"Emmeline B. Wells was the most noted Utah Mormon woman of her time. Lauded nationally for her energetic support of the women's rights movement of the nineteenth century, she was a self-made woman who channeled her lifelong sense of destiny into ambitious altruism. Her public acclaim and activism belied the introspective, self-appraising, and emotional persona she expressed in the pages of her forty-seven extant diaries. After reconciling herself to the heartaches of plural marriage, she pursued a self-directed life in earnest and wrote, "I have risen triumphant." This new biography tells the story of the private Emmeline. The unusual circumstances of her several marriages, the complicated lives of her five daughters, the losses and disappointments interspersed with bright moments and achievements, all engendered the idea that her life was a romance, with the mysterious, tragic, and sentimental elements of that genre. This volume, drawing heavily on Emmeline Wells's own words, tells the complicated story of a woman of ambition, strength, tenderness, and faith"--Provided by publisher.