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500 Little-Known Facts about Joseph Smith
Can you name the 117 angels that appeared to Joseph Smith? You’ll be able to after reading this book! With interesting facts, inspiring stories, and even his patriarchal blessing, "500 Little-Known Facts about Joseph Smith" is a perfect book to have on hand for your family, for teaching lessons and giving talks, or for personal study.
- GenresLdsNonfiction
288 pages, Paperback
First published December 7, 2014
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13 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 3, 2024
Absolutely fascinating!!! I love learning more about Joseph and I stopped many times to share the information I learned! I love all the short stories that were added about him! Definitely recommend!!! 😍
March 7, 2015
I was expecting to find really fascinating information that was not well-known in this book. Instead I found:
1) a few things that I didn't already know (Dr. Nathan Smith, who operated on Joseph's leg, founded Darmouth, and there is still a first edition Book of Mormon in the Darmouth school library),
2) many things I already knew (Emma was never excommunicated, and never officially left the church)
3) a lot of things that weren't very important to me (which Mayflower pilgrims Joseph descended from, a list of 54 children who were named for Joseph Smith followed by a note that undoubtedly there are hundreds more),
4) many things that aren't facts at all, but are quotes ("At a dozen points it seems it's all over. The game's up. There's no way. And yet out of it comes a greater success and a growing movement that ultimately survives" --Ronald Esplin),
5) many things that are conjecture (a list of "ten logical individuals who could have been witnesses if Joseph were choosing"), and
6) personal thoughts and testimonies from the compilers ("If you consider by whom he was tutored, Joseph Smith had the equivalent to hundreds of PhDs, as he was taught by God, Christ, and scores of angels --compiler's note", or "The prophet saw with his spiritual eyes things that no other man has seen --compiler's note." How is that a "little-known fact"?)
The last three categories annoyed me, because I was expecting to read facts, not opinions or conjecture or contemporary opinions or even testimony. I had to wade through a lot of opinions to pick out the facts.
With the very loose organization of the "facts" and the wide, wide range of items included in the book, it seemed like I was just reading someone's personal notebook of their study of Joseph Smith.
There is a lot of useful information in it, but it certainly isn't what one would expect from the title: 500 little-known facts about Joseph Smith.
1) a few things that I didn't already know (Dr. Nathan Smith, who operated on Joseph's leg, founded Darmouth, and there is still a first edition Book of Mormon in the Darmouth school library),
2) many things I already knew (Emma was never excommunicated, and never officially left the church)
3) a lot of things that weren't very important to me (which Mayflower pilgrims Joseph descended from, a list of 54 children who were named for Joseph Smith followed by a note that undoubtedly there are hundreds more),
4) many things that aren't facts at all, but are quotes ("At a dozen points it seems it's all over. The game's up. There's no way. And yet out of it comes a greater success and a growing movement that ultimately survives" --Ronald Esplin),
5) many things that are conjecture (a list of "ten logical individuals who could have been witnesses if Joseph were choosing"), and
6) personal thoughts and testimonies from the compilers ("If you consider by whom he was tutored, Joseph Smith had the equivalent to hundreds of PhDs, as he was taught by God, Christ, and scores of angels --compiler's note", or "The prophet saw with his spiritual eyes things that no other man has seen --compiler's note." How is that a "little-known fact"?)
The last three categories annoyed me, because I was expecting to read facts, not opinions or conjecture or contemporary opinions or even testimony. I had to wade through a lot of opinions to pick out the facts.
With the very loose organization of the "facts" and the wide, wide range of items included in the book, it seemed like I was just reading someone's personal notebook of their study of Joseph Smith.
There is a lot of useful information in it, but it certainly isn't what one would expect from the title: 500 little-known facts about Joseph Smith.
February 22, 2015
An accessible read. I liked the organization and how quick it was to find specific information.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews