What do you think?
Rate this book
Daughters of Light
In a day when women are reaching for new powers, the Latter-day Saint woman can rejoice in hers. For she has been given, by virtue of her membership in the Church and her companionship with the Holy Ghost, powers beyond the wildest dreams of the most aspiring women of our day. The early sisters of the restored Church showed remarkable spiritual powers: speaking in and interpreting tongues - prophesying - receiving revelations, visitations and other manifestations - healing and being healed - casting out evil spirits. Women of today are searching for models of righteous strength. We can find them nowhere better than in our own historical heritage.
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1986
About the author
Carol Lynn Pearson
102 books128 followersFrom http://www.clpearson.com/about_me.htm
In fourth grade, in Gusher, Utah, I won four dollars in a school district essay contest on “Why We Should Eat a Better Breakfast.” And yes, this morning I had a bowl of my own excellent granola, followed by a hike in the hills near my home in Walnut Creek, California.
In high school I began writing in earnest. I have now in my files a folder marked “Poetry, Very Bad,” and another, “Poetry, Not Quite So Bad.” Writing served a good purpose for that very dramatic, insecure adolescent. Also at that time I began to keep a diary, which I still maintain and which has been indescribably useful to me both as a writer and as a pilgrim on the earth.
After graduating from Brigham Young University with an MA in theatre, teaching for a year in Utah at Snow College, and traveling for a year, I taught part-time at BYU in the English department and was then hired by the motion picture studio on campus to write educational and religious screenplays.
While performing at the university as Mrs. Antrobus in Thornton Wilder’s “The Skin of Our Teeth,” I met and fell in love with Gerald Pearson, a shining, blond, enthusiastic young man, who fell in love with me and my poems.
“We’ve got to get them published,” he said on our honeymoon, and soon dragged me up to the big city, Salt Lake City, to see who would be first in line to publish them. “Poetry doesn’t sell,” insisted everyone we spoke to, and I, somewhat relieved, put publishing on the list of things to do posthumously.
But not Gerald. “Then I’ll publish them,” he said. Borrowing two thousand dollars, he created a company called “Trilogy Arts” and published two thousand copies of a book called Beginnings, a slim, hard-back volume with a white cover that featured a stunning illustration, “God in Embryo,” by our good friend Trevor Southey, now an internationally known artist. On the day in autumn of 1967 that Gerald delivered the books by truck to our little apartment in Provo, I was terrified. I really had wanted to do this posthumously.
Beginnings
Today
You came running
With a small specked egg
Warm in your hand.
You could barely understand,
I know,
As I told you of Beginnings–
Of egg and bird.
Told, too,
That years ago you began,
Smaller than sight.
And then,
As egg yearns for sky
And seed stretches to tree,
You became–
Like me.
Oh,
But there’s so much more.
You and I, child,
Have just begun.
Think:
Worlds from now
What might we be?–
We, who are seed
Of Deity.
We toted a package of books up to the BYU bookstore, and asked to see the book buyer. “Well,” she said, “nobody ever buys poetry, but since you’re a local person, let me take four on consignment.” As they came in packages of twenty, we persuaded her to take twenty--on consignment. Next day she called and asked, “Those books you brought up here. Do you have any more of them?”
I had anticipated that the two thousand books, now stacked in our little closet and under our bed and in my Daddy’s garage, would last us years and years as wedding presents. But immediately we ordered a second printing. Beginnings sold over 150,000 copies before we gave it to Doubleday and then to Bookcraft.
Beginnings was followed by other volumes of poetry: The Search, The Growing Season, A Widening View, I Can’t Stop Smiling, and Women I Have Known and Been. Most of the poems from the earlier books now appear in a compilation, Beginnings and Beyond. The poems have been widely reprinted in such places as Ann Landers’ column, the second volume of Chicken Soup for the Soul, and college textbooks such as Houghton Mifflin’s Structure and Meaning: an Introduction to Literature. That first little volume of verse, and my husband’s determination, laid the foundation for my entire career.
Another characteristic of my husband was to have a profound effect on both
In fourth grade, in Gusher, Utah, I won four dollars in a school district essay contest on “Why We Should Eat a Better Breakfast.” And yes, this morning I had a bowl of my own excellent granola, followed by a hike in the hills near my home in Walnut Creek, California.
In high school I began writing in earnest. I have now in my files a folder marked “Poetry, Very Bad,” and another, “Poetry, Not Quite So Bad.” Writing served a good purpose for that very dramatic, insecure adolescent. Also at that time I began to keep a diary, which I still maintain and which has been indescribably useful to me both as a writer and as a pilgrim on the earth.
After graduating from Brigham Young University with an MA in theatre, teaching for a year in Utah at Snow College, and traveling for a year, I taught part-time at BYU in the English department and was then hired by the motion picture studio on campus to write educational and religious screenplays.
While performing at the university as Mrs. Antrobus in Thornton Wilder’s “The Skin of Our Teeth,” I met and fell in love with Gerald Pearson, a shining, blond, enthusiastic young man, who fell in love with me and my poems.
“We’ve got to get them published,” he said on our honeymoon, and soon dragged me up to the big city, Salt Lake City, to see who would be first in line to publish them. “Poetry doesn’t sell,” insisted everyone we spoke to, and I, somewhat relieved, put publishing on the list of things to do posthumously.
But not Gerald. “Then I’ll publish them,” he said. Borrowing two thousand dollars, he created a company called “Trilogy Arts” and published two thousand copies of a book called Beginnings, a slim, hard-back volume with a white cover that featured a stunning illustration, “God in Embryo,” by our good friend Trevor Southey, now an internationally known artist. On the day in autumn of 1967 that Gerald delivered the books by truck to our little apartment in Provo, I was terrified. I really had wanted to do this posthumously.
Beginnings
Today
You came running
With a small specked egg
Warm in your hand.
You could barely understand,
I know,
As I told you of Beginnings–
Of egg and bird.
Told, too,
That years ago you began,
Smaller than sight.
And then,
As egg yearns for sky
And seed stretches to tree,
You became–
Like me.
Oh,
But there’s so much more.
You and I, child,
Have just begun.
Think:
Worlds from now
What might we be?–
We, who are seed
Of Deity.
We toted a package of books up to the BYU bookstore, and asked to see the book buyer. “Well,” she said, “nobody ever buys poetry, but since you’re a local person, let me take four on consignment.” As they came in packages of twenty, we persuaded her to take twenty--on consignment. Next day she called and asked, “Those books you brought up here. Do you have any more of them?”
I had anticipated that the two thousand books, now stacked in our little closet and under our bed and in my Daddy’s garage, would last us years and years as wedding presents. But immediately we ordered a second printing. Beginnings sold over 150,000 copies before we gave it to Doubleday and then to Bookcraft.
Beginnings was followed by other volumes of poetry: The Search, The Growing Season, A Widening View, I Can’t Stop Smiling, and Women I Have Known and Been. Most of the poems from the earlier books now appear in a compilation, Beginnings and Beyond. The poems have been widely reprinted in such places as Ann Landers’ column, the second volume of Chicken Soup for the Soul, and college textbooks such as Houghton Mifflin’s Structure and Meaning: an Introduction to Literature. That first little volume of verse, and my husband’s determination, laid the foundation for my entire career.
Another characteristic of my husband was to have a profound effect on both
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
August 29, 2010
When I was a teen, I usually ate breakfast by myself before everyone else woke up. To fill the emptiness, I would pull a book off my parents' book shelf and read it. I wish this book had been there; it was exactly the sort of book that would have interested me and I will keep it so my kids can pull it off our book shelf and read it too. I have been trying to get rid of clutter, so it's the rare book that gets to stay on my shelf.
It's deceptively thin. The font is smallish and the layout is dense, so it does take a bit to get through, but the stories are short and reading just one or two is enough to satisfy your mind until you can get a chance to come back to read more.
This book is separated in sections by gifts of the Spirit: The Gift of Tongues and the Gift of Interpretation of Tongues, The Gift of Prophecy, The Gift of Revelation, The Gift of Faith to Heal, The Gift of Faith to be Healed, and the Gift of Power over Evil Spirits. And the stories in each section are from women's journals in the 1800s and early 1900s in the Church.
I love that everything is referenced. I've been to the Church Archive and it takes some effort to find your way around things (even nowadays with our fancy shmancy computers). Pearson is a saint for having gone through all the research. Well, she's a saint for many things. That woman deserves a cake. And a crown.
I loved reading this and wonder what went so wrong that we don't hear about these things happening now.
It's deceptively thin. The font is smallish and the layout is dense, so it does take a bit to get through, but the stories are short and reading just one or two is enough to satisfy your mind until you can get a chance to come back to read more.
This book is separated in sections by gifts of the Spirit: The Gift of Tongues and the Gift of Interpretation of Tongues, The Gift of Prophecy, The Gift of Revelation, The Gift of Faith to Heal, The Gift of Faith to be Healed, and the Gift of Power over Evil Spirits. And the stories in each section are from women's journals in the 1800s and early 1900s in the Church.
I love that everything is referenced. I've been to the Church Archive and it takes some effort to find your way around things (even nowadays with our fancy shmancy computers). Pearson is a saint for having gone through all the research. Well, she's a saint for many things. That woman deserves a cake. And a crown.
I loved reading this and wonder what went so wrong that we don't hear about these things happening now.
May 13, 2015
In this slim but important volume, first published in 1973, the inestimable Carol Lynn Pearson gathers dozens of accounts of women in the early Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints using their spiritual gifts. What a powerful spiritual heritage we have!
Each chapter focuses on a single gift - the gift of tongues and the gift of interpretation of tongues, the gift of prophecy, the gift of revelation, the gift of faith to heal, the gift of faith to be healed, and the gift of power over evil spirits - some of which will be familiar to those of us in the Church today and some may seem strange because they are no longer prevalent. The perspective this provides is helpful to me; the way things are done now is not the only way they have ever been done. And by extension, the way things are done now is not, or at least should not be, a straitjacket restricting change.
To read the rest of this review, visit Build Enough Bookshelves.
Each chapter focuses on a single gift - the gift of tongues and the gift of interpretation of tongues, the gift of prophecy, the gift of revelation, the gift of faith to heal, the gift of faith to be healed, and the gift of power over evil spirits - some of which will be familiar to those of us in the Church today and some may seem strange because they are no longer prevalent. The perspective this provides is helpful to me; the way things are done now is not the only way they have ever been done. And by extension, the way things are done now is not, or at least should not be, a straitjacket restricting change.
To read the rest of this review, visit Build Enough Bookshelves.
December 13, 2009
Well-researched and inspiring, this tells about early Mormon women who did more than donate their china to be ground up for the temple walls or wash temple workers' shirts. They spoke in tongues, were blessed with extraordinary spiritual gifts, and even gave blessings. Long out of print, you'll probably have to go to eBay to find it (or DI - ha!), but it's well worth it. Great to read when you're having one of those "the Church is down on women" days (and let's face it, we have all had at least one of them sometime).
September 10, 2012
This was an interesting collection of excerpts from primary source materials about women in the early mormon church using spiritual gifts. The stories were arranged by gift (gift of tongues, gift of healing, etc), and I liked that she let the women themselves speak wherever possible. Pearson's research was incredible for someone that is not a historian, and I appreciated the thorough endnotes. I would have loved a quality index at the end to connect the stories more easily, and some greater historical context to place these stories in, but I'm just being picky.
June 12, 2008
A compilation of stories of early pioneer women and their trials...how they used personal and priesthood strength. This is an inspiration to all women of the Mormon faith...asserting that women have a divine right to priesthood powers through their husbands and that women can independently call upon this power themselves in times of need and emergency.
http://www.bycommonconsent.com/2005/0...
http://www.bycommonconsent.com/2005/0...
March 5, 2010
This book was hiding under my bed for months, but I finally found and finished it. It is a little harder to get through because it consists of a bunch of journal entries written by various early saints who had experiences with spiritual gifts during the early days of the church. That said, it contains some amazing stories and Carol Pearson starts each chapter with a neat little poem of her own.
March 1, 2023
Well, this was weird. Apparently, in the church's earlier years, women spoke in tongues and healed the sick. Quite odd to read about this. I wonder when it changed.
Didn't realize that I had already this book once, but went ahead and read it again. Still seems like a strange book to me. I think it's time to pass it along to someone else.
Didn't realize that I had already this book once, but went ahead and read it again. Still seems like a strange book to me. I think it's time to pass it along to someone else.
February 23, 2011
I just love Carol Lynn Pearson. In this book she gathers first hand accounts from women in the early Church who tell of various spiritual gifts. I especially loved the chapters on the gift of healing and being healed. Find this one at your library or used and read it!
July 23, 2013
Excellent resource! This book is a great collection of women's experiences with spiritual gifts in the early LDS church, and I highly recommend it to any and all LDS women - and men, for that matter. Definitely worth having in your personal library!
June 16, 2008
I received this wonderful book by a guy I dated when I first becam e activated in Church back in 1977. This was a special book for me.
January 14, 2011
Some intersting stories in here about women giving blessings and healing.
April 4, 2012
Very short inspirational accounts of different women during the early days of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
July 23, 2015
Wonderful compilation of stories of early Mormon women's experiences with "gifts of the spirit." Slim but significant.
October 1, 2009
A really really important book that every Mormon woman should read.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews