©2003 Brigham Young University. All rights reserved.
Donated by Jean Maw Woodman in 1989 and 1993-95.
There are no restrictions no the use of this collection for scholarly research. The copyright to the collection is held by Jean Maw Woodman and her publishers. At Jean Maw Woodman's death, all her copyright is to pass intact to her daughter, Mrs. Sarah Jean Stopford. It is the responsibility of the user to obtain permission to publish from the copyright holder prior to publishing any item in this collection in its entirety. The donor stipulated that "any publication of these materials must first be cleared with Jean M. Woodman or her decendants.
It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain any necessary copyright clearances.
Permission to publish material from The Jean Maw Woodman Papers must be obtained from the Supervisor of Reference Services and/or the L. Tom Perry Special Collections Board of Curators.
Jean Florence Maw Woodman was born in Provo, Utah in 1906, the third child (she had three siblings including one brother) and second daughter of Charles Edward Maw (1875-1950) and Margaret Petersen Maw (1874-). Her father was a distinguished professor of Chemistry at Brigham Young Univeristy and her mother was a talented and well known author, newspaper reporter, educator (including service at Brigham Young Academy), businesswoman, outstanding club woman, civic worker, and churchwoman.
After attending local schools in Provo, Jean Maw Woodman
"graduated from Brigham Young University and later took an A.M. degree in
English at Stanford University. After a period spent in teaching school on an
Indian reservation in Roosevelt, Utah, Mrs. Woodman...[went] to New York where,
until her marriage in 1936 to a New York lawyer, [Herbert B. Woodman,] she was
engaged in editorial work on
She and her husband are the parents of a daughter, Sarah Jean (Mrs. John M.) Stopford. Mr. Woodman, who was a graduate of the University of Wyoming, Harvard Law School, and Oxford University, died in 1991 after a distinguished legal business career.
In 1940 Mrs. Woodman published
"Among modern religions none has become as widely known or provoked as much curiosity as Mormonism. But whereas much has been written both in novels and non-fiction of the lives of the leaders of the church, little has been written about the effects of Mormonism on the lives of the great body of little people whose deep faith in its doctrines made its growth and power possible.
In "Glory Spent," Jean Woodman tells the story of Grethe, whose tragedy and triumph at once lay in her clear perception of the weaknesses of a faith which belittled its women and disproportionately exalted its men. Given less courage and intelligence, Grethe would have endured submissively a life of insecurity in a small Utah town, rendered increasingly perilous by the weakness of a man whose inability to provide a decent living was aggravated by his visionary dreams of wealth and his refusal to face reality. But with a sense of values which set her in loneliness apart from other women, Grethe set out to securea degree of material comfort which could only be gained at the sacrifice of church presitge -- a sacrifice with which neither her father, Hans, nor her husband, Jonathan, was sympathetic.
But this is also the story of Hans, who first fell beneath the spell of Mormon missionaries in Denmark. In spite of experiences which brought disappointment--but never disillusion--and which kept his wife Hilda scornful and unconverted to the day of her death, Hans never doubted that everything, including the human frailty of others, was part of God's plan.
And, lastly, this is the story of Grethe's daughter Marian, to whom the tenents of the church had never assumed validity. Yet even her problems, which superficially might seem to be only the usual ones of any girl of nineteen, had a bearing on the Mormon concept of the place of women is its society, and it is Grethe who, close on the pitful if not tragic death of Jonathan, gives Marian the impetus she needs to make the escape from the stultifying atmosphere of a dying faith which Grethe herself had never quite been able to achieve.
In "Glory Spent," a first novel, Mrs. Woodman has written a moving story, penetrating and deeply felt."
For a sampling of the breadth and depth of critical and popular reaction to
Glory Spent , see the reviews in folders 7 and 8 of this collection.
This small but significant collection constists of 178 items in eleven
folders and includes an interview tape and transcript, writings, and scrapbook
materials consisting of correspondence, a publisher's contract, newsclippings,
and literary and family memorabilia. The bulk of the collection, eight of the
eleven folders, was created by Jean Maw Woodman and documents primarily her
novel,
This collection is arranged by creator in three small series as follows: JEAN MAW WOODMAN--Interview, Writings, and Scrapbook Materials including Correspondence, Publisher's Contract, and Newsclippings; MARGARET PETERSEN MAW--Scrapbook Materials including Correspondence, Biographical Sketch, and Newsclippings; and HERBERT BROOKHART WOODMAN--Scrapbook Materials consisting of Newsclippings.
The following item has been transferred to the Faculty Biographical Files in University Archives: "Some Biochemical Coordinations," by Charles E. Maw, Ph. D., The Third Annual Sigma Xi Lecture at Brigham Young University, May 15, 1939, typed manuscript (carbon) bound in green cloth with gold lettering, 52pp. plus illustrations.
For related information consult the following: Jean Anne Waterstradt,
ed.
Dennis Rowley conducted this interview with Mrs. Woodman in
her home near Arlington. Mrs. Woodman responded to questions about her
childhood, family background, education, feelings about Mormonism and her
Mormon upbringing, and her carreer as a wrtier with emphasis on her novel,
Verbatim typescrip with handwritten revisions, 22 pages, and final edited typescript, 25 pages.
Christensen was one of Jean Woodman's favorite professors during her undergraduate years. The entire issue of the journal is filled here.
All of the following materials were once in a scrapbook kept by Mrs. Woodman. She removed selected pages and parts of pages and donated them to the library. The materials have been removed from the acidic scrapbook paper in order to prolong their life and have been arranged in the following categories. Photocopies of all the newsclippings have been included. for related information see the scrapbooks--both originals and microform--compiled by her mother, Margaret P. Maw (See the register for MSS 830).
Almost entirely incoming letters addressed to Mrs. Woodman
with only one ALS in her hand addressed to Ruth [Partridge], [Provo, Utah],
The bulk of the letters are from Lynn Carrick of Carrick &
Evans, Inc., Woodman's publisher for
Significant insights emerge from these few letters, including
evidence for the impact of the publication of Vardis Fisher's
One enclosure sent by Lynn Carrick is a typed copy of a note from American writer, Phylis McGinley, in which she gives her positive assessment of Glory Spent and her feelings about the general state of writings on Mormonism. A second is a three page carbon typescript of a book review written by fellow writer Frank C. Robertson, who sent it to her with a detailed letter expressing his concern over the lamentable state of the book reviewing practices of Mormon literature by Utah newspapers
Arrangement of the letters is chronological.
This agreement for the publication of
The clippings, most of which were provided to the publisher
and to Mrs. Woodman by a press clipping service, include forthcoming book
notices, reviews, publication announcements, library enw book lists, and
advertisement, all relating to Glory Spent. Most major Utah papers are
represented, including the
These clippings are valuable evidence of the wide press
coverage received by the book, helped along no doubt by review copies sent by
the publisher. Also evident, however, is the overall positive reaction to the
quality and the content of the novel. The clippings provide a useful measure of
American journalistic awareness and evaluation of the literature of Mormonism.
Included is a review by Stephen Vincent Benet in the
Arrangement is roughly chronological due to different dates sometimes being pasted on the same page in the scrapbook.
Introduction. These scrapbook pages are composed of a different paper than those which held the Jean Maw and Herbert B. Woodman materials. Some of the items and information filed here are duplicated and supplemented in the Margaret Petersen Maw Papers (MSS 830) and for user convenience this file could have been added to that collection. The reason these materials are preserved here is to insure that their provenance is not lost to future scholars. A page or two contain brief notes from "Jean," probably notes written to Margaret Maw by her daughter. This suggests that this scrapbook was compiled by Margaret Maw rather than Jean Maw Woodman and that selected pages were sent from mother to daughter. With few exceptions, the materials were removed from the scrapbook pages for conservation purposes and in order to facilitate a more orderly arrangement of materials by type.
Entirely incoming letters which are mostly notes regarding Mrs. Petersen's Nikoline books. One enclosure is a photstat of a $250 check as an advance against royalties for Nikoline's Academy. Two frgmentary notes appear to be from her daughter, Jean.
Arrangement of the letters is chronological.
These are almost entirely reviews and notices of the author's
Nikoline trilogy. Arrangement is random.
Public notices of Woodman's election as a diretor of Interchemical Corporation. Originals and photocopies.