Historians’ Corner [Introduction 27:1]

We feature in this issue’s Historians’ Corner a letter written by Elder Parley P. Pratt to President Joseph Smith. Written from Manchester, England, in late 1841, the letter provides a window through which we can view the religious setting of early Victorian times. It is, of course, a personal perspective. Parley Pratt, an early Mormon convert, preacher, pamphleteer, missionary, and Apostle, was one of the first evangels of his faith dispatched to Great Britain. As such, his words convey the wonder of his new environment. Perhaps as significant, they also carry a hint of that introspective, otherworldly melancholy that was common to the man.

The letter is ably edited by David H. Pratt, an associate professor of history at Brigham Young University. Professor Pratt, incidentally, is a descendant of Parley P. Pratt.

[*** graphic omitted ***]
A map of Sheffield, 9 May 1840
(from Ordnance survey 1, Sheet 82, Chesterfield)