On the Road With Joseph Smith: An Author's Diary [Paperback]

Richard Lyman Bushman (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

After living with Joseph Smith for seven years, biographer Richard Lyman Bushman went "on the road" for a year. After delivering the final proofs of his landmark study, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling to Knopf in July 2005, Bushman crisscrossed the country from coast to coast, delivering numerous addresses on Joseph Smith at scholarly conferences, academic symposia, and firesides. This candid memoir concludes eleven months later with an article written for Common-Place in August 2006.

Bushman confesses to hope and humility, an unexpected numbness when he expected moments of triumph, and genuine apprehension as he awaited reviews. He frets at the polarization that dismissed the book as either too hard on Joseph Smith or too easy. He yields to a very human compulsion to check sales figures on amazon.com, but partway through the process steps back with the recognition, "The book seems to be cutting its own path now, just as [I] hoped." His favorite review was "not . . . filled with praise, but it seemed to understand what I was up to."

For readers coming to grips with the ongoing puzzle of the Prophet and the troublesome dimensions of their own faith, Richard Bushman, a temple sealer and stake patriarch but also a prize-winning scholar, openly but not insistently presents himself as a believer. "I believe enough to take Joseph Smith seriously," he says. He draws comfort both from what he calls his "mantra" ("Today I will be a follower of Jesus Christ") and also from ongoing engagement with the intellectual challenges of explaining Joseph Smith. "I personally think it is never good to let problems like this swim vaguely around in your head," he encourages one disturbed reader. "Take the top three and write them down. . . . Be sure you get all the facts right. . . . Ask yourself, Why does this seem contrary to what a prophet would do? . . . At the same time, . . . be fair. . . . Don't let your feelings swamp you." Bushman sets the example of how to do it.

From the Back Cover

"The diary is possibly unparalleled--an author of a recent book candidly dissecting his experiences with both Mormon and non-Mormon audiences . . . certainly deserves wider distribution--in part because it shows a talented historian laying open his vulnerabilities, and also because it shows how much any historian lays on the line when he writes about Joseph Smith."
-Dennis Lythgoe, Deseret News

"By turns humorous and poignant, this behind-the-scenes look at Richard Bushman's public and private ruminations about Joseph Smith reveals a great deal--not only about the inner life of one of our best scholars, but about Mormonism at the dawn of the twenty-first century."
-Jana Riess, Ph.D., co-author of Mormonism for Dummies

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Product Details

• Paperback: 141 pages
• Publisher: Greg Kofford Books Inc (May 24, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1589581024
• ISBN-13: 978-1589581029
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #184,271 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What all biographies need..., September 14, 2007

By 

adam-sw - See all my reviews

This review is from: On the Road With Joseph Smith: An Author's Diary (Paperback)

All biographies are written through the eyes of the biographer. They tell as much about the writer as the subject. Hence, biographies on Joseph Smith run the gamut of opinions. Bushman has his own, and this diary really helps to understand his thoughts on writing and promoting Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling. It would be great if every biography (and history book, for that matter) came with a personal diary by the author like this one. History is not a set of facts, it is a story told by someone.

The extreme conservative Mormons will not like Bushman's scholarly approach, and those who pass too quickly on Joseph Smith as a fraud will call Bushman an apologetic, but I think the majority in the middle like RSR, and will really like this diary. Seeing the personal side of a biographer so important to American religious studies is a great opportunity. It's also not every day when you come across someone from a big university like Columbia who is also humble.

26 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An author's post-publication ruminations, October 15, 2007

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Anson Cassel Mills (Lake Santeetlah, NC) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: On the Road With Joseph Smith: An Author's Diary (Paperback)

This brief memoir (140 pages including the index) is a book about a book--Bushman's Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling (Alfred A. Knopf, 2005)--and the reaction it generated from Mormons and non-Mormons of various sorts during the author's yearlong promotional tour. On the Road will obviously be of greatest interest to those acquainted with Bushman or who at least have read Rough Stone Rolling; but the volume may also appeal to those curious about contemporary non-fiction book publishing or who are interested in how contemporary Mormon intellectuals try to sort out the more awkward aspects of their faith.

Bushman confesses to having a "sensitive temperament," and he is sometimes so revealing that the reader feels on the edge of voyeurism. For instance, Bushman expresses his frustration at forgetting his cell phone charger, he regularly checks the Amazon.com rankings of his book, and he compares the quality of his own interviews with those of President George W. Bush: "He seemed unsure and forced in his answers....Sitting before a reporter who was going to be more critical, he faltered, and I do the same. I also thought it was partly because he is not entirely honest. He keeps thinking of the criticisms of his statements and is not certain he is answering satisfactorily. As I watched I was of course applying these observations to myself." (94) The volume is full of what one nineteenth-century after-dinner speaker called "carriage speeches"--the revised discourses he made to himself on the way home in his carriage.

Bushman includes curious speculation about the nature of ultimate reality (60-62), which concludes with his pronouncement that "Mormons are not the only source of light" and that "Christ radiates throughout the world, through many voices." Yet he is willing enough to play down such sentiments for the present when Mormonism is "under attack from evangelical Christians." Bushman also expresses discomfort at Joseph Smith's polyandry and yet, for unspecified reasons, he swallows Smith's angels and golden plates whole. In the end, Bushman admits that by writing Rough Stone Rolling for both Mormons and non-Mormons, he attracted educated believers but lost readers at "both ends of the spectrum"--conservative Mormons who wanted an unsullied prophet with supernatural gifts and non-Mormons who were confirmed in their previous belief that Smith was only a charlatan.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bushman's heart and soul., January 25, 2008

By 

Lew Craig "rockyroad" (Payson, AZ, USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: On the Road With Joseph Smith: An Author's Diary (Paperback)

Richard Bushman has published a brief account of dealing with his book, "Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling." I have read several other accounts of author's process of writing and reacting (John Steinbeck most notably), but have not felt that I reached the heart and soul of a man as this book does with Richard Bushman. He leaves nothing out.

Most interesting are his attempts to deal with an anti-Mormon audience vs. conservative Mormons. His motivations are pure and having read "Rough Stone Rolling," I think he has pulled off a major accomplishment. He is a great and sincere man. He certainly is at the forefront of LDS historians and scholars.