The City of the Saints, and across the Rocky Mountains to California

Published in 1861, this account of Burton's trip to Salt Lake City focuses on the Mormon church and its customs.

Richard Francis Burton (Author)

9781108033169, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 22 September 2011

752 pages, 17 b/w illus. 2 maps
21.6 x 14 x 4.2 cm, 0.94 kg

The British explorer Sir Richard F. Burton (1821–90) was a colourful and often controversial character. A talented linguist and keen ethnologist, he first gained celebrity for his adventurous 1853 trip to Mecca, conducted under the disguise of a pilgrim. He remains famous for his translation (with the British orientalist Forster Fitzgerald Arbuthnot) of The Kama Sutra (1883), a daring enterprise in the context of the Victorian society. First published in 1861, this book is an account of Burton's 1860 trip to Salt Lake City. It offers a geographical and ethnological study of Utah that focuses on the Mormon church. In the course of his research, Burton was able to meet the Mormon prophet Brigham Young, leader of the Latter-Day Saints and founder of Salt Lake City. Burton describes various Mormon customs, showing particular interest in polygamy, which he treats with critical distance and his characteristic sense of humour.

Preface
1. Why I went to Great Salt Lake City
2. The Sioux or Dakotas
3. Concluding the route to the Gt. S. L. City
4. First week at Gt. S. L. City. Preliminaries
5. Second week at Gt. S. L. City. Visit to the prophet
6. Descriptive geography, ethnology, and statistics of UT
7. Third week at Gt. S. L. City. Excursions
8. Excursions continued
9. Latter-Day Saints. Of the Mormon religion
10. Further observations at Gt. S. L. City
11. Last days at Gt. S. L. City
12. To Ruby Valley
13. To Carson Valley
Conclusion
Appendices
Index.

Subject Areas: History of the Americas [HBJK]