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Natural Born Seer: Joseph Smith, American Prophet, 1805-1830
Joseph Smith survives today as one of nineteenth-century America’s most controversial religious figures. He claimed visions of angels, dictated a lost record of the ancient inhabitants of the New World, announced new revelations from heaven, and restored what he believed was an ancient yet more complete form of Christianity, over which he presided as prophet, seer, and revelator until his death in 1844. A child of impoverished Yankees, raised in rural New England and New York, Smith grew up in a hardscrabble frontier culture that embraced a spectrum of competing folkways, religious fervor, and intellectual thought. He was both a product of his times and a syncretic innovator of a compelling vision for God’s people. Perhaps more importantly, he was the self-proclaimed herald of Christ’s imminent return, called by the Father to reveal the fullness of the Christian gospel for the last time. As prize-winning historian Richard S. Van Wagoner narrates the first twenty-five years of Smith’s life, the young seer struggled with his family through a series of roller-coaster hardships, eventually securing work as a scryer of lost treasure and money digger. In the wake of successive failures, including run-ins with the law, Smith’s glass-looking activities gave way to more religiously oriented pursuits, especially after a heavenly messenger showed him the location of buried golden plates containing a pre-Columbian story of the Americas and charged him with the record’s decipherment and publication. Smith also learned, following another extraordinary vision, that his sins had been remitted, that humanity was in a state of apostasy, and that Jesus would soon return to the earth. After eloping with Emma Hale, much to her skeptical father’s chagrin, the couple settled down to complete work on what would appear for sale in early 1830 as the Book of Mormon. By this time, Smith had begun to shoulder more fully the prophet’s mantle, issuing proclamations in God’s own voice, and on April 6, 1830, organized the Church of Christ, known today as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “I treat the early years of the Mormon prophet as I would approach an archaeological dig,” Van Wagoner explains. “The deepest levels, those deposited first and least contaminated by subsequent accumulates, are of primary interest in my pursuit of the historical Joseph. Mindful of the prophet’s controversial reputation, I try to remain sensitive to the impact that some of the more problematic elements of his behavior may have on believers. But truth is often best evidenced in the detail.” Van Wagoner’s meticulously researched study offers more detail than any previously published biography of Smith, and provides what may be the most culturally nuanced analysis ever attempted of the early years of the American prophet.
702 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 30, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
February 24, 2017
Natural Born Seer provides a comprehensive look at the early life of Joseph Smith. This is the first book of a three-part series commissioned by the Smith-Pettit foundation. Volume 2 on the Kirkland years is underway (being written by substitute author Dan Vogel) and volume 3 on the Nauvoo period was previously released.
Van Wagoner, a prominent Mormon historian during his life, having written several Mormon history classics, passed away over ten years ago. This draft was complete and had been revised twice by him, then cleaned up by the publisher. Yet, the end result still feels somewhat disorganized and repetitive in places. This is more an organization issue. The research and conclusions are well-supported and adequately considered. Natural Born Seer is an essential read for Mormon history students.
Van Wagoner writes with an even, yet no-nonsense tone. This is the un-apologetic Rough Stone Rolling. I mean that both in the sense of religious apologetics and also the attitudes propagated by the Bushman/Givens/Hales crowd. The BGH crowd seems quick to apologize for certain behaviors with a mix of excuses, selective facts without context, and spiritual justifications. Or in the case of Bushman, by ignoring controversies completely. Van Wagoner engages the controversies head on. He does not endlessly weigh arguments and counter-arguments, the type of tedium rampant in FAIR articles and most Mormon internet discussions. Rather, he presents his research and conclusions directly. Counter views are fairly and faithfully presented in the footnotes. The book does not have any of the dismissive and scandalous tone of No Man Knows My History (another crucial read).
Van Wagner is at his best describing the context for Joseph's life. The descriptions of rural economies, prevailing religious controversies, and possible influences is crucial to the prophet puzzle. The reader ends the book with an in-depth knowledge of Joseph and also with an understanding of rural life.
I have been asked nearly a dozen times so far whether this biography is "friendly." I don't know what that means. The book does detail treasure hunting, criminal cases, fighting and drinking, exploitation of the credulous, the Smith's extreme poverty and desperation for money, changing narratives about the first vision, and the back-dating of revelation. None of the early accusations of sexual impropriety appear here.
It seems that the main qualification for Mormon history books (among members) is that they are sold on the shelf at Deseret Book and stamped Ad Usum Delphini. My personal opinion is that if you are devoting your life to a cause, you should seek to understand everything about it, from every source possible. To that end, this book is a must read, along with the other formidable biographies of Joseph Smith's life.
Van Wagoner, a prominent Mormon historian during his life, having written several Mormon history classics, passed away over ten years ago. This draft was complete and had been revised twice by him, then cleaned up by the publisher. Yet, the end result still feels somewhat disorganized and repetitive in places. This is more an organization issue. The research and conclusions are well-supported and adequately considered. Natural Born Seer is an essential read for Mormon history students.
Van Wagoner writes with an even, yet no-nonsense tone. This is the un-apologetic Rough Stone Rolling. I mean that both in the sense of religious apologetics and also the attitudes propagated by the Bushman/Givens/Hales crowd. The BGH crowd seems quick to apologize for certain behaviors with a mix of excuses, selective facts without context, and spiritual justifications. Or in the case of Bushman, by ignoring controversies completely. Van Wagoner engages the controversies head on. He does not endlessly weigh arguments and counter-arguments, the type of tedium rampant in FAIR articles and most Mormon internet discussions. Rather, he presents his research and conclusions directly. Counter views are fairly and faithfully presented in the footnotes. The book does not have any of the dismissive and scandalous tone of No Man Knows My History (another crucial read).
Van Wagner is at his best describing the context for Joseph's life. The descriptions of rural economies, prevailing religious controversies, and possible influences is crucial to the prophet puzzle. The reader ends the book with an in-depth knowledge of Joseph and also with an understanding of rural life.
I have been asked nearly a dozen times so far whether this biography is "friendly." I don't know what that means. The book does detail treasure hunting, criminal cases, fighting and drinking, exploitation of the credulous, the Smith's extreme poverty and desperation for money, changing narratives about the first vision, and the back-dating of revelation. None of the early accusations of sexual impropriety appear here.
It seems that the main qualification for Mormon history books (among members) is that they are sold on the shelf at Deseret Book and stamped Ad Usum Delphini. My personal opinion is that if you are devoting your life to a cause, you should seek to understand everything about it, from every source possible. To that end, this book is a must read, along with the other formidable biographies of Joseph Smith's life.
May 27, 2017
On a recent visit to the historic Kirtland Temple in Ohio, I noticed a new biography of Joseph Smith in the gift shop. My eyes, my nose even, is drawn to displays of fresh hard-bound books. Natural Born Seer: Joseph Smith, American Prophet, 1805-1830, is a thick volume. A stately green band runs over the dust jacket, like a podium beneath the grayscale bust of Joseph. At a glance, I knew this would be an irresistible treatise on the founder of Mormonism.
The late historian Richard S. Van Wagoner does something compelling with this work. Instead of a birth-to-death biography, Van Wagoner focuses on Joseph’s first 25 years of life. The book ends with Joseph formally organizing the church. Given its origin story approach, the book deals with the least adequately documented, but arguably the most critical, years of Joseph’s existence. As Van Wagoner’s book suggests, it is also the most misunderstood era of Mormonism.
Natural Born Seer comes with all the unflattering revelations one should expect from scholarly biographies of Joseph. Was the aspiring prophet a peep stone using, treasure hunter? Yes. Did he knock back his share of liquor, right alongside his likely alcoholic father? Indeed. Was the Smith family a bunch of lazy, disreputable types? … It’s complicated. Suffice it to say the finances of Joseph’s parents were intensely problematic and unfortunate. The open wallets of eager followers were much needed when the time came to found a religion.
In its candid and diligent rehearsal of the available facts, Natural Born Seer paints a less than endearing portrait of Joseph Smith. Yet, Van Wagoner stops well-short of denouncing Joseph as a true spiritual leader. Ostensibly for the pure sake of getting facts in front of readers, the author all but debunks Joseph’s purported translation by “spectacles” (aka Urim and Thummim), and he goes out of his way to undercut the hindsight primacy LDS Mormons give to the First Vision. Yet he also, along with some of Joseph’s detractors, credits the prophet with achieving something remarkable through charisma and other talents.
Personally, I found my devout skepticism about Joseph Smith validated by this book. Intriguing, but also dismaying, is the frequent use of eye witness accounts supplied via interviews performed years, even decades, after the prophet’s death. However, the author greatly increases this book’s value by beefing up the context of Joseph’s early years. The role of Methodist revivalism comes vividly alive through Van Wagoner’s copious research.
For me, the most unexpected and deeply valued element of the book was getting to know Joseph’s older brother Alvin. I confess I had never given Alvin a lot of thought. He died just as Joseph began bringing forth the Book of Mormon. In a perfunctory way, I understood this to be a tragedy for Joseph. In Natural Born Seer, Alvin’s death is depicted for the seismic shock that it was to the Smith family. Van Wagoner studiously shows just how significant were Alvin’s contributions to the household, and his anticipated critical role in bringing forth the Book of Mormon. During the brief span of manhood Alvin lived, he seems to have truly been a beloved son and big brother.
For readers considering a first foray into biographies of Joseph Smith, I strongly recommend back-to-back readings of Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling and No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith. If you have already read those, then I recommend Natural Born Seer for a closer look at Joseph’s early years. Also, know that this book contains two must-read Appendices: 1) Accounts of Claimed Supernatural Visions; 2) Meanings of Lamanite in Mormon Culture.
Rest in Peace, Richard. And thank you.
The late historian Richard S. Van Wagoner does something compelling with this work. Instead of a birth-to-death biography, Van Wagoner focuses on Joseph’s first 25 years of life. The book ends with Joseph formally organizing the church. Given its origin story approach, the book deals with the least adequately documented, but arguably the most critical, years of Joseph’s existence. As Van Wagoner’s book suggests, it is also the most misunderstood era of Mormonism.
Natural Born Seer comes with all the unflattering revelations one should expect from scholarly biographies of Joseph. Was the aspiring prophet a peep stone using, treasure hunter? Yes. Did he knock back his share of liquor, right alongside his likely alcoholic father? Indeed. Was the Smith family a bunch of lazy, disreputable types? … It’s complicated. Suffice it to say the finances of Joseph’s parents were intensely problematic and unfortunate. The open wallets of eager followers were much needed when the time came to found a religion.
In its candid and diligent rehearsal of the available facts, Natural Born Seer paints a less than endearing portrait of Joseph Smith. Yet, Van Wagoner stops well-short of denouncing Joseph as a true spiritual leader. Ostensibly for the pure sake of getting facts in front of readers, the author all but debunks Joseph’s purported translation by “spectacles” (aka Urim and Thummim), and he goes out of his way to undercut the hindsight primacy LDS Mormons give to the First Vision. Yet he also, along with some of Joseph’s detractors, credits the prophet with achieving something remarkable through charisma and other talents.
Personally, I found my devout skepticism about Joseph Smith validated by this book. Intriguing, but also dismaying, is the frequent use of eye witness accounts supplied via interviews performed years, even decades, after the prophet’s death. However, the author greatly increases this book’s value by beefing up the context of Joseph’s early years. The role of Methodist revivalism comes vividly alive through Van Wagoner’s copious research.
For me, the most unexpected and deeply valued element of the book was getting to know Joseph’s older brother Alvin. I confess I had never given Alvin a lot of thought. He died just as Joseph began bringing forth the Book of Mormon. In a perfunctory way, I understood this to be a tragedy for Joseph. In Natural Born Seer, Alvin’s death is depicted for the seismic shock that it was to the Smith family. Van Wagoner studiously shows just how significant were Alvin’s contributions to the household, and his anticipated critical role in bringing forth the Book of Mormon. During the brief span of manhood Alvin lived, he seems to have truly been a beloved son and big brother.
For readers considering a first foray into biographies of Joseph Smith, I strongly recommend back-to-back readings of Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling and No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith. If you have already read those, then I recommend Natural Born Seer for a closer look at Joseph’s early years. Also, know that this book contains two must-read Appendices: 1) Accounts of Claimed Supernatural Visions; 2) Meanings of Lamanite in Mormon Culture.
Rest in Peace, Richard. And thank you.
February 22, 2017
This is the book I wanted "Rough Stone Rolling" to be. It's a shame Van Wagoner wasn't around to see the final product.
Where Richard Bushman hems and haws about the more questionable parts of Joseph Smith, Van Wagoner takes those parts to their natural conclusion. Rather than trying to come up with excuses for what Joseph Smith's use of seer stones or simply dismiss them as being something that everyone was complicit in at the time, he explains exactly what they were for and how often Joseph used them. He also clearly explains the scrying process and how it was used to compose the BOM. In turn, Van Wagoner doesn't shy away from the fact that Joseph Smith rarely incorporated the physical plates themselves in the translation process. He takes a more naturalistic approach, you might say. This perspective will not be appreciated by many Mormons, but it is an incredibly fascinating one to me.
Since leaving Mormonism, there have been some questions I've had about Joseph Smith's character and the Book of Mormon. I haven't necessarily felt like I needed to prove it wrong. Frankly, even if ancient near eastern scholars could authenticate it, I wouldn't really care. But, I've still been curious about the rise of Joseph Smith and why the BOM caught on with so many people. Van Wagoner does a fantastic job investigating and examining the first 25 years of Joseph Smith's life and everything surrounding it. Just a few topics he tackles:
-Seer stones
-JS relations with Native Americans
-Court case involving the seer stones
-Smith family poverty
-Death of Alvin
-Making of the BOM
-Martin Harris
And those are just those I can think of off the top of my head.
Van Wagoner does such a great job taking us into the world of JS, he moves away from the man of whom no one knows his history. By taking just the first 25 years of his life, Van Wagoner is able to delve more deeply into events that Bushman barely touches upon in "Rough Stone Rolling." I cannot wait for Dan Vogel's book that will serve as the follow-up to this book and a predecessor to Martha Bradley Evans' "Glorious in Persecution." Bushman's work may bear the subtitle of "A cultural biography of Mormonism's founder," but I think Van Wagoner's work deserves it more. Where Bushman takes you to the facts but stops short of making actual conclusions regarding JS, Van Wagoner dives in and helps readers see JS so clearly. This has shaped my understanding of JS forever. If you've read any other biographies of JS, you owe it to yourself to read this one.
Where Richard Bushman hems and haws about the more questionable parts of Joseph Smith, Van Wagoner takes those parts to their natural conclusion. Rather than trying to come up with excuses for what Joseph Smith's use of seer stones or simply dismiss them as being something that everyone was complicit in at the time, he explains exactly what they were for and how often Joseph used them. He also clearly explains the scrying process and how it was used to compose the BOM. In turn, Van Wagoner doesn't shy away from the fact that Joseph Smith rarely incorporated the physical plates themselves in the translation process. He takes a more naturalistic approach, you might say. This perspective will not be appreciated by many Mormons, but it is an incredibly fascinating one to me.
Since leaving Mormonism, there have been some questions I've had about Joseph Smith's character and the Book of Mormon. I haven't necessarily felt like I needed to prove it wrong. Frankly, even if ancient near eastern scholars could authenticate it, I wouldn't really care. But, I've still been curious about the rise of Joseph Smith and why the BOM caught on with so many people. Van Wagoner does a fantastic job investigating and examining the first 25 years of Joseph Smith's life and everything surrounding it. Just a few topics he tackles:
-Seer stones
-JS relations with Native Americans
-Court case involving the seer stones
-Smith family poverty
-Death of Alvin
-Making of the BOM
-Martin Harris
And those are just those I can think of off the top of my head.
Van Wagoner does such a great job taking us into the world of JS, he moves away from the man of whom no one knows his history. By taking just the first 25 years of his life, Van Wagoner is able to delve more deeply into events that Bushman barely touches upon in "Rough Stone Rolling." I cannot wait for Dan Vogel's book that will serve as the follow-up to this book and a predecessor to Martha Bradley Evans' "Glorious in Persecution." Bushman's work may bear the subtitle of "A cultural biography of Mormonism's founder," but I think Van Wagoner's work deserves it more. Where Bushman takes you to the facts but stops short of making actual conclusions regarding JS, Van Wagoner dives in and helps readers see JS so clearly. This has shaped my understanding of JS forever. If you've read any other biographies of JS, you owe it to yourself to read this one.
August 16, 2017
2.5 stars.
Van Wagoner writes well and shares details from his research that I hadn't heard before, which make Joseph's life and early 19th century America really come alive. Lots of great information that gives more clarity to this time period and the Smith's life than I have come across in my other readings. Yet overall as a researcher, he didn't impress as I had hoped, because he wasn't well-balanced enough with his sources. Way too much John Bennett and Eber Howe. Even my nonbeliever/no longer member friends chuckle at these guys. He also uses "undisclosed" sources and some that he admits in the book are hearsay. I expect more than this from a scholar.
5 stars for Kurt Gray's illustrations. I think they are incredible sketches/drawings and would love to have copies of some of them.
Van Wagoner writes well and shares details from his research that I hadn't heard before, which make Joseph's life and early 19th century America really come alive. Lots of great information that gives more clarity to this time period and the Smith's life than I have come across in my other readings. Yet overall as a researcher, he didn't impress as I had hoped, because he wasn't well-balanced enough with his sources. Way too much John Bennett and Eber Howe. Even my nonbeliever/no longer member friends chuckle at these guys. He also uses "undisclosed" sources and some that he admits in the book are hearsay. I expect more than this from a scholar.
5 stars for Kurt Gray's illustrations. I think they are incredible sketches/drawings and would love to have copies of some of them.
September 4, 2023
"The prophet was blessed with consummate creative genius and vision, with near boundless personal charisma, yet also was burdened with character flaws suitable to a Sophoclean tragedy."
April 19, 2025
“Much of what we call ‘truth’ is just a defense against the unknown.” Len Oakes
“Joseph was an eclectic, synthetic innovator, not a systematic theologian.”
“The First Vision story, so important to modern Mormonism, was not shared with the faithful generally until about 1842.”
“Joseph was an eclectic, synthetic innovator, not a systematic theologian.”
“The First Vision story, so important to modern Mormonism, was not shared with the faithful generally until about 1842.”
January 8, 2017
Most comprehensive look at the early years of Joseph Smith and his family. A very readable history book, Van Wagoner's even handed approach and impeccably researched narrative was both enlightening and enjoyable to read.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews