Books of the week — T. B. H. and Fanny Stenhouse

11 Monday Apr 2016

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anti-Mormon, Appleton, Brigham Young, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, convert, excommunicated, Fanny Warn Stenhouse, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Hartford, Italy, Joseph Smith, Lausanne, Lorenzo Snow, Missionary, New York, newspaper, polygamous, pro-Mormon, Russell Brothers, Salt Lake City, Scottish, Swiss Mission, T.B.H. Stenhouse, Thomas Stenhouse, Utah Territory, Worthington

“There is a power in combined enlightened sentiment and sympathy before which every form of injustice and cruelty must finally go down.” – Harriett Beecher Stowe, 1874

LES MORMONS (SAINTS DES DERNIERS-JOURS) ET LEUR…
Thomas Brown Holmes Stenhouse (1825-1882)
Lausanne: Imprimerie Larpin et Coendoz, 1854
First edition
BX8635 S74 1854

T. B. H. Stenhouse was a Scottish convert, one time missionary companion to Lorenzo Snow in Italy, and first Mission President over the Swiss Mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. While serving in this position he edited the Latter-day Saints periodical, Le Reflecteur and published Les Mormon et Leurs Ennemis, written for the purpose of defending the LDS faith against anti-Mormon arguments popular at the time. In 1855 Stenhouse and his wife, Fanny Warn, emigrated to Utah Territory and settled in Salt Lake City. Stenhouse became the editor of the Salt Lake Telegraph, a pro-Mormon newspaper. In 1862, Stenhouse took a polygamous wife. Fanny Stenhouse objected. In 1870, Thomas and Fanny Stenhouse acted on growing disaffection with the church, Thomas having become particularly uneasy with Brigham Young’s heavy hand in the daily lives of the of the Saints. Thomas and Fanny left the church and were then excommunicated. In 1873 Stenhouse wrote The Rocky Mountain Saints: A Full and Complete History of the Mormons, an expose against the church. This work became a standard for anti-Mormon attacks on Joseph Smith.

“It was worse than civil war, worse than a war of races; it was religious hate! It was fed by fanaticism on both sides.”

THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN SAINTS…
T. B. H. Stenhouse 91825-1882)
New York: D. Appleton and company, 1873
First edition
BX8611 S76 1873

“I had had it all fully explained to me, and I thoroughly understood the beauties of the system in the sight of the Elders…but it is miserable work to try to convince others of a thing that you yourself detest.”

A LADY’S LIFE AMONG THE MORMONS
Mrs. T. B. H. Stenhouse (1829-1904)
New York: Russell Brothers, Publishers, 1872
First edition
BX8645 S74 1872

Fanny Stenhouse wrote her own story of disenfranchisement in A Lady’s Life Among the Mormons (1872). The book was reprinted as Tell It All: A Woman’s Life in Polygamy (1874), with a preface by Harriet Beecher Stowe.

“But darker days – days of severer trial were creeping slowly near me…Now the dark shadow of an accursed thing was looming in the distance, but approaching surely if slowly.”

TELL IT ALL: THE STORY OF A LIFE’S EXPERIENCE IN…
Mrs. T. B. H. Stenhouse (1829-1904)
Hartford, CT: A. D. Worthington, 1874
First edition
BX8645 S74 1874

Book of the Week – The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

08 Monday Sep 2014

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advertisements, American, bookstores, British, California, Canada, copyright, England, frontispiece, Hartford, London, manuscript, Mark Twain, piracy, prospectus, royalties, Samuel Clemens, San Francisco, subscription, Tom Sawyer, typewritten, United States, unpublished

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Mark Twain (1835-1910)
Hartford, CT: American Pub. Co.; San Francisco, CA: A. Roman, 1876
First American edition, first printing
PS1306-A1-1876

Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) wrote three different versions of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer between 1872 and 1875 before it was first published in London in June, 1876.

Many American authors preferred to have their books published first in England, since that was the only way to secure British copyright. First printings in England, and then the United States, usually occurred only a couple of months apart. In the case of Tom Sawyer, the delay was longer, frustrating Twain. Too much of a delay often resulted in piracy, which is exactly what happened in the case of this work. At least one pirated edition surfaced in July in Canada.

Twain believed that the delay and the piracy caused him loss in royalties. Tom Sawyer was reviewed unfavorably in the London Examiner, the day it came out. A July review in the literary magazine, The Atheneaum, was more kindly.

In December 1876, Tom Sawyer was printed in the United States and sold by subscription only. This was a common method of book distribution in the United States during the latter half of the nineteenth century. Book agents would cross the country with a publisher’s prospectus, selling and placing orders for as yet unpublished titles. Once the title was released the books would be delivered directly to subscriber’s homes. Only later editions were available in bookstores.

Tom Sawyer was not an immediate success. The American publisher sold only 24,000 copies in its first year. The pirated edition was not the only reason for poor sales. One book agent in California complained that the story, at only 274 pages, was not long enough. Potential subscribers apparently felt the same way.

Twain typed the manuscript for Tom, and later claimed that it was the first typewritten manuscript. Historians, however, believe that this distinction goes to Twain’s Life on the Mississippi. The frontispiece of the first American edition was drawn by Twain. Publisher’s advertisements, dated Dec. 1, 1876 on two leaves in back.

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~ News from the Rare Books Department of Special Collections at the J. Willard Marriott Library, The University of Utah

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Books of the week — T. B. H. and Fanny Stenhouse

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