A review by tjwallace04
Mormon Country by Wallace Stegner

4.0

I feel like I have so much to say about "Mormon Country" and yet also somehow nothing to say. Published in 1942, the book is a collection of essays, primarily about Mormon history of the 1850s - early 1900s, with a few vignettes that advance up to the 1940s. The writing is beautiful (I mean, it's Stegner, come on!), and I liked the general tone of the book - it felt warm, friendly, interested. Stegner is aware of the difficulties and oddities of Mormon history and culture without sensationalizing them or giving the impression of rubber necking. This is not a page-turner by any means, but I enjoyed it, slowly and tranquilly, reading an essay at a time. I learned some new things and met some new historical figures. (I kept my phone near me to do my own research about people and incidents he introduced like the Mountain Meadows Massacre, J. Golden Kimball, Earl Douglass, and Marie Ogden. Oh, and it was fascinating to hear about the origins of the Short Creek community, now a base of Fundamentalist LDS members). I literally just realized while flipping through the book to write this review that "Mormon Country" is part of a series edited by Erskine Caldwell that includes many other entries like "Short Grass Country" (Stanley Vestal) and "Palmetto Country" (Stetson Kennedy). Interesting. Anyhow, if you love Wallace Stegner and are even remotely interested in LDS history, then you will probably enjoy this book.