I believe that a response to the point of view represented on the panel by Jeffery O. Johnson is appropriate. I also believe that what I say here would fairly represent most rare book and manuscript dealers as well as some archivists and librarians who acquire and manage rare books and manuscripts for large institutions. However, this is a personal statement and I alone am responsible for its content.
Mormon history has always been a hot topic. From the earliest days of Church history over a century and a half ago, vastly divergent accounts of the origins and development of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have been penned and published. In many cases, controversies about LDS historical topics have spilled over into the national press. In the last generation, for example, disputes about the accuracy of Fawn Brodie’s No Man Knows My History and Juanita Brooks’s Mountain Meadows Massacre have been avidly covered in national newspapers and magazines.
It began in the autumn of 1874 with a knock that interrupted Pilkingtons’ evening devotions. The stranger at the door explained that he wished to hire a boy to do chores and promised room, board,…
Dialogue 19.4 (Winter1986): 18–28
Taylor identifies the history behind the Smith Family and treasure seeking. During the 19th century treasure seeking is associated with both greed, but also obtaining spirtual knowledge like in Joseph Smith’s case.
1937 | 1940 | 1944
Karl-Heinz Schnibbe, The Price
Hoyt W. Brewster, Jr., Moments That Matter
Nancy D. McCormick and John S. McCormick, Saltair
Allan Kent Powell, The Next Time We Strike: Labor in Utah’s Coal Fields, 1900–1933
The Western Writers of America, Pioneer Trails
Leonard J. Arrington and Heidi S. Swinton, The Hotel: Salt Lake’s Classy Lady. The Hotel Utah, 1911–1986
It would be difficult to say too much in praise of John Phillip Walker’s new contribution to Mormon historiography, a field that is bursting with recent major studies. Walker’s book deserves a place on the…
Come, my child, hark to the tale
The poets weave for our world:
Hear the prophets sing the song
Of earth rolling on her wings—
Our family had just finished the pre-service reception, and Brother Holbrook, the funeral director, had just closed the doors to the Relief Society room. As Mother’s surviving sisters and their families filed past the coffin…
Since my conversion to the Church almost fourteen years ago, I have struggled on various levels to come to terms with the atonement of Jesus Christ. At times, while young deacons passed gleaming trays among…