In 1973, Carol Lynn Pearson published a compilation on women and the gifts of the Spirit. Daughters of Light, widely distributed by Bookcraft, offers a chapter for each of a number of gifts and while at ninty six pages its heft may be insignificant, the content is not.

Most Mormons would probably be shocked by Pearson’s formula of briefly outlining historic teachings of priesthood authorities and then sharing the stories of our sister exemplars. They would be shocked because these are stories that we no longer tell and they are sadly foreign to many. While some topics are accessible, like revelation, others, like healing by the laying on of hands, border on the illicit.

But this is Joseph Smith, Brigham Young and Joseph F. Smith exhorting women to lay hands on the sick. And this is the Spirit I feel as I read the stories of Emma, Zina and Bethsheba. And I check the back of the book to make sure…yes, it is Bookcraft.

Pearson navigates these perilous waters deftly. Her editorials, guided by the beacons of historic witness, defy the modern hazards:

But the sisters have a right and an obligation to know that in addition to calling upon the priesthood, or as they may by circumstances be forced to act independently, they are not impotent.

In response to inquiry, Carol Lynn Pearson agreed to answer a few questions regarding Daughters of Light:

Stapley: Both the tone and content of Daughters of Lightis foreign to current offerings in popular Mormon publishing. This contrast is enhanced when one considers the publisher (Bookcraft – hallmark of orthodoxy). Was this contrast equally apparent when you first published the book in the early 1970’s? Did Bookcraft express anything but support for the book?

Pearson: Actually, the book was first published in 1973 by Trilogy Arts, the little publishing firm that my husband Gerald had established in order to publish Beginnings. So we did it ourselves with no one to tell us nay. The following year we gave over publication of Daughters of Light (and later of Beginnings and a few other books) to Bookcraft. Yes, you probably would not find an LDS publisher today wanting to address women’s spiritual gifts as directly as in Daughters of Light. This was before the church got so frightened of feminism. I was on fire with discovering and reclaiming the spiritual place of the feminine. I had a great relationship and support from historian Leonard Arrington. I remember Rodney Turner had just published his book (or maybe just given the infamous BYU lecture) entitled “Woman and the Priesthood.” As I was asking Leonard for a possible title for what became Daughters of Light, he grinned and said, “How about ‘Woman Without the Priesthood”! There were a lot of forward-looking things happening then (in spite of Turner and some others); that was about the time “Exponent II” was being birthed, and lots of women were waking up. Actually, I don’t remember anyone at Bookcraft being hesitant at all. They were quite enthusiastic.

Stapley: You go to great lengths in the introduction of the book as well as its content to advocate conformation to authorized priesthood instruction. However, in the same text you promote the independent ascension of women to the divine gifts, praxis that did not fare well under this instruction during the 20th century. I believe that there is no inherent contradiction, our early saints being great examples of bivalent success. Was there any institutional reaction to Daughters of Light? It seems to have been quite popular, with several printings. What response did you perceive from the regional women’s organizations while you were on “the circuit?”

Pearson: I really don’t remember any negative response to this book. There may have been, but it is not in my memory bank. When I was out “on the circuit” the women that I spoke to were very hungry for this and very welcoming. As to my couching it all in “conformation to authorized priesthood instruction”–I do remember writing an introduction that I decided not to use (and remember, no one was editing me; this was self-published) in which I came on rather more strongly about women’s spiritual power in our history having been withheld from us and that we needed to reclaim that power. I then decided to follow the first law of public speaking I learned in Speech 101, “meet your audience where they are and take them to where you want them to go.” So I did conciously make an attempt to put it in a context where I thought no one could possibly argue with it. And I guess that worked, for I don’t remember any institutional negative response. And lots of general positive response.

Stapley: One of the great aspects of this book, or the stories it contains, is its devotional character. Is this how you approach the book? How do you hope the reader approach the book?

Pearson: Hmmm. “Devotional.” I did feel very reverent of the stories I found and I took them very seriously. I have always longed for “metaphysical” manifestations, and when I began to unearth these in my studies–these belonging to women–I was really beside myself with excitement. This same hunger for the metaphysical manifests in the synchronicities I describe in Consider the Butterfly, telling 44 of my personal stories of meaningful coincidence. I don’t get visions and voices, but I do get amazing synchronicities. And yes, I am working on the gift of healing. I have taken several seminars on energy healing and have had some excellent results as I practice on friends and family. This may be in a bit of a different category than the stories I recount in Daughters of Light, but all spiritual/energetic blessings come from the Same Great Reservoir, of which I continue to stand in Great Awe.
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Critically, Daughters of Light frequently relies on retrospective accounts, much as Madsen’s Joseph Smith lectures, and consequently lacks some of the gravitas of the New Mormon History. Moreover, the introductory doctrinal expositions are quite cursory. Despite these criticisms and even outside its time and place, Pearson’s book remains a powerful declaration in the story of Mormon women.

Carol Lynn Pearson’s life reads like an example of Aristotle’s Poetics. She is an icon of 20th century popular Mormon publishing and remains an outspoken advocate for women in the church. She has several contemporary projects including:

The Christmas Moment, just released from Cedar Fort Press, a modern retelling of O. Henry’s “Gift of the Magi.

Beginnings and Beyond, compilation of the best of the poems from the books now out of print, being released momentarily also from Cedar Fort.

Also, in some follow up correspondence Carol Lynn noted the following:

Incidentally, in 1975, the year after Bookcraft took Daughters of Light, they published my The Flight and the Nest, which I consider to be even more of a radical book than Daughters of Light. It looks at what the early Mormon women in Utah were doing and saying about “women’s issues,” education, politics, redefining the feminine. They were great friends of Susan B. Anthony and some of the other national luminaries. Get that book and take a look; you’d have to find it in a library or a used book store like Benchmark.

mmmm…more.