Review: Craig S. Smith, ed. The Selected Letters of Juanita Brooks. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2019.

Authors

Claudia L. Bushman

Keywords

Juanita Brooks, letters, historian, Utah, historical projects

Abstract

This book reproduces 222 letters of the more than nine hundred extant letters of Juanita Brooks, the fiercely honest and highly respected historian of Utah and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The letters in this collection, written to fellow scholars and friends, date from 1941 to 1978 and trace the development of her historical projects and her interaction with many of her contemporaries. Craig S. Smith has chosen to include the letters in their entirety, rather than editing them for specific facts and quotations, arranging them chronologically in subject groups. That Brooks typed those letters, filing away the carbons, showed her devotion to keeping accurate records. Smith, aware that he is editing an autobiography as well as a collection of letters, does a thorough job worthy of his subject, choosing and introducing the letters and including twelve pages of bibliography and sixty-six pages of notes.

BYU ScholarsArchive Citation

Bushman, Claudia L. (2021) "Review: Craig S. Smith, ed. The Selected Letters of Juanita Brooks. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2019.," Mormon Studies Review: Vol. 8: No. 1, Article 28.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/msr2/vol8/iss1/28