Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Early Mormonism and the Magic World View/Use of sources

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Source Analysis, Sorted by Page Number



A FAIR Analysis of: Early Mormonism and the Magic World View, a work by author: D. Michael Quinn

21

Source interpretation
In an effort to show that books on magic were readily available on the frontier, the author makes some estimates. After estimating that a single book peddler "was selling about 25,000 books to farmers each year," the author then concludes that "by the early 1800’s there were thousands of peddlers." The author also claims that “‘some peddlers also stocked clandestine works’” and that therefore, “if local stores would not supply occult publications to American farmers, book peddlers were there to fill the need.”

Author's source(s)

  • James S. Purcell, “A Book Pedlar’s [sic] Progress in North Carolina,” North Carolina Historical Review 29 (January 1952): 15.
  • "Just received at the Rochester Book-Store," Western Farmer (Palmyra, NY), 31 July 1822.
  • J. R. Dolan, The Yankee Peddlers of Early America (New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1964) 81.
  • William J. Gilmore, “Peddlers and the Dissemination of Printed Material in Northern New England, 1780–1840,” in Peter Benes, ed., Itinerancy in New England and New York: The Dub;in Seminar for New England Folklife Annual Proceedings 1984 (Boston: Boston University Press, 1986), 80.

Source Analysis


26-27

Source interpretation
The author states that,

New York state's law provided punishment for "Disorderly Persons," whose definition included "all jugglers [conjurors], and all persons pretending to have skill in physiognomy, palmistry, or like crafty science, or pretending to tell fortunes, or to discover lost goods." (the amendation of "conjurors" is the author's)

Author's source(s)

  • New York, Laws of the State of New-York...2 vols., (Albany: Southwick, 1813), 1:114

Source Analysis


182

Source interpretation
The author claims "bookstores near Joseph's home" in the 1820s were selling "thousands" of books that ranged from "44 cents to a dollar each."

Author's source(s)

  • "Just received at the Rochester Book-Store," Palmyra Herald & Canal Advertiser (Palmyra, NY), 31 July 1822.
  • "NEW BOOKS," Ontario Repository (Canandaigua, NY), 13 June 1820.

Source Analysis


298

Source interpretation
The author claims that Moshe Idel wrote that the Zohar 'is manifestly anthropomorphic', and that Gershom Scholem wrote of the Cabala's 'almost provocatively conspicuous anthropomorphism'.

Author's source(s)

  • Moshe Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1988), 107, 112, 121-22, 127, 135.
  • Gershom Scholem, Kabbalah (New York: Quadrangle, 1974), 141.

Source Analysis