Preview Unlocking the Chinese Realm February 05 2026

Read of Preview of Unlocking the Chinese Realm: Apostle David O. McKay and Latter-day Saint Encounters in East Asia, 1852-1921, by Reid L. Neilson.

Preview Loved Ones February 04 2026

Read a preview of Loved Ones, by Kevin Klein.

Preview Sacred Scar: Poems February 04 2026

Read a preview of Sacred Scar: Poems, by Scott Hales.

Q&A with Justin Pack, author of Grace or Money: Rediscovering the Gift of Grace in an Age of Greed January 13 2026

Justin Pack, author of Grace or Money: Rediscovering the Gift of Grace in an Age of Greed, answers questions about his new book.

Preview Grace or Money: Rediscovering the Gift of Grace in an Age of Greed January 06 2026

Read a preview of Grace or Money: Rediscovering the Gift of Grace in an Age of Greed.

Q&A with Craig S. Smith, Author of The Juvenile Instructor Office November 25 2025

Greg Kofford Books recently talked to Craig S. Smith, author of The Juvenile Instructor Office: The Growth of Specialized Publishing in Utah in the 1880s, about his new book.

Preview The Juvenile Instructor Office October 24 2025

Read a preview of The Juvenile Instructor Office: The Growth of Specialized Publishing in Utah in the 1880s.

Q&A with Reid Neilson, editor of Elias—An Epic of the Ages: Critical Edition October 10 2025

Greg Kofford Books recently chatted with Reid L. Neilson, editor of Elias—An Epic of the Ages: A Critical Edition, about his process in creating this new edition of the Latter-day Saint literary classic.

Q&A with Robert A. Rees, author of Imagining and Reimagining the Restoration August 22 2025

Greg Kofford Books recently asked Bob Rees, author of Imagining and Reimagining the Restoration, about his new book.

Preview Elias—An Epic of the Ages: A Critical Edition August 19 2025

Read a preview of Elias—An Epic of the Ages: A Critical Edition.

Q&A with Don Smith and Mark Austin, authors of Bring Them to Zion: The 1856 Handcart Emigration Organization, Leadership, and Issues August 04 2025

Greg Kofford Books recently chatted with Don H Smith and Mark C. Austin, creators of Bring Them to Zion: The 1856 Handcart Emigration Organization, Leadership, and Issues, about their experiences in writing and editing the book.

Preview Imagining and Reimagining the Restoration July 23 2025

Stephen C. LeSueur. January 6, 1952 – July 1, 2025 July 22 2025

An editor's dream is a solid manuscript with flowing prose and in need of only a copy edit. Stephen C. LeSueur fulfilled my dreams not only once, but twice. Entering the Mormon Studies scene with his award-winning 1987 study, The 1838 Mormon War in Missouri, which was one of the first major works to highlight the complicated and often mutually violent conflicts between Mormons and their Missouri neighbors, Steve returned in 2023 with another exploration of violence involving a Mormon community, but this time something a little more personal.

Life and Death on the Mormon Frontier: The Murders of Frank LeSueur and Gus Gibbons by the Wild Bunch is one of the most captivating books on Mormon history that I have worked on (or even read). At its face value, it's Wild West history investigating the murders of Steve's ancestors by members of Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch and what followed. However, it is much more than that. Although Steve was no longer a believing Latter-day Saint, Life and Death is a powerful, sympathetic, and insightful study on the faith that led Mormon settlers to establish a community in the barren desert of Arizona and how that same faith informed their response to this violence—even contributing to the eventual building of the Mesa Arizona Temple.

Then, about a year ago, Steve reached out to me to ask if we would be interested in following that up with a novel he had recently finished. While I very much liked the idea of working with him again, a large novel was outside of what we normally do, and so I initially pointed him to other publishers that might be a better fit. (We have published a pair of graphic novels and some news editions of nineteenth-century dime novels, but those were more Mormon studies related.) Unfortunately, within a few months after this, Steve informed me that his cancer had returned. To be honest, because I had so much valued my previous experience working with him and knew that his writing wouldn't require too much labor on our end, I chose to take on the novel as a favor to make sure that it would be out in time for him to see it in print—on condition that the manuscript (which I had yet to read) didn't have anything objectionable.

Once I began reading, I couldn't put it down. I finished the 300+ page manuscript in less than two days and knew that we had to publish it. In a melding of Richard Dutcher's God's Army and Levi Peterson's The Backslider, Every Man a Prophet takes place in the Norwegian Mission in the 1970s and is informed by Steve's own time serving there as a young elder, but the foundational missionary experience he captures felt like it could have come out of the much warmer and later experiences I had in Hawaii at the turn of the millennium. (Apparently the Mormon missionary experience transcends both time and space.) Mirroring the Steve I had come to know and just like his previous book with us, Every Man a Prophet is brilliantly smart, compassionate, sympathetic, and brimming with love for the religious community he knew well. Thankfully, because of Steve's talents as a writer, we were able to push his manuscript through with record speed, and I am happy to know that he was able to hold finished copies in his hand and even sign a dozen of them.

A few weeks ago, the Man Upstairs (aka Greg Kofford) told me that he we needed to find out how to get Every Man in more hands because he thought it could change lives for the better. I couldn't agree more.

The world would be a better and kinder place with more people like Stephen C. LeSueur in it, and sadly there is now one less.

Loyd Isao Ericson
Managing Editor

Preview Bring Them to Zion: The 1856 Handcart Emigration Organization, Leadership, and Issues June 27 2025

Limited Signed Editions Available from Kofford June 24 2025

Most of the volumes offered by Greg Kofford Books are available in paperback. Some are only available in hardcover. Many have an option to select either. There are a few books, however, that have additional editions available.

Whenever you are browsing our website, be sure to click the dropdown arrow under the heading of "Cover" on each book your are looking at. The available paperback and/or hardcover variants will be listed there, but occasionally you might find more options, such as "paperback - signed copy," "paperback binding error 10% off," or "paperback shelf-worn 10% off." (Note that some hardcovers are available in these categories as well.)

Every time we see one of our authors at an event where we are displaying some of our inventory, we aske them to drop by our table and sign copies of their books. These books are available while supplies last at no additional charge. Just select the "signed copy" from the dropdown menu.

(Books with signed editions are listed here: https://gregkofford.com/collections/signed-copies-available.)

In addition, if you are looking to save a few dollars and care more about reading rather than displaying your books, we have a few "scratch 'n' dent" volumes show up from time to time that we make available for 10% off of the list price. These will have strange binding errors, or shelf wear like bent covers, dented pages, or scuff marks, but are otherwise intact and readable. All sales are final for books in these categories.

Please note that due to a glitch currently on our website, specialized inventory like our signed, shelf-worn, or binding error books will still show up after they are sold out, only to be removed from your cart when you go to pay. We apologize for any inconvenience that this might cause.

Supplies of all of these unique editions are strictly limited, so order yours today!

Report from MHA 2025 June 10 2025

The 60th Annual Conference of the Mormon History Association was held June 5–8, 2025, at the Ogden Eccles Conference Center in Ogden, Utah, and had a theme this year of Junctions and Communities.

Greg Kofford Books sponsored tables at MHA to showcase our many books in the field of Mormon Studies, and our staff had a chance to attend many of the sessions.

Eleven Kofford authors presented during the conference, and several more attended the event (and dropped by our tables to sign books).

Positioned at the corner of two main hallways, the Greg Kofford Books tables attracted quite a bit of attention from conference attendees. We had over six dozen of our titles on display (along with another dozen we couldn’t squeeze onto our tables). The best-selling titles at the conference were:

1. Fire and Sword: A History of the Latter-day Saints in Northern Missouri, 1836-39

2. I, Claudia: The Life of Claudia Lauper Bushman in Her Own Words

3. The Lost 116 Pages: Reconstructing the Book of Mormon's Missing Stories

4. Every Man a Prophet

5. Hearken, O Ye People: The Historical Setting of Joseph Smith’s Ohio Revelations

6. The Revised and Expanded Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith: Compared with the Earliest Known Manuscripts

7. Come Up Hither to Zion: William Marks and the Mormon Concept of Gathering

8. Saints, Slaves & Blacks

9. The Garden of Enid, Part 1

10. The Garden of Enid, Part 2

Kofford Authors Presenting at MHA 2025 May 29 2025

Have a favorite Kofford author? You might be able to hear them present at the 60th Annual Conference of the Mormon History Association next week. Held June 5–8, 2025, at the Ogden Eccles Conference Center in Ogden, Utah, the conference has a theme this year of Junctions and Communities in honor of the history of Ogden, nicknamed “Junction City” when it became the connecting point between numerous railroad lines. Below are the Kofford authors who will be participating at the conference. (And if you are attending, please be sure to stop by the Greg Kofford Books table and browse our titles!)

Thomas G. Alexander will be honored (and comment) in Session 1A: “Thomas G. Alexander and His Contribution to MHA and Mormon History” (Ballroom B, 10:30 AM – Noon Friday). Thomas taught at Brigham Young University for four decades, where he was the Lemuel Hardison Redd Jr. Professor of Western American History and director of the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies. He is the author of several books, including Mormonism in Transition.

Reid L. Neilson will present “The Incarceration of Latter-day Saint Polygamists at Home, 1879–1887” during Session 1F: “Being Subject: The Crossroads of Religion and Law” (Meeting Room 203, 10:30 AM – Noon, Friday). An assistant academic vice president at BYU, Reid previously served as Assistant Church Historian and Recorder for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the managing director of the church's history department. He is co-editor of The Annals of the Southern Mission.

Newell G. Bringhurst will present “Heber Bennion: Forgotten Proponent of Mormon Fundamentalism” during Session 1H: “Persistence of Post-Manifesto Polygamy” (Room 102, 10:30 AM – Noon, Friday). Professor Emeritus of History and Political Science at the College of the Sequoias in Visalia, California, Newell is the author of many books on Latter-day Saint history, including Saints, Slaves, and Blacks: The Changing Place of Black People Within Mormonism. He is also the co-editor of Excavating Mormon Pasts: The New Historiography of the Last Half Century.

Craig L. Foster will present “Second Echelon Latter-day Saints and the Perpetuation of Post-Manifesto Polygamy” during Session 1H: “Persistence of Post-Manifesto Polygamy” (Room 102, 10:30 AM – Noon, Friday). An accredited genealogist, Craig is the author of Penny Tracts and Polemics: A Critical Analysis of Anti-Mormon Pamphleteering in Great Britain, 1837-1860 and A Different God? Mitt Romney, the Religious Right, and the Mormon Question.

Caroline Kline will present with Nancy Ross “Global Mormon Women and Work: Discourse and Lived Experience” during Session 2B: “Gender Beyond the Pulpit: Women’s Words, Women’s Worlds” (Ballroom C, 2:15 PM – 3:45 PM Friday). Caroline is the assistant director of the Center for Global Mormon Studies at Claremont Graduate University. She is the co-editor with Claudia Bushman of Mormon Women Have Their Say: Essays from the Claremont Oral History Collection.

Patrick Q. Mason will present “Reading Mormon History Nonviolently” during Session 4I: “Crossroads of War and Peace” (Room 103, 10:30 AM – Noon Saturday). Co-editor of War & Peace in Our Time: Mormon Perspectives, Patrick is a historian specializing in the study of the Latter-day Saint movement. His other books include Planted: Belief and Belonging in an Age of Doubt and Mormonism and Violence. Since 2019, he has held the Leonard J. Arrington Chair of Mormon History and Culture at Utah State University.

Joseph M. Spencer will present “On ‘Leaders to Managers: The Fatal Shift’” during Session 5C: “Latter-day Eloquence Part 2: Orating Mormon Identity in an Incredulous World” (Ballroom E, 2:00 PM – 3:30 PM Saturday). Joseph is a philosopher and an assistant professor of ancient scripture at Brigham Young University. He is the author or editor of several books, including For Zion, The Vision of All, The Anatomy of Book of Mormon Theology (2 volumes), and Perspectives on Mormon Theology: Scriptural Theology.

Ardis E. Parshall will present “Josephine de la Harpe Ursenbach: Family Connections Linking Napoleon, the Russian Tsar, and a Handcart Pioneer” during Session 6A: “Genealogy, History, and Broadening the Study of the Past” (Ballroom B, 4:00 PM – 5:30 PM Saturday). Ardis is a historian, author, and freelance researcher specializing in Mormon history. Among other works, she is the co-editor of The Mormoness; Or, The Trials Of Mary Maverick: A Narrative Of Real Events, Boadicea; the Mormon Wife: Life Scenes in Utah, and Dime Novel Mormons.

Richard L. Saunders will present “WPA Cultural Projects and the Latter-day Saints” during Session 6F: “A New Deal for Zion: Saints and the State in the Great Depression” (Room 203, 4:00 PM – 5:30 PM Saturday). The author of The 1920 Edition of the Book of Mormon: A Centennial Adventure in Latter-day Saint Book History, Richard is a social historian, academic librarian, and former Dean of Library Services at Southern Utah University.

Michael Austin will present “Bernard DeVoto’s Mormons and the Possibility of Mormon Regionalism in the 20th Century” during Session 6G: “Mormonism in a Dull Mirror: Bernard DeVoto and the Possibility of Mormon Literature” (Room 101, 4:00 PM – 5:30 PM Saturday). Michael is the provost and vice president for academic affairs at Snow College. He is the author of Re-reading Job, and is the co-editor of The Mormoness, Boadicea, and Dime Novel Mormons.

Conan Grames will present “Unique But Not Different: Latter-day Saints in Japan” during Session 6I: “Pacific Junctures: Asian, Oceania, and America” (Room 103, 4:00 PM – 5:30 PM Saturday. Conan will also present the lecture at the Global Mormon Studies Breakfast: “Pioneer Women in the Early Church in Japan” on Friday, June 6, from 7:15 AM - 8:15 AM [Please note that a registration is required for the breakfast event.] An international lawyer who has lived and worked in both the US and Japan, Conan is the co-author of Unique But Not Different: Latter-day Saints in Japan.

Ebook readers: Support your independent publishers March 31 2025

It may come as no surprise that Amazon’s Kindle ebooks completely dominate the market, making upwards of over 90% of our ebook sales. Well aware of their virtual monopoly, Amazon takes advantage of this by offering only half of the royalties to authors and publishers compared to other distributors like Apple and Google.

While readers with Kindle ebook devices are limited to titles purchased through Amazon, we at Greg Kofford Books recommend using Google Play Books for your ebook reading for these four reasons:

• They can be read on virtually any phone, tablet, or computer regardless of operating system using the Google Play Books app (iOS, Android) or any browser.

• For most titles, readers get access to both the standard ebook with flowing resizable text AND the digital print version (similar to a pdf) with the text as it appears on the printed page. The latter is great for books with tables and other complex formatting that do not work well with standard ebooks, as well as for scholars who prefer to cite a printed page rather than a complicated Kindle location. Importantly, readers are able to seamlessly switch between the two, and any highlight or notation made on one is automatically made on the other (and across devices as well).

(Right: standard ebook with flowable text and highlighted passage; left: digital print version with same passage automatically highlighted)

• On phones and tablets, the Google Play Books app has an exceptional “Read aloud” tool that can turn your ebook to an audiobook, even while your device screen is off. It still sounds a little robotic and cannot properly pronounce “Nauvoo” or “Nephi,” but it’s great for continuing your reading while driving, relaxing, or going on a walk, and it also seamlessly resumes from wherever you were at on the ebook.

• Finally, as mentioned above, Google (as well as the other ebook distributors we sell through, Apple and Kobo) gives authors and publishers twice the royalties offered by Amazon. For small and independent authors and publishers pinching every penny in a niche market, the importance of this can hardly be overstated.

To provide you with an example of what Google Play Books has to offer, for one week (ending April 8th) we are making the first volume of Brant Gardner’s Second Witness: Analytical and Contextual Commentary on the Book of Mormon available for free on the Google Play Books store, which you can acquire here.

For those of you who prefer the feel and smell of a printed book in your hand, you can further support your independent publishers by purchasing through them directly. We are working to improve the gregkofford.com experience and currently offer free shipping for orders over $40. And, of course, we encourage you to also purchase books through independent bricks and mortar stores, like our friends at Benchmark Books who sell our entire library–including some hard-to-find quality hardcover editions.

Q&A with Zachary McLeod Hutchins, author of Shall I Have Pleasure? An Answer for Sarah March 03 2025

Greg Kofford Books recently asked Zach Hutchins, author of Shall I Have Pleasure? An Answer for Sarah, about his experience in writing the book.

Q: What inspired you to explore the concept of pleasure in the context of faith and spirituality?

A: Because I was born in Massachusetts, to very religious parents who regularly reminded me that I was descended from the state’s seventeenth-century founders, I sometimes jokingly claim to be the world’s last Puritan. I’m naturally skeptical of fun, inclined to ask whether time and money devoted to leisure, aesthetics, or taste is appropriately allocated. In other words, this book probably emerged from an effort to wrestle with my own neuroses and a pre-disposition to self-denial that borders on unhealthy—especially given the temptation to impose my own values on others, who have a much richer appreciation of the value of pleasure in strengthening our relationship to the Creator and to one another.

Q: You discuss the Christian tradition's historical unease with sensory enjoyment. How do you believe this perspective has shaped modern attitudes among believers?

A: A decision to forego certain pleasures might be an appropriate expression of our agency and discipleship, but I have observed that many Christians—both those who are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and those who belong to other denominations—seem to feel constrained by their faith. In other words, it seems to me that many Christians experience Christianity as an involuntary barrier to pleasure, rather than a conscious elevation of other priorities. The effect of this orientation is to render every new encounter with pleasure a form of temptation, even where pleasure might be enjoyed innocently.

Q: What role does Sarah’s question, “Shall I have pleasure?” play in framing your exploration of divine intent for human pleasure?

A: What I love so much about Sarah’s question is that it gets at the question of divine intent. When God informs Sarah that she’s about to conceive a son, the question of whether or not that experience will be pleasurable might seem irrelevant. God could fulfill the promise that Sarah would give birth and that Abraham’s posterity would be as numerous as the stars without making any sort of provision for Sarah’s enjoyment of the experience. But what Sarah is really asking is not, “Can you do the impossible?” but “Why would God do the impossible?” She wants to know whether God cares about the means (how something happens) as well as the ends (what ultimately happens). And the good news that this book celebrates is that God does care about our experience in mortality. God wants us to enjoy the embodied experience of His Creation.

Q: You argue that pleasure is often viewed with suspicion among members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. How do you think this perception can evolve while staying aligned with doctrinal principles?

A: I think that the prophets and apostles are already—by virtue of their teachings and their examples—doing much to re-orient our relationship with pleasure. During President Nelson’s tenure as the Lord’s living mouthpiece, he released a picture of himself swinging on his back porch that clearly communicated a sense of pleasure and fun. The good-natured banter between Elder Holland and Elder Kearon at the pulpit of General Conference communicated a light-heartedness that is conducive to play and pleasure. As members of the Church follow the example of our leaders and more fully embrace our roles as agents, assuming more individual responsibility in choosing activities that express gratitude for the Creation, we will stop thinking about prohibited pleasures and start thinking more about how pleasure can bring us into closer relationship with our Heavenly Parents and with our brothers and sisters around the globe.

Q: In your analysis, you connect the biblical concept of joy with embodied experiences. Why is this connection significant in understanding divine intent?

A: Joy has often been framed in opposition to pleasure, as a more spiritual and ethereal experience. But the doctrine of the Restoration insists that a fulness of joy is contingent upon a union between flesh and spirit. When we recognize that a fulness of joy literally incorporates physical sensations like touch and taste and smell and sight, we cannot escape the conclusion that our Heavenly Parents mean for us to find joy in and through the pleasures of this world—and not simply to endure its hardships with gritted teeth, until the morning of the first resurrection arrives. Discipleship may not be a series of uninterrupted pleasures, but traveling along the covenant path shouldn’t feel like walking on broken glass, either. I think the Lord would be pleased if, as we traveled along the strait and narrow, we paused to smell a flower, or paid attention to the birdsong, or reveled in the feeling of someone else’s fingers intertwined with our own.

Q: How do you interpret the role of pleasure in the lives of Adam and Eve, especially in light of their experiences before and after the Fall?

A: The scriptural record seems fairly clear about the fact that living in Eden was a pleasurable experience. The trouble is that the Fall involved pleasure as well: the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil looked delicious and very desirable. I think that for most Christians, the fact that God sentenced Adam to a lifetime of toil amidst thistles and thorns seems like an implicit condemnation of pleasure. The implication is that Adam and Eve didn’t do a very good job of weighing pleasure against obedience, so God removed them from the distractions of pleasure. But Latter-day Saints celebrate the Fall as a moment of progress (2 Nephi 2:25), which suggests that our paranoia about pleasure in this important story is an inherited tradition, not true doctrine.

Q: You mention prophetic warnings against prioritizing pleasure. How can believers balance these warnings with the acknowledgment of pleasure as a divine gift?

A: I have a firm testimony that we will be blessed as we follow the prophet, and I take apostolic warnings against the prioritization of pleasure seriously. But I also know—from studying the life and teachings of Jesus Christ; the lives and teachings of living prophets; and personal experience—that pleasure is an important element of the embodied experience our Heavenly Parents want us to have. As we prioritize pleasures that draw into closer relationship with God and with loved ones, that balance will seem more and more intuitive, a natural outcome of living after the manner of happiness.

Q: What message do you hope readers will take away about the role of pleasure in the plan of happiness, both in this life and the next?

A: I love Elder Kearon’s declaration that we worship in the Church of joy. That joy is enhanced by a perfectly cooked roast at the ward Christmas party; by the beautiful artwork produced by President Yee; by the sound of well-tuned voices in sacrament meetings; and by the embrace of a spouse with whom we are striving to be perfectly united in all things. Elder Talmage wrote that worship is an outgrowth of our understanding of another’s worth, and as we more fully appreciate the role of pleasure in God’s plan for us, we will better be able to understand both the beneficence of our Creator and the worth of His Creation. Better appreciating the gifts with which we are surrounded, we will be better prepared to enter into God’s presence with hearts full of gratitude for the plan of happiness that brought us so much pleasure here on earth.

Shall I Have Pleasure? An Answer for Sarah is available in both paperback and ebook.

Q&A with Alonzo L. Gaskill and Richard G. Moore, compilers of The Revised and Expanded Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith: Compared with the Earliest Known Manuscripts February 13 2025

We recently spoke with Alonzo L. Gaskill and Richard G. Moore, compilers of The Revised and Expanded Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith: Compared with the Earliest Known Manuscripts, about their new book.

Greg Kofford Books: What inspired you to create this revised edition of The Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith?

Richard Moore: The project was Alonzo’s idea. He came to me after his student researchers were having a difficult time finding some of the original or earliest sources. I initially came on board as a researcher. Later, as we became aware of how large this project was becoming, he invited me to be a co-compiler. I was excited to be part of this. As strange as it might sound to most people, I actually enjoy research.

Alonzo Gaskill: I’ve loved TPJS and have memorized so many of the quotes attributed to the Prophet Joseph. However, with the Joseph Smith Papers Project, that volume largely found itself “on the outs” and not trusted as it once was. I wanted the Prophet’s teachings to still be accessible—but as correctly as possible. Hence the ten-year project to create a new version of this once very popular text.

GKB: How did the collaboration between you and the Joseph Smith Papers Project influence the book?

Alonzo: I initially assumed that they would take on this project, but when I discussed this with affiliates of the JSP—and discovered that they would not be doing this—I jumped on the decade long project. We chatted with various affiliates during the project, but the book is not affiliated with the JSP and doesn’t solely rely on their work.

Rich: The Joseph Smith Papers were invaluable—an awesome work. I originally thought that I would be using the Joseph Smith Papers almost exclusively, but I soon discovered that there were many other sources that were not available in the JSP. There were the journal entries or diaries of others, newspapers, letters, and documents in the Church History Library not found in the JSP.

GKB: What challenges did you face while comparing the original manuscripts to earlier editions?

Rich: The painstaking process of comparing our document with the originals. Hours and hours of me reading the text (including every punctuation and capital letter) while Alonzo followed along with what we had in our manuscript. It was not just a cut and paste thing.

Alonzo: We had to read and reread, making sure we had gotten things correct. We had a few occasions—though not many—where our reading of an original document did not agree with other interpreters (including those at the JSP). So, we methodically went through these books and documents, reading and rereading, trying very hard to get things “right.” That was challenging, time consuming, and painful—though necessary.

GKB: Why was it important to retain the original pagination from the 1938 edition?

Alonzo: Because that’s the same pagination used in all subsequent versions, we wanted to stick with that so that users of the volume could quickly locate any quote they were trying to look up.

Rich: I was surprised to discover that the same pagination from the 1938 first edition of TPJS was used throughout its publication history. That was actually a bonus for us. We didn’t have to note different editions.

GKB: How does this new edition address previous historical inaccuracies or misconceptions?

Alonzo: We’ve corrected those, identifying quotes “attributed” to Joseph that turned out to be the words of another person, and we’ve provided the original words that, in some cases, Joseph Fielding Smith expanded into a quote (drawing on only a few words). So, our version of TPJS makes clear what was actually recorded of Joseph’s teachings and what (in the original TPJS) is not actually Joseph, but instead the words of someone else.

Rich: We discovered that some of the statements found in TPJS were edited and expanded by early Church historians after they arrived in Utah. Perhaps they were there when Joseph Smith spoke and remembered some of what he said—even though the handwritten notes from that occasion were sparse. Or maybe they felt like they knew Joseph well enough to expand the notes into sentences they believed he would have said. Truth is, there are no recordings of Joseph speaking, only notes taken by scribes and other observers. In many cases, we do not know exactly what he said. We tried to find the earliest or original sources and put them in unedited.

GKB: What criteria did you use to select the content included in the revised edition?

Rich: Earliest and most valid sources we could find.

Alonzo: We sought to use the earliest sources. Often there were early (but not the earliest) sources that had been fleshed out after the Prophet’s martyrdom. However, we tried to use the earliest source, so that additions or changes were not included in the volume.

GKB: Can you explain the significance of Joseph Smith's sermons being reconstructed from notes rather than verbatim records?

Alonzo: Joseph was largely an extemporaneous speaker, so “verbatim” texts of his sermons don’t exist. Likewise, Joseph often authorized others to write and publish things under his name. Thus, it became important to explain the source and nature of the various quotes that have been attributed to Joseph for well over 100 years. In his early sermons, there was often only one notetaker. In his later sermons (like during the Nauvoo era) you would usually have several people taking notes—which made those discourses easier to flesh out.

Rich: I recently read where someone claimed they had the actual, verbatim words of the King Follett Discourse. The published sermon we have came from four different sources. There is no exact version. In fact, a person can read the King Follett Discourse in about 15 or 20 minutes. Yet, Joseph is reported to have spoken for more than two hours. The people who made an amalgamated version did a great job, but we simply have to recognize that it is incomplete and probably not necessarily Joseph’s exact words.

GKB: How do you hope this edition will impact the study of Latter-day Saint history and doctrine?

Alonzo: The JSP project was of incalculable value to historians, authorities, speakers, teachers, and members. However, the volumes are expensive and not readily accessible in hardcopy. Additionally, as valuable as the website is, it can be very challenging to find specific quotes on the site. (Indeed, sometimes the transcripts posted on the website are not 100% accurate, which poses its own challenges.) Thus, we have made available in a single volume the “best of” Joseph’s teachings—many of which (though not all) are in the JSP volumes. So, this will help those who want to quote him accurately but who do not have ready access to all of the volumes.

Rich: There has been some criticism that we were simply redoing what the Joseph Smith Papers project was doing, only on a much smaller scale. There is no possible way we could match what the JSP people have done, nor were we trying to do that. Our goal was simply to focus on the book Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith because it was such an important volume for many years. So many of us are very familiar with the statements from that book. We wanted to have it continue to be useful for those people who grew up with it, and add to it where they could find the original sources, whether in JSP, Wilford Woodruff’s Journals, Times and Seasons, Church History Library, etc. We were trying to make things easier to find for the average person.

GKB: What new insights did you gain while compiling this edition that surprised you the most?

Alonzo: Largely just that many quotes traditionally attributed to Joseph Smith were either summarizations of what he taught (by Joseph Fielding Smith, or others) or were statements of other people, but changed to appear to be the words of the Prophet himself.

Rich: I gained a greater appreciation for the efforts of Joseph Fielding Smith who in the 1930s, without the use of modern technology, compiled TPJS. I also became aware of the fact that, in many cases, we do not have the exact wording of the Prophet Joseph, and in some cases, we are not sure that these are his words at all. Case in point, for a time he was the editor of the Times and Seasons. There were editorials in the Times and Seasons that were included in TPJS. Joseph was the editor. These were editorials. But did he write them? Maybe he did. Perhaps the editorials were written by others and approved by Joseph. We just don’t know for sure. I’ve come to the point when I am quoting the Prophet from a source that I am unsure of, I will simply use the phrase “a statement attributed to Joseph Smith.”

GKB: How does the book balance historical accuracy with maintaining its devotional and instructional purpose?

Alonzo: The fact that we have just gone back to the earliest sources assures that “historical accuracy.” The reality that we have left the structure of the original TPJS has enabled us to retain the “devotional and instructional” value of the words.

Rich: I remember a religion professor when I was a university student saying that Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith was the fifth standard work. I recall being disappointed when it was taken out of print and it was suggested that people writing books and articles not cite it anymore. After going through it for the past ten years, I do understand the hesitancy of quoting it when we now have better sources. However, the teachings of Joseph Smith, as accurate as we can get them, have not lost their importance and value to me.

The Revised and Expanded Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith: Compared with the Earliest Known Manuscripts is available in both paperback and as a PDF ebook.

Preview Every Man a Prophet February 12 2025

Every Man a Prophet

A novel by Stephen C. LeSueur 

Every Man a Prophet is a powerful exploration of faith, love, and self-discovery set within the framework of missionary life in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Eddie Pedersen and Orrin Tanner, two missionaries serving in Norway, each grapple with the weight of expectation, personal desires, and the search for their true selves. Eddie struggles to reconcile his faith with feelings he has been taught to suppress, while Orrin’s relentless pursuit of perfection masks a deep fear of failure. Together, they navigate a land of cold landscapes and colder hearts, striving to find meaning and connection in their spiritual calling.

Through Eddie and Orrin’s intertwined journeys, LeSueur crafts a deeply human story of vulnerability and resilience. The novel delves into the complexities of identity, faith, and the universal longing to belong. As the two men confront the rigid doctrines of their religion and the unyielding truths of their own hearts, readers are drawn into an unforgettable narrative of courage and redemption. Every Man a Prophet is a profound tale of the sacrifices we make for faith and the truths we uncover about ourselves along the way.

Preview Shall I Have Pleasure? An Answer for Sarah January 23 2025

Shall I Have Pleasure An Answer for Sarah

Shall I Have Pleasure? An Answer for Sarah explores the complex relationship between faith, desire, and the pursuit of joy through a spiritual and philosophical lens. Drawing from religious narratives, scriptural analysis, and theological insights, the book delves into how pleasure is perceived within Christian traditions, particularly among members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Through reflective anecdotes, historical context, and doctrinal interpretations, the author challenges the tension between spiritual duty and sensory enjoyment, encouraging readers to reconcile divine purpose with the pursuit of happiness.

Rooted in scripture and enriched by personal storytelling, this thought-provoking work invites readers to reconsider long-held beliefs about pleasure and self-denial. By examining biblical stories like Sarah's incredulous laughter at the promise of joy in old age, as well as Christ's compassionate acceptance of human love and generosity, the book offers a fresh perspective on living a life of spiritual fulfillment that embraces joy as an essential part of divine intent. Through this lens, Shall I Have Pleasure? becomes a call to rediscover pleasure as a God-given gift intertwined with human purpose and eternal potential.

Preview The Revised and Expanded Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith November 11 2024

 

The Revised and Expanded Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith: Compared with the Earliest Known Manuscripts

• “Thanks to careful and exhaustive scholarship of Gaskill and Moore, Teachings has been resuscitated. . . . We now have a trustworthy source of Joseph Smith’s thought to match the revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants.” — Richard L. Bushman

For nearly a century, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, first published in 1938, was the standard source for studying the profound teachings and revelations of the founding prophet of the Restoration. Drawing on a rich collection of sermons, letters, and journal entries, Teachings provided Latter-day Saints with an accessible compilation of Joseph Smith’s revelatory doctrines that highlighted his unique ability to make heavenly concepts accessible to everyday people.

The Revised and Expanded Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith: Compared with the Earliest Known Manuscripts offers readers not only a preservation of Joseph Fielding Smith’s original compilation but also a side-by-side comparison with the primary sources that it was based on. With modern scholarship shedding new light on these sources, the updated volume allows readers to explore both the Prophet Joseph Smith’s revelatory insights and the historical context in which his teachings were first shared. This balanced approach honors the enduring legacy of the original Teachings while encouraging deeper exploration and understanding of their origins.

Q&A with Author Claudia L. Bushman October 14 2024

We recently spoke with Claudia L. Bushman, author of I, Claudia: The Life of Claudia L. Bushman in Her Own Words, and asked her a few questions about her new book.

 Q. You grew up in a Latter-day Saint home in San Francisco. In what way(s) did this experience shape you, that growing up in Utah, or perhaps anywhere else, likely wouldn’t have?

A. Well, of course, San Francisco is a sophisticated, gay friendly, highly cultured place. My sisters and I felt very privileged to have access to so much significant art and activity. I think that we took good advantage of what was available to us and had many rich experiences. Our mother encouraged us in many directions and we all benefited a lot from it. I don’t know how it would have been to grow up in Utah or anywhere else.

Q. Your courtship with Richard L. Bushman while you were a student at Wellesley may surprise readers for a number of reasons, but could be summarized with the phrase “opposites attract.” In what way did this prove to be a positive?

A. I am surprised to hear you suggest that Richard and I are opposites. Actually we are very much alike. Very, very much.  

 Q. The women’s issue of Dialogue in 1971 and the founding of Exponent II are considered pivotal moments in modern Mormon feminism, and the response to both endeavors was favorable as well as critical. You even sacrificed your official involvement to keep the peace. Looking back, are you still happy with the timing of both publications, believing that any backlash would have been inevitable no matter when they came out? Or, would there have been a benefit to waiting?

A. I very much dislike waiting. When I am ready or getting ready to do something, I just do it. That’s dancing to the music of our times. I don’t do things when considering their timeliness. Backlash is not my concern.  

Q. Your work as a historian has allowed you to write about women and men, you’ve conducted oral histories, and you have edited and annotated other women’s journals. Each of these genres have their own challenges and rewards. Do you find any one of them more satisfying to undertake than the other? If so, why?

A. All these can be very satisfying. Or not. I just do what seems possible when the occasion arises. I’m not always in a position to undertake anything. Everything I have done has challenges and rewards of its own, for which I am grateful.

Q. After having written about many others, you have now published your own candid memoir. Was your autobiography project more, or less challenging than writing about someone else? What did you learn about yourself in the process?

A. Actually, writing I, Claudia, was somewhat accidental. I don’t remember writing it. I don’t remember why I decided to write it. It just sort of happened. I’m glad it did. Someone asked if I had considered an autobiography and I saw it on my computer and sent it off. Suddenly, it was published. I actually do live in some sort of fog. I don’t think that it was more difficult than anything else. I don’t try to be anything I’m not.

   I, Claudia is available in both paperback and as an ebook.