Mr. Durant of Salt Lake City, "That Mormon

This late-19th century biographical account traces the remarkable journey of William James Durant, an Englishman who crossed an ocean and a continent to build a new life among the Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City. Born in England in 1831, Durant converted to the LDS Church at eighteen, emigrated to Utah in 1850, and rose to become a trusted associate of Brigham Young, helping to construct the Salt Lake Temple and establish the Deseret News newspaper. But this is no simple success story. The book grapples honestly with the tensions that divided Mormon communities: the practice of plural marriage, the pressure of federal persecution, and the difficult choices facing faithful members who questioned their church's direction. Rich's portrait captures a man caught between conviction and doubt, between community and conscience. For readers interested in American religious history, the Mormon frontier experience, or the human cost of ideological conflict, this book offers a window into a world that shaped the American West.