Table of Contents

Introduction
Chapter 1: The Young Seeker
Chapter 2: Dreams of Zion
Chapter 3: The Archer of Paradise
Chapter 4: ''Strange and Novel Truths''
Chapter 5: Strong Dungeons and Gloomy Prisons
Chapter 6: Apostle to the British
Chapter 7: Triumph and Tragedy in Joseph's City
Chapter 8: Many Mormonisms: The East
Chapter 9: Many Mormonisms: Exodus and England
Chapter 10: Pioneering Westward
Chapter 11: Lamanites in the Pacific
Chapter 12: Parley and Mrs. Pratt(s)
Chapter 13: Prospecting for Souls in San Francisco
Chapter 14: Murder and Martyrdom
Epilogue
Appendix 1: Pamphlets and Books by Parley P. Pratt
Appendix 2: Pratt Family Chart
Notes
Index

About the Author

Terryl L. Givens is the author of several acclaimed books, the most recent of which are When Souls Had Wings: Pre-Mortal Life in Western Thought and The Book of Mormon: A Very Short Introduction.

Matthew J. Grow is the author of "Liberty to the Downtrodden": Thomas L. Kane, Romantic Reformer.

Reviews

"If the title indicates Oxford University Press's determination to broaden the potential audience of this book to non-Mormon readers more familiar with St. Paul than with Parley Pratt, we can all be glad that OUP took the chance. Parley P. Pratt - its subject, its claim, and its methods - deserve a wide audience." --Religion
"At long last we have a work that is fully aware of Parley's extensive contributions to Mormonism as the 'Paul of Mormonism.'" --Journal of Mormon History
"For anyone seeking to understand the development of early Mormonism, Parley P. Pratt is essential reading. As the foremost systematizer, theologian, missionary, and popularizer of this new religious movement in its first two decades, not to mention a colorful and mobile personality, Parley Pratt represented the soul of the tradition. Givens and Grow provide an engaging, thoughtful, and thorough assessment of his significance in the foundations of the
Mormon faith."--- Laurie F. Maffly-Kipp, Professor and Chair of Religious Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
"Parley Pratt played the Apostle Paul to the Mormon prophet, Joseph Smith. Besides systematizing the prophet's thought, Pratt was a leader of boundless energy: husband of twelve wives, father of thirty children, a missionary extraordinaire, accused of murder, himself murdered in the prime of life. This book opens to a wide audience for the first time the life of one of the most significant figures in American religious history."--Mark Noll, author of
Protestantism: A Very Short Introduction
"Terryl L. Givens and Matthew J. Grow update Parley P. Pratt's own autobiography with their informed account of his historical context in the Second Great Awakening of evangelical religion and the nineteenth-century Communications Revolution of printed media. The authors' fascinating narratives of Pratt's worldwide adventures, multiple marriages, and eventual murder will make this book welcome not only in the academic community but among all those with an
interest in early Mormon history."--Daniel Walker Howe, author of What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848
"Givens and Grow should be commended for their scholarship and objectivity in providing historians and religion scholars with a remarkable narrative that explores in breadth and depth, through the life of Parley Parker Pratt, the historical and religious underpinnings of early Mormonism."--Journal of the American Academy of Religion
"A comprehensive scholarly biography that does justice to the stature of its subject...deserves a place among the finest Latter-day Saint biographies."--BYU Studies Quarterly