Comments on: Arthur Conan Doyle Reinterprets Joseph Smith

By: Eric Boysen

Eric Boysen — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 12:40:49 +0000

Thanks Ardis. I will look for those things.

By: Ray

Ray — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 01:32:15 +0000

#8 – Ain’t that the truth!

This truly was a fascinating read, Ardis.

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 22:12:59 +0000

Ah, Clark, but it’s so much more fun to invent salacious things and ignore real ones!

By: Clark

Clark — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 21:55:22 +0000

Of course the big problem with A Study in Scarlet is that it gets so much of the history wrong. I mean if you’re going to write a lurid book about Danites at least get the basic Church structure right.

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 13:00:22 +0000

Eric, are you familiar with Charles Dickens’s account of his visit to a Mormon emigrant ship? Not quite what you’re asking for, but it’s an astonishingly positive, honest account of what he saw (mixed inevitably with some unpleasant assumptions of what they might be headed toward, based on factors he did not witness).

Then there’s Nathaniel Hawthorne’s brief encounter with Mormonism during his political service in Britain. (Hawthorne didn’t mention it, but the Mormon involved did.)

Arthur Sullivan (of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas) enjoyed his opportunity to play the Tabernacle organ.

I can think of others who were polite and generally kind, and some who were not, but can’t think off hand of a major figure who made more than a superficial study.

By: Eric Boysen

Eric Boysen — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 12:31:23 +0000

I was familiar with the accounts of Mark Twain and Richard Burton, but not this one. It is interesting to see the respect the saints showed people, even to one who had previously written such a sensationalist work as A Study in Scarlet and who discounted Joseph Smith’s role as a prophet. Were there any other of theses major literary figures who came out and actually looked at how the Mormons actually did things and wrote about it?

By: smb

smb — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 01:51:27 +0000

I’ve seen a number of spiritualists claim Smith over the years. Some angel guidebooks (people would call them New Age now) actually list Moroni. Ann Taves is useful here (Fits, Trances, and Visions). Spiritualism was amazingly big news across America. Laurence Moore, In Search of White Crows is also good. Fun excerpt; thanks for sharing.

By: Clark

Clark — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 20:56:19 +0000

What’s more interesting is considering the Spiritualists among the Godbeites and imagine what their view of Mormonism was overall. That syncretic movement between the Spiritualists and Mormons always was interesting to me.

By: BruceC

BruceC — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 14:00:01 +0000

I had read A Study in Scarlet before but not this later work. Thank you. This reminds me of an event on my mission. We ran into one contact that upon hearing about the first vision responded with a question. "So why did Joseph Smith Believe them? Just because they said they were God & Jesus Christ doesn't mean they were."

By: Researcher

Researcher — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 13:28:09 +0000

Of course Doyle also did his homework on the fairies. (Not that you can dismiss someone's entire body of work based on one dubious episode in their career, but it's definitely something to be taken into consideration.)