I recently mentioned to an English friend that my parents don't drink because they're Mormons. 'So, Dave,' he asked sheepishly, 'how many wives does your father have?' I explained that the Mormon Church outlawed polygamy in 1890; Utah wouldn't otherwise have been allowed to join the Union. I didn't mind the question, though. Mormons may no longer be subject to extermination in Missouri (that legislation was rescinded in 1976), but the eleven million Latter-Day Saints - a little under half live in the US - are generally thought to be peculiar, when they are thought of at all.

LRB 22 May 2003 | PDF Download