Wendell J. Ashton: Author of 'Voice in the West,' the Biography of the Deseret News (1912–1980)

Wendell J. Ashton (1912–1980) was a Latter-day Saint writer and publisher. His best-known work, 'Voice in the West: Biography of a Pioneer Newspaper' (1950), told the story of the Deseret News from its founding in the infant Salt Lake settlement through the frontier era—drawing on the journal of Brigham Young and the paper's early records to show how a faithful pioneer press carried the voice of the Saints to the world. A lifelong communicator in the Church, his literary work testified that the story of the Latter-day Saints was worth telling well, and that the westward gathering of a people—and their newspaper—was itself an act of faith.