Papers of Joseph Smith

By: Smith, Joseph, Jr.

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0875795455
• ISBN13: 9780875795454
• Release Date: January 1992
• Publisher: Shadow Mountain
• Length: 642 Pages
• Weight: 2.40 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Outstanding Primary Source Material for the History of Early Mormonism

It takes a meticulous person to edit historical documents. No amount of effort should be too much to obtain the stray fact, to check the transcription, the context, and the details of an edited work. Dean C. Jessee, once a research historian in the Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Church History at Brigham Young University, is such an individual. Widely recognized as a leading authority on the documentary records of Mormonism, Jessee has edited two previous book-length collections of documents and has either written or edited numerous articles. His experience and understanding are evident in this volume of "The Papers of Joseph Smith," and his efforts will enrich all students of Mormon history. This book of documents is a work intended to present everything Smithian, whether by authorship or relationship. The work contains twelve documents, written between 1832 and 1844, relating the history of Joseph Smith and the Mormon church. These include: 1. History, 1832, from Joseph Smith Letterbook 1, LDS Archives. 2. "Joseph Smith to Oliver Cowdery," from Latter Day Saints' Messenger and Advocate, 1 (December 1834): 40. 3. History, 1832-34, from "History of the Church, A-1," pp. 1-187, LDS Archives. 4. "Extract from the Private Journal of Joseph Smith, Jr.," from Times and Seasons 1 (November 1839): 2-9. 5. History draft, 1839, from Unnamed Manuscript, LDS Archives. 6. History, 1839, from "History of the Church, A-1," pp. 1-240, LDS Archives. 7. Orson Pratt, "Interesting Account of Several Remarkable Visions, and of the Late Discovery of Ancient American Records" (Edinburgh, 1840). 8. Orson Hyde, "Ein Ruf aus der Wuste, eine Stimme aus dem Schoose der Erde" (Frankfurt, 1842). 9. Joseph Smith, "Church History," from Times and Seasons 3 (I March 1842): 706-10. 10. "The Prairies, Nauvoo, Joe Smith, the Temple, the Mormons, etc.," from "The Pittsburgh Weekly Gazette" 58 (15 September 1843): 3. 11. Joseph Smith, "Latter Day Saints," from I. Daniel Rupp, "An Original History of the Religious Denominations at Present Existing in the United States" (Philadelphia: N.p., 1844), 404-10. 12. Alexander Neibaur, Journal, 24 May 1844, from LDS Archives. Jessee notes that this seemingly eclectic collection of documents belongs together because they deal either historically or autobiographically with the life of the prophet and were written either by him or under his direction. The many works in this collection are, according to Jessee, just as much Joseph Smith's as if he had dictated or penned them himself. By far the two largest documents in the collection, accounting for 317 of the volume's 555 pages, are items 3 and 6, the two histories taken from the manuscript of the "History of the Church." Items 1, 2, and 9 were also printed in Jessee's "The Personal Writings of Joseph Smith" (1984), but the remainder of the materials collected here have not been conveniently published for a broad audience in recent years. As he repeatedly demonstrated, Jessee's work is