The 19th Wife

by David Ebershoff

  When I started writing the novel I was determined to answer the question, How many wives did Brigham really have? But after a lot of searching, and an Excel spreadsheet that got more and more confused, I eventually concluded no one can answer that question with case-closed certainty. At first this frustrated me, but then I realized I could use this mystery as part of the novel’s plot. As one character in the novel says, “Indeed, there are some mysteries that must exist without answer. In the end we must accept them for what they are: complex and many-sided, ornamented with clues and theories, yet ultimately unknowable—like life itself.”

  RHRC: What really happened to Ann Eliza? Did she really disappear?

  DE: As far as I know, it remains a mystery. A reliable record ends after she published her second memoir in 1908. It’s hard to believe that someone once so famous and influential could disappear. But one hundred years later, Ann Eliza’s ultimate fate remains unknown.

  Of course it’s still possible that someone will emerge with a letter, a newspaper clipping, a death certificate, or a photo of a gravestone—some clue to her fate. I would welcome this as much as anyone. A few months before the book was published, while I was editing the galley pages, I got an email from a woman in Alaska who said, cryptically, I am a descendant of Ann Eliza and I know what happened to her.

  Immediately I called her to ask what she knew. As it turned out she knew very little about Ann Eliza, and nothing accurate about her fate, but she was in fact one of Ann Eliza’s descendants. As I told the woman more about her ancestor, she took an understandable pride in her heritage.

  RHRC: You’ve touched on this, but can you tell us why you decided to write this as a novel instead of as nonfiction?

  DE: The short answer is I’m a novelist, and that’s the form I think in. The long answer has to do with the reliability of facts, memory, and point of view. From the moment she left the Mormon Church, Ann Eliza faced challenges to her credibility. Hurt by her attacks, some of Brigham’s supporters disputed her version of events, claiming she was lying or at least exaggerating. But at the same time, other plural wives who had apostatized told similar stories of abuse and neglect. So whom can a writer—and a reader—trust? Fiction, especially a novel with many disparate voices, can accommodate these conflicting points of view. This is one of the reasons the novel is almost entirely in the first person. I wanted to make it clear that each person is voicing his or her point of view, with all the wonders and limits that entails. In The 19th Wife, Ann Eliza’s son remarks in a letter to a historian many years after his mother’s apostasy, “I must say a few words about memory. It is full of holes. If you were to lay it out upon a table, it would resemble a scrap of lace. I am a lover of history … [but] history has one flaw. It is a subjective art, no less so than poetry or music.… The historian writes a truth. The memoirist writes a truth. The novelist writes a truth. And so on. My mother, we both know, wrote a truth in The 19th Wife—a truth that corresponded to her memory and desires. It is not the truth, certainly not. But a truth, yes … Her book is a fact. It remains so, even if it is snowflaked with holes.”

  RHRC: This novel merges several voices and formats: autobiography, letters, a cartoon, a poem, and even a Wikipedia entry. Why did you decide to tell the story in this way?

  DE: As I mentioned earlier, I believe history is subjective. Even the most meticulous historians work subjectively. The historian’s point of view, his or her selection of subject and sources, the emphasis, the tone—all of these lead to subjective history, inevitably so. I do not say this as a criticism, merely as an observation. I love to read history; at its best, it is an art. And art is—has to be!—subjective. I decided to include a number of fictional documents or sources (many of them of course inspired by actual documents and sources) because I wanted to give the reader the sense of what it’s like to delve into this history and to sort through the record and the different points of view. The novel’s historical sections focus on Ann Eliza’s story, but I wanted to enrich that in a way that re-creates, for the reader, the experience of digging deeper and deeper into the archives. The 19th Wife has a number of mysteries within it—the mystery of what happened to Ann Eliza is one, and the genre-style mystery of Jordan’s story is another. The novel intentionally plays with the metaphor of mystery in a number of ways. I hope these different documents and sources bring another kind of mystery to the book and ask, in a different way, how and why we solve mysteries. Already a number of readers have told me that they’ve read the book with their browser open to Google. That’s exactly what I’d love to happen—readers figuring out a lot for themselves, in their own way. I hope the novel’s structure makes it clear that I do not believe this to be the final word on Ann Eliza, Brigham, or polygamy in the United States. I always love novels that open up a subject to me—like raising a window to a beautiful, mysterious world outside.

  RHRC: You have Ann Eliza Young state in the book that “our response to the moral and spiritual enslavement of Utah’s women and children will define us in the years to come.” What do you think she would make of the current state of polygamy in the United States?

  DE: I believe she would be surprised to see it still practiced in the United States. She took pride in her role in bringing an end to plural marriage in the LDS Church. Of course, she did not do this alone, and more than fifteen years passed from her apostasy until the Latter-day Saints officially renounced polygamy. But one of the wonderful ironies of her story is that in one sense she helped save the LDS Church and steer it toward its future. If the Latter-day Saints had not abandoned plural marriage, they would have remained a fringe religion and would never have moved into mainstream American culture. Today, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints thrives. It is one of the fastest growing religions in the country and is the most successful American-born religion. I believe none of this would be true had the Church held on to the doctrine of plural marriage. Even today, some people dismiss Ann Eliza as a gadfly or write her off as an angry ex-wife. In my opinion, she played an indirect but important role in the Church’s history, although certainly no one could have predicted it in the heated days of her divorce from Brigham Young.

  RHRC: The majority of women in your novel are unhappy in their plural marriages and jealous of the other wives. Did you come across any accounts of women who were happy in a plural marriage?

  DE: The historical record contains numerous accounts—diaries and letters and other documents—of nineteenth-century women writing of the many comforts they found in plural marriage. Primarily, these women celebrated plural marriage because they believed it ensured their salvation. Yet other women found more practical comforts: companionship, the sharing of household chores and child care, as well as relief from what they might have described as conjugal duty. I allude to this in certain parts of the novel. For example, the poem “In Our House” is a sincere expression of the joy one plural wife found in her marriage. Yet we cannot read these documents and testaments without remembering that if a plural wife had spoken out against polygamy she would have faced ostracism and excommunication and, according to her faith, would have been denied salvation.

  My experience researching twenty-first-century polygamy was similar. The women I interviewed loathed their experiences in plural marriage, speaking out forcefully against it. When I asked them about women who said they cherished being a plural wife, inevitably they said these women were either lying out of fear or were deluded. Each time I visited Hildale/Colorado City, I asked several women for an interview. No one would say more than a few words. Were they silent because they feared the repercussions of speaking the truth, or because they simply had no interest in speaking to me? Of course, in recent months we have seen several plural wives speak about their experiences on television. But who among us can say what is really in their hearts?

  RHRC: The story of the FLDS group in the Yearning for Zion Ranch in Texas has captured the attention of the media recently. Why are we still fascinated by poly
gamy?

  DE: I believe it’s one part titillation (there’s a sexual component to it, of course), and one part profound ambiguity. This is America: If a man and nineteen women want to live together, who has the right to say they cannot? Yet that scenario gets more complicated when children are involved, which inevitably they are. In the sad instances of physical and/or sexual abuse, the answer is a lot more straightforward: society has a responsibility to protect abused children. But physical and sexual abuse are not always present or apparent. And that’s where the questions become a lot murkier: Should children be protected from households of emotional abuse and neglect? But how do you determine emotional abuse and neglect? Don’t parents have the right to raise their children according to their own beliefs? Or does that right end when those beliefs fall far outside cultural norms? And who can, or should, determine that? And doesn’t every American have the right to religious freedom? Yes, but not at the expense of another person’s freedom or well-being. But how do you determine, in these circumstances, if someone is acting and thinking freely? Who can really say if the thousands of plural wives in Utah, Arizona, Idaho, and Texas need society’s assistance or have the right to be left alone? These are some of the difficult questions that the United States has grappled with since the nineteenth century, and will continue to do so for many years.

  RHRC: Two of your novels—The Danish Girl and now The 19th Wife—have been inspired by the lives of real people. What is it about retelling true stories that appeals to you?

  DE: I love to read (and edit) biographies. For me, one of biography’s many appeals is seeing how a life can be retold again and again artfully and freshly. Recently I edited a biography of Abraham Lincoln—A. Lincoln by Ronald C. White, Jr. Some people might ask, What can possibly be left to say about Lincoln? In fact, a lot. Ron has unearthed new facts about the evolution of Lincoln’s political thinking and his moral development, which shed light on his presidency. Just as important, Ron writes in a clear, simple, poignant voice—one that suits Lincoln perfectly, and at times even echoes Lincoln’s own prose. Finally, Ron has reinterpreted Lincoln for our day. All of this makes the book new, exciting, and relevant. And this is how I came to look at Ann Eliza Young and American polygamy. True, she wrote her own memoirs, and true, Irving Wallace wrote a biography of her in 1961. If anyone wants to know more about her, I recommend these books. Yet as we all have seen recently, the story does not end there. I hope that The 19th Wife can illuminate a set of questions, perhaps inform a little, and maybe even entertain. But I’ll be the first to tell you I have not written the last word. As Jordan says on the novel’s last page: “Endings are beginnings.”

  READING GROUP QUESTIONS AND TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION

  1. The first part of the novel, “Two Wives,” contains prefaces to two very different books. What did you think when you started reading The 19th Wife? Which story interested you the most?

  2. Ann Eliza Young says, “Faith is a mystery.” How does Ebershoff play with this metaphor? What are the mysteries in The 19th Wife? What does the novel say about faith?

  3. What are your impressions of Ann Eliza Young, and how do those impressions change over the course of the novel? Do you trust her as a narrator?

  4. Brigham Young was one of the most dynamic and complex figures in nineteenth-century America. How does the novel portray him? Do you come to understand his deep convictions? In the story of his marriage to Ann Eliza, he essentially gets the last word. Why?

  5. What kind of man is Chauncey Webb? And Gilbert? What do they tell you about polygamy? And about faith?

  6. Jordan is an unlikely detective. What makes him a good sleuth? What are his blind spots?

  7. Many of the people who help Jordan—Mr. Heber, Maureen, Kelly, and Tom—are Mormons. What do you think Ebershoff is saying by this?

  8. Like many mysteries, Jordan’s story is a quest. What is he searching for?

  9. Why do you think Ebershoff wrote the novel with so many voices? How do the voices play off one another? Who is your favorite narrator? And your least favorite?

  10. Why do you think Ebershoff wrote a fictional memoir by Ann Eliza Young, and why are some chapters missing? As he says in his Author’s Note, the real Ann Eliza Young actually wrote two memoirs: Wife No. 19, first published in 1875, and Life in Mormon Bondage, which came out in 1908. Based on your reading of The 19th Wife, what kind of memoirist do you think the real Ann Eliza Young was?

  11. One reviewer has said The 19th Wife is “that rare book that effortlessly explicates and entertains all at once.” Do you agree? How does the novel manage this balance?

  12. Were you surprised by how the stories of Ann Eliza and Jordan come together? At what point were you able to see the connection?

  13. Does Jordan’s story end as you hoped it would? Does it end as Jordan hoped it would?

  14. What do you think ultimately happened to Ann Eliza Young?

  for my parents

  DAVE and BECKY EBERSHOFF

  and for

  DAVID BROWNSTEIN

  AUTHOR’S NOTE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  This is a work of fiction. It is not meant to be read as a stand-in for a biography of Ann Eliza Young, Brigham Young, or any of the other historical figures who appear in it. Even so, it’s human nature to wonder if a historical novel is inspired by real people and real events, and if so to what degree; and thus I feel an obligation to the reader to begin to answer that question.

  Anyone attempting to write about the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, even a sliver of it, will immediately encounter the difficult task of accuracy. That is because on nearly every issue in the Church’s past, and in regard to every person who has played a part in the Church’s often remarkable life, there are at least two, and typically more, combative opinions on what each side sincerely calls “the truth.” In the preface to his 1925 biography of Brigham Young, M. R. Werner states the case plainly: “Mormon and anti-Mormon literature is frequently unreliable.”

  Ever since her apostasy from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1873, Ann Eliza Young has been a figure of controversy among Mormons and non-Mormons alike. I don’t expect to settle that controversy with this book. One reason the controversy has lingered is that she left a substantial record of her experiences as a plural wife in her two memoirs and many public lectures. Her enemies and allies have used her own words to denounce or support her, and thus in order to write about Ann Eliza Young I inevitably began with her lectures and passionate memoirs, Wife No. 19 (1875) and Life in Mormon Bondage (1908). The books have their flaws. In them, Ann Eliza can come off as simultaneously hypercritical and hypersensitive. She is selective in her presentation of her story and Mormon history, carrying out an agenda with little subtlety or nuance. Too often her tone becomes strident and vengeful. Her portrait of Brigham Young lacks the complexity for which he was known. And she can get basic information wrong. Yet despite these limitations, her memoirs, as well as her public lectures upon which the memoirs are based, remain the best sources for the plot of her life and, just as important, for appreciating her point of view. If she had not spoken up there would be much about her life, and especially her marriage to Brigham, that we could never know. It is one reason her story is so remarkable—she dared to reveal what thousands of other plural wives bore in silence. Therefore I gratefully acknowledge her original efforts in autobiography. Without them, The 19th Wife would have been a far lesser, far more opaque book. Ann Eliza wrote her books to affect public opinion and change policy, but also to shape her legacy; inspired by this, I wrote chapters of an alternative memoir as part of this novel. My long process of thinking about Ann Eliza and her family, and the context of her life, began with her books, and so it seemed only natural to begin my novel where she does, and then veer away.

  The 19th Wife follows Ann Eliza’s basic biographical arc as she describes it, although often I fill in where she skips and I skip where she digresses. I continue past her conclu
sion and reinterpret where her point of view limits an understanding of her life and times. I also spend time on members of her family, about whom she has little meaningful to say. It is with them—Chauncey, Elizabeth, Gilbert, and Lorenzo Leonard—that I take the most liberties because their biographies are less known and because of the novelist’s need to weave the disparate into something unified. As for Brigham Young, my portrait of him is mostly consistent with that presented by people who knew him, some historians, as well as the sermons, declarations, letters, and diaries he left. Often when he speaks in my narrative, especially at the pulpit, his words are inspired by a sermon we know, through the historical record, he made. I am sure his admirers will argue I linger too long on his egomaniacal tendencies as well as his appetites; and that by quoting him directly on the subject of blood atonement on this page–this page I am overemphasizing his calls for violence. Brigham’s detractors, on the other hand, will probably say I let him off the hook. Thankfully the historical record is vast and accessible; the curious reader can visit the library or go online to form his or her own conclusions.

  Which leads me to the documents (or “documents”) that run throughout the novel—the newspaper articles, the letters, the Introduction by Harriet Beecher Stowe, the Wikipedia entry. Although I am the author of these, they are fictional representations of what it’s like to spend time in the archives and online researching Ann Eliza Young, Brigham, and early LDS history. Many are inspired by an actual text or a kind of text. For example, my Howard Greenly interview with Joseph purposely evokes Horace Greeley’s well-known interview with Brigham in 1859; the devotional poem “In Our House” is my limp attempt at the sincere hymns many Pioneers wrote to reflect their experiences; and the Wikipedia entry is (obviously) written in a style very much like a Wikipedia entry.