DEVERY S. ANDERSON

'Devery S. Anderson' (1960- ) is a historian specializing in Mormon history.

Contents

Life

Writings

References

External links

Life

Anderson was born in Longview, Washington, Cowlitz County, to Clare E. and Cecelia Fournier Anderson. He attended schools in Longview, where he graduated from Mark Morris High School in 1978. He went on to attend Ricks College in Rexburg, Idaho, Lower Columbia College in Longview, Washington, and the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, where he obtained a B.A. in history. From July 1979 to June 1981 he served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in London, England. From 1987-1993 he worked for Reynolds Metals Company in Longview before moving to Utah in 1994. Since December, 2002, he has worked for Verizon Wireless, currently in the Data Support Center. In April 2006 he transferred with the company to Tempe, Arizona but returned to Salt Lake City in April, 2007, where he works on his many writing projects.
In 1984 he married Marlene Kandy Grantham, and is the father of three children: Amanda, born 1985, Tyler, born 1992, and Jordan, born 1994. Devery and Marlene were divorced in 1997.

Writings

Anderson has published several articles on Mormon history, including an award-winning series on the "History of ''Dialogue''" in the scholarly journal, ''. He has delivered papers at several meetings of the Sunstone Symposium, Mormon History Association, and the John Whitmer Historical Association. In 2005, Signature Books published the two-volume work, ''Joseph Smith's Quorum of the Anointed: A Documentary History, 1842-1845 '', and ''The Nauvoo Endowment Companies: A Documentary History, 1845-1846'', which Anderson co-edited with Gary James Bergera. The books won a special award in editing at the 2005 meeting of the John Whitmer Historical Association in Springfield, Illinois, and in May 2006, won the Steven F. Christiansen Award for Best Documentary at the Mormon History Association annual meeting in Casper, Wyoming. He published the introduction to the first of these volumes as "The Anointed Quorum in Nauvoo, 1842-1845," in the ''Journal of Mormon History'' 29 (Spring 2003). He is also writing a biography of early Mormon apostle Willard Richards.
Outside of Mormon history, Anderson is a leading authority on the Emmett Till murder of 1955, the case that served as a major catalyst for launching the Civil Rights Movement. He is currently writing a book to be titled ''The Boy Who Never Died: The Fifty Year Saga of the Emmett Till Murder'', which promises to be the definitive work on the subject, and runs a very informative site on the case. He has made several research trips to Mississippi where the murder occurred, and has interviewed witnesses, journalists who covered the trial, trial spectators, and others who were there at the time. He maintained a close friendship with Mamie Till-Mobley, the mother of Emmett Till, from December 1996 until her death in January 2003. He speaks about the case at schools and colleges in the United States.

References

External links

★ Devery's Emmett Till site
Devery's three articles comprising the "History of ''Dialogue'':

★ Devery S. Anderson, "A History of Dialogue, Part One: The Early Years, 1965-1971,” ''Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought'', 32:2 (Summer 1999): 15-67.

★ Devery S. Anderson, "A History of Dialogue, Part Two: Struggle toward Maturity, 1971-1982," ''Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought'', 33:2 (Summer 2000): 1-96.

★ Devery S. Anderson, "A History of Dialogue, Part Three: "Coming of Age" in Utah, 1982-1987," ''Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought'', 35: 2 (Summer 2002): 1-71.

★ Ralph W. Hansen, "Letter to Editor" (responding to Devery’s 1st ''Dialogue'' history article and recounting Hansen’s 10 years of participation in ''Dialogue''), ''Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought,'' 32:4: (Winter 1999)iv-vi.