Lucy's Book: A Critical Edition of Lucy Mack Smith's Family Memoir [Hardcover]

Lucy Smith (Author), Lavina Fielding Anderson (Editor), Irene M. Bates (Introduction)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 950 pages
• Publisher: Signature Books; First Edition edition (April 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560851376
• ISBN-13: 978-1560851370
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.6 x 2.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #802,608 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing book about an interesting family, August 23, 2007

By 

Thomas G. Haws "Thomas G. Haws" (Mesa, AZ, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lucy's Book: A Critical Edition of Lucy Mack Smith's Family Memoir (Hardcover)

First of all, this book represents an amazing amount of scholarly research. The introductory material is fascinating, including the full history of the development, editing, transmission, publication, suppression, and revision of Lucy Mack Smith's narrative.

The background Lucy gives of here own family includes some interesting and enlightening stories, especially for LDS Church members. The full setting of the Smith family financial situation from Lucy's eyes is much more interesting than the limited perspective from young Joseph's eyes. The stories of Lucy's and her husband's siblings, parents, and aunts and uncles are interesting, including visions and a heartbreaking love story.

When Lucy finally gets to her version of the events in Palmyra with her son Joseph, her narrative portrays a boy who was having authentic mystical experiences and gaining authentic classic mystical perspectives about evil, purity of heart, riches, and temptation. Her narrative frankly displays a strong sense of "us versus them" in which the family and their friends are against all the world and forces of evil arrayed against them.

Anderson presents the major historical variations in the narrative in two columns so that the reader can peruse Martha Coray's dictation on the left beside Pratt's and other editions (footnoted) on the right. Coray's original dictation is of course more folksy and candid, and lacks punctuation and capitalization. In it we can hear lucy's voice.

The book is expensive, but I feel it was worth the purchase price, and I have thoroughly enjoyed it.