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For Time And All Eternity
- GenresHistorical Fiction
400 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1964
About the author
Paul Dayton Bailey
24 books2 followersPaul Dayton Bailey was a publisher, editor, and author. He was a prolific chronicler of the Mormon Church and the American West. He was born in American Fork, Utah on 12 July 1906. He left home at age 13 to travel the rails until 1922, when he returned to Salt Lake City and enrolled at the University of Utah. He began his career as a journalist working as a reporter for the Salt Lake Telegram. In 1943 he purchased the Eagle Rock Advertiser and also started Westernlore Press to publish his and other authors books, in Los Angeles, California.
Baily wrote and published over forty books on western history, as well as articles, book reviews, and tributes. His works include Polygamy Was Better Than Monotony (1972), Holy Smoke, a dissertation on the Utah War (1978), For This My Glory: a Story of a Mormon Life (1940), An Unnatural History of Death Valley: With Reflections on the Valley's Varmints (1978), Virgins, Vandals, and Visionaries (1978), and several biographies.
Paul Bailey died in Claremont, California on October 26, 1987 and is buried in Fillmore, Utah.
(source: http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:...)
Baily wrote and published over forty books on western history, as well as articles, book reviews, and tributes. His works include Polygamy Was Better Than Monotony (1972), Holy Smoke, a dissertation on the Utah War (1978), For This My Glory: a Story of a Mormon Life (1940), An Unnatural History of Death Valley: With Reflections on the Valley's Varmints (1978), Virgins, Vandals, and Visionaries (1978), and several biographies.
Paul Bailey died in Claremont, California on October 26, 1987 and is buried in Fillmore, Utah.
(source: http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:...)
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
June 15, 2011
This is a reread for me as I read it many years ago. Although it couldn't be considered great literature, I liked it because it gives one a great insight to polygamy and is really a heartwarming story.
Unfortunately it is out of print, but is probably available in used bookstores in Utah.
Unfortunately it is out of print, but is probably available in used bookstores in Utah.
February 1, 2018
My 85 year old neighbor gave me this book to read. Apparently, she loved it and even had 2 copies. I could not finish it. It reads like a harlequin romance novel only worse. The author is so descriptive that he continues to describe the same things more than once. It also gives off a very negative vibe of Mormons and polygamy. Of course, because I didn't finish the book, I don't know if it gets any better and my review should probably not count. And I still really like my neighbor!
July 13, 2016
There were a few habits of writing style that I did not care for -- his use of adverbs for one -- that would normally have merited three stars if it had not been for the otherwise great job he did writing about an unusual and difficult subject: Mormon Polygamy.
Near the end of the book the protagonist Nancy Scott witnesses a group of Mexican Catholics performing a strange religious Easter ritual. A man has been beaten and is carrying a cross and is followed by a group of men who have also flagellated themselves bloody and are risking death. Nancy's 'half-brother' Cove a bitter Jack-Mormon is with her and he says this: "It scrambles me to see what people'll do in the name of religion. Here's a group -- we could call 'em fanatics. They're just ordinary, kind people. You know 'em as such. Suddenly, in the name of God, and for the glory of the Church and the Kingdom, they start cuttin' each other up, and whalin' hell ouf of themselves. We think it's odd, when it comes to religion. Take our Mormons. Kindest, most generous people in the world. Got themselves wound up on plural marriage. And they'll let the world cut 'em into stew meat before they'll give it up. Both Penitentes and Mormons will die for their principles, odd and queer as these principles are. Nobody from the outside's ever goin' to change 'em -- that much I'm now convinced. If the Pentitentes ever quit beatin' themselves with whips, and Mormons ever quit beatin' themselves with women, it'll be only when some Big Voice on the inside tells 'em to stop. Even then it may be damn hard for either of 'em to stop."
Bailey writes sympathetically and with real love for Mormons and Utah. Though it seems clear that he cannot condone polygamy he accepts that it is a complicated thing with many facets some postive and some negative. I loved this book for the way it revealed a world long gone and a hardy pioneer people who don't exist anymore.
The story is set in a fictional town called Ammon that I believe is actually American Fork. I lived in the same valley, down at the other end of the lake in Provo for a couple of years. The author describes a place of beauty, with trees, grass, lake, river and moutains comparable to the Swiss Alps. Unfortunately, that must belong only in the past. When I was in Utah all I saw was one giant monotonous suburb that stretched the length of I-15 the Great Cattle Chute spitting numberless cars off and on the constantly choked freeway. It made me sad for the beauty that is no more. I never even saw the lake. A few times we drove into the mountains and enjoyed some pretty scenery, but that always required a drive and special occasions. There's no denying Utah is beautiful, it's just hard to see when it's hidden by seemingly infinite and hideous housing complexes and shopping centers. My point is I've lived in the country surrounded by beauty and I've lived in cities where you drive to the beauty and it is two very different experiences and I prefer the first.
Near the end of the book the protagonist Nancy Scott witnesses a group of Mexican Catholics performing a strange religious Easter ritual. A man has been beaten and is carrying a cross and is followed by a group of men who have also flagellated themselves bloody and are risking death. Nancy's 'half-brother' Cove a bitter Jack-Mormon is with her and he says this: "It scrambles me to see what people'll do in the name of religion. Here's a group -- we could call 'em fanatics. They're just ordinary, kind people. You know 'em as such. Suddenly, in the name of God, and for the glory of the Church and the Kingdom, they start cuttin' each other up, and whalin' hell ouf of themselves. We think it's odd, when it comes to religion. Take our Mormons. Kindest, most generous people in the world. Got themselves wound up on plural marriage. And they'll let the world cut 'em into stew meat before they'll give it up. Both Penitentes and Mormons will die for their principles, odd and queer as these principles are. Nobody from the outside's ever goin' to change 'em -- that much I'm now convinced. If the Pentitentes ever quit beatin' themselves with whips, and Mormons ever quit beatin' themselves with women, it'll be only when some Big Voice on the inside tells 'em to stop. Even then it may be damn hard for either of 'em to stop."
Bailey writes sympathetically and with real love for Mormons and Utah. Though it seems clear that he cannot condone polygamy he accepts that it is a complicated thing with many facets some postive and some negative. I loved this book for the way it revealed a world long gone and a hardy pioneer people who don't exist anymore.
The story is set in a fictional town called Ammon that I believe is actually American Fork. I lived in the same valley, down at the other end of the lake in Provo for a couple of years. The author describes a place of beauty, with trees, grass, lake, river and moutains comparable to the Swiss Alps. Unfortunately, that must belong only in the past. When I was in Utah all I saw was one giant monotonous suburb that stretched the length of I-15 the Great Cattle Chute spitting numberless cars off and on the constantly choked freeway. It made me sad for the beauty that is no more. I never even saw the lake. A few times we drove into the mountains and enjoyed some pretty scenery, but that always required a drive and special occasions. There's no denying Utah is beautiful, it's just hard to see when it's hidden by seemingly infinite and hideous housing complexes and shopping centers. My point is I've lived in the country surrounded by beauty and I've lived in cities where you drive to the beauty and it is two very different experiences and I prefer the first.
July 12, 2012
Very interesting look into Morman life and the principle of Polygmy.
September 14, 2020
Decent story, but the ending was a big disappointment.
December 31, 2014
PBBBBBBBBT
I borrowed this book from Mom, and it started out so well: the setting is superbly drawn, the characters are people one can almost see, and then it all went to pot.
The novel is set in Utah in the late 1860s. Nancy and her half-sister Flora spy two soldiers outside the wall around the tiny town of Ammon. Nancy falls in love with Joel Scott at first sight. But. Soldiers are Gentiles, not Mormons. Soldiers persecute Mormons. . . usually.
Well, the inevitable happens: Joel and Nancy meet again and fall in love, then he converts himself to Mormonism, which at the time included polygamy. Utah was not allowed into the US until the proclamation of 1889 removed polygamy from Mormon doctrine.
Nancy loathes, abhors, and despises everything related to being in a plural marriage. She absolutely will not join a plural marriage, which is why she very pointedly rejects an elder of the church - an older man, who really has no business trying to court a 16 year old girl. Seeing polygamy through Nancy's eyes, one would rapidly agree with her that polygamy is a bad idea.
Nancy comes to a day of choice, brought on by Joel's marriage to wife #2 (because he couldn't keep it in his pants and knocked her up), and the persecutions the US government was railing down on Mormons at the time. Nancy can choose to go back to Joel, or go to Taos with Cove.
Durned if she doesn't go back to Joel. I've never been so tempted to throw a book before in my life. Joel gets off scot-free for breaking every promise he ever made to Nancy. He married her knowing full and well exactly how much she hated polygamy, and then what does he do? He drags her into polygamy anyway. She chooses to allow the second marriage because otherwise, there would be a child born out of wedlock, and it wouldn't do their 5 kids any good. So, she allows it reluctantly.
She should have stuck to her guns and bounced his cheating butt out the front door. GAH!
As the only midwife in town, Nancy is able to provide for her kids, even without that philanderer she married in the picture for a year or two. Her straits were not as desperate as those that caused her mother to marry into a plural marriage.
As an historical picture of life in Utah, and an honest picture of polygamy, through the eyes of people who suffered under it, it is a well written book and I enjoyed that part of it. But some of the author's choices I just didn't like.
I borrowed this book from Mom, and it started out so well: the setting is superbly drawn, the characters are people one can almost see, and then it all went to pot.
The novel is set in Utah in the late 1860s. Nancy and her half-sister Flora spy two soldiers outside the wall around the tiny town of Ammon. Nancy falls in love with Joel Scott at first sight. But. Soldiers are Gentiles, not Mormons. Soldiers persecute Mormons. . . usually.
Well, the inevitable happens: Joel and Nancy meet again and fall in love, then he converts himself to Mormonism, which at the time included polygamy. Utah was not allowed into the US until the proclamation of 1889 removed polygamy from Mormon doctrine.
Nancy loathes, abhors, and despises everything related to being in a plural marriage. She absolutely will not join a plural marriage, which is why she very pointedly rejects an elder of the church - an older man, who really has no business trying to court a 16 year old girl. Seeing polygamy through Nancy's eyes, one would rapidly agree with her that polygamy is a bad idea.
Nancy comes to a day of choice, brought on by Joel's marriage to wife #2 (because he couldn't keep it in his pants and knocked her up), and the persecutions the US government was railing down on Mormons at the time. Nancy can choose to go back to Joel, or go to Taos with Cove.
Durned if she doesn't go back to Joel. I've never been so tempted to throw a book before in my life. Joel gets off scot-free for breaking every promise he ever made to Nancy. He married her knowing full and well exactly how much she hated polygamy, and then what does he do? He drags her into polygamy anyway. She chooses to allow the second marriage because otherwise, there would be a child born out of wedlock, and it wouldn't do their 5 kids any good. So, she allows it reluctantly.
She should have stuck to her guns and bounced his cheating butt out the front door. GAH!
As the only midwife in town, Nancy is able to provide for her kids, even without that philanderer she married in the picture for a year or two. Her straits were not as desperate as those that caused her mother to marry into a plural marriage.
As an historical picture of life in Utah, and an honest picture of polygamy, through the eyes of people who suffered under it, it is a well written book and I enjoyed that part of it. But some of the author's choices I just didn't like.
February 7, 2012
Full disclosure: Paul Dayton Bailey was a half-cousin to my grandfather.
This book was written in the 1940s, as I recall (I read it over 10 years ago). It begins with the main character participating in persecution of Mormons in Missouri in the 1830s. He isn't sure why they are doing it, but he participates with verve.
Later, he encounters problems of his own and finds himself in Illinois (where the Mormons have re-located). He is welcomed warmly and decides they aren't as bad as he thought. He joins them, and the book follows the events of the 1840s that pertain to the Church, the martyrdom of its leaders, further persecutions, and the exodus to the western U.S.
Readers familiar with LDS fiction may think of this as "The Work and the Glory" in one short volume with many fewer characters.
FEB. 7, 2012 UPDATE:
The above review was for the wrong title; it should have been for the title, "For This is My Glory: A Story of a Mormon Life." My mistake.
This book was written in the 1940s, as I recall (I read it over 10 years ago). It begins with the main character participating in persecution of Mormons in Missouri in the 1830s. He isn't sure why they are doing it, but he participates with verve.
Later, he encounters problems of his own and finds himself in Illinois (where the Mormons have re-located). He is welcomed warmly and decides they aren't as bad as he thought. He joins them, and the book follows the events of the 1840s that pertain to the Church, the martyrdom of its leaders, further persecutions, and the exodus to the western U.S.
Readers familiar with LDS fiction may think of this as "The Work and the Glory" in one short volume with many fewer characters.
FEB. 7, 2012 UPDATE:
The above review was for the wrong title; it should have been for the title, "For This is My Glory: A Story of a Mormon Life." My mistake.
January 28, 2023
Utah Mormon polygamy. Convenient excuse for bad behavior.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews