The Mormon Wife : Maria Ward 1872 [ Anti – Mormon , Polygamy ]
$65
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Description
Scarce early anti-Mormon expose The Mormon Wife , an indictment of polygamy and life in theocratic Utah by supposed escaped bride “Maria Ward”
[Ward, Maria]. The Mormon Wife ; A Life Story Of The Sorrows And Sufferings Of Woman A Narrative Of Many Years’ Personal Experience By The Wife Of A Mormon Elder Recently From Utah. Hartford Publishing Company : Hartford, Connecticut. 1872. First edition, thus.
A strange, anonymous text the identity of The Mormon Wife‘s author is not provided on the title page but rather supplied by the content of its narrative. The supposed trials and tribulations of a Mormon wife in the era of polygamy , the name “Maria Ward” (for whom no records exist) first appears near the narrative’s end and our heroine’s supposed escape from “thralldom” in Salt Lake City both here and under its original title from 1855 “Female Life Among The Mormons”.
This retitled, illustrated version includes a frontispiece portrait of Ward with her signature, but does not explicitly list her as the author. Accusations from as early as 1874 state that the entire project is a pirated hoax from an unknown female author in New Jersey borrowing salacious details from other, earlier Anti-Mormon works and using a “vamped up” unrelated portrait. Includes references to the Gunnison Massacre of 1854.
8vo, 449pp. Gilt stamped green leather boards. Corners worn and bumped. Some wear to board edges. Spine gilding faded, wear with losses along front hinge. Wear to top and bottom spine. Moisture stain to gutter between front pastedown and first free endpaper. Small tear to title page bottom gutter margin. Pages clean apart from occasional margin soiling. Small tear top margin edge pgs 425-438. Includes portrait frontispiece and 16 additional black and white illustration plates. Good condition.
If you liked this book, you might also like Light On Masonry, an expose of Freemasonry concerned with the disappearance of William Morgan (whose widow would become one of Joseph Smith’s wives).
