Letter, 1942 April 12

File — Box: 1, Folder: 1, Item: 2

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

Morgan speaks of Brooks' visit to Salt Lake City and of showing her where to find materials for her writing. He comments on her belief that he is unselfish by saying that he gets as much from other people as he gives to them. Morgan tells of some of the people he has learned from: a folklorist in Los Angeles, a Nevada highway employee, Wallace Stegner, and Bernard DeVoto. Morgan states that he likes Brooks' interest in southwestern Utah because he himself knows little about it. He is gathering material to write a history of the Mormons. Brooks had asked about his background and he tells of being born into an orthodox Mormon family. He states that until the age of fourteen, he was "a more dutiful Mormon than the average." His father died when he was five and his mother taught school to support the family. Morgan lost his hearing in 1929 due to meningitis. He states, "The loss of my hearing pretty well broke up the world I had lived in, in one way and another: it confirmed a tendency to introspection and living in a personal world." Morgan took up commercial art in high school to earn a living. His English teacher interested him in writing and secured funds from the state vocational rehabilitation department for him to attend the University of Utah for four years. Morgan describes the different jobs he was employed in after he graduated. He states, "History has been perhaps the largest value in my life . . . but it is not a paying kind of history, and I shall have to find jobs to support it." Morgan describes his religious beliefs as being a belief in what he calls, "the decencies of human relationships." He tells Brooks his views on Mormon church history and tells her to be independent in her thinking.

Dates

1942 April 12

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