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The Joseph Smith Papers
Histories: 1832-1844
In November of 1843, when Willard Richards and William W. Phelps were compiling the “History of Joseph Smith,” they reported that noise from a nearby school “disturbed the history & prevent[e]d its progress.” Joseph Smith immediately instructed that the class be relocated. “The History must continue, and not be disturbed,” he declared; “there are but few subjects that I have felt a greater anxiety about than my History.” On another occasion he told Phelps of a message that had come to him in a dream: “the history must go ahead before any thing.” Though lawsuits, financial problems, violent opposition, and other impediments often interfered with Joseph Smith’s attempts to write and oversee the creation of church history, sustained interest and repeated efforts yielded significant results, including several important narrative histories. Presented in this first volume of the Histories series are the six histories that Joseph Smith personally wrote, dictated, or supervised.
686 pages, Hardcover
First published March 1, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 18, 2021
This book contains many histories, some of which are more interesting than others. Honestly, it was probably too ambitious of me to try to read this source material. For someone who wants an overview of early Church History, "Saints" might be a better read. Or if you want a focus on a specific time period, you could try reading a historian who can summarize the material. I'll still give my thoughts on of each of these histories, and what I thought of them.
1832 This is Joseph's first attempt at writing a history. The language is rough, but very personal as he describes his feelings about searching for the true church and the visions that led to the restoration. It's short, but definitely worth studying as a starting point for later accounts.
1834-36 Oliver Cowdery wrote eight letters to W.W. Phelps, which seem to be the first real attempt to publish Latter-day Saint history. Many will recognize the footnote from the Pearl of Great Price that begins "These were days never to be forgotten." Oliver summarizes the Great Apostasy, the religious upheaval in Palmyra, the translation of the Book of Mormon, the need for modern miracles, and prophecies of the gathering of Israel. I really liked his detailed account of Moroni's final warnings to Joseph, even if they may have been embellished.
After these eight letters, several scribes keep track of Joseph Smith's daily activities from 1835-1836. Honestly, I can't think of a more uneventful time in the early church, and I wish I had skipped this part. Joseph served and blessed so many people, but he also had to deal with a lot of conflicts, some of which he was partially responsible for, especially with his brother William. You could tell that Joseph really wanted to help people, and always tried to make things right with everyone.
1838-1841 This section has the first three drafts of what we now call the "History of the Church." It was interesting to see the changes between the different versions. This volume has a helpful chart to keep track of all the source material. I really liked having the first 32 sections of the Doctrine and Covenants told as part of a narrative. I think we lose a lot when we just read the verses individually, and not as a connected storyline. That being said, these are already later copies of the revelations, so the wording doesn't change much. I might have to look at other volumes to learn more about the revelations and what they looked like before publication.
"Extract from the Private Journal of Joseph Smith Jr." Here, Joseph describes the suffering he and the Saints experienced in Missouri. There were a lot of footnotes that referenced Alexander Baugh's work, and I would recommend his book to anyone who wants to read more details.
"Church History" Often called the "Wentworth Letter," this is a good, short summary of early Church History and what we now know as the "Articles of Faith." I think it says a lot about the Joseph Smith and the Church that they are ready to distill their history and beliefs into such a concise letter.
"Latter Day Saints" This is a similar letter to the previous one, but it was actually published in a book about various religions. I didn't study it closely enough to see how the two compared, but there are some footnotes that help with this.
"An Interesting Account of Several Remarkable Visions" Orson Pratt wrote this, and it is interesting to see how it was influenced by early histories, and influenced how Joseph Smith told his own history later. While I agree with Pratt on a lot, I think he oversteps his explanations of Book of Mormon geography, and he even says some racist things about Lamanites and Jews. I'm sure these ideas--the incorrect American geography and the Euro-centrism--were prevalent, since they show up in Oliver and Joseph's writing. I'm glad we've moved past those. This letter is worth reading, because it is the precursor to the Articles of Faith, so you can see many of the beliefs explained, but with MUCH more detail on the Plan of Salvation, why the Atonement was necessary, and how after the first four principles of the gospel, we need to take care of the poor and the needy as we are faithful to the end.
1832 This is Joseph's first attempt at writing a history. The language is rough, but very personal as he describes his feelings about searching for the true church and the visions that led to the restoration. It's short, but definitely worth studying as a starting point for later accounts.
1834-36 Oliver Cowdery wrote eight letters to W.W. Phelps, which seem to be the first real attempt to publish Latter-day Saint history. Many will recognize the footnote from the Pearl of Great Price that begins "These were days never to be forgotten." Oliver summarizes the Great Apostasy, the religious upheaval in Palmyra, the translation of the Book of Mormon, the need for modern miracles, and prophecies of the gathering of Israel. I really liked his detailed account of Moroni's final warnings to Joseph, even if they may have been embellished.
After these eight letters, several scribes keep track of Joseph Smith's daily activities from 1835-1836. Honestly, I can't think of a more uneventful time in the early church, and I wish I had skipped this part. Joseph served and blessed so many people, but he also had to deal with a lot of conflicts, some of which he was partially responsible for, especially with his brother William. You could tell that Joseph really wanted to help people, and always tried to make things right with everyone.
1838-1841 This section has the first three drafts of what we now call the "History of the Church." It was interesting to see the changes between the different versions. This volume has a helpful chart to keep track of all the source material. I really liked having the first 32 sections of the Doctrine and Covenants told as part of a narrative. I think we lose a lot when we just read the verses individually, and not as a connected storyline. That being said, these are already later copies of the revelations, so the wording doesn't change much. I might have to look at other volumes to learn more about the revelations and what they looked like before publication.
"Extract from the Private Journal of Joseph Smith Jr." Here, Joseph describes the suffering he and the Saints experienced in Missouri. There were a lot of footnotes that referenced Alexander Baugh's work, and I would recommend his book to anyone who wants to read more details.
"Church History" Often called the "Wentworth Letter," this is a good, short summary of early Church History and what we now know as the "Articles of Faith." I think it says a lot about the Joseph Smith and the Church that they are ready to distill their history and beliefs into such a concise letter.
"Latter Day Saints" This is a similar letter to the previous one, but it was actually published in a book about various religions. I didn't study it closely enough to see how the two compared, but there are some footnotes that help with this.
"An Interesting Account of Several Remarkable Visions" Orson Pratt wrote this, and it is interesting to see how it was influenced by early histories, and influenced how Joseph Smith told his own history later. While I agree with Pratt on a lot, I think he oversteps his explanations of Book of Mormon geography, and he even says some racist things about Lamanites and Jews. I'm sure these ideas--the incorrect American geography and the Euro-centrism--were prevalent, since they show up in Oliver and Joseph's writing. I'm glad we've moved past those. This letter is worth reading, because it is the precursor to the Articles of Faith, so you can see many of the beliefs explained, but with MUCH more detail on the Plan of Salvation, why the Atonement was necessary, and how after the first four principles of the gospel, we need to take care of the poor and the needy as we are faithful to the end.
March 26, 2018
I read somewhere that the various accounts of the First Vision that Joseph Smith wrote or sanctioned during his lifetime present the Mormons' own version of the Synoptic Problem (although, Mormons also believe in the Bible, so I suppose a more accurate statement would be that, in addition to the Synoptic Problem with regard to the Gospels, Mormons also have to address the different accounts of the First Vision). Ever since I learned that the account of the First Vision contained in the Pearl of Great Price is not the only account Joseph Smith gave (probably sometime during my senior year in college), I have been fascinated with the issue of why Joseph Smith left out some -- what would seem to us, at least -- very important details. This volume of the Joseph Smith Papers provides several of those accounts (another one is found in the first volume of the Journals series) so, of course, I loved those portions of the book. In particular, the full page photographs of the pages of Joseph's first attempt at a history (1832, I believe), which contains, in Joseph's own handwriting, the first written account of the First Vision that we have was spectacular.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews