I am curious if the PDF I have of this has been tampered with. I find it odd that she would quote History of the Church in her biography. Especially sections from JSH in PoGP.

I am also curious as to why Brigham thought this book was so damning to his theocracy. Why did he want this book burned and not to be distributed? The only thing that I can think would be threatening is JS Sr. dream that is the same as the vision of tree of life given in Nephi 8.

I admit I am not that far in the biography so there could be something that is much more devastating to JS's character and story of the beginnings of the church.

Briggy produced his own cherry-picked edition which he published to supplant the original.

Levina Fielding Anderson published a scholarly and critical edition of the original, before Young got his hands on it.
It was published in 2001 by Signature Books with the title "Lucy's Book: A Critical Edition"

Richard I'm curious what your opinion is in response tothe OT query as to what threat specifically did Lucy's presentation present to prest Young?

Oh there's many things. Like her admission that the family practiced folk magic (which many did); she said, "the family practiced abrac."

That her husband was a drunkard, deist who didn't believe in religion; but found a "paying job" under Joseph's new church, so why not?

That she and her surviving son still believed in the supernatural and followed the Strangites and despised the Brighamites (especially since she probably believed the hype about B.Y. and/or his followers poisoning Samuel Smith so he couldn't lead the church).



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/22/2016 02:45PM by dydimus.

I believe one of the main reasons is that parts of her book imply or directly say that Joseph's son should have been his successor and the line of leadership should stay in the Smith family, which undermined BY.

In 1845, Lucy Smith at age 69 dictated a history of her family to Martha Coray. This history was inherited by William Smith who sold it to Isaac Sheen who sold it to Orson Pratt in 1852. Pratt took the manuscript to England and published it in 1853.

Apostle George A. Smith, a relative, felt there were errors in the manuscript and attempted to verify specific dates and events.

Eventually it was decided by Brigham Young to have the book destroyed. He issued a commandment to this end.

George A. Smith and Judge Elias Smith, both cousins of Joseph were appointed to correct and revise the history.

In 1901 the history was published in the "Improvement Era" eith the consent of Lorenzo Snow and the preface written by Lucy's Grandson Joseph F Smith.

The changes are supposedly

Favorable references to William Smith removed
six references to Emma omitted
corrections to dates and names
removal of unfavorable references to Joseph
removal of items considered to be of interest only to family

In 1945 it was published in book form. Foot notes were added bt Preston Nibley, assistant church historian.

A revised and enhanced edition edited by Scott and Maurine Proctor and published by Bookcraft, brings material from the previous versions together into one book.

Thank you for your change summary, Heartless.

I appreciate all of you taking the time to respond. :) Have a great week all!

My favorite part of this whole episode is the statement in the
forward to the tampered edition that it was changed in order to
"preserve" Mother Smith's testimony

Now there's Mormon doublethink for you.