“The Gospel of Intelligence and Culture”: Literature and Literary Instruction in the Twentieth-Century MIA Curriculum

Authors

Michael Austin
Rachel Meibos Helps

Keywords

Teaching, Bishop Orson F. Whitney, Mutual Improvement Association, Public precetion

Abstract

In his journal for April 29, 1888, Bishop Orson F. Whitney recorded a curious meeting that he had with an Apostle. “Had a long conversation in the morning with Apostle Moses Thatcher,” wrote Whitney. “He gave me a blessing and set me apart to deliver a lecture on Sunday, June 3rd next, at the Mutual Improvement Conference in the Tabernacle. My subject is Home Literature. I consented to deliver it, though very busy and overworked, at the request of the Authorities.” This remarkable assignment— he was called and set apart to give a speech in the way men at the time were called and set apart to go on missions—was the genesis of Whitney’s “Home Literature” address. “We will yet have Miltons and Shakespeares of our own,” he prophesied in that speech, which gave its name to the new literary movement that flourished among the Latter-day Saints between 1880 and 1910. Whitney’s “Home Literature” speech has since become a rallying cry for generations of Latter-day Saints convinced that their religious tradition contains the raw materials they might forge in the smithies of their souls to achieve literary greatness.

Recommended Citation

Austin, Michael and Helps, Rachel Meibos (2023) "“The Gospel of Intelligence and Culture”: Literature and Literary Instruction in the Twentieth-Century MIA Curriculum," BYU Studies Quarterly: Vol. 62: Iss. 2, Article 7.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/byusq/vol62/iss2/7