The presidency of Spencer W. Kimball, from 1973 to 1985, spanned years of remarkable growth and dramatic developments in the Church. In that time, Church membership grew from 3.2 million to 5.9 million, the number of full-time missionaries serving grew from 17,000 to nearly 40,000 and temples in operation increased from 15 to 36. This book focuses exclusively on President Kimball's ministry at Church President, descriging such landmark events as the revelation extending the priesthood to all worthy males, the publication of new editions of the LDS scriptures, and the reorganization of the quorum of the Seventy. The accompanying CD-ROM (created by BYU Studies) contains a wealth of additional information, including a longer version of the biography, photos not included in the book, some audio clips of President Kimball (including a sample before the surgery on his throat), as well as copies of other books written by or about President Kimball.
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About the Author
Edward W. Kimball, the youngest son of Spencer W. and Camilla Eyring Kimball, obtained degrees in history and law from the University of Utah and graduate degrees in law from the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to his retirement, he was the Ernest L. Wilkinson Professor of Law at Brigham Young University. He has served in many Church teaching and administrative positions, including bishop. The co-author of Spencer W. Kimball and of Camilla, he also edited the Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball.
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25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Work of a Prophet,
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This review is from: Lengthen Your Stride: The Presidency of Spencer W. Kimball (Hardcover)
This book exhaustively details the Presidency of Spencer W. Kimball who served as the 12th President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints until his death in 1985. It is a follow-up to an earlier biography by Edward and Andrew Kimball-- respectively, Spencer's son and grandson. The first volume was published shortly after Spencer Kimball became the President of the Church, a task accomplished by outliving all the other 15 Apostles (Quorum of 12 and First Presidency) who serve for life. For that reason the first volume could not give extensive treatment to the Presidency of Spencer Kimball but serves an an indispensable prologue to "Lengthen Your Stride." (Full disclosure: Edward Kimball was my Evidence Professor in Law School)
Not only does this book reveal the daily life of a Prophet to an unprecedented degree, it chronicles and gives a context to one of the most significant events of LDS Church History. The author holds nothing back--the sources are amazing. Yet absolutely nothing contained in this work gives rise to questions about the wisdom of President Kimball's leadership or doubts regarding the divine direction of the Church. Included with the book is a CD-ROM that contains the full working text prior to editing as well as the text of all of the out-of-print books published about President Kimball by the Church's own imprints. In trying to summarize why this book is so very interesting and such an essential volume, I keep coming back to the candor and honesty of its author. Indeed, the publisher's note makes clear that the publisher and author had some disagreements regarding aspects of the work. Although the Bible demonstrates that Prophets have their own struggles, there is a tendency for modern biographers to de-emphasize the difficulties faced by Presidents of the Church, to seemingly hesitate to discuss discouraging events. Perhaps only President Kimball's son could write this book, but we can be glad that he did. This second volume rounds out a biography worthy of the man--I cannot praise it highly enough.
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Biography, Plus An Extra Glimpse At The Future Of Books,
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This review is from: Lengthen Your Stride: The Presidency of Spencer W. Kimball (Hardcover)
Back in 1977 Edward L. Kimball, a law professor and the son of LDS church president Spencer W. Kimball, co-authored a biography of his father that was instantly recognized as a classic of Mormon literature. That first volume combined fluid storytelling and unprecedented honesty to produce an account that was at once a great book of history and a warm portrait of a recognizably three-dimensional human being. The book covered Pres. Kimball's life only up to his ordination as prophet. Now almost 30 years later Ed Kimball has published the long-awaited second volume, "Lengthen Your Stride" which covers the life and administration of his father until the elder Kimball's death in 1985. A lot has changed in the intervening years and the format this book takes shows it.
Edward Kimball produced a long mauscript complete with detailed footnotes that was in effect a full-scale scholarly biography of his father. Evidently, Deseret Book (the publishers) didn't think such a version was commercially feasible today. Plus, they are more interested in "inspirational" books. So a compromise was worked out: Deseret Book would publish a shorter version of the book that emphasized the faith-affirming aspects of the "working draft." That text version is a good book for an LDS audience who wants the basic story. But included along with that published version is a CD-ROM that is literally packed with treasures that should satisfy the reader who wants more. Included in the disc are the text of the original 1977 biography (along with a Spanish translation); "Camilla", a biography of Pres. Kimball's much-loved wife, also written by Ed Kimball; a whole library of notable magazine and journal articles about Pres. Kimball; dozens of family and newspaper photographs; audio files of excerpts from Pres. Kimball's most-loved sermons; and two complete short books about Pres. Kimball for younger readers. But the very best thing is the complete, uncut "Working Draft" with full footnotes. (Most of the text is in black, with the smaller portion that made it into the published text highlighted in blue, so you can easily tell the difference.) It is this "Working Draft" that once again makes this volume a landmark in Mormon letters. The shorter version concentrates on a singularly upbeat narrative of the prophet's life. The "Working Draft" contains much-needed context; it's a very servicible history of the church in the 1970's and 1980's. It examines in more detail the controversies of the time, like the struggles over the Equal Rights Amendment, the writing of official church history, clarification of doctrine and practice, and dealing with explosive growth. The chapters that everyone will want to read are the gripping account of how the priesthood was finally extended to African-Americn men. This is the definitive account, taken directly from church documents and interviews with the individuals involved. It's compelling, first-hand material. The footnotes show just how this book is grounded in solid scholarship. Church archives are cited, along with the best secular writing about the times, and honest liberal-Mormon books, and articles from the journals "Sunstone" and "Dialogue." As I read, I was vividly plunged back into those extraordinary years of the Kimball administration. He was the prophet when I was in my impressionable teens and I will always think of him as my particular prophet. This book reminds us of the man's extraordinary character, and how much he was loved by the members of the church for his humility, compassion and work. "Lengthen your stride" was of course one of his mottos; another was the simple phrase "do it" which he had made into a sign an kept on his desk. I suppose if you could boil Mormonism down into just two words, they would be those famous ones of President Kimball. This book is the most faith-affirming book I have read all year, because of the author's commitment to both the church and the whole truth. It's just a tremendously uplifting piece of Mormon art. And the CD-ROM may be a glimpse into how books will be published in the future. I can imagine "director's cut" editions of books that include all kinds of fascinating supplemental material. I can't recommend this package highly enough.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
part essential reading, part travelogue + an amazing CD-ROM,
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This review is from: Lengthen Your Stride: The Presidency of Spencer W. Kimball (Hardcover)
A few years ago, I read Edward and Andrew Kimball's original biography of their father (Spencer W. Kimball, twelfth president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). I failed to examine the publication date before starting the book and so was deflated to find that it ended in 1977, the year before the landmark event of Kimball's presidency, the revelation lifting the priesthood ban for black members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Ed has filled the vacancy with this second biography, covering the years of his father's presidency (1973-1985). The result is mixed but ultimately invaluable. The five chapters (20-24) discussing the priesthood revelation as well as the run-up and aftermath of the revelation are essential reading in LDS history and very well done. (They brought my aunt literally to tears of joy.) These chapters make this book an essential complement to David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism, which gives a wonderfully insightful look on the dynamics of the priesthood ban in the 1950s. A later chapter (38) deals with Spencer Kimball's disability in his final years, and Ed's frank treatment gives an important insight into how the Church works in this context. Throughout the book, Ed gives us lots of details about changes in church policy which I found interesting as a younger member of the Church. Finally, the first appendix ("Personal Encounters with Spencer Kimball") is essentially a tribute, using the experiences of many people with President Kimball to demonstrate the President's many virtues. Ed doesn't shy from his father's flaws in the course of the book (although he is admittedly a sympathetic biographer), but I found this final, loving section particularly inspiring, reading how President Kimball's love for all people and his hard work permeated his life. Sometimes the book devolves into travelogue and gets tiresome, as in the chapters on the area conferences (32-34). Those chapters still have interesting stories and useful history, but they drag. The flaw I found most frustrating throughout is that the book has no footnotes giving sources. Especially in the chapters on the priesthood revelation, Ed quotes regularly and for the careful reader, not having a footnote immediately available can be annoying. The book comes with a CD-ROM that contains all the footnotes and much, much more. It includes the "writer's cut" of the biography (rather than the compromise between writer and publisher. Julie Smith, in her review of the book, has compared the two cuts and found that the additional material in the writer's cut generally consists of (1) "fat that any good editor would have cut," (2) "material that recounted differences of opinion between members of the Quorum of the Twelve and/or the First Presidency," (3) material that is more "liberal" (e.g., expression of President Kimball's sympathy for Sonia Johnson, an LDS supporter of the ERA who was excommunicated, (4) additional demonstrations of human weaknesses, and (5) "text on topics that might be embarrassing to the Church (failed policies, bad public relations, ...Kimball's suggestion that the priesthood ban may have been an error, etc.)" [1]. Although I wish that more of the material had made it into the published book, I am glad that we have all of this material available on the CD-ROM. The CD-ROM also contains five other books (Camilla: A Biography of Camilla Eyring Kimball, Ed and Andrew Kimball's previous biography in both Spanish and English, and two other books on Spencer Kimball (this and this), and The Writings of Camilla Eyring Kimball). It also includes brief audio clips (most shorter than a minute) to demonstrate President Kimball's voice before and after his throat surgery and a host of articles about President Kimball in BYU Studies, Dialogue, and Sunstone (among others). I look forward to enjoying the CD-ROM for a long time. [1] Julie M. Smith, "Book review: Lengthen Your Stride: The Presidency of Spencer W. Kimball," Times and Seasons (blog), 12 October 2005.
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