Review of The Joseph Smith Papers, Journals, Volume 1: 1832–1839. Edited by Dean C. Jessee, Mark Ashurst-McGee, and Richard L. Jensen.

Authors

Kenneth P. Minkema, Yale Divinity SchoolFollow

Date of this Version

2010

Document Type

Article

Citation

Documentary Editing: Journal of the Association for Documentary Editing, Volume 31: 2010 ISSN 0196-7134

Comments

© 2010 The Association for Documentary Editing. Used by permission.

Abstract

With the long-anticipated appearance of the first volume of The Joseph Smith Papers, a landmark project in American religious history and in Mormon Studies commences. Containing the scribal and printed remains of the founder and organizer of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, The Joseph Smith Papers, when completed, will amount to some thirty-two volumes—a phenomenal undertaking in an age when the magisterial, multi-volume printed edition is an endangered species. Under the general editorship of distinguished historians Dean C. Jessee, Ronald K. Esplin, and Richard Lyman Bushman, the edition is arranged in six series: Journals, Documents, Revelations and Translations (which will include the printer’s manuscript of The Book of Mormon), History, Legal and Business, and Administrative. Documents included in this collection are those created by Joseph Smith or by staff whose work the Prophet directed, as well as papers received, collected, and generated by his office.