The Deseret Second Book

Printed in New York City by Russell Brothers under the direction of LDS businessman David O. Calder, the Deseret Second Book embodied both the hopes and limitations of the alphabet project. Written by territorial school superintendent Robert L. Campbell, with selected poetry, and transcribed into the Deseret by apostle Orson Pratt, it offers a glimpse into how Utah’s pioneers were to learn and use the script in daily life.

Together with the First Book and the 1869 Deseret Alphabet Book of Mormon, the Second Book captures the cultural, linguistic, and educational experiments of Utah in the 1850s and 1860s, reflecting both the pioneers’ pragmatism and their utopian aspirations. Besides frequent references to domestic livestock and agriculture, the Second Book contains a variety of scriptural passages and paraphrases, though none are unique to the Latter Day Saint restorationist tradition. The gathering force of a Latter-day Saint prohibition on tobacco—denounced by the author as “the filthy weed” (p. 27)—is unmistakable, as children are urged to “avoid the company of those who have formed bad habits” (ibid.).