The big passionate novel of a woman daring to live and love freelyâ??no matter what the price. She was forced to choose between one man's love and her own pride as a woman. Brigham married one woman too many when he took Ann Eliza Webb as his twenty-seventh wife. He was the leader of the polygamous Mormon faith, as powerful in the Utah Territory as the President of the United States. She was a great beauty with a quiet mannerâ??and an iron will. For four years, Eliza lived in Brigham Young's harem as his 27th wife. Then, one summer morning, she walked out, deserting her husband and suing him for divorce..… (más)
This is a biography of the infamous 19th (or 27th, but probably 52nd) wife of Brigham Young, second "prophet" and leader of the Mormon Church, published in 1961. After reading The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff, I wanted to read this book as it was a major source for his novel.
Wallace's biography is valuable because it presents a more balanced view of Brigham Young (as well as of Ann's first husband, James Dee), plus it tells what happened to Ann and other members of her family after her 1875 memoir, Wife No. 19, was published. Ann revised her memoir and republished it in 1908 (under the title Life in Mormon Bondage), but even then she did not mention her third marriage to (and divorce from) Moses Denning. Wallace's book has extensive acknowledgments and bibliography; I only wish it had footnotes or in-text citations connecting to those sources. ( )
Intriguing novel based on the true-life revelations of Ann Eliza Young, the 27th wife of Brigham Young. She ran away and was successful in divorcing him. ( )
Not far from this is another semicircular space surrounded by a high wall . . . and here stands the city of the Nang Harm, or Veiled Women. In this city none but women and children. Here the houses of the royal princesses, the wives, concubines, and relatives of the king . . . Into this inmost city no man is permitted to enter, except only the king. . . . —The Romance of the Harem by Mrs. Anna H. Leonowns, 1873
I am conscious that my narrative savors of incredibility: the fault is in the subject, not the narrator. —The City of the Saints by Richard F. Burton, 1861
"Would you think they could abduct me from here? —Ann Eliza Young
It is a curious fact of history that 1873—the year during which Ulysses S. Grant began his second term as President of the United States, financial panic bankrupted 5,000 businesses, yellow fever decimated the South, William "Boss" Tweed was convicted of fraud, and the cable car was introduced to San Francisco—was also the year in which a majority of Americans were fascinated, agitated, or otherwise preoccupied with the subject of life in a harem. For this strange absorption, two young ladies were largely responsible—one being a woman born in Wales who had spent five years in a Siamese harem [Anna H. Leonowens], and the other being a woman born in Illinois who had spent four years in a United States harem. [Ann Eliza Young]
The big passionate novel of a woman daring to live and love freelyâ??no matter what the price. She was forced to choose between one man's love and her own pride as a woman. Brigham married one woman too many when he took Ann Eliza Webb as his twenty-seventh wife. He was the leader of the polygamous Mormon faith, as powerful in the Utah Territory as the President of the United States. She was a great beauty with a quiet mannerâ??and an iron will. For four years, Eliza lived in Brigham Young's harem as his 27th wife. Then, one summer morning, she walked out, deserting her husband and suing him for divorce..
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Wallace's biography is valuable because it presents a more balanced view of Brigham Young (as well as of Ann's first husband, James Dee), plus it tells what happened to Ann and other members of her family after her 1875 memoir, Wife No. 19, was published. Ann revised her memoir and republished it in 1908 (under the title Life in Mormon Bondage), but even then she did not mention her third marriage to (and divorce from) Moses Denning. Wallace's book has extensive acknowledgments and bibliography; I only wish it had footnotes or in-text citations connecting to those sources. (