gtaylor@astroatc.UUCP (12/07/86)
[Is this becoming mod.religion.lds? --clh] Having read both of the books Keith Rowell recommended (if you're a Liturgical Christian living in SLC, you *gotta* figure out what's going on in the places of power. 'simple.), I'd add a second on them both. The HBJ book is a little heavier on the facts, but hey. The first book on the early history of the Mormons I ran across while living in SLC that I'd also like to recommend is a biography of Joseph Smith (the guy who ah...found the golden plates) written by Fawn M. Brodie (you might know her work as Jefferson's biographer. She's the one who pointed out the lineage for Jefferson's illegitimate children by one of his black servants that was *so* unpopular during the bicentennial) called "No Man Knows My History." Fawn seems to have had no axes to grind, and was given access to a good number of historical documents concerning Smith's life and doings. It is a fascinating bit of biography, carefully looking at the social, cultural and religious community in the New York area that Smith came from. If you've enocuntered any of the tales relating to the sale by the LDS church of the letter from Jos. Smith that stated that the leadership of the church passed to his son to the Reorganized LDS Church in St. Louis, or the Spaulding manuscript stories, or the infamous "White Salamander" letter hoax and subsequent mayhem, this book will, I think, help to put some of it into perspective.