Joseph Smith, founding prophet and martyr of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, personally wrote, dictated, or commissioned thousands of documents. Among these are several highly significant sources that scholars have used over and over again in their attempts to reconstruct the founding era of Mormonism, usually by focusing solely on content, without a deep appreciation for how and why a document was produced. This book offers case studies of the sources most often used by historians of the early Mormon experience. Each chapter takes a particular document as its primary subject, considering the production of a document as an historical event in itself, with its own background, purpose, circumstances, and consequences. The documents are examined not merely as sources of information but as artifacts that reflect aspects of the general culture and particular circumstances in which they were created. This book will help historians working in the founding era of Mormonism gain a more solid grounding in the period's documentary record by supplying important information on major primary sources.

ForewordHarry S. StoutContributorsChapter 1IntroductionMark Ashurst-McGee, Robin Scott Jensen, and Sharalyn D. HowcroftChapter 2The Gold Plates as Foundational TextRichard Lyman BushmanChapter 3Textual Criticism and the Book of MormonGrant HardyChapter 4Intertextuality and the Purpose of Joseph Smith's New Translation of the BibleThomas A. WaymentChapter 5The Dictation, Compilation, and Canonization of Joseph Smith's RevelationsGrant UnderwoodChapter 6Joseph Smith's Missouri Prison Letters and the Mormon Textual CommunityDavid W. GruaChapter 7The Textual Culture of the Nauvoo Female Relief Society Leadership and Minute BookJennifer ReederChapter 8Joseph Smith's Sermons and the Early Mormon Documentary RecordWilliam V. SmithChapter 9Joseph Smith's Nauvoo JournalsAlex D. Smith and Andrew H. HedgesChapter 10The Early Diaries of Wilford Woodruff, 1835-1839Laurel Thatcher UlrichChapter 11A Textual and Archival Reexamination of Lucy Mack Smith's HistorySharalyn D. HowcroftChapter 12The Image as Text and Context in Early Mormon HistoryJeffrey G. CannonChapter 13Joseph Smith and the Conspicuous Scarcity of Early Mormon DocumentationRonald O. Barney