LATTER DAY RADIO BOOK REVIEW: "We'll Sing and We'll Shout: The Life and Times of WW Phelps" by Bruce Van Orden

Latter Day Radio, now podcasting from The Intersection of Faith & Freedom.

In this comprehensive biography, author and historian Bruce Van Orden tells the story early Latter-day Saint leader, printer, scribe, ghostwriter, and monumental hymn writer, WW Phelps. Phelps printed the Book of Commandments and other early standard works. In fact, it was his print shop that was destroyed by the Missouri mob that eventually led to the expulsion of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from that state. He was one of the "council of presidents" that guided the Church in Kirtland and helped publish the newspaper in Nauvoo. As political clerk, he assisted Joseph Smith in his roles as mayor of Nauvoo and contender for the U.S. presidency. Phelps also played a key role in the Council of Fifty. He went west with the Saints, helped propose the "State of Deseret," and published prose and poetry in the Deseret News and his Deseret Almanac. Phelp's strong feelings sometimes put him at odds with Church leaders, and he was excommunicated three times, rejoining each time. In the end, he showed the importance of endurance and earned the love and respect of the Prophet and others, then and now. This interview with Van Orden originally took place on KLO AM1430 in Salt Lake City in 2018 as one of hundreds of episodes of Latter Day Radio. Now, the broadcast has been edited as a podcast, one of dozens soon to be available online, at Apple Music, Spotify and other distributors. For more information about all the podcasts produced by Latter Day Radio, go to www.latterdayradio.com; for inquiries, send requests via e-mail to [e-mail]