num_pages: 794
description: The Abraham H. Cannon diaries read like few others from the late nineteenth century. While many of Cannon’s colleagues were functionally literate, he had elegant handwriting, a beautiful way of expressing himself, and an eye for historically important details. Because of his position as an apostle in the LDS Church, his diaries are not only mannered but substantively important. Even mundane entries such as donating $20 for “a plan of erecting a monument in this city to Brigham Young” and his attendance at meetings of the Bullion-Beck Mine are interesting. But his overview of the great issues such as the 1890 Manifesto ending polygamy and discussions (including prayer-circle narratives) at the lavish Gardo House, the temporary headquarters of the LDS Church in the 1880s-90s, are unrivaled.  Cannon died tragically on his way to becoming one of the wealthiest men in Utah and—because he was ordained an apostle at age thirty—perhaps LDS president. He was noted for his unequivocal commitment to Mormonism. When arraigned before a judge who asked if three women were his wives, Cannon answered defiantly, “Yes they are, thank God!” for which he was sentenced to six months in prison. He later married a woman who had been his brother’s fiancée. After his brother died, his family and Church leaders convinced him to take the girl as a wife, apparently in California. Unfortunately he swam in the ocean during their trip and contracted an ear infection, from which he never recovered.
language: English
title: Candid Insights of a Mormon Apostle: The Diaries of Abraham H. Cannon, 1889-1895
publisher: Signature Books