William V. Smith

WILLIAM V. SMITH {[email protected]} is a professor emeritus of mathematics at Brigham Young University. He is an independent historian and author of two forthcoming books, Textual Studies of the Doctrine and Covenants: The Plural Marriage Revelation and Every Word Seasoned with Grace: A Textual Study of the Funeral Sermons of Joseph Smith. He contributes to the Mormon blog bycommonconsent.com and is an admin for the Book of Abraham Project website, boap.org. His Mormon studies research interests include Mormon ecclesiology, preaching, and liturgy.

A Documentary Note on a Letter to Joseph Smith. Romance, Death, and Polygamy: The Life and Times of Susan Hough Conrad and Lorenzo Dow Barnes

Articles/Essays – Volume 49, No. 4

Dialogue 49.4 (Winter 2016): 87–108
The history behind a letter that was written by missionary Jedediah Morgan Grant to Joseph Smith, which contained information about Susan Hough Conrad and her brief love writings with a missionary who was serving in England named Lorenzo Dow Barnes.

Early Mormon Priesthood Revelation: Text, Impact, and Evolution

Articles/Essays – Volume 46, No. 4

Joseph Smith’s revelation texts carved out a complex system of ranks, offices, jurisdictions, and judicial bodies that implicitly rejected the feminization of Protestantism, while forwarding a selective blend of biblical terminology, Book of Mormon-defined praxis, and antebellum legalisms in organizing an exclusively male “priesthood” structure.