Favorite Wife

A RIVETING MEMOIR OF LIFE INSIDE ONE OF NORTH AMERICA'S MOST NOTORIOUS POLYGAMOUS CULTS She had no choice in the matter none of the girls did. Her mission was to give birth to and raise many children in devoted service to a shared husband. Susan was fift een years old when she became the sixth wife of Verlan LeBaron, one of the leaders of arogue Mormon cult, who was engaged in a blood feud with his brother that from ¿¿¿¿to ¿¿¿¿ claimed up to two dozen lives.In this gripping and eloquent book, Susan Ray Schmidt tells the story of growing up onthe inside and of her ultimate escape with her children from an oppressive and violentlife. Delving more deeply into this mysterious underworld than any previous work,Favorite Wife is a powerful account of the aff airs of the heart, coming of age under exceptionalcircumstances, and the tough choices that are sometimes painfully necessaryto preserve human dignity.Susan Ray Schmidt was once a member of the Church of the Firstborn of the Fullness of Timesand the child-bride of polygamist Verlan LeBaron in Colonia LeBaron in Mexico. A er eightyears of marriage, she le her husband and fl ed with her fi ve children back to America. Sheremarried three years later and today lives in the northwestern United States.