Everyone in the world of Mormon letters will be saddened to hear of the death of Richard Cracroft yesterday, September 20, 2012. A giant has left us. For more details, see the Deseret News obituary.
An outdated entry from the Mormon Liberature Database reads as follows:
Richard H. Cracroft, professor of English at Brigham Young University, is one of the most important and active critics of Mormon literature. Having edited (with Neal Lambert) two anthologies of Mormon Literature, A Believing People: Literature of the Latter-day Saints (1974, 1979–see below), and 22 Young Mormon Writers (Provo, Utah: Communications Workshop, 1975), Cracroft continues to write numerous reviews of Mormon literature in a regular column in BYU Magazine and in other venues of Mormon criticism. A past president of the Association for Mormon Letters, he continues to teach Literature of the Latter-day Saints at Brigham Young University where he currently serves as the director for the Center for Christian Values in Literature. In 2000 Cracroft was granted honorarly lifetime membership in the Association for Mormon Letters.
We invite you to share your reminiscences and tributes.
I never met Cracroft, but both my wife and her grandfather took classes from him. The scope of his service over decades is impressive.
I enjoyed him as a professor (I had him for 19th-century American lit during my BYU master’s program), as an AML patriarch, and as a cheerleader for Zarahemla Books.
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I never met him either, but have thought of him often and am grateful that he showed us the way. Without him, would any of us be here today?
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Aside: The obituary speaks of The Collected Writings of Richard Holton Cracroft, but the internet knows nothing of this. Anyone here?
I believe that I heard from Tom Rogers that Richard Cracroft had put together a collection of his writings for his family. I don’t know if it’s generally available.
Provo Library’s got a copy (according to their catalog).
Richard’s faith is his legacy. Yes, he was a giant. I was so fortunate to have the privilege of close contact these last two years. When he wrote the introduction to my FIRES OF JERUSALEM, I was able to visit him in his home. The last time I saw him was a couple of months ago, when I took him a final copy of the novel. I knew he was close–it was evident. He took my hand and said, “Good-bye, Marilyn.” And there were tears in his eyes.
To any extent that I stand (in the field of Mormon letters), Brother Cracroft’s shoulders are among the tallest and steadiest I stand on.
I’ve always been impressed with Professor Cracroft’s capacities as a reader. His essays and columns all demonstrate the breadth of his familiarity with books–especially books by Mormons. I imagine he left behind an impressive library of Mormon literature. I hope it finds a good home. I bet his books have fantastic marginalia.
I’m not sure one can do Mormon literary criticism without acknowledging his pioneering footprint.
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I hope he has made some sort of arrangement with BYU. . . .
Richard collected his writings just before passing away. Here are excerpts from the email that he sent around. He was making available his writings chiefly in CD format. I’m sure the family would still accept orders. Contact me if you wish to get the details on ordering. I’m so glad he put something together!
Gideon
Collected writings of Richard Cracroft
Vol. 1–Book A (324 pp.), Stories From A Mormon Life: Stories, tales, anecdotes about Dick’s grandparents and their emigration from England; and about Ralph and Grace, Laury, Paul, Helen, and Dick; and tories from Dick’s youth–and Sammy Park and Dick’s friendship; scouting, teachers, football days. This is not a biography. This volume is a pretty good dip into family history of Ralph and Grace Cracroft’s parents (George and Clara Williams Cracroft, and John and Sarah Ann Holton White). $12.50 per each spiral-bound copy.
Vol. 1–Book B (411 pp.), Stories From A Mormon Life, continued.: Stories from Dick’s Swiss-Austrian Mission and journal; meeting Prophets; serving as morning seminary teacher, bishop, stake president, mission president, MTC branch president, BYU marrieds ward bishop. The stories in these two volumes will be the most engaging for you. And pictures to boot! You’ll want both parts (A & B) of this first volume. $12.50 per spiral-bound copy.
Vol. 2 (560 pp.), Essays: The Literature of the Latter-day Saints. Previously published essays on Reading Spiritually, 19th Century Mormon Literature and 20th and 21st Century Mormon letters. Essays on The Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith’s First Vision in Literature, Brigham Young on the Novel, Eliza R. Snow, B.H. Roberts, Samuel Taylor, Gerald Lund, Eugene England, among others. These essays will be of various interest to you (they are the heart of my Mormon literature career). $12.50 per spiral-bound copy.
Vol. 3 (415 pp.), A Literary Rendezvous in the American West: Essays on American, British, German and European Writers. Nationally published essays on Wallace Stegner, Thomas Wolfe, Mark Twain, Karl May, and several Early Western Figures. I am proud of these professional essays in literary criticism, but I recognize, realistically, that most of you will probably want to pass on these.essays. (Caution: Just remember that evidence in His Works suggests that God is an English Major with an Engineering minor.) $12.50 per spiral-bound copy.
Vol. 4 (498 pp.), The Spoken Word: Selected Sermons, Speeches, and Talks at Stake Conferences. Commencements, Graduations, and to various Groups and Clubs, Farewells, Funerals, selected from about 2500 talks given since 1959.
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Wow. From among 2500. So the complete-works version would be even [substantially] longer…..
I was so sad to hear about this. Dr. Cracroft was one of my favorite professors during my English major studies. He made the class as fun and interesting as it was challenging. I loved the random trivia about hymns he’d throw in, or his drawings depicting things like the Gothic and Romantic eras.
About 5 years ago, I wrote a blog post about 2 memorable parts of the class I took from him, winter semester of 1995: http://blog.annettelyon.com/2007/11/we-are-vindicated.html
I’m a few years late, but I just stumbled upon this link and would be remiss if I did not comment.
I was privileged to meet Richard Cracroft on July 3, 1986, at my missionary apartment in Basel, Switzerland.
He and Janice had barely arrived in Switzerland to begin their mission on July 1. When the phone rang that morning, and we were instructed to stay in our apartment and wait to be visited, I assumed that the new Mission President was making his rounds to introduce himself to all of the missionaries. I took advantage of the extra time that morning to iron some of my shirts.
Eventually President Cracroft arrived. He and his assistants had been delayed, running out of gas along the way. He entered the room and excused my senior companion to wait in the hallway with the others. I was still ironing when he took a seat and invited me to do the same. I guess I was probably trying to finish my shirt first, but I set the iron aside and sat down across from him for my first interview.
But it was no interview. I had never met him before, but his eyes already told the story before he could get the words out of his mouth. My mother had just passed away after several years of battling cancer, and he had come to deliver the news in person.
I don’t remember the details of our conversation, but I remember how he made me feel, and there was an immediate mutual love between us which only strengthened through the many years where he was my Mission President and then one of my dearest friends for the remainder of his life.
He had no idea what he was walking into that July morning. Fortunately I had already been well prepared by his predecessor, President Clayton Hurst, and had recently come to the point where my pleadings with the Lord ceased to be the one-sided “heal her” sort of prayers, and had transitioned to “if it be Thy will to heal her, then please do it now, and if it be Thy will to take her, please end her suffering.” I think that between the Lord and my mother, they were both waiting for me to be ready, and from that moment things really did go quickly.
President Cracroft was as good-humored as anyone who ever walked this earth, and it was pure pleasure to joke with him and occasionally engage in a practical joke. On one occasion he declared that a particular upcoming P-day would be a special one where missionaries could travel anywhere within the mission boundaries that they wanted, which usually resulted in an hundred young people making their way to any number of Alps with groups of others. In anticipation of this day, I wrote to friends of mine who were serving missions in Italy and Chile, asking them to send me blank postcards from their areas. I future-dated each one to correspond to the P-day, addressing them to President Cracroft at Pilatusstrasse 11 in Zürich with a brief note of appreciation for his permission to travel. I placed the completed postcards in envelopes and mailed them back to my friends with the instruction to have them postmarked on the day of our P-day. As it happens, my friend in Italy also sent me some chocolate from Perugia, where he was serving. Each piece was individually wrapped with the Perugina name imprinted. This turned out to be glorious, because President and Sister Cracroft decided to do an apartment inspection soon after the P-day. My companion was excused to accompany Janice in the hallway. President Cracroft, with his usual jovial voice, told me about an interesting postcard he received. I smiled. He asked me how I did it. Without skipping a beat I told him that I had been there, and reached for the container of Perugina chocolate and offered him one. Instantaneously his countenance took a turn and he asked with as much earnestness as I have ever seen from him before or since, “Elder Walker, how did you do it?” I then told him the whole story and we both had a great laugh about it. Soon afterward he received the somewhat delayed postcard from Chile which removed all doubt. We were required to send letters each week to our families and to the Mission President. Every now and then President Cracroft would return our letters, often marked up with comments and counsel. The next time he returned my letters to me he included an additional piece of notebook paper whereon he had sketched the earth, and surrounding it were the words, “Die Schweiz Mission Zürich nach Elder Walker.” [The Switzerland Zürich Mission according to Elder Walker.] How I cherish that piece of paper!
A year before he died we were able to organize a special mission reunion in Provo, and over 100 people turned out. We called it a Wurstfest, because we grilled a ton of excellent sausage acquired from Siegfried’s in Salt Lake City, which is probably the go-to spot for all former German-speaking missionaries to get their fix of authentic-tasting sausage. We also enjoyed Cremschnitte (Napoleons) from Carol’s Cakes, which is very much a mission tradition. It was wonderful to see him and Janice, along with his sister and brother-in-law who had also served in the mission, enjoying the good food and the company of their beloved missionaries and their spouses and posterity. After our meal, we went inside for the obligatory mission slide show, after which President Cracroft regaled us with his stories and led us in singing some of our beloved Swiss songs.
The following morning was Fast Sunday, and many of us who were visiting from out of town had nowhere else to go, so we visited his ward. He had asked in advance that we not organize a missionary takeover of his ward’s meeting, so we had expressly asked people not to come unless they literally had nowhere else to go. It turns out that a lot of us had nowhere else to go, and the testimony meeting turned out to be one missionary alumnus after another pouring out their love for Richard and Janice, and ultimately an overwhelmed President Cracroft got into the act as well. Though we had just done exactly what he had told us not to do, he loved every moment, and afterward conceded that he wished everyone who would have wanted to come would have been able to be there.
It was a fitting auf Wiedersehen, as for most of us it would be the last time we would embrace our beloved Prez in mortality. At some future date when I eventually pass through the veil, I fully expect to be greeted by my parents and other beloved family. And I expect to receive the biggest spiritual bearhug from my dear friend Richard, who perhaps will have sketched something new for me by then.