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Author: Linda King Newell / Valeen Tippets Avery
She has been called both a devil and a saint. As the wife of the founding prophet of Mormonism, Emma Hale Smith was designated by revelation as an "Elect Lady." As the head of the Nauvoo Female Relief Society, she opposed the practice of polygamy and, after her husband's martyrdom, refused to become a rallying point for the many contenders for leadership of the Mormon Church. Surrounded by controversy throughout her life, in death, too, this charismatic woman has been obscured by myth, rumor, and innuendo-alternately vilified, idealized, or ignored. Now, after eight years of intensive research and the meticulous gathering of scattered documents and letters relating to her life, the authors have written the first comprehensive examination of this remarkable woman. As the pieces of Emma's life are assembled, there emerges a forthright, quick-witted woman of a compassionate nature who found herself tom between love for her husband and acceptance of his plural wives, between loyalty to the church her husband founded and Brigham Young's attempts to lead it. Emma Smith's biography illustrates the methods by which nineteenth-century women asserted influence and power in a utopian religious movement, highlights the place of women within the framework of the Mormon experience, and documents the overwhelming hardships of American frontier life. This fascinating reconstruction of the experiences of this complex woman sheds a new light on Emma's life and on the era of Mormon history she helped to shape. It will prove a valuable addition to the history of nineteenth-century women, religion, and the American Midwest.
