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Key
Books on Joseph Smith for Your Home Library
by
Richard H. Cracroft
Editors'
Note: We are surrounded by thousands of books, overwhelmed by choices.
Instead of having enough information in our lives; we have too much.
How do we find the diamonds in the sand and surround ourselves with
books of the most value? Furnishing our minds needs to be more meticulously
and carefully designed than furnishing our house.
In
fact, in creating a Zion home in a Babylonian world, the book shelf
plays a vital role.
Beginning
with this column, Dr. Richard H. Cracroft, former dean of the College
of Humanities at Brigham Young University and director of the Center
for the Study of Christian Values in Literature, tells us how to
build a home library, category by category. He has had a lifelong
love affair with the written word, so his discriminating taste makes
him a natural to point us toward the best books.
In
this first column he lists the enduring works on Joseph Smith.
I invite you
to become an active Browser in a new on-line column aimed at fellow
Bibliophiles (book-lovers) who, in addition to possessing well-worn
library cards, like to own (and use) a shelf of books on subjects
dear to them-or which they wish to make dear to them. At the behest
of editors Maurine and Scot Proctor, I will undertake, every month
(until the Second Coming or my Translation, whichever comes first),
to list a few core books on a variety of subjects which you may
wish to find and add to your personal library.
Making such
suggestions is, of course, sticking my bookish neck out, highly
subjective and dangerous to my (or your) blood pressure. Certainly
no one will agree with all of my suggestions or omissions. Remember,
the titles are merely the informed suggestions of a bookish professor;
you are the judge and jury and chief selector. Let's make this another
part of the Great Conversation: if I seem to overlook some choices
which seem important, or if I suggest some books which you feel
are downright wrong, kindly let me know via e-mail, and I'll try
to include your suggestions in next month's column.
Although I may
venture my personal opinion about some of the books, I won't be
reviewing them; instead, I'll be listing the books which seem to
have emerged as classics in a variety of fields. For example, in
November I am going to present a selection of what I (and others)
deem to be the core books on LDS Church history. In December, I'll
suggest important, "classic" works by and about the other LDS Church
prophet/presidents and notable General Authorities. But in January
and thereafter I propose to veer away from church-related books
to list classical works from other fields-the great English novels;
great American novels, and, later, if you wish, great French, Russian,
and Latin American novels. Another month we might discuss classic
biographies; or the classics of LDS fiction; or the best collections
of verse/poetry. And how about classic Mormon humor? Or classic
books for teenagers? For children? For senior citizens? Or classic
religious fiction (such as Ben Hur, The Robe, The Chronicles of
Narnia)? I hope each month to include suggestions from you about
classic books on subjects to be announced in advance. Feel free
to suggest subjects of particular interest to you.
The subject
for November, due by October 9 is "The Best of LDS History." The
criteria are always: Is this book more than a good book? Is it a
classic on this subject? Is it an essential "must" for anyone's
library?
* * * * * *
* *
A Selection:
Vital Books by and about the Prophet Joseph Smith, Jr.
A number of
these books are still in print; others can be found in used book
stores or from on-line sources:
Writings
of Joseph Smith:
-Teachings
of the Prophet Joseph Smith (1938), Joseph Fielding Smith,
ed.; an invaluable and exhaustively indexed chronological compilation
of doctrinal statements excerpted from sermons, letters, and other
of Joseph Smith's writings. Does not treat historical matters or
other documents readily available.
-Discourses
of the Prophet Joseph Smith (1956), compiled by Alma P. Burton,
is a now dated but still useful compilation of the Prophet's sermons;
better still is Joseph Smith: Selected Sermons and Writings,
edited by Robert L. Millet (1989). For study of the King Follett
Discourse of April 7, 1844, see articles in BYU Studies, 18 (Winter
1978: 179-225); incidentally, a subscription to BYU Studies is a
wonderful addition to any LDS library.
-The Words
of Joseph Smith, compiled and edited by Andrew F. Ehat and
Lyndon W. Cook (Provo: BYU Religious Studies Center, 1980), is a
full collection of the Prophet Joseph's Nauvoo discourses, 1839-1844);
depends upon written reports by clerks and witnesses, as no written
drafts or verbatim reports of the speeches exist.
-The Personal
Writings of Joseph Smith, compiled and edited by Dean C. Jessee
(Deseret Book, 1984);attempts to publish everything written in Joseph
Smith's own hand and other material which Joseph is known to have
dictated. Contains two of his twelve journals, four autobiographical
pieces, and eighty-eight letters. Includes photos of all of Joseph's
holographic materials. Unfortunately includes six of the Mark Hofmann
forgeries.
-Lyndon W. Cook's
The Revelations of the Prophet Joseph Smith (Provo: Seventy's
Mission Bookstore, 1981) is a historical and biographical commentary
on all Doctrine and Covenants revelations, including substantial
biographical summaries of each person mentioned in the D&C.
-Encyclopedia
of Joseph Smith's Teachings, edited by Larry E. Dahl and Donald
Q. Cannon (Deseret Book, 1997), is a valuable compilation, presented
alphabetically and chronologically within each topic, of Joseph
Smith's statements. An excellent index helps readers find quotations
either by subject or key word.
Primary
Accounts:
-The History
of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Period
1. History of Joseph Smith the Prophet, by Himself. Introduction
and Notes by B.H. Roberts; ed. by James Mulholland, Robert B. Thompson,
William W. Phelps, Willard Richards, George A. Smith, Wilford Woodruff,
and later, B.H. Roberts. 6 vols. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book,
1912). Written in the form of a first-person journal, this personal
history is still the most extensive publication of the Prophet Joseph's
personal papers and is an invaluable resource for any library. The
official history of the founding generation of the church and of
the revelations contained in the Doctrine and Covenants, it was
written by Joseph Smith and some two dozen scribes and could be
called "The History of Joseph Smith." Brought up to 1843 by the
time of his death in 1854, by Willard Richards, Joseph Smith's "private
Sect. & Historian," and continued into August 1844 by
Richards's successor
as church historian, George A. Smith, the six volumes cover less
than two decades of church history-it is here that Joseph recounts
his First Vision and other important events of the Restoration;
-Lucy Mack
Smith, History of Joseph Smith by His Mother, with Notes and
Comments by Preston Nibley (1853;1958); this first published biography
in LDS history was by the Prophet's mother; this book, originally
entitled Biographical Sketches of the Prophet Joseph Smith,
and His Progenitors for Many Generations, has been recently
republished by Scot and Maurine Procter as
Revised
and Enhanced History of Joseph Smith by His Mother. For this
recent edition, the Proctors went back to Lucy's original manuscript
and did a new edit of the book to make it closer to Lucy's original
words, added 600 footnotes and 100 photographs.
-John Taylor,
Witness to the Martyrdom: John Taylor's Personal Account of
the Last Days of the Prophet Joseph Smith (1999), edited by
Mark R. Taylor, makes available eyewitness Taylor's account of the
assassination of the Prophet.
Selected
Biographies:
Each of these
biographies is a thorough and sympathetic study of the Prophet's
life. Most of them are out of print and difficult to find; if you
find a copy in a used book store, buy it!
-George Q. Cannon,
Life of Joseph Smith the Prophet (1888;1964); B.H. Roberts,
Joseph Smith, the Prophet Teacher (1908;1967);John
Henry Evans, Joseph Smith, An American Prophet (1933; 1966);
John A. Widtsoe, Joseph Smith: Seeker After Truth, Prophet of
God (1957).
More recent
biographies are the important study by Donna Hill, Joseph Smith,
The First Mormon
(Doubleday,
1977); Richard L. Bushman's prize-winning study, Joseph Smith
and the Beginnings of Mormonism (1984); Francis M. Gibbons,
Joseph Smith: Martyr, Prophet of God (1982); and Truman
G. Madsen's Joseph Smith the Prophet (1989).
Related Biographical
Studies:
-Hyrum L. Andrus,
Joseph Smith, the Man and the Seer (1960) is a non-scholarly
compilation of little-known stories about the Prophet Joseph, written
for a popular audience; as is Hyrum L. Andrus, and Helen Mae Andrus's
They Knew the Prophet (1974).
-Dallin H. Oaks
and Marvin S. Hill's Carthage Conspiracy: The Trial of the Accused
Assassins of Joseph Smith (University of Illinois,
1975), this scholarly study finally replaced and eclipsed the sensational
collection of dubious accounts about the perpetrators of the martyrdom
compiled by N.B. Lundwall in The Fate of the Persecutors of
the Prophet Joseph Smith.
Karl Ricks Anderson,
in Joseph Smith's Kirtland: Eyewitness Accounts (1989),
collects reminiscences by LDS and Gentile witnesses of Joseph Smith
and the Kirtland era.
-Leonard J.
Arrington, et al., eds., The Presidents of the Church (Deseret
Book, 1986). This multi-authored collection of essays on each of
the Presidents of the Church is a solid place to- begin with study
of Joseph Smith and his successors.
-Scot Facer
Proctor and Maurine Jensen Proctor's Witness of the Light, A
Photographic Journey in the Footsteps of the American Prophet Joseph
Smith (Deseret Book, 1991) is a photographic and written essay
capturing the places and events in the prophet's life.
-Three useful
collections of essays are The Prophet and His Work: Essays From
General Authorities on Joseph Smith and the Restoration (Deseret
Book,1996); and Larry C. Porter and Susan Easton Black, eds. The
Prophet Joseph: Essays on the Life and Mission of Joseph Smith
(Deseret Book, 1988); and Susan Easton Black and Charles DF. Tate,
Jr., eds., Joseph Smith: the Prophet, the Man (Provo: Religious
Studies Center, BYU, 1993).
-Encyclopedia
of Mormonism, 5 Vols. (1992), edited by Daniel H. Ludlow. This
is essential resource for all home libraries; most studies of LDS
subjects begin with these invaluable volumes.
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