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With his poem, “The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Mormon,” R. A. (Robert Allen) Christmas, among the most flickeringly idiosyncratic lights in the Mormon literary cosmos, may have (purposely or unconsciously) described himself as a living exemplar of the poem’s evocative title. The poem’s protagonist, however, is a high priests’ quorum instructor named Melvin, who was married for fifty years to a Mormon woman before he joined the Church and took his wife to the temple—but only after realizing he was too old to continue playing tennis on Sunday. 

Why is it that so many Mormon books seem to focus on the silver lining and ignore the cloud? Mormon books—especially memoirs and biographies—would benefit from a little more time in the rumblings of the rain cloud. So many stories, characters, and ideas are shortchanged because writers or publishers, who often claim that they are simply giving the market what they want, are too quick to jump to the happy ending. Considering the narrative price that is exacted, it’s surprising that so many readers, writers, and publishers are so intent on playing Pollyanna.

John W. Welch’s CV is enough to trigger fatigue in even the most prolific of scholars. As founding director of the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS), Welch introduced a new generation of Mormon readers to the work of Hugh Nibley and kick-started a renewed vigor in “faithful scholarship.” He serves as editor in chief of BYU Studies and has joined with others to oversee various projects from the Encyclopedia of Mormonism to the Library of Congress conference on Joseph Smith. His publications include work on topics as diverse as the art of Minerva Teichert and biblical law. Welch is particularly famous in Mormon apologetic circles for his discovery of chiasmus in the Book of Mormon. All of these activities run parallel to his day job as Robert K. Thomas Professor of Law at BYU.