Product Description
Author : Ronald K. Esplin, Richard L. Bushman, Dean C. Jessee
The Revelations and Translations series of the Joseph Smith Papers Project presents transcriptions of Joseph Smith’s written revelations and translations. Volume 1: Manuscript Revelation Books is a sister volume to the 9'' x 12'' Facsimile Edition that was published in 2009. This version is the smaller, 7" x 10" library edition of the earlier book. Like the Facsimile Edition, it presents scores of Joseph Smith’s revelations, dated from 1828 to 1834, that became the basis for the canonized books of revelations: the Book of Commandments (1833) and the first edition of the Doctrine and Covenants (1835). Unlike the earlier Facsimile Edition, this edition does not include reproductions of the handwritten revelations themselves. However, this volume does include:
- Complete, color-coded transcripts of the handwritten revelations, rendering each scribe’s handwriting in a different color, to facilitate analysis of revisions made by various scribes
- Introductions to place these vital documents in their historical settings and enhance our understanding of them
Ronald K. Esplin is the managing editor for The Joseph Smith Papers. He received history degrees from the University of Utah, the University of Virginia, and Brigham Young University. From 1972 until 1980, he was part of the History Division of the LDS church's Historical Department, with assignments both as a researcher and writer and as an archivist. He moved to Brigham Young University in 1980 when the History Division was transferred there to become the Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History. From 1986 through 2002, he served as managing director of that research institute and as a professor of church history and doctrine. From 1988 to 1991, he served as one of the editors for Macmillan’sEncyclopedia of Mormonism. Most of his publications have involved Brigham Young and early Utah or pre-Utah Mormon history, includingMen With A Mission: The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in the British Isles, 1837–1841. Many of them also concern Joseph Smith and early Latter-day Saint leadership.
Richard L. Bushman a general editor of The Joseph Smith Papersalong with Ronald K. Esplin and Dean C. Jessee, is Gouverneur Morris Professor of History Emeritus at Columbia University. He has been appointed Howard W. Hunter visiting professor at Claremont Graduate University for 2008–2009. He received his B.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard University. He taught at Brigham Young University, Boston University, and the University of Delaware before joining the Columbia faculty. His published works include From Puritan to Yankee: Character and the Social Order in Connecticut, 1690–1765 (1967), King and People in Provincial Massachusetts (1985), and The Refinement of America: Persons, Houses, Cities (1992). He has served as president of the Mormon History Association and the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic.
Dean C. Jessee is widely recognized as an authority on the life and writings of Joseph Smith. He holds a master's degree in Church History from Brigham Young University and is a research historian in the Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History at BYU. He served for many years in the Church Historical Department, and has been president of the Mormon History Association. He is the editor of The Papers of Joseph Smith, volumes 1 and 2.
Deseret Book
