25448

Book

English

Givens, Terryl L.

Parley P. Pratt : The Apostle Paul of Mormonism

New York, NY

Oxford University Press

2011

499

[2012 Mormon Historical Association Winner for Best Book]
[2012 John Whitmer Historical Association winner for Best Biography]
[2011 Association for Mormon Letters Winner for Best Biography]

After Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, Parley P. Pratt was the most influential figure in early Mormon history and culture. Missionary, pamphleteer, theologian, historian, and martyr, Pratt was perennially stalked by controversy--regarded, he said, "almost as an Angel by thousands and counted an Imposter by tens of thousands."

Tracing the life of this colorful figure from his hardscrabble origins in upstate New York to his murder in 1857, Terryl Givens and Matthew Grow explore the crucial role Pratt played in the formation and expansion of early Mormonism. One of countless ministers inspired by the antebellum revival movement known as the Second Great Awakening, Pratt joined the Mormons in 1830 at the age of twenty three and five years later became a member of the newly formed Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, which vaulted him to the forefront of church leadership for the rest of his life. Pratt's missionary work--reaching from Canada to England, from Chile to California--won hundreds of followers, but even more important were his voluminous writings. Through books, newspaper articles, pamphlets, poetry, fiction, and autobiography, Pratt spread the Latter-day Saint message, battled the many who reviled it, and delineated its theology in ways that still shape Mormon thought.

Drawing on letters, journals, and other rich archival sources, Givens and Grow examine not only Pratt's writings but also his complex personal life. A polygamist who married a dozen times and fathered thirty children, Pratt took immense joy in his family circle even as his devotion to Mormonism led to long absences that put heavy strains on those he loved. It was during one such absence, a mission trip to the East, that the estranged husband of his twelfth wife shot and killed him--a shocking conclusion to a life that never lacked in drama.

Award Winner
Biography
Ecclesiastical offices, Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
Pratt, Parley P.
Pratt, Parley P., biographies

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229

"I Hid [the Prophet] in a Corn Patch" : Mormon Women as Healers, Concealers, and Protectors in the 1838 Mormon-Missouri War
"Silence, Ye Fiends of the Infernal Pit!" : Joseph Smith's Incarceration in Richmond, Missouri, November 1838
"Tempered for Glory" : Brigham Young's Cosmological Theodicy
A "Truly Eventful Life" : Writing the Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt
A House Full of Females : Plural Marriage and Women's Rights in Early Mormonism, 1835-1870
Adoptive Sealing Ritual in Mormonism
Americanist Approaches to the Book of Mormon
Becoming a People of the Books : Toward an Understanding of Early Mormon Converts and the New Word of the Lord
Brigham Young : Pioneer Prophet
Documents, Volume 6: February 1838-August 1839
Early Mormon Patriarchy and the Paradoxes of Democratic Religiosity in Jacksonian America
Early Mormonism and the Re-enchantment of Antebellum Historical Thought
Eternal Progression : Mormonism and American Progressivism
Feeding the Flock : The Foundations of Mormon Thought : Church and Praxis
Layered Lives : Boston Mormons and the Spatial Contexts of Conversion

Looking Beyond the Borders of Mexico : Historian Andrew Jenson and the Opening of Mormon Missionary Work in Latin America
Mormon Christianity : What Other Christians can learn from the Latter-day Saints
Mormon Women's History : Beyond Biography
None Can Deliver : Imagining Lamanites and Feeling Mormon, 1837-1847
Parallel Paths : LDS General Conference and Mormon History
Quorum of Apostles : Actions of Dissent at Kirtland
Race and the Making of the Mormon People
Race and the Making of the Mormon People
Religion of a Different Color : Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness
Runaway Wives, 1830-1860
Settling the Valley, Proclaiming the Gospel : The General Epistles of the Mormon First Presidency
The Development of Early Latter-day Saint Marriage Rites, 1831-53
The Journals of George Q. Cannon : Hawaiian Mission, 1850-1854
The Mormon Jesus : A Biography
The Oxford Handbook of Mormonism
The Pearl of Greatest Price : Mormonism's Most Controversial Scripture
The Prophet and the Reformer : The Letters of Brigham Young and Thomas L. Kane
The Treason of the Geographers : Mythical "Mesoamerican" Conspiracy and the Book of Mormon
To the "Honest and Patriotic Sons of Liberty" : Mormon Appeals for Redress and Social Justice, 1843-44
Toward a Catholic History of Mormonism
What Jane James Saw
Wrestling the Angel : The Foundations of Mormon Thought : Cosmos, God, Humanity
Zarahemla Revisited : Neville's Newest Novel
“Though We or an Angel from Heaven” : Evangelicals and the First Vision

"A Pentecost and Endowment Indeed" : Six Eyewitness Accounts of the Kirtland Temple Experience
"God Has Made Us a Kingdom" : James Strang and the Midwest Mormons
"I Roll the Burthen and Responsibility of Leading This Church Off from My Shoulders on to Yours" : The 1844/1845 Declaration of the Quorum of the Twelve Regarding Apostolic Succession
"The Scriptures is a Fulfilling" : Sally Parker's Weave
"Thou Wast Willing to Lay Down Thy Life for thy Brethren" : Zion's Blessings in the Early Church
'Mountain Common Law' : The Extralegal Punishment of Seducers in Early Utah
'Similarity of Priesthood in Masonry' : The Relationship between Freemasonry and Mormonism
'Walls, Grates, and Screeking Iron Doors' : The Prison Experience of Mormon Leaders in Missouri, 1838-1839
A Biography of Parley P. Pratt, the Archer of Paradise
A Call to Arms : The 1838 Defense of Northern Missouri
A Collection of Facts, Relative to the Course Taken by Elder Sidney Rigdon, in the States of Ohio, Missouri, Illinois and Pennsylvania
A Comprehensive History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
A Descriptive Bibliography of the Mormon Church, Volume One, 1830-1847
A History of the Deseret Alphabet
A Mormon Chronicle : The Diaries of John D. Lee, 1848-1876
A Mormon Mother : An Autobiography of Annie Clark Tanner
A Shaker View of a Mormon Mission
A Tentative Inquiry into the Office of Seventy, 1835-1845
A Trial Furnace : Southern Utah's Iron Mission
A[n] Interesting Account of Several Remarkable Visions, And of the Late Discovery of Ancient American Records
Adventures of a Pioneer
Amasa Mason Lyman, Mormon Apostle and Apostate : A Study in Dedication
American Massacre : The Tragedy at Mountain Meadows, September 1857
An Address to All Believers in Christ. By a Witness to the Divine Authenticity of the Book of Mormon
An American Album, 1857
An Intimate Chronicle : The Journals of William Clayton
An Old California Pioneer
Army of Israel : Mormon Battalion Narratives
At Sword's Point, Part 1 : A Documentary History of the Utah War to 1858
Before The Manifesto : The Life Writings of Mary Lois Walker Morris
Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith the Prophet, and His Progenitors for Many Generations
Blood of the Prophets : Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows
Brigham Young : American Moses
Brigham Young's Homes
But for the Kindness of Strangers : The Columbia, Missouri, Response to the Mormon Prisoners and the Jailbreak
By the Hand of Mormon : The American Scripture that Launched a New World Religion
California Mormons by Sail and Trail
California Saints : A 150-Year Legacy in the Golden State
California and Chile in 1851 as Experienced by the Mormon Apostle Parley P. Pratt
Conflict in the Quorum : Orson Pratt, Brigham Young, Joseph Smith
Creating a New Alphabet for Zion : The Origin of the Deseret Alphabet
David Whitmer Interviews : A Restoration Witness
Defence of Polygamy, by a Lady in Utah : In a Letter to Her Sister in New Hampshire
Defending Zion : George Q. Cannon and the California Mormon Newspaper Wars of 1856-1857
Delusions : An Analysis of the Book of Mormon ; with an Examination of Its internal and External Evidences, and a Refutation of Its pretences to Divine Authority
Devil's Gate : Brigham Young and the Great Mormon Handcart Tragedy
Diary of Lorenzo Dow Young
Divorce among Mormon Polygamists : Extent and Explanations
Documents Containing the Correspondence, Orders, &c. In Relation to the Disturbances with the Mormons
Early Justice in Utah
Early Mormon Documents : Volume II
Early Mormon Pamphleteering
Early Mormon Pamphleteering
Early Scenes in Church History
East of Nauvoo: Benjamin Winchester and the Early Mormon Church
Eastward Ho! American Religion from the Perspective of the Pacific Rim
Eleanor McLean and the Murder of Parley P. Pratt
Eliza R. Snow : The Complete Poetry
Erastus Snow : The Life of a Missionary and Pioneer for the Early Mormon Church
Establishing Zion : The Mormon Church in the American West, 1847-69
Evangelical America and Early Mormonism
Exemplary Elder : The Life and Missionary Diaries of Perrigrine Sessions, 1814-1893
Exiles in a Land of Liberty : Mormons in America, 1830-1846
Fragments of Experience
From the Journal and Diary of Isaiah Moses Coombs
General Smith's Views of the Powers and Policy of the Government of the United States
George Q. Cannon : A Biography
Gleaning the Harvest : Strangite Missionary Work, 1846-1850
Gold Rush Sojourners in Great Salt Lake City, 1849 and 1850
Guide to Mormon Diaries and Autobiographies
Hearken, O Ye People : The Historical Setting for Joseph Smith's Ohio Revelations
Heart Throbs of the West
Hearts Turned to the Fathers : A History of the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1894-1994
Heber C. Kimball : Mormon Patriarch and Pioneer
History May Be Searched in Vain : A Military History of the Mormon Battalion
History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 1805-1890
History of the Late Persecution Inflicted by the State of Missouri Upon the Mormons
History of the Trials of Elder John Hardy : Before the Church of Latter Day Saints in Boston, For Slander, in Saying that G.J. Adams, S. Brannan and William Smith were Licentious Characters
Hoping to Establish a Presence : Parley P. Pratt's 1851 Mission to Chile
Hymns and Hymnody
Identifying the Earliest Mormon Polygamists, 1841-44
Illustrated Periodical Images of Mormons, 1850-1860
In Sacred Loneliness : The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith
Incidents of Travel and Adventure in the Far West
Indian Origins and the Book of Mormon : Religious Solutions from Columbus to Joseph Smith
Infallible Proofs, Both Human and Divine : The Persuasiveness of Mormonism for Early Converts
Inheriting the 'Great Apostasy' : The Evolution of Mormon Views on the Middle Ages and the Renaissance
John Murdock : His life and legacy
Joseph Smith : Rough Stone Rolling
Joseph Smith's Introduction of Temple Ordinances and the 1844 Mormon Succession Question
Journal of the Southern Indian Mission : Diary of Thomas D. Brown
Journals of John D. Lee 1846-47 and 1859
Junius and Joseph : Presidential Politics and the Assassination of the First Mormon Prophet
Late Persecution of the Church of Jesus Christ, of Latter Day Saints
Liberty to the Downtrodden : Thomas L. Kane, Romantic Reformer
Life of Heber C. Kimball, an Apostle; the Father and Founder of the British Mission
Literary Dimensions of Mormon Autobiography
Los Mormones en Chile
Lucy's Book : A Critical Edition of Lucy Mack Smith's Family Memoir
Manuscript Revelation Books
Massacre at Mountain Meadows : An American Tragedy
Men with a Mission : The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in the British Isles 1837-1841
Moramona : The Mormons in Hawaii
More Wives than One : Transformation of the Mormon Marriage System, 1840-1910
Mormon History
Mormon Land Rights in Caldwell and Daviess Counties and the Mormon Conflict of 1838 : New Findings and New Understandings
Mormon Midwife : The 1846-1888 Diaries of Patty Bartlett Sessions
Mormon Redress Petitions : Documents of the 1833-1838 Missouri Conflict
Mormon and Methodist : Popular Religion in the Crucible of the Free Market
Mormonism : Its Leaders and Designs
Mormonism In All Ages : Or, The Rise, Progress and Causes of Mormonism
Mormonism Unvailed : Or, a Faithful Account of That Singular Imposition and Delusion From Its Rise to the Present Time
Mormonism Unveiled
Mormonism Unveiled : Zion's Watchman Unmasked
Mormonism and Music : A History
Mormons at the Missouri, 1846-52 : 'And Should We Die'
Mormons, Crickets, and Gulls : A New Look at an Old Story
Naked Truths about Mormonism
Nauvoo : A Place of Peace, a People of Promise
Nauvoo Polygamy : "... But We Called it Celestial Marriage"
New Views of Mormon History : A Collection of Essays in Honor of Leonard J. Arrington
Nineteenth-century Mormonism and the Pacific Basin Frontier : An Introduction
No Man Knows My History : The Life of Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet
No Place to Call Home : The 1807-1857 Life Writings of Caroline Barnes Crosby, Chronicler of Outlying Mormon Communities
Not By Bread Alone : The Journal of Martha Spence Heywood, 1850-1856
On Zion's Mount : Mormons, Indians, and the American Landscape
On the Potter's Wheel : The Diaries of Heber C. Kimball
On the Way to Somewhere Else : European Sojourners in the Mormon West, 1834-1930
Orson Hyde : The Olive Branch of Israel
Over the Rim : the Parley P. Pratt Exploring Expedition to Southern Utah, 1849-1850
Parley P. Pratt : Father of Mormon Pamphleteering
Parley P. Pratt and the Making of Mormonism
Parley P. Pratt and the Pacific Mission : Mormon Publishing in 'That Very Questionable Part of the Civilized World'
Parley P. Pratt--His Twelve Wives
Parley Pratt's Autobiography as Personal Restoration and Redemption
Power from on High : The Development of Mormon Priesthood
President Heber C. Kimball's Journal
Proclamation to the people of the coasts and islands of the Pacific ; of every nation, kindred and tongue by an Apostle of Jesus Christ
Prophet in Zion : The Saga of George J. Adams
Quest for Refuge : The Mormon Flight from American Pluralism
Radical Origins : Early Mormon Converts and Their Colonial Ancestors
Reconstructing the Y-Chromosome of Joseph Smith Jr. : Genealogical Applications
Religious Seekers and the Advent of Mormonism
Representative Women of Deseret : A Book of Biographical Sketches to Accompany the Picture Bearing the Title
Revelations and Translations
San Bernardino : The Rise and Fall of a California Community
Scoundrel's Tale : The Samuel Brannan Papers
Sex, Subalterns, and Steptoe : Army Behavior, Mormon Rage, and Utah War Anxieties
She Who Shall Be Nameless
Sheaves, Bucklers, and the State : Mormon Leaders Respond to the Dilemmas of War
Sidney Rigdon : A Portrait of Religious Excess
Sister-Wives and Suffragists : Polygamy and the Politics of Woman Suffrage, 1870-1896
Sojourner in the Promised Land : Forty years among the Mormons
Some Themes of Counter-Subversion : An Analysis of Anti-Masonic, Anti-Catholic, and Anti-Mormon Literature
Southern Cross Saints : The Mormons in Australia
Spiritualism and Mormonism : Some Thoughts on Similarities and Differences
The 1838 Mormon War in Missouri
The American Quest for the Primitive Church
The Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt : Some Literary, Historical, and Critical Reflections
The Autobiography of Parley Parker Pratt
The Bone in the Throat : Orson Pratt and the Public Announcement of Plural Marriage
The Book of Daniel in Early Mormon Thought
The Campaign and the Kingdom : The Activities of the Electioneers in Joseph Smith's Presidential Campaign
The Constitution of the State of Deseret
The Council of Fifty and Its Members, 1844 to 1945
The Democratization of American Christianity
The Development of Mormon Communitarianism, 1826-1846
The Earliest Eternal Sealings for Civilly Married Couples Living and Dead
The Early Days of Mormonism
The Emergence of Brigham Young and the Twelve to Mormon Leadership, 1830-1841
The Final Episode of Mormonism in Missouri in the 1830s : The Incarceration of the Mormon Prisoners at Richmond and Columbia Jails, 1838-1839
The First Australian Mormon Imprints
The History of Louisa Barnes Pratt : Being the Autobiography of a Mormon Missionary Widow and Pioneer
The Joseph Smith Papers : Journals, Volume 2 : December 1841-April 1843
The Journals of Addison Pratt
The Journals of William E. McLellin 1831-1836
The King Follett Discourse : A Newly Amalgamated Text
The Lamanite Mission
The Law of Adoption : One Phase of the Development of the Mormon Concept of Salvation, 1830-1900
The Life and Thought of Orson Pratt
The Lion of the Lord : A Biography of Brigham Young
The Mantle of the Prophet Joseph Passes to Brother Brigham : A Collective Spiritual Witness
The Millenarian World of Early Mormonism
The Missouri Mormon Experience
The Mormon Battalion : U.S. Army of the West 1846-1848
The Mormon Hierarchy : Origins of Power
The Mormon Menace : Violence and Anti-Mormonism in the Postbellum South
The Mormon Passage of George D. Watt : First British Convert, Scribe for Zion
The Mormon Succession Crisis of 1844
The Mormons, or Latter-day Saints : A Contemporary History
The Mormons, or Latter-day Saints, in the Valley of the Great Salt Lake
The Mountain Meadows Massacre
The Nauvoo Endowment Companies, 1845-1846 : A Documentary History
The Newel K. Whitney Collection
The Orson Pratt Journals
The Papers of Joseph Smith, Volume 1 : Autobiographical and Historical Writings
The Papers of Joseph Smith, Volume 2 : Journal, 1832-1842
The Personal Writings of Eliza Roxcy Snow
The Personal Writings of Joseph Smith
The Practice of Rebaptism at Nauvoo
The Quest for Religious Authority and the Rise of Mormonism
The Religious Milieu of English Mormonism
The Representation of Reality in Nineteenth Century Mormon Autobiography
The Saintly Scoundrel : The life and times of Dr. John Cook Bennett
The Shakers and the Mormons
The Spalding Theory Then and Now
The Story of the Latter-day Saints
The Story of the Mormons : From the Date of Their Origin to the Year 1901
The Ten Lost Tribes : A World History
The Viper on the Hearth : Mormons, Myths, and the Construction of Heresy
The Web of Print : Toward a History of the Book in Early Mormon Culture
The Whore of Babylon and the Abomination of Abominations : Nineteenth-Century Catholic and Mormon Mutual Perceptions and Religious Identity
The Words of Joseph Smith : The Contemporary Accounts of the Nauvoo Discourses of the Prophet Joseph
Thomas L. Kane and Utah's Quest for Self-Government, 1846-51
Truman Coe's 1836 Description of Mormonism
Two Rare Missouri Documents
Unto the Islands of the Sea : A History of the Latter-day Saints in the Pacific
Utah History Encyclopedia
Utah and the Mormons : The History, Government, Doctrines, Customs, and Prospects of the Latter-day Saints
Voyage of the Ship 'Brooklyn'
West from Fort Bridger : The Pioneering of the Immigrant Trails across Utah 1846-1850
Wilford Woodruff's Journals
William E. McLellin's Testimony of the Book of Mormon
William Smith, 1811-93 : Problematic Patriarch
Winter Quarters : The 1846-48 Life Writings of Mary Haskin Parker Richards
Women Alone : The Economic and Emotional Plight of Early LDS Women
Writings from the Western Standard
Zion in the Courts : A Legal History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830-1900
Zion's Camp : Expedition to Missouri, 1834