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The Joseph Smith Papers: Journals, Vol. 1: 1832-1839

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Here we have the inaugural volume in the monumental enterprise of publishing everything that Joseph Smith, Jr. (1805-1844) ever wrote or dictated during his short life. This will doubtless become the most important book or series of books ever published about Joseph Smith and his life, far exceeding the value of every biographical work skeptical (such as Faun M. Brodie's venerable No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith), hagiographical (such as Francis M. Gibbons's popular Joseph Smith: Martyr-Prophet of God) or scholarly (such as Richard L. Bushman's impressive and moving Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling).

Smith is unquestionably one of the most significant historical figures in American history. For good or ill, his legacy is with us, and continues to alternately inspire or anger, fascinate or titillate, move or amuse millions. And yet, with all that has been written about him, the man himself and his work continues to defy pat description or characterization. For someone who wrote and spoke so much he is really a closed book in many respects. To the everyman he is an enigma, to the Evangelical anathema (as we saw in 2008 from a major U.S. Presidential candidate), but to the rare observer he is an object of deep curiosity and serious study whether you believe his doctrine or not. For example, Smith has been called "the founder of a new religious tradition" comparable to Moses or Mohammed, and a "genius" by the eminent Yale critic and humanist, Harold Bloom, who noted Smith's "uncanny recovery of elements in ancient Jewish theurgy that had ceased to be available either to Judaism or to Christianity, and that had survived only in esoteric traditions unlikely to have touched Smith directly." (Harold Bloom, The American Religion, page 101.) This book will appeal to the thoughtful observers in the tradition of Bloom.

This work reminds me in many ways of two previous collections of documents, Early Mormon Documents (Volume 1) and its four successor volumes from well repected Mormon critic Dan Vogel, published between 1996 and 2003, and more recently the one-volume Opening the Heavens: Accounts of Divine Manifestations, 1820-1844 (Documents in Latter-Day Saint History) from sympathetic scholar John W. Welch. What I like about both of these series--and the present volumes on the Smith Papers--is the fact that the reader is presented with original documents and left to his or her own interpretations. To be sure, Vogel, Welch and the editors of the present volume offer their respective footnoted interpretations, but it is the documents themselves which are the precious jewels of these books. I concur wholeheartedly with Welch's insightful comment that "a generation from now, few people will care how various historians in our day have interpreted the past. . . But the original documents convey testimonies that will always be of the utmost interest." (from Welch's Introduction).

With this new collection in hand and access to other original documents, the day should be long past in studies of Mormon Church history, when any reader possessed of reasonable intelligence should put much further credence in the rarified theories of professional historians or sectarian critics. Few academic writers have ever been honest enough to "proclaim their malefactions" - their personal bias - in their writing, pretending, instead that their work is "scientific." What many historical writers - both apologists and critics - fail to admit is that, "A fact is a fact", until you begin to string two or more facts together. Then it becomes a work of the imagination and not a science.

In courtroom parlance, the reader of this book and its succeeding volumes will be able to hear the trial witness and, like jurors, to make up his or her own mind as to weight and credibility, unfiltered by the officious interpretations of believers, critics or professional historians. I say, let the documents speak for themselves!

Additional comments:

1. This volume is beautifully put together with a fine binding and layout. Editorially, the documents themselves are placed in the primary stage, with a minimum of editorial or contextual commentary, which is as it should be. The focus is on the precious original documents themselves, not on any fleeting commentary.

2. Previous commentators have noted the lack of an index in this volume. To those who are patient to await subsequent volumes, this lack is inconsequential. It is hoped that eventually this collection will be searchable digitally.

Finally, the unadulterated original documents of Joseph Smith are available to the interested reader! The beauty of this work is not in all of the support information (which is substantial, and useful) but in that I, the casual reader of Mormon history, finally have access to documents that were difficult (prohibitively so for me) to get to.

As I mentioned above, there is a substantial amount of back matter and introduction to the documents. Some might argue that these materials are biased, and therefore "taint the readers' view" of the documents. I think that the extras in this volume are as even handed as can be expected. Even if there is bias - and I have heard separately both anti-Mormon and pro-Mormon bias arguments - in the glossary or introductions or notes, the readers have the pure documents in their hands to make judgments for themselves!

I have been dismayed in the past by historical material published in connection with the church, such as in the case of the multi-volume "History of the Church" which was pieced together from many documents by church historians who were forced to make judgments on what things were important to include and how to phrase things in first person Joseph Smith. Don't get me wrong, the "History of the Church" is a valuable tool and includes many documents, but it lacks the scholarly rigor and modern standards that the Joseph Smith Papers project has. I suppose what I am trying to say is that I am glad that I can purchase a document collection without the bias inherent in somebody selecting only certain entries or doctored by others trying to piece things together.

I'll say it again, finally the original papers so I can read and judge for myself!

It appears that some readers don't understand what the Joseph Smith Papers project really is. Those familiar with historiography recognize immediately that this text is a piece of documentary history rather than a historian's retelling or interpretation of history. Do not expect this book to be a biography of Joseph Smith. Rather, historians and archivists have compiled the primary source documents into this book and have laboriously examined the texts to ensure that the format maintains the integrity of the document. In other words, this book makes available what normally would require painstaking examination, which requires much of the time infrared scanning, material analysis, and graphology (handwriting analysis). In terms of the integrity of the primary sources compiled in this volume, the editors have done a marvelous job. Historians will likely benefit the most, though casual readers can approach the footnotes and introduction with confidence that the editors provide some context to help make sense of the documents. Readers looking for a smoking gun in this book that could implicate Smith in some kind of fraud ought to remember that this piece is primarily an academic one, backed up by credentialed and non-Mormon historical societies. Criticisms must be equally leveled at the academic forum supporting this text as much as at the LDS Church or individual Mormon scholars who contributed, which I don't find happening with any precision and professionalism in the low-star reviews thus far.

This book will prove useful for those readers interested in the primary sources themselves. This will save you the hours of traveling to the LDS Church's archives, making requests for original documents, and transcribing them yourself. And, based on the commitment of the Church Historian's Press to provide additional volumes, I'd say the ambition and scope brings value to Mormon studies and history, regardless of one's sympathetic, professional/objective, or polemical attitude towards Mormonism.

This is the first of a projected set of 30 books of documents associated in some way with the prophet Joseph Smith, and the first volume of the Journals series. It covers his journals dating from November 28, 1832 to October 15, 1839, along with introductions to the Joseph Smith Papers project and the Journals series.

The project claims as its roots the collection of Joseph's papers during his lifetime and then continuing after his death, and first published in book form as "History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Period I: History of Joseph Smith, the Prophet, by Himself." This was eventually followed by "The Personal Writings of Joseph Smith" in 1984 and "The Papers of Joseph Smith" in 1989 ("Volume 1: Autobiographical and Historical Writings") and 1992 ("Volume 2: Journal, 1832-1842").

It was then decided to expand the project, using a new set of standards and a staff of editors, historians, and researchers to produce an ambitious set of six series including Journals, Documents, History, Legal and Business Records, Revelations and Translations, and Administrative Records. When it is completed, it will be available in book form as well as a more extensive online version, which can be used by anyone from secular scholars to interested church members to study the life of Joseph Smith and the foundations of the church he restored.

The content of this first volume is a subset of the journals published in 1992, so there is actually nothing new here. However, it should be a more reliable transcription, having been produced under the new editorial standards. It also contains more background and reference material to help the reader better understand the context of the journal entries. This includes a chronology covering the years of the journal, a geographical directory and maps covering all the places mentioned, a pedigree chart, a biographical directory containing most of the people mentioned, ecclesiastical organizational charts, a glossary, an essay on the sources used, a list of works cited, and a table giving corresponding section numbers for various editions of the Doctrine and Covenants.

The one thing missing is an index. In its place is an explanation stating that there will be a cumulative index published in the last volume of the series, but that a searchable index of volume 1 is available on the project web site. While it would have been nice to have an index included in the volume, it seems more convenient to have an index covering all the journals, and an offer has been made on the web site to provide bound copies of the volume 1 index on request.

Only a very small portion (about 35 of over 1,500 manuscript pages) of the journal entries were actually written by Joseph Smith himself. Some of it was dictated, but the vast majority was written by clerks based on their own observations, and usually in the first person (which has caused some confusion from the way they were used in the "History of the Church"). This makes it more difficult to see what Joseph was thinking and feeling, but it also gives us the advantage of having a large number of sermons reported - Joseph apparently never spoke from written texts or even an outline, and instead "depend[ed] entirely upon the living God for everything he said on such occasions." (page xlvi.)

The text is presented using an elaborate system of markup, showing who the writer was, describing the source medium (such as "hole burned in paper" and "28 lines blank"), indicating letters and words that were crossed out or inserted, etc. This gives the reader about as good an idea as possible as to what is on the page, short of actually seeing it (but there are a few example photos in the book, and there are many more available at the project web site). Each journal is described in detail, including its provenance, and there are photographs of each accompanied by a quill to provide a sense of their relative sizes. There is also a historical introduction for each journal, describing what was going on during the time covered.

The entries range from the mundane (29 June 1839 - "Saturday at home principally") to significant events and revelations, many of which will be familiar to readers of the Doctrine and Covenants, such as the dedication and visions at the Kirtland Temple in 1836. There are plenty of editorial notes and annotations throughout the text explaining the context and giving more details, such as the words of hymns that were sung on certain occasions and what happened between entries.

An interesting example has to do with the Leonid meteor shower on November 13, 1833 - "I was awoke by Brother Davis knocking at <my> door saying Brother Joseph [p. 18] come git <up> and see the signs in the heavens and I arrose and beheld to my great Joy the stars fall from heaven yea they fell like hail stones a litteral fulfillment of the word of God as recorded in the holy scriptures and a sure sign that the coming of Christ is clost at hand." A footnote explains that it was reported across the country by newspapers, and taken by many as a sign that the Second Coming was imminent. It includes some descriptive quotes from various newspapers and there is also a full page engraving to show what it may have looked like.

Two of the journals overlap from September 3 to 11, 1838. The latter journal continues through October 6, and may have been intended to be used as legal evidence of Joseph's whereabouts during that time. It was written by James Mulholland, who was living with the Smiths, and contains entries such as "Saw him at home about sunrise, all the forenoon, and at noon. In the evening again about 8 oclock." (October 4, 1838.) For the entries that overlap with the preceding journal, it is interesting to compare them with the much more detailed accounts of George W. Robinson.

This first book, while not providing much that is new for those that have the earlier journals volume, gives an exciting glimpse into a library of books that promises to provide unprecedented insight into the life of Joseph Smith and the early days of the church. To paraphrase one of the editors, once the papers are published, no one will have an excuse to produce irresponsible or shoddy scholarship about Joseph Smith. And anyone with even the slightest interest in church history should find that by using this book they are able to better understand the events that transpired in a way that you can't get from reading historical fiction or even biographies.

I was excited to get my hands on this first volume of the Joseph Smith Papers project. I have always had a fascination with Joseph Smith's life. It all started when I was a young boy visiting my grandfather's house and his library. His grandfather was B. H. Roberts and he had inherited many of the books that he had published during his life. He even spent time with Roberts in the church historians office. As a result I went through all seven volumes of the History of the Church by Joseph Smith at a relatively young age.

Roberts is the one who compiled this massive history of the church from the original source material since he was church historian at that time. Roberts and other church historians took a lot of the journals that were written by scribes and compiled them into a first person account. It made for a good sequential history that probably wouldn't fit current scholarly standards. Nevertheless, I thought it was a good history and it was the most thorough history that we had for decades.

With the release of the Joseph Smith Papers, we will have access to everything about the life of Smith that can be found. The editors have done everything possible to present the papers in as accurate a manner as is feasible.

This first volume starts out with Smith's journals from 1832 - 1839. The editors make clear who is writing which sections and it should be noted that very little was written by Smith himself. They also add editorial notes to put the entries into context, and it is footnoted to give more details on people, locations, and events. There is also an extensive appendix with all of the information you would need to orient yourself on people, places, and timelines.

This book is not a history, but a papers project; so people need to be aware that this is more of a research tool than a complete history.

I am thrilled that the church is releasing all of this material. It will consist of more than 30 volumes when complete. It will provide a treasure trove of information that will be accessible to all scholars and I expect to see lots of good analysis of Smith's life from believers and critics alike.

I had been watching a series of TV shows on BYU-TV that explained how and what the Joseph Smith Papers were, unknowing that the first volume was published. To my surprise, there it was, on Amazon. I quickly purchased, and it was exactly what I thought it would be and more. It is an excellent piece of work. Anyone interested in Joseph Smith should include this and the future volumes in their library.

I've read snippets of Joseph Smith's journals, letters and other writings before, but having them all compiled together in this format is such an insightful and refreshing way to study his history. Very well composed and well documented and sourced. Many wonderful maps, diagrams and images are included as well. This first volume is fantastic and I highly recommend for any serious student of LDS history.

At first I was somewhat dissapointed that the journals do not have personal writings revealing the home and family life of Joseph Smith. But as I got more involved in the names, dates and places I became deeply engrossed in the drama surrounding Joseph Smith and this remarkable time in history. Here is a close look into the man who receives visions of the devine, and council from men he ordains to Stake offices with equal appreciation. Here is a man who not only suffers the assault of every culture in his time, but even the one he gave every effort to establish. If a reader comes away from this work with nothing more than a sense of the dedication this man has for what he believes in, that reader will be most highy rewarded. His life represents an example, that may change one's view of Mormonism. If not, it most surely will change your view of self. This phenominal life, captured between the lines of sporatic journals, leaves the reader with an immense thirst for that which was lost, or never written.

Gives you good insight of what Joseph Smith was going through. Great book! Will be getting the other volumes for sure!

The Joseph Smith Papers: Journals, Volume I: 1832-1839. Salt Lake City: Church Historian's Press, 2008. xvi + 506 (a printable, searchable index for this volume is available at josephsmithpapers.org). $49.95.

This remarkable first fruit of the effort to publish all of the papers of Joseph Smith contains a graceful introduction by Richard Bushman and Dean Jessee entitled "Joseph Smith and His Papers" (pp. xv-xlvii). Other highly useful items, including a time line, map, preliminary commentary, and an explanation of editorial method (pp. xliii-lxvi), precede the five journals (pp. 3-354) that form the core of this volume. The elaborate, carefully prepared reference materials feature a chronology for the years 1832-1839 (pp. 357-63), a geographical directory (pp. 364-80), maps (pp. 381-95), a pedigree chart for Joseph Smith (p. 396), an exhaustive biographical directory (pp. 397-454), ecclesiastical organizational charts (pp. 455-60), a glossary (pp. 461-74), an essay on sources (pp. 475-76), a list of works cited (pp. 477-96), and an aid in locating corresponding sections in various editions of the Doctrine and Covenants (pp. 497-506).

The result of a massive expenditure of time and talent, this volume is a major landmark in Latter-day Saint scholarship. But it is also more--a harbinger of important things to come and a clear indication that the Saints deserve full access to all of Joseph Smith's papers. In addition, the entire Joseph Smith Papers project, of which this volume is the initial part, is a witness that the Church of Jesus Christ is fully committed to both preserving and presenting the truth about the faith of the Saints. It is also a sign of confidence that this faith is firmly rooted in real events in the past. This and subsequent volumes will demonstrate that from the beginning Joseph Smith and the Saints were dedicated to recording and preserving the history of the restoration. Church members should rejoice in knowing that the entire record will eventually be accessible in a carefully prepared, full, and accurate form.

The publication of this volume and those to follow is part of an effort to preserve and protect the crucial tangible record of the entire restoration of the kingdom of God on earth. The hope is that publishing the Joseph Smith Papers will assist church members in remembering some of the mighty acts of God on their behalf and thereby deepen their desire to serve and obey God fully and faithfully. Augmented by an elaborate scholarly apparatus, this initial volume and all to follow will also assist in the defense of the faith. The claim of critics that the history of Joseph Smith and the Saints has been sanitized will be shown to be a partisan myth. This high-quality, comprehensive publication project is the beginning of an appropriate memorial to the life of the first seer and prophet of the restored church of Jesus Christ.