Review
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Title: Midwife of the Wild Frontier
Author: Melissa Tyler
Illustrator: Luciana Marucs
Publisher: Melissa Tyler
Genre: Historical Graphic Novel
Year Published: 2023
Number of Pages: 104
Binding: Paper
ISBN: 979-8862805543
Price: Black and White, 14.95; Color, 22.50
Reviewed by Andrew Hamilton for the Association of Mormon Letters
Midwife of the Wild Frontier is a beautiful graphic novel, written by Melissa Tyler and illustrated by Luciana Maruca, that tells the story of Patty Bartlett Sessions. Sessions is known by most people today for being a plural wife of Joseph Smith, for bringing more than 4,000 babies into the world, and for recording fairly extensive and detailed diaries. Tyler, a fourth great-granddaughter of Patty, has used those diaries to write Midwife, which is an informative, entertaining, and fascinating story of Sessions’ life.
One of the reasons why Midwife is so good is that Tyler never shies away from the challenging aspects of Sessions’ life and early Mormonism, but you never feel preached to or like you are being beaten about the head and shoulders with the difficulties of Session’s history as you read. Within the pages of Midwife, you will learn about Session’s early life and family, her marriages, her conversion to Mormonism, her various forced relocations, her work as a midwife and healer, the Mormon’s journey to the West, their colonization of Utah and derogatory attitude towards its Native inhabitants, crimes she witnessed, her mistreatment by others including her first husband, the harm caused to her by polygamy and much more. In an unusual move for a comic book, many of the pages have footnotes that provide more of the story of Sessions’ life and resources for learning more. A brief sources page appears at the end of the book.
As this is a graphic novel, most of the story is told in dialogue. Tyler includes a disclaimer at the beginning, making it clear that the dialogue has been invented and some stories rearranged to help the flow of the story, but states that “the events in this story really did happen.” She also writes that she hopes that people will “Use (Midwife) to get to know who (Patty) really was and how she worked in her world.” I believe that Tyler was successful. While Midwife is “only a comic book,” I feel that from reading it, I have learned quite a bit about Sessions’ life and even feel a more personal connection with her. Tyler’s writing is engaging and entertaining and will keep you moving through the story’s end. Maruca’s illustrations are a perfect fit for Tyler’s writing. Her fun, slightly cheeky and irreverent style match’s the story that Tyler has weaved together. Her drawings are excellent, and her shading is beautifully executed. I look forward to seeing more of her work in the future.
I only have two complaints about/criticisms of Midwife. One, the pages are unnumbered. I imagine this was a cost-saving effort, and I understand. But page numbers are so helpful. Two, the print, ESPECIALLY in the footnotes, is small, and I found it difficult to read. Even worse, not only is the print small, the notes are formatted in a sort of “Dot matrix” look/style, and some of them appear in the shaded in portion of the panels, making them difficult to read, especially for older eyes or eyes that don’t work so well. Also, some of the text is stylized in a decorative, cursive font that was difficult for me to read.
Despite this minor criticism, I LOVED this book. Midwife of the Wild Frontier joins a pantheon of beautiful, amazing, and significant Mormon-themed graphic novels that readers have been gifted in recent years. Tyler’s work will take a special place on my shelf alongside Stephen Carter’s I-Plates, Mark Elwood’s The Glass Looker, and Matt Page’s Future Day Saints. I highly recommend Melisssa Tyler’s Midwife of the Wild Frontier. You will learn from it, enjoy it, and you will want to share it with a friend. As you read, you will meet and get to know Patty Bartlett Sessions. You will understand that she WAS wild, intelligent, fierce, and strong. You will gain a sense of how truly of an AMAZING woman she was. You will get a glimpse of her struggles and accomplishments. You will learn of her total awesomeness, but you will also see her vulnerable side. You will see in a small way how polygamy harmed her. Midwife will not teach you everything about Patty Bartlett Sessions, BUT you will come to love her as you read the story that Tyler and Maruca have crafted, and when you put down the book, you will want to go and learn more about her.