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I.
Part of any extended stay with grandparents would find me in a grownup’s chair, reading a book. At the Ludwig house, this was most often Mysteries of the Unexplained. Stories of cattle mutilation followed by Mom sending me out into the pitchblack Nounan night to get something from the van.
But it might also have been the notorious Fate of the Persecutors of the Prophet Joseph Smith—a book scholars ignore but which is structured to convince the lay reader that God Almighty picked off the men who stood outside that Carthage jail, one by one, in more and more gruesome ways. One story in particular has never left me:
Father was well acquainted with the Belton family. James Belton was a member of the mob that murdered the Prophet Joseph Smith, and after the murder he fled into North Carolina, located there and reared a family. He was in great poverty and could hardly keep the wolf from the door. When I was visiting that vicinity in 1939, I visited a neighbor of Belton who told me of Belton’s illness. He said he died from a cancer in his eye and when his meals were brought to him, the pus from his eye would drop in his plate. He died a horrible death.
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II.
When I selected October 30 as the official dropdate of Fearreantum, I had no idea that was the date of the Haun’s Mill Massacre. I was just trying to leave myself as much time as possible without crossing over into Halloween.
Allow me to remind you that coincidence doth not augur meaning.
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III.
Once, in elementary school, I came home from the book fair or something with a fresh new Choose Your Own Adventure, which fresh new Choose Your Own Adventure disturbed my mother mightily. How could I have chosen to read—buy! with money!—a book with evil in the title? She agonized over this but let me keep it in the end.
(It was a pretty good book.)
Quick apology to my mother, however, as I have selected three works with evil in the title to be part of Fearreantum. Yes, I am ashamed.
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IV.
Shoutout to two visual artists whose works appear throughout this issue.
Alice Bartlett Woolf (1916 – 1997) was author and illustrator of many children’s stories. A renowned arts educator, she hosted her own television program for children during television’s embryonic years. She painted portraits of Primary children for the covers of The Children’s Friend each month of 1951, which Irreantum has now removed from their original context to be header and navigation images for Fearreantum. For a fun exercise, you may try to find these children today. Perhaps one is your grandmother. Their names, in 1951, were Leslie Woolf, Jan Gresser, David Morrow, Davie Christensen, Marion Woolf, and Ross Ramsey, Jr.
LAZERos is a Mormon arts ne’er-do-well who has been doing a great deal of well the last couple years, including a podcast, Mormon Garfield, and cofounding The ARCH-HIVE (how he earned his AML Award). The benedictory illustrations he has provided Fearreantum were made as part of The ARCH-HIVE’s #archtober2020 project.
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V.
The Topical Guide is one of my favorite sources of found poetry. Consider:
fear of you shall be upon every beast
fear not, for I am with thee
fear and dread shall fall upon them
shalt provide able men, such as fear God
Lord is with us: fear them not
put the fear of thee upon the nations
fear not the gods of the Amorites
Samuel feared to shew Eli the vision
I feared the people, and obeyed their voice
Fear not: for they that be with us are more
my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear
will not we fear, though the earth be removed
not fear what flesh can do unto me
his mercy toward them that fear him
Be not afraid of sudden fear
fear of man bringeth a snare
fear ye not the reproach of men
they shall fear no more
fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife
fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body
he feared the multitude
It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear
we fear the people
feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son
Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus
Herod feared John
destroy him: for they feared him
came a fear on all: and they glorified God
I feared thee, because thou art an austere man
Men’s hearts failing them for fear
no man spake openly of him for fear of the Jews
Joseph secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate
doors were shut for fear of the Jews
great fear came upon all the church
Render fear to whom fear
without were fightings, within were fears
more bold to speak the word without fear
God hath not given us the spirit of fear
deliver them who through fear of death
perfect love casteth out fear
Fear not; I am the first and the last
Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer
our fears did cease concerning him
I fear lest I have committed the unpardonable sin
fear of destruction had come upon them
awful fear of death which fills the wicked
you should not have feared man more than God
Fear not to do good
whosoever belongeth to my church need not fear
not fearing what man can do
fear not, for the kingdom is yours
if ye are prepared ye shall not fear
Fear not, little children, for you are mine
not open their mouths because of the fear of man
let the rebellious fear and tremble
shall deny the faith and shall fear
there were fears in your hearts
strip yourselves from fears
be of good cheer, and do not fear
fear not, let your hearts be comforted
fear not even unto death
fear not thine enemies
Moses began to fear exceedingly
I was afraid; but the fear soon left me
Welcome to Fearreantum.
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postscript:
Direct your attention to our masthead: Starting with issue 17.2, Irreantum will have, as translations editor, Gabriel González Núñez. Our goal at Irreantum is to diversify the types of Mormon stories we share. As a symbol of our seriousness, Gabriel translated Enola Chamberlin’s poem into Spanish for Fearreantum, but our real goal is, as an English-language journal, to translate the wide world’s words into English. Gabriel’s expertise is with Spanish and Portuguese, so we begin there, but if you have the connections or skills to help us share tales with Mormon resonance written in any language, we ask for your help. Please. Help us. Join us. (And ignore any creepy resonances left over by the Fearreantum theme that may have infected this paragraph.)
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Theric Jepson accepted editorship of Irreantum in May. He has won two AML Awards for editing so demand better of him. His novels Byuck and Just Julie’s Fine are forthcoming from BCC Press.
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