful cohabitation, he urged the Saints that “we need not fear; I tell you there is no cause or room for fear. God is with us.” Cannon’s fearlessness was reinforced by his absolute commitment to his faith. He was articulate, eloquent, and pugnacious. He could be fun and funny and was unusually well-read and broad-gauged. He regularly attended plays, museums, and historical and contemporary sites in his extensive travels. He was also intelligent and charming. He was a loving (though usually absent) father to his forty-or-so children and an affectionate husband to six women. Once, while sitting on a dais at a woman suffrage rally next to feminist Isabella Beecher Hooker, she confided to him that she had “told many of my friends that I would rather be your 50th wife than be the only wife of hundreds of men whom I know.” Cannon had no patience or sympathy with those who had left the fold or who attacked the church. He had boundless physical and psychic energy, which exhibited itself in many ways. Q. What was Cannon’s home life like? A. Cannon married six wives and had thirty-six natural and adopted children who lived to adulthood. His wives all appear to have loved him, though they no doubt often experienced heartache and disappointment because he favored his first wife Elizabeth Hoagland and his last wife, Caroline Young Cannon whom he married following Elizabeth’s death, as his first and legal wife. He was an affectionate father who kept abreast of his children’s lives. At Brigham Young’s suggestion, he built a Second Empire mansion on South Temple where most of his wives to that point lived. Later, he developed a family compound next to the Jordan River and about 1300 South. He asked his wives if they would prefer to live all together in one large house or each in her own house. When they voted unanimously to have their own homes, he built each a house in the compound along with a family schoolhouse. Education was important to him and he was proud of his children’s accomplishments. Q. Did George Q. Cannon have an enduring effect on the Mormon church and on Mormon culture? A. Will Bagley, who was deeply critical of Brigham Young, was enamored with Young’s leading acolyte of his last fifteen years, George Q. Cannon. Bagley wrote “Perhaps the greatest legacy of George Q. Cannon is the astonishing success of Mormonism in the twentieth century. In a fiery crucible of bitter controversy, he was instrumental in forging the faith of modern Latter-day Saints.” Cannon’s influence on twentieth-century political views and methods, on doctrine, and on church leadership is deep. New and Forthcoming Titles Charisma under Pressure: Joseph Smith, American Prophet, 1831–1839 Dan Vogel hardback: $49.95 ebook: $9.99 Available!  Virginia Sorensen: Pioneering Mormon Author Stephen Carter paperback: $14.95 ebook: $9.99 Available!  George Q. Cannon: Politician, Publisher, Apostle of Polygamy Kenneth L. Cannon II paperback: $14.95 ebook: $9.99 Available this month! The September Six and the Struggle for the Soul of Mormonism Sara M. Patterson hardback: $34.95 ebook: $9.99 Available this September! Chosen Path: A Memoir D. Michael Quinn hardback: $39.95 ebook: $9.99 Available this fall! The Path and the Gate: Short Fiction Edited by Andrew Hall and Robert Raleigh paperback: $21.95 ebook: $9.99 Available this fall! John A. Widtsoe: Scientist and Theologian Thomnas G. Alexander paperback: $14.95 ebook: $9.99 Available this fall! The Old Testament for Latter-day Saints Alex Douglas paperback: $19.95 ebook: $9.99 Available this fall! The Wilford Woodruff Journals Edited by Dan Vogel Six volumes with index ebook: $9.99 per volume Available this fall! EVENTS Affirmation International Conference July 21–23 Provo, Utah Utah Valley Convention Center Sunstone Symposium July 27–29 Sandy, Utah Mountain America Expo Center John Whitmer Historical Association Conference September 21–24 Fredericksburg, TX Hangar Hotel Copyright © *|CURRENT_YEAR|* *|LIST:COMPANY|*, All rights reserved. *|IFNOT:ARCHIVE_PAGE|* *|LIST:DESCRIPTION|* Our mailing address is: *|HTML:LIST_ADDRESS_HTML|* *|END:IF|* update or unsubscribe *|IF:REWARDS|* *|HTML:REWARDS|* *|END:IF|*