Juanita Brooks

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Juanita Leone Leavitt Pulsipher Brooks (1898 -1989) was an American historian and author, specializing in the American West and Mormon history. She is primarily famous for the integrity with which she researched and wrote about the Mountain Meadows Massacre. Her work is seen by many as the authoritative work on that event.

Brooks was born in Bunkerville, Nevada, in 1898. She was raised in Bunkerville and in 1919 married Ernest Pulsipher, who died of cancer little more than a year later, leaving her with an infant son. She acquired a bachelor's degree from BYU and a master's degree from Columbia University. Settling in St. George, Utah, she became an instructor of English and dean of women at Dixie College. In 1933 she resigned from the college to marry widower Will Brooks and become the stepmother to his four sons. Within five years the couple added a daughter and three sons to their family.

Brooks was a lifelong member-in-good-standing of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. For many years she served on the Board of the Utah Historical Society where she devoted herself to unearthing diaries and records of early settlers and organized a Utah library of Mormon history. She wrote numerous historical articles and a variety of family narratives, including a classic biography of her pioneer grandfather, Dudley Leavitt.

Brooks is particularly well known for two books on Mormon history: "The Mountain Meadows Massacre" (1950) and "John Doyle Lee: Zealot, Pioneer Builder, Scapegoat" (1961). Though they were full of difficult issues for her fellow Latter-day Saints, the books became accepted for their integrity, impeccable research, and deep compassion.

Publications

A Mormon Chronicle: The Diaries of John D. Lee. Robert Glass Cleland, editor, and Juanita Brooks, editor. Huntington Library Press, reissue June 2004 (Paperback, 868pp), 3 Volumes in 1 book. ISBN 0873281780. First published in 1955.
Dudley Leavitt,: Pioneer to Southern Utah. January 1942.
Emma Lee. Utah State University Press, Logan, UT, 7th Printing 1984. ISBN 0874211212. First published in ( ).
Frontier tales; true stories of real people. Western Text Society, Special publication - 1972.
History of the Jews in Utah and Idaho 1853-1950. June 1973.
Jacob Hamblin, Mormon apostle to the Indians. reissue 1980.
John Doyle Lee: Zealot, Pioneer Builder, Scapegoat. Utah State University Press, Logan, UT, reissue November 1992 (paperback, 404pp). ISBN 087421162X. First published in 1961.
Mountain Meadows Massacre; University of Oklahoma Press (Tdr) reissue May 1991; (softcover, 318 pages). ISBN 0806123184. First published in 1950.
On the ragged edge;: The life and times of Dudley Leavitt. 1973.
Quicksand and cactus: A memoir of the southern Mormon frontier. reissue 1982.

References

Bringhurst, Newell G., Fawn McKay Brodie: A Biographers Life, University of Oklahoma, 1999
Morgan, Dale, [Dale Morgan on Early Mormonism] Signature Books
Peterson, Levi S. Juanita Brooks: Mormon Woman Historian (Utah Centennial Series, Vol 5). University of Utah Press, October 1988. ISBN 0874805120.

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