Festschrifts and Mormon History
By Davis Bitton

I want to alert those interested in Mormons and their history to some articles they may easily miss.  They are found in volumes called festschriften (or festschrift, sing.), a German word that has found its way into English and other languages.  (The word is often capitalized but, according to my unabridged dictionary, is usually uncapitalized in English.)

A festschrift is a volume made up of separate articles or chapters written by former students and others who wish to honor a senior professor or scholar.  Much better than a golden watch, such a volume honors someone while making its own contribution to learning.  It is a nice gesture.  The honoree is delighted to see people he knows or people he has trained demonstrating their own scholarly expertise.

But do these articles, many of them excellent, fly below your radar screen?  Are these articles you would enjoy and benefit from but simply don=t know about?  Having contributed articles to several festschriften and having edited two such works, I know from experience something of the process – and the accompanying problems.

Selecting contributors is not as obvious as one might think. On occasion the following thought came into my mind:  “Why wasn’t I asked to contribute?”  Such humbling, perhaps salutary, reminders of one’s own relative insignificance seem to come along fairly frequently in the course of life.

When spearheading such volumes myself, I quickly lost any proclivity to criticize other editors.  You make lists of potential contributors and send out queries.  But you never know who else might have wished to be included.

Those invited to submit articles sometimes do not respond.  Others, too heavily committed to other projects or perhaps physically incapacitated, excuse themselves from participation.  Those who wish to participate propose a specific topic for their contribution.

The editor may now face the painful chore of letting some scholars know that their proposal does not fit the parameters of the volume.  The other article topics are accepted in principle.  The finished product must be sent in by a certain deadline and must, of course, pass muster.

Some who had floated promising titles fail to send in a completed article.  More sticky is the question of what to do when something comes in that for one reason or another may not measure up to standards, perhaps for the simple reason that it is too short or too long.  To assist in this evaluationBthrough the so-called “peer review” – readers familiar with the subject are enlisted.  

Eventually, if all goes well and a publisher is cooperative, the book is published.  But the problems of the festschrift are not over!

Many bookstores will not order copies for display.   Some few bookstores may stock it, but will the browsing shopper even pick up and examine a work of this kind?

Will the festschrift be reviewed?  If the festschrift is reviewed in a newspaper or one of the learned journals, the reviewer will predictably use the word uneven to describe the contents.  That is a given – and it tells us little.  True, some works are better than others, and it is quite permissible to praise some and pan others.  But are any two treatments, two books or two articles, ever precisely even, whatever that means?  Most importantly at this point, will the reviewer give an adequate idea of the book=s content?  Merely listing the separate chapters is unlikely.  Yet how else will the potential reader know what is there?

How will the book be catalogued by libraries?  Under the name of the editor or editors?  Under the name of the honoree?  What subject headings will be catalogued?

The same questions have to be dealt with by those who prepare bibliographies.  Sadly, some important individual articles do not receive separate listing and thus are effectively buried, destined to remain unknown to potential readers.  When processing works of this kind, many a cataloguer and bibliographer has torn out hair.

Even with these many frustrations, such commemorative volumes continue to appear each year.  We are not likely to see the demise of the festschrift as one kind of book publication.

Let me mention some examples in Mormon history and culture.  In Davis Bitton and Maureen Ursenbach Beecher, eds., New Views of Mormon History, in honor of Leonard J. Arrington, you will be interested in David J. Whittaker, “The ‘Articles of Faith’ in Early Mormon Literature and Thought”; William G. Hartley, “Ward Bishops and the Localizing of LDS Tithing, 1847-1856”; Dean L. May, “Brigham Young and the Bishops: The United Order in the City”; and Ronald W. Walker, “’Going to Meeting’ in Salt Lake City’s Thirteenth Ward, 1849-1881: A Microanalysis.”

In John M. Lundquist and Stephen D. Ricks, eds., By Study and Also By Faith, in honor of Hugh Nibley, you will find Richard L. Bushman, “The Lamanite View of Book of Mormon History”; Paul Y. Hoskisson, “An Introduction to the Relevance of and a Methodology for a Study of the Proper Names of the Book of Mormon”; and H. Curtis Wright, “Ancient Burials of Metal Documents in Stone Boxes.”

In Davis Bitton, ed., Mormons, Scripture, and the Ancient World, in honor of John L. Sorenson, we find James B. Allen, “The Rise and Decline of the LDS Indian Student Placement Program, 1947-1996”; Noel B. Reynolds, “Nephite Kingship Reconsidered”; and John W. Welch, “Double, Sealed, Witnessed Documents: From the Ancient World to the Book of Mormon.”

In Stephen D. Ricks, Donald W. Parry, and Andrew H. Hedges, eds., The Disciple as Witness, in honor of Richard Lloyd Anderson, we find Scott H. Faulring, “The Return of Oliver Cowdery”; Glen M. Leonard, “Antiquities, Curiosities, and Latter-day Saint Museums”; and Noel B. Reynolds, “The Authorship Debate concerning Lectures on Faith.”

In Donald W. Parry, Daniel C. Peterson, and Stephen D. Ricks, eds., Revelation, Reason, and Faith, in honor of Truman G. Madsen, we find David L. Paulsen and Blake Thomas Ostler, “Sin, Suffering, and Soul-Making: Joseph Smith on the Problem of Evil”; Daniel C. Peterson, “On the Motif of the Weeping God in Moses 7”; and Andrew H. Hedges, “The Refractory Abner Cole.”

I have mentioned a few examples.  Each of the five volume mentioned here includes other valuable articles. And of course there are other festschriften and other compilations of articles.  I hope I have whetted your appetite.

Postscript.  Anticipating a question I have fielded in the past, let’s do a quick run-through of the obvious.  If you want to read a library copy of a book, check the library available to you.  If the title is not part of its holdings, your library may offer interlibrary loan services.  If you wish to purchase your own copy of the book, visit or telephone a bookstore.  The Internet provides another way to find out if the book is in print and to order a copy.  If out of print, the book may be available through a store specializing in used books.  Again, the Internet allows you to conduct a search.