29080

Book

English

Smith, Andrew F.

The Saintly Scoundrel : The life and times of Dr. John Cook Bennett

Urbana, Illinois

University of Illinois Press

1997

271

[1998 Mormon Historical Association Winner for Best Biography]

This is the first biography of one of this nation's most outrageous individuals, a man who was president of the medical departments of two universities and chancellor of two others, a member and officer of at least twenty different agricultural, medical, or social organizations, an itinerant minister in three different denominations, and a lobbyist who successfully ushered bills through legislatures in Ohio, Virginia, Indiana, and Illinois. Bennett's roles ranged from mayor of Nauvoo, confidant of Joseph Smith, and chicken breeder to surgeon, quartermaster general of Illinois, promoter of the tomato, and diploma salesman. His story is brilliantly told by an author who spent nine years uncovering and piecing together the facts. The Saintly Scoundrel reveals Bennett as one of the nineteenth century's most enterprising and entertaining humbugs, truly a man who excelled at promoting beliefs, places, things, and himself, whose ability to abruptly shift positions on people and faiths would dazzle even the most formidable propagandist of the twentieth century.

Anti-Mormonism, U.S., 19th century
Anti-Mormonism, U.S., 19th century, American setting
Award Winner
Bennett, John C.
Biographies, male, 19th century (books)
Nauvoo, Ill., historiography
Origins, early members
Plural marriage, biographical examples
Smith, Joseph, Jr., early life

25

"A Negro Preacher" : The Worlds of Elijah Ables
'Joseph's Measures' : The Continuation of Esoterica by Schismatic Members of the Council of Fifty
A Peculiar People : Anti-Mormonism and the Making of Religion in Nineteenth-Century America
Amasa Mason Lyman, Mormon Apostle and Apostate : A Study in Dedication
Defending Zion : George Q. Cannon and the California Mormon Newspaper Wars of 1856-1857
Doing the Works of Abraham : Mormon Polygamy―Its Origin, Practice, and Demise
Emily Dow Partridge Smith Young on the Witness Stand : Recollections of a Plural Wife
Epilogue to the Utah War : Impact and Legacy
Freemasonry and the Origins of Modern Temple Ordinances
From Mission to Madness : Last Son of the Mormon Prophet
From Monogamy to Polygamy and Back Again
: Changing Marriage Practices Among the Strangites
In Heaven as It Is on Earth : Joseph Smith and the Early Mormon Conquest of Death
John C. Bennett and Joseph Smith's Polygamy : Addressing the Question of Reliability

Joseph Smith Fought Polygamy
Joseph Smith and the Development of Habeas Corpus in Nauvoo, 1841-44
Joseph's Temples : The Dynamic Relationship Between Freemasonry and Mormonism
Mormon History
Mortal Enemies : Mormons and Missourians 1839-1844
Parley P. Pratt : The Apostle Paul of Mormonism
Prelude to Civil War : The Utah War’s Impact and Legacy
Searching for "Happiness" : Joseph Smith's Alleged Authorship of the 1842 Letter to Nancy Rigdon
Temples Rising : A Heritage of Sacrifice
The Forgotten Story of Nauvoo Celestial Marriage
The Mormon Passage of George D. Watt : First British Convert, Scribe for Zion
We'll Find the Place : The Mormon Exodus 1846-1848