A new publication from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will allow its members to dive deeper into the life of a celebrated poet, preacher and plural wife to the faith’s first two presidents.
Five years after the release of “The Discourses of Eliza R. Snow,” a website compiling more than 1,200 written pieces and speeches by one of the most prominent and influential Latter-day Saint women in history, the Church Historian’s Press has published a new collection featuring 52 of her discourses
A companion to earlier releases detailing prayers, preachings and pronouncements from dozens of leaders of the faith’s all-female Relief Society, the new 376-page volume, titled “Rise Up and Speak: Selected Discourses of Eliza R. Snow,” has been annotated and contextualized by a team of female historians.
Lead editor Jennifer Reeder, a historian from the Church History Department who also wrote a biography of church founder Joseph Smith’s wife Emma, said researching the life of Snow, one of Smith’s plural wives, was inspiring and connected her to many of Snow’s sermons.
“It’s so important that we hear and read the words of women. It means everything,” Reeder said. “I feel like I’ve come to know Eliza R. Snow, Emma Smith and Zina Young and so many others, and it makes me feel like I’m part of them, and they’ve become my host.”
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Jennifer Reeder at an event marking the release of "Rise Up and Speak: Selected Discourses of Eliza R. Snow," by the Church Historian’s Press, in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, March 3, 2026.
About Snow’s life
Born on Jan. 21, 1804, in Becket, Massachusetts, Snow was reared in a typical New England family, Reeder explained. She first learned about Joseph Smith in 1830 but wasn’t baptized until five years later.
Snow played a pivotal role in the early church, Reeder said, serving as secretary and a founding member of the Relief Society in Nauvoo, Illinois. A writer and poet, she became a persistent advocate for religious freedom, women and polygamy.
After Smith’s death, Snow later became a plural wife of his immediate successor, Brigham Young, and received countless assignments from him to instruct Latter-day Saint women in organizing Relief Society units throughout the Utah Territory.
She rose to Relief Society general president in 1880 at age 76.
During a news conference at the Church History Library in downtown Salt Lake City, general authority Seventy Kyle S. McKay, the church’s historian and recorder, referred to Snow as an “elect lady.”
“This is a woman who accepted the call time and time again and, therefore, she was chosen,” McKay said. “She is elect, and I’m thrilled to be part of this day when we shine the light on her.”
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Jennifer Reeder, Sharalyn Howcroft, Kristin M. Yee and Kyle S. McKay at an event marking the release of "Rise Up and Speak: Selected Discourses of Eliza R. Snow," by the Church Historian’s Press, in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, March 3, 2026.
Modern sensibilities
Kristin M. Yee, second counselor in the Relief Society’s worldwide presidency, praised Snow’s role in the founding of the women’s organization and pointed to the challenges these pioneering women faced in the rural West.
“They set the pattern for women to rise up and speak,” Yee said. “That is not just a good idea; that’s the will of the Lord. That’s the doctrine. His daughters have a place in his kingdom, and both men and women work together to accomplish that.”
When asked if modern Latter-day Saint women would feel distanced from Snow’s emphatic defense of polygamy, Reeder said she, along with the other editors, intentionally left those parts of her speeches unredacted. They used footnotes to explain the polygamous past from a modern perspective.
“The thing that I like about her is so interesting because it seems a little contradictory that she encouraged and supported plural marriage, but she also says women are responsible for their own salvation,” Reeder said. “They cannot rely on a husband or a father or a son or a brother, they have to [achieve] it for themselves. So it was a sense of cooperation and working together and supporting each other.”
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) A copy of "Rise Up and Speak: Selected Discourses of Eliza R. Snow," by the Church Historian’s Press, in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, March 3, 2026.
“Rise and Speak: Selected Discourses of Eliza R. Snow” is available from Amazon and church-owned Deseret Book.
In addition, a free exhibit at the Church History Library features photographs of Snow and original manuscripts of her writings. The display will continue through Sept. 8.