The Levi S. Peterson's Collection of Juanita Brooks Papers, 1827-1987

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Utah State Historical Society

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Utah State Historical Society
Salt Lake City, Utah

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Summary Description | Background | Scope and Content | Administrative Info | Container List

Summary Description

Repository:Utah State Historical Society
Call number:Mss B 1221
Creator: Peterson, Levi S.
Title:Levi S. Peterson's Collection of Juanita Brooks Papers, 1827-1987
Quantity:6.5 lin. ft. (12 boxes)
Abstract:Levi Savage Peterson was born in 1933 in Snowflake, Arizona. He received a Ph.D. in English from the University of Utah and taught English at Weber State University (Ogden, Utah). Peterson, a noted fiction writer, became interested in the life of Juanita Brooks and wrote Juanita Brooks: Mormon Woman Historian, published by Signature Books. The materials in this collection were gathered for this publication. This collection is divided into nine series. The first eight series contain materials previously in the ownership of Juanita Brooks. These materials include corespondence dating from 1928 to the 1980s, diaries, drafts and galleys of her works, legal and financial records, published articles written by Brooks, and reviews of Brooks's works. The last series contains Levi Peterson's own notes and personal materials gathered for his book Juanita Brooks - Mormon Woman Historian.

Topics:

Mountain Meadows Massacre, 1857.

Persons:

Brooks, Juanita, 1898.
Lee, John Doyle, 1812.

Summary Description | Background | Scope and Content | Administrative Info | Container List

Background

Biographical Note

Levi Savage Peterson was born in 1933 in Snowflake, Arizona. He attended Brigham Young University and the University of California at Berkeley, and received his Ph.D. in English from University of Utah. Peterson later joined the faculty of Weber State College in Ogden, Utah, as a professor of English. Several short stories by Peterson appeared in various magazines, and in 1982, he published a book of stories, The Canyons of Grace. Two of the stories in that collection, "The Confessions of Augustine" and "Road to Damascus," received the prize for Mormon fiction awarded by the Association for Mormon Letters. Of the collection, author Page Stegner wrote: "Out of characters struggling between religious convictions and emotional contradictions, Peterson manages to create an intense vision of Mormon life in the Mormon West." In 1983, Peterson served as editor for a collection of Mormon short stories, Greening Wheat: Fifteen Mormon Short Stories. In the introduction to these stories, Peterson defines the genre of Mormon fiction as "moral literature," a classification that defines Peterson's own work as well. Peterson's first novel, The Back Slider, was published in 1986.
In 1985, Peterson conducted a series of oral history interviews with several friends, family members, and colleagues of Mormon historian Juanita Brooks. These interviews were a follow- up to Peterson's years of research on Brooks, her life, and her works. The culmination of this research was the publication in 1988 of Peterson's biography of Brooks: Juanita Brooks - Mormon Woman Historian. Adding to other awards and honors bestowed on Peterson's fiction, Juanita Brooks - Mormon Woman Historian received the David W. and Beatrice Evans Annual Biography Award for 1987.
In 1990, Peterson published a second collection of short stories, Night Soil: New Stories. Reviewers of the collection claimed in solidified Peterson's reputation as a lyrical writer of Mormon fiction. Peterson's second novel, Aspen Marooney, appeared in 1995.
Peterson has served as director of the honors program at Weber State College, editor of Encyclia, the journal of the Utah Academy of Arts and Sciences, interim editor of Western American Literature, and president of the Association for Mormon Letters. His stories have appeared in Denver Quarterly, Western American Literature, Utah Holiday, Dialogue, Sunstone, Weber Studies, and Mountainwest. His stories have received three awards from the Association for Mormon Letters and a first and second place from Utah Arts Council.
In the forward to the award-winning Juanita Brooks - Mormon Woman Historian, Charles Peterson writes a biographical sketch of Levi Peterson that sums up well the latter's achievements:
To this biography of Juanita Brooks, Peterson brings a directness almost equal to her own. He is a professor of English with an affinity for history and social issues and with abiding connections to Mormon Country. He is an accomplished author having published short stories, historical and biographical essays, collections of short stories, and a well-received novel set in southern Utah. By many he is considered to be one of the West's most promising regionalists. (x-xi)

Biographical Chronology

1933 Born in Snowflake, Arizona.
1982 Short story collection, The Canyons of Grace, published. Two of the stories in that collection received the prize for Mormon fiction awarded by the Association for Mormon Letters.
1983 Served as editor for a collection of Mormon short stories, Greening Wheat: Fifteen Mormon Short Stories.
1986 First novel, The Back Slider, published.
1988 Biography of Juanita Brooks, Juanita Brooks - Mormon Woman Historian, published. Awarded the David W. and Beatrice Evans Annual Biography Award for 1987.
1990 Second collection of short stories, Night Soil: New Stories, published.
1995Second novel, Aspen Marooney, published.

Summary Description | Background | Scope and Content | Administrative Info | Container List

Scope and Content

This collection is divided into nine series. The first eight series contain materials previously in ownership of Juanita Brooks. The last series, Levi Peterson, contains Peterson's own notes and personal materials gathered for his book Juanita Brooks - Mormon Woman Historian.
The first series contains address books of Juanita Brooks from various dates. This series also includes an alphabetical card file of addresses and phone numbers. The second series contains Brooks's incoming and outgoing correspondence, arranged chronologically from 1928 to the 1980s. These letters are of both a business and personal nature. Diaries of Juanita and William Brooks comprise the third series; these records date from the 1960s and early 1970s.
The fourth series, comprised of boxes 5-7, include drafts and galleys of Juanita Brooks's works. Most of this series is galleys of Brooks's biography of a central figure in the Mountain Meadows Massacre, John Doyle Lee: Zealot, Pioneer, Scapegoat. Photographs that were originally contained with the illustrations of John Doyle Lee have been removed and placed in Mss C 1221.
The fifth series is comprised of guest books, dating from 1966 to the 1970s. Series 9 includes legal and financial records of both William and Juanita Brooks. This series contains a large amount of Juanita Brooks's tax materials from the 1970s.
The seventh series is comprised of miscellaneous materials, including congratulatory letters written to Juanita Brooks on the occasion of receiving an honorary doctorate from Utah State University in 1964. Series 8 contains various published materials, including copies of several articles written by Brooks as well as reviews of Brooks's works.
The final series, Series 9, is comprised of Levi S. Peterson's own original files and notes on Juanita Brooks, materials which he used in his writing of Brooks's biography: Juanita Brooks - Mormon Woman Historian. These materials include many journals, personal and family narratives that Peterson personally retained for his files. This series also includes a fair amount of disorganized research notes taken by Peterson.

Series Descriptions

Address Books
Correspondence
Diaries
Drafts And Galleys of Brooks's Works
Guest Books
Legal And Financial Records
Miscellaneous Materials
Published Materials
Levi Peterson's Files

Summary Description | Background | Scope and Content | Administrative Info | Container List

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation:

Levi S. Peterson's Collection of Juanita Brooks Papers, 1827-1987, Utah State Historical Society.

Acquisition Information:

Gift of Levi S. Peterson

Restrictions on Use

The Levi S. Peterson's Collection of Juanita Brooks Papers is the physical property of the Utah Historical Society, Salt Lake City, Utah. Literary rights, including copyright, may belong to the authors or their heirs and assigns. Please contact the Historical Society for information regarding specific use of this collection.

Processing Information:

Collection processed by Kira Robertson, 2000

Finding aid compiled by Kira Robertson and Linda Thatcher, 2000

Finding aid edited by Linda Thatcher, 2000

Collection cataloged by Linda Thatcher, 2000 (RLIN ID: UTSX00-A16).

Finding aid encoded for the World Wide Web by Craig Ringgenberg, 2000.

Related collections

Juanita Leone Leavitt Pulsipher Brooks Papers, Mss B 103.

Separations

Photographs have been removed and filed as Mss C 1221.


Summary Description | Background | Scope and Content | Administrative Info | Container List

Container list

Box

Folder

Contents

Address Books

1

Address books, 1947, 1975, 1977

1

Address book, ca. 1979

1

Address book, n.d.

1

Card file of address and phone numbers, n.d.

Correspondence

1

1

1928

1

2

1930s

1

3

1940s to 1950s

1

4

1960-1963

1

5

1964

2

1

January-February 1965

2

2

March-April 1965

2

3

May-July 1965

2

4

August-December 1965

2

5

1966

2

6

1967

2

7

1968

2

8

1969

2

9

January-May 1970

2

10

June-August 1970

2

11

September-December 1970

2

12

January-February 1971

2

13

March-April 1971

2

14

May-July 1971

2

15

August-September 1971

3

1

October-December 1971

3

2

January-February 1972

3

3

March-May 1972

3

4

June-July 1972

3

5

August-October 1972

3

6

November-December 1972

3

7

January-June 1973

3

8

July-December 1973

3

9

1974

3

10

1975

3

11

1976

3

12

1977

3

13

1978

3

14

1979

3

15

1980s

3

16

undated

Diaries

Juanita Brooks

4

1

January 1961?; May 1961-November 1963; 1970; 1971

4

2

January-October 1971

4

3

July 1971-January 1975

William Brooks

4

4

1961

4

5

1962

4

6

1963

4

7

1968

Drafts And Galleys of Brooks's Works

5

1

"Abraham the Jew and the Mormon War," n.d.

5

2

"History of Washington County," n.d.

7

3

"Juanita Leavitt Pulsipher Brooks," n.d.

7

3

"Life Sketch of William Brooks," n.d.

7

4

"Life in the Utah Penitentiary," n.d.

7

5-7

Quicksand and Cactus, various chapters, 1944-1945

7

8

Miscellaneous manuscripts

John Doyle Lee: Zealot, Pioneer, Scapegoat

5

3

Correspondence with Arthur H. Clark Company regarding corrections, 1971-1972, 1987

5

4-7

Draft, n.d.

6

1-4

Galleys, n.d. [4 copies]

6

5

Galley of index, n.d.

7

1

Illustrations, n.d.

7

2

Maps, charts

Guest books

7

Guest book, 1966; memorial book and guest register at funeral of William Brooks, March 31, 1970

8

Guest book, May-July 1970, September 1972; guest book, November 1974; guest book, n.d.

Legal And Financial Records

8

1

Legal papers of William Brooks, 1940-1942, 1944, 1946-1947, 1949

8

2

Miscellaneous financial and legal papers of Juanita Brooks, 1954, 1970, 1973-1976, 1978

Miscellaneous Materials

9

1

Class notes, University of Utah, n.d.

9

2

Congratulatory letters to Brooks regarding honorary doctorate degree from Utah State University, 1964

9

3- 5

Miscellaneous

Published Materials

Materials written by Brooks

10

1

Articles

1. "The Arizona Strip," The Pacific Spectator , Vol. III, No. 3, Summer 1949, pp. 290-301
2. "The First One Hundred Year of Southern Utah History," n.d. (2 copies)
3. "Let's Preserve Our Records," Utah Humanities Review, n.d., pp. 259-263
4. "The Mormons in Carson County, Utah Territory," Nevada Historical Society Quarterly, Vol. VIII, No. 1, Spring 1965, pp. 5-23 [2 copies]

10

2

Letters in Truth, Vol. 21, No. 10, March 1956, pp. 310-313

10

2

Review of The Mormon Conflict, 1850-1859 (Norman F. Furniss) in Utah Historical Quarterly, n.d., pp. 77-80

10

2

Transcription of speech given at dedication of a monument honoring the victims of the massacre at the Mountain Meadows in Utah Historical Quarterly, n.d., pp. 70-80

10

2

"The Water's In!," Harpers Magazine, Vol. 182, May 1941, pp. 608-613

Reviews of Brooks's books

10

3

Emma Lee, reviewed by Winn Whiting Smiley in The Journal of Arizona History, Vol. 16, Winter 1975, pp. 432-433

10

3

George Brooks: Artist in Stone, reviewed by S. Lyman Tyler, n.d.

10

3

John Doyle Lee: Zealot, Pioneer, Scapegoat, reviewed by Winifred W. Gregory in New Mexico Quarterly, Vol. XXXIII, No. 2, pp. 230-232 [2 copies]

10

3

On the Mormon Frontier: The Diary of Hosea Stout, reviewed by Austin E. Fife in Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, Summer 1966, pp. 190-192

10

3

On the Mormon Frontier: The Diary of Hosea Stout, reviewed by Harold Shepherd in Utah Law Review, Vol. 9, No. 3., Summer 1965, pp. 816-827

10

3

On the Mormon Frontier: the Diary of Hosea Stout, reviewed by S. George Ellsworth in Utah Historical Quarterly, n.d., pp. 272-274

Other published materials

10

4

The Book of Abraham - a Product of the Nineteenth Century: a Critical Study, Wesley M. Jones, Oakland CA, 1966

10

4

The Carroll County Historical Quarterly , Vol. XIII, No. 2, June 1968

10

4

Efforts to Establish the United Order in Kanab, Utah, Loyd Young, Monticello UT, 1977

10

4

"For the Letter Killeth: Mormon Justice," LaMar Peterson, The Humanist, January/February 1978, pp. 7-9

10

4

"History as a Literary Art," Samuel Eliot Morison, reprinted from By Land and Sea - Essays and Addresses by Samuel Eliot Morison, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1953, pp. 289-298

10

4

Louise Lee Udall - a Remembrance Book of Memorabilia, by her children, n.d.

10

4

Mary Ellen Spencer Cornwall - Pioneer Wife, Mother, Humanitarian: a Brief Biography, compiled by Melvin and Millicent Cornwall, 1978

10

4

Mormon Trail from Vermont to Utah, Alma P. Burton, Salt Lake City, Utah: The Deseret Book Co., 1953

10

4

Plural Marriage as Taught by the Prophet Joseph, Helen Mar Whitney, Juvenile Instructor Office, Salt Lake City UT, 1882

10

4

Student Handbook, Dixie College, Utah, 1959-1960

10

4

Utah Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters - Spring Meetings Program, May 8-9 1959, Logan, Utah: Utah State University, 1959

10

4

"Utah State Historical Society - Sixty Years of Organizational History," ed. A.R. Mortensen, reprinted from Utah Historical Quarterly,Vol. XXV, No. 3, July 1957 [Note: Includes biography of board of trustees member Brooks, pp. 3-5.]

Levi Peterson's Files

Primary sources--Diaries, journals, personal and family narratives

11

1

Sproul, Andrew, transcriptions of excerpts from diary, photocopies of diary pages, n.d.

11

2

"Cartoon Highlights of Orin Nelson Woodbury," Grace Atkin Woodbury; "Reminiscences of Ann Cannon Woodbury - Mormon Pioneer, 1832-1921," ed. Angus M. Woodbury

11

3

Walker, Charles, transcription of journal, 1855-1902

11

4

Johnson, Joel, transcription of excerpts from journal and personal narrative of years 1831-1882

11

5

Bennion, John, transcription of journal, 1855- 1861

11

6

Pulsipher, John, transcriptions of journal, part 1 and index, 1838-1874

11

7

Pulsipher, John, transcriptions of journal, part 2, 1874-1883

11

8

Pulsipher, John, transcriptions of journal, part 3, 1883-1891

11

9

Pulsipher, John, transcription of "Volume I" - personal narrative of years 1827-1872 [2 copies]

11

10

Hafen, Mary Ann, photocopies of personal narrative, n.d.; poem "Mary Ann Hafen" by Mrs. Parley Leavitt

11

11

"Missionary Diary of Edward H. Snow" - transcription, 1899-1901

11

12

"Silver in Sand - Being the Story of Clarissa Amy Hoyt Heaton," Gwen Heaton Stewart, 1948

12

1

Transcriptions from various journals, 1849-1852, including John Brown's journal; transcriptions from various Deseret News articles, 1850-1853

Financial ledgers

12

2

Woodbury, John, 1860-1864, 1877-1885, 1901-1902

12

3

Washington County, Utah, 1889-1900

12

4

Brooks, William, 1877-1883, 1902-1903, 1909- 1911, 1913, 1916

Miscellaneous primary sources

12

5

"Alexander Fullerton, Oldest Living Boy Pioneer to Reach St. George in 1861," Mabel Jarvis, 1938 transcription

12

6

Handwritten notes by Will Brooks on Dan Jones and other items, n.d.

12

7

"Historical Miracles in Pioneer Days of Dixie Mission...," Mabel Jarvis, 1938 transcription

12

8

"Indians - Essay Number 220," 1938 transcription

12

9

"The Mountain Meadows Catastrophe," James H. Martineau, photocopy of original, 1907

12

10

"Notes on the Death of Brigham Young," Samuel W. Taylor, 1979

13

1-7

Research notes and miscellaneous research materials