Elsewhere I have posted on "Mormon Portraits" (1886) by 'W. Wyl'. Looking further, I find his full name is as above. And I found a fascinating interview von Wymetal (1838-1896) had with William Law, JS' first counselor, printed July 31, 1887, in the SLC Daily Tribune [williamlaw.org]. The most highly respected man in Nauvoo, he was the person behind "The Nauvoo Expositor", the paper that drove JS violently insane. According to Law, the only reason he escaped Smith's Danites is that he hired his own life guards/spies. Invited by Joseph & Hyrum to a 'reconciliation feast', he backed out when one of his spies told him this had occurred before: the Smiths planned to poison his food and 'use him up'. Also rips Emma to shreds, implicates her completely in the schemes of JS. A slant I have not read elsewhere, and nowhere else available, since Law had a long-standing policy of No Interviews. Recommended as an intelligent person's critique of JS and the Morg, by an insider.

Link, if one is available!

Just google von Wymetal. Enjoy!

http://www.olivercowdery.com/smithhome/1886WWyl.htm

This 320 page book was advertised as being the first of two "Mormon Portraits" volumes compiled by Wilhelm R. von Wymetal and scheduled to be published (under the pen-name of "W. Wyl") in the mid-1880s. The second volume in the series (on Brigham Young and his family) was never published.

Wyl obtained some important research material from James T. Cobb, an adopted son of Brigham Young and an active anti-Mormon journalist in Salt Lake City during the late 1870s and early 1880s. Among the various items passed on by Cobb to Wyl was 1879 correspondence between Cobb and relatives of Emma Hale and between Cobb and the Clapp family of Mentor Ohio. A portion of this correspondence appeared in the columns of the Salt Lake Tribune and the Amboy Journal during 1879, but a few interesting pieces did not see print until Wyl published them in his 1886 book.

UD

You're giving up on "Raptor J. and the Anti's"?

I'm packing up my drum set and going home...

Here's a link I posted to a summary I wrote 2 1/2 years ago about how church pseudo-historians routinely smear legitimate accounts of the early days in Zion and label men like Wyl and J.H. Beadle "anti-Mormons" for the simple crime of truth telling.

http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,5317,5381

>Here's a sample involving two prominent 19th century victims of the Mormon libel machine, J.H. Beadle, and Wm. Wyl (Wilhelm Wymetal). The latter interviewed William Law in the following, which appeared in the Salt Lake Tribune in 1887. The Law interview was one I read early on (he was someone I was familiar with), and it's been a favorite link of mine to post because his voice is so credible and authentic.

http://mrm.org/topics/documents-speeches/interview-william-law

Now consider the following in what passes for academic scholarship at BYU . . .

http://byustudies.byu.edu/showtitle.aspx?title=6272

>Without an introduction or overview, however, the reader knows little of the context or background of the interview. Given the strong antipolygamy sentiment in America, the anti-Mormon bent of interviewer Wilhelm Wyl, Law's bitter opposition to the Prophet Joseph Smith, and publication of the interview in an openly anti-Mormon Salt Lake newspaper, it comes as no surprise that Law's recollections were predominately negative.

And another, quoting no less than Richard Bushman...

http://www.josephsmithspolygamy.com/26Accusers/WilhelmWyl.html

>Biographer Richard L. Bushman provided this assessment of Wyl: “[He] introduced a lot of hearsay into his account of Joseph. Personally I found all the assertions about the Prophet's promiscuity pretty feeble. Nothing there [was] worth contending with.” L.D.S. General Authority, B. H. Roberts, assessed: “[Mormon Portraits] follows very much in the style and tone of Bennett's exposé, and severer criticism than this could not be passed upon it."

Uncle Dale's site is linked as well, and it's clear that the playbook for such revisionists simply amounts to labeling something "anti-Mormon" and presuming half of one's work is done.

J.H. Beadle is equally authentic; he began originally with a favorable impression of Mormonism after an encounter with missionaries, but a visit to Utah soon opened his eyes.