Lucy Mack Smith
When I began reading historical books about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, I thought this one was a great find. What better source of information on Joseph Smith than his own mother's account? Through The History of Joseph Smith we get a clearer picture of his family life, their search for spiritual truth, the constant pressure and persecutions they suffered, their work in organizing and building up the early church. Several acquaintances who saw me reading this book praised it highly- but I did not find it as spiritual as they did. It was frustrating to read. There are huge gaps in the narration, many which I found confusing and inexplicable. Sometimes the text did not even make sense. When I discovered the edition I was reading had been edited by the church, I was very disappointed, and wondered what was missing from the original. I never got my hands on an earlier edition to find out Rating: 2/5 355 pages, 1954
I'm trying to think back on my church history and can't remember anything about his mother. But I would think she would give a very biased history of her son's life. Too bad the church edited it so heavily.
ReplyDeleteOn another totally unrelated note (sort of), when my mom and brother were visiting the grandparents a few months ago at my grandfather's rehab "home" my mom played chopsticks with President Monson (who apparently popped by without warning). I saw some pictures and thought it was pretty cool.
I'm being to lazy to follow the links over but that's interesting it was edited so much.
ReplyDeleteTrish's story is really funny.