Miltons and Shakespeares of Our Own
Latter-day Eloquence
Wayfare has always been dedicated to championing the best in Latter-day Saint culture. For the last six months, that has included sharing important speeches from Mormon history to our Oratory newsletter in collaboration with Latter-day Eloquence: Two Centuries of Mormon Oratory. This landmark anthology collects fifty-five speeches across the spectrum of belief to capture the rich diversity of public speaking over the last two hundred years of Church history.
This week, we’re excited to present the grand finale of this exclusive mini series: Orson F. Whitney’s famous “Home Literature” address from 1888, in which he promises that the Latter-day Saints will one day have “Miltons and Shakespeares of our own.” Profiled by none other than Gideon Burton, this speech—perhaps more than any other—captures Wayfare’s ongoing commitment to the intersection of faith and creativity, art and inspiration.
You can read the other five sample chapters from Latter-day Eloquence in our Oratory section, which feature speeches by Melissa Inouye, Truman G. Madsen, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, and a newly annotated text version of the King Follett Sermon. You can also order the print anthology for 30% off from the University of Illinois Press website using the discount code S26UIP.
We strive to publish excellent and original contemporary talks, sermons, and addresses in our Oratory section (edited by Isaac Richards). If you have one you think we should consider publishing, submit it here.
Illustrations from Chirologia; Or the Natural Language of the Hand (1644) by John Bulwer. Hand gestures have long been used to great effect by public speakers to convey or emphasize meaning. In certain cultures, specific hand gestures hold well-known meanings.
Miltons and Shakespeares of Our Own
Orson F. Whitney (1855–1931) was a renowned Mormon man of letters in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: a journalist, newspaper editor, educator, poet, and historian. When Whitney delivered his “Home Literature” address, he was thirty-three and recently returned from a mission to England, where he edited the Church’s Millennial Star. At the time, he was bishop of a Salt Lake City ward that he would lead for twenty-eight years. The grandson of the Church’s second bishop, Newel K. Whitney, Orson would later serve twenty-five years as an apostle.