REVIEWS

Not Enough Trouble

Trouble Enough: and the In Trouble Enough, Taves attempts to by Ernest H. Taves (New write a biography of Joseph Smith, relying York: Prometheus Books, 1984), $19.95, almost wholly upon Lucy Mack Smith's 280 pp. and Joseph Smith and the Origins History of Joseph Smith and His Progeni- of the Book of Mormon by David Persuitte tors (Liverpool: S. W. Richards, 1853), (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland and Co., the History of the Church, B. H. Roberts, 1985), 295 pp., $19.95. ed., 7 vols., 2nd ed. rev. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1957), Fawn Brodie's Reviewed by Kenneth H. Godfrey, , 2nd ed. (New Church Education System Area Director. York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1971), Donna Hill's Joseph Smith, The First Mormon AT LEAST ONCE a decade, it seems, some- (Garden City: Doubleday, 1977), Gerald one publishes a book about the Latter-day and Sandra Tanner's —Shadow Saints without taking the necessary "trou- or Reality? (Salt Lake City: Modern ble" to adequately research the subject. Microfilm Co., 1972), and E. D. Howe's Stanley Hirshon was judged guilty of this 1834 Mormonism Unvailed (Painesville, offense in 1969 and received from the Mor- Ohio: Published by the author, 1834). mon History Association its "Worst Book" His bibliography totals only seventy award for his volume on . books, articles, and monographs, while Ernest H. Taves, a Massachusetts-based Richard L. Bushman's book, Joseph Smith psychiatrist with both Mormon and Men- and Mormon Beginnings (Urbana: Univer- nonite roots, would be a strong candidate sity of Illinois Press, 1984), which, inci- for the same award this year. David Per- dently, ends with 's move to suitte, a retired Air Force computer ex- Kirtland in 1832, has a bibliography which pert, would follow, though at a consider- cites more than 700 documents. I use able distance. His book, though seriously Bushman for comparison because he, too, flawed in approach and evidence and unin- lives on the east coast, far from the LDS formed in key areas, is at least neither Church Archives. trivial nor silly. Trouble Enough begins with a chapter The title for Taves's book comes from on the Prophet's ancestry, drawn mainly the pen of Ebenezer Robinson who in his from Lucy Mack Smith's biographical newspaper The Return (vol. 2, p. 315), sketches (which he describes incorrectly as published years after the event supposedly a rare book) and the Solomon Mack nar- occurred, tells us that when Joseph Smith rative found in Richard L. Anderson's placed the handwritten manuscript of the Joseph Smith's Heritage Book of Mormon in the cornerstone of the (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1971). Nauvoo House, he exclaimed, "I have had In Chapter 2, he moves the Smith family trouble enough with this thing" (Taves, from to Palmyra in five pages. p. 160). The narrative recounts money digging, the 140 DIALOGUE: A JOURNAL OF MORMON THOUGHT

First Vision, the bringing forth of the Book Several Latter-day Saint scholars, including of Mormon, the Kirtland years, the trou- Robert K. Thomas (1972), have found bles in Missouri, the founding of Nauvoo, stylistic differences among Book of Mor- and the Prophet's martyrdom, with hardly mon writers and have pointed out, for an innovative interpretation or thought to example, that Enos certainly wrote dif- break the chronology. ferently than did his son, Jarom. I did a Part 2 of this volume attempts to character study of more than twenty Book identify authorship of the Book of Mor- of Mormon personalities and found them mon using stylometry. Stylometry, de- as diverse as many of those found in the scribed as a "scientific recognition system world's other scriptures. The Book of Mor- for written or spoken utterances," began mon is a very complex canon of scripture with Augustus De Morgan, the English that ought not be dismissed as the product mathematician and logician, in 1851. After of one man's mind on the basis of statisti- delineating how it works, Taves then in- cal studies that are hardly foolproof. forms his readers that by using stylometry, Trouble Enough, moreover, has other he has discovered that the Book of Mor- weaknesses. Historians generally agree that mon was authored by only one person. for something to become history, facts have I would have been more impressed to be put together into a pattern that is with this section had Taves provided an understandable and credible. Only then analysis of the weaknesses of stylometry as will the resulting portrait of the past be well as its strengths. Stylometry, contrary usable and useful in making decisions and to what Taves writes, is not an exact sci- taking action. Mere "facts" listed and un- ence, and its use on the writings of Paul linked do not a history make, but rather a and Shakespeare have generated heated catalogue. Taves provides us with a cursory controversy. One argument has revolved glimpse of some "facts" in the life of around what constitutes a sentence in the Joseph Smith but fails to provide the New Testament Greek of the Apostle Paul. reader with the necessary linkage to make Stylometric studies are based, in part at a strong historical chain. The reader gains least, on determining the average length of no new insights into the Prophet nor into a writer's sentences. In old Greek manu- the Mormon movement. The book seems scripts there is no punctuation. It is there- to have no telechy, or reason for being. fore difficult to determine just where Paul's Taves, a psychiatrist, might have pro- sentences begin and end. Such judgments duced a significant book had he psycho- are subjective and not hazard free. Some analyzed Joseph Smith and his family as of the same arguments used against those did Dr. Jess Grosbeck, who reported his who have concluded that Paul did not findings in a paper he read at the 1985 author some of the New Testament books Sunstone Symposium. However, when attributed to him could be made against Taves attempts a very brief (three-page) the stylistic study of the manuscript of the analysis of one of Joseph, Sr.'s, dreams, I Book of Mormon, which had, according to find Grosbeck's (1985) conclusions regard- the printer, little, if any, punctuation ing the same dream far more convincing (Stocks 1979, 10; Jessee 1970; Larson than those of Taves. Grosbeck plows new 1977). ground by hypothesizing that the dream One study using stylometry concluded points to the destitute circumstances of the that Thomas Jefferson did not write the Smith family, both economically and so- Declaration of Independence, while an- cially, as well as the depression of the other study, using the same methods dem- senior Smith. Taves seems to dig furrows onstrated that the writings of the person in fields that have already been plowed, who did the Jefferson study, were not planted, cultivated, and harvested by penned by the same person (Ellison 1965). merely stating that it is a dream about the REVIEWS 141 family expressing hope and promise. Taves Taves's treatment of the Solomon then concludes: "Well, here is the stuff of Spaulding manuscript and the Book of myth, enough to keep a convention of Mormon would have profited by a thor- amateur (or professional) analysts busy for ough reading of Lester Bush's fine article a week" (pp. 7-8). Yet he fails to deliver (1977) on that subject. Taves, further- the analysis called for by such a stimulat- more, cites and draws conclusions from ing assertion. His book would be better 's "Defense in a Rehearsal had he, at that point, provided us with his of My Grounds of Separating Myself from own interpretation of the significance of the Latter-day Saints," even though Gerald this dream; but instead he chose to write and Sandra Tanner proved long ago that it two paragraphs, mostly containing ques- was a forgery. tions accompanied with no more insight Taves's writing of the Kirtland experi- than an amateur could have provided. ence is equally lacking in sound scholar- Unlike Bushman, Taves did not do his ship. He shows no evidence that he has homework regarding the Smith family's read the prize-winning monograph Hill, financial difficulties, nor did he compare Rooker, and Wimmer wrote on the their experiences with that of other Ameri- Kirtland economy, nor Milton C. Back- cans. He characterizes the Prophet's par- man, Jr.'s, The Heavens Resound (Salt ents as being uniquely inept in their per- Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1983), or sonal affairs, while Bushman was able to even Max Parkin's twenty-year-old master's convincingly demonstrate that they were thesis "Conflict at Kirtland" (M.S. Thesis, far more typical than unusual. Taves has BYU 1966). Zion's Camp, by Roger D. some interesting census data relating to the Launius (Independence: Herald Publish- size of the town of Palmyra that refutes ing House, 1984) would have been a help- both Brodie and Hill and convincingly ful resource, but Taves seems unaware of argues that Palmyra during the Smith era its publication as well. His chapter on the was not a frontier but rather an established is dated and displays his sizeable community. He also tells us that ignorance of Donl Peterson's research estab- Palmyra had a black population of forty- lishing the mummies' discovery, their ar- six but fails to comment on the significance rival in the United States, and additional of this information. facts about both Lebolo and Chandler re- Other areas which should have been ported at Mormon History Association fleshed out are Taves's account of Joseph's meetings (in Millet and Jackson, 1985). leg operation. It is unfortunate that he did Stanley B. Kimball's fine article (1981) not read LeRoy Worthlin's research (1981) regarding the Kinderhook plates would on Joseph's illness, the operating physician also have impacted his treatment of that Dr. Nathan Smith, and the surgery itself. subject. His treatment of the coming forth of the Taves's short chapters on the Missouri Book of Mormon and the period show the same neglect. He seems experience would have been enhanced had unaware of Leland Gentry on the he studied Joseph Knight's journal (Jessee (1974), and Gentry's thousand-page dis- 1976) and Stanley Kimball's essay (1970) sertation (1962) on the Mormons in north- on Martin Harris's visit to New York's pro- ern Missouri. His failure to consult Wil- fessors. As an added detail, I am confident liam Russell's Zion Is Fled (Ph.D., Uni- the people in Clarkston, Utah, would be versity of Florida, 1962) and Max Parkin's surprised to find that the amphitheater dissertation is an additional flaw in this they constructed for the Martin Harris volume. Pageant overlooks, according to Taves, So much has been written on Nauvoo, Utah's Cub River, which, in reality, runs John C. Bennett, plural marriage, the more than ten miles east of the site. Council of Fifty, and the martyrdom — 142 DIALOGUE: A JOURNAL OF MORMON THOUGHT all of which Taves failed to research — Books of Proclus, The Platonic Successor, that I wonder just why this book was pub- on the Theology of Plato (the latter titles lished. It has very few insights, no innova- were translated into English by Thomas tive interpretations, and no evidence of Taylor), and Thomas Dick's Philosophy of new documents on the Prophet and the a Future State. Latter-day Saint movement. It is unfortu- Blessed with a fertile imagination and nate that, at a time when so many really natural story-telling ability, Joseph Smith fine studies of Mormonism are appearing, understood well the psychology of religion, Taves wrote and Prometheus Press pub- having picked it up from revivals. Arming lished such an inferior study. himself with Ethan Smith's outline, Joseph Even before the Book of Mormon was concealed himself behind a blanket and published there were rumors and innuendos placed the outline in a hat, sliced to let regarding its origin. For many years it was light in. He then slowly dictated the Book the consensus of non-Mormon writers that of Mormon, one page per day, to a series Joseph Smith was too unlearned, too men- of scribes including Oliver Cowdery, whom tally dull, to have written the book. The he pretended to have first met in 1829. Reverend Solomon Spaulding has been, Again according to Persuitte, the first perhaps, the most popular candidate for 116 pages were lost; and to persuade Mar- such honors. However, Ethan Smith, the tin Harris to finance the publication of the Vermont minister who entered Dartmouth book, Joseph Smith turned what had been College the year after Spaulding gradu- a secular story into a religious history, ated, has been at least first runner-up in made a set of dummy plates for people to the balloting. Now, after a two-decade lull, handle through a cloth covering, and David Persuitte, who has spent a decade finalized the hoax by publishing it in 1830. researching and writing Joseph Smith and Persuitte's book is more than a super- the Origins of the Book of Mormon, has re- ficial comparison of vitalized the thesis that Joseph Smith's with the Book of Mormon. He has put primary source was Ethan Smith's View of together the early history of the Smiths the Hebrews. gleaned from non-Mormon sources. He Here is Persuitte's reconstruction of the has, moreover, given additional, valuable history of the Book of Mormon: Oliver information regarding the controversial Cowdery, a relative of the Prophet who 1826 trial and has provided biographical lived in Poultney, Vermont, met that com- information on Ethan Smith, Solomon munity's most illustrious leader, Ethan Spaulding, and the juggler, (con man) Smith, author of a manuscript entitled Walters, whom he identifies as Winchell, "View of the Hebrews." Fearing that the a counterfeiter and money digging friend book's publication would detract from his of Joseph Smith's, that has not previously scholarly reputation, he gave a copy to been published. His appendices, in four Oliver Cowdery who, some time in 1825, parts, have additional insights regarding gave it to Joseph Smith. Joseph studied the rodsmen of Vermont, the Book of Mor- the manuscript, taking notes from it. At mon and modern archaeology, the Spaul- the same time, he did extensive research ding theory, and the book of Abraham con- (again taking notes) from such newspapers troversy. This is a serious work, moderate as the Wayne Sentinel, the Ontario Phoe- in tone and thoughtfully written. nix, the Palmyra Freeman, and the Palmyra Unfortunately the author spent too Herald. He also read the scholarly journal much time consulting with the Reverend Archaeologia Americana and such books as Wesley P Walters and Michael Marquardt, Francisco Clavigero's History of Mexico, both of whom have spent a great deal of C. E. F. Volney's View of the Soil and their energy attempting to discredit both Climate of the United States, The Six Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon REVIEWS 143

origins. Thus, the book is seriously flawed, scholarly articles have appeared showing presenting a slanted picture of Joseph that the Book of Mormon is a very com- Smith and Mormon origins. The publica- plex document. Some illustrate Near East- tion would be far better if the writer had ern culture, Jewish law, and ancient pat- spent the same time and effort studying terns of treaty making. Others illustrate a Mormon sources, thereby avoiding ques- writing style known as chiasmus, and an- tions that have already been answered. other even shows throne theophany in the The very first sentence in the volume book. It is regrettable that Persuitte refers rehashes the issue of Joseph Smith's sign- to none of these documents. ing the title page of the Book of Mormon Such deficiencies, glaring as they are, as "Author and Proprietor." Persuitte says are not the most serious weakness of this this means Joseph was admitting he was book, however. Barbara Tuchman tells us the writer, not the translator of the book that good historians do not go beyond their as the Latter-day Saints claim. The fact is, evidence (Practicing History, New York: Joseph Smith was complying with federal Alfred A. Knopf, 1981, p. 18). Persuitte's law (see 1 Statutes 124, 1790, as amended book is fatally flawed because he constantly by 2 Stat. 171, 1802), which dictated the goes beyond available documents, even words the district clerk had to write when those that can be classified as anti-Mormon. a person was taking out a copyright on a He fails to produce any evidence that book. It can be demonstrated historically Joseph Smith met Oliver Cowdery before that many translators, including those who 1829, or that Joseph Smith ever read View produced the 1824 edition of the King of the Hebrews. Also, proof is lacking that James Version of the Bible, were listed as Joseph Smith ever knew about Solomon "Author" to conform to this law ("Joseph Spaulding or Elias Boudinot, who wrote Smith: Author and Proprietor," FARMS the book Star of the West, espousing also a Update, Aug. 1985). Hebrew origin for the American Indian. John L. Sorenson in An Ancient Amer- Furthermore, he consistently uses such ican Setting for the Book of Mormon (Salt sentences as "Contemporary newspaper ac- Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1985) counts of the digging activities would, of answers many of the questions raised by course, verify the later reports. Unfortu- Persuitte regarding language, culture, food, nately, there are none that are known" (p. weapons, animals, location of Nephite and 38). Also, "At this point, Joseph's active Lamanite lands, pre-Spanish horses, wheels, imagination would have taken over and methods of warfare, and Quetzalcoatl. (See begun to consider the possibilities" (p. also Joseph Allen, "A Comparative Study 118). On still another page the writer in a of Quetzalcoatl, the Feathered Serpent single paragraph uses the following phrases, God of Meso-America, with Jesus Christ, "by assuming," "we can only speculate," the God of the Nephites," Ph.D. diss., "we can perhaps perceive" (p. 128). Yet , 1970). While no evidence is cited as to why we must his book was published about the same assume, speculate, or perceive. These sen- time as Persuitte's, many of Sorenson's tences appear with no supporting evidence scholarly articles have been available for or footnotes. They are strictly conjecture. more than two decades. Unfortunately most of these leaps be- Eugene England answers the objections yond the documents occur where Persuitte raised regarding the route Lehi and his is attempting to verify his thesis that Joseph family took from Jerusalem to the sea Smith got his ideas for the Book of Mor- ("Through the Arabian Desert to a Bounti- mon from View of the Hebrews. Perhaps ful Land: Could Joseph Smith Have it is Persuitte who is the born storyteller Known the Way?" FARMS pamphlet, with the fertile imagination and not Joseph 1982, pp. 1-14). Literally hundreds of Smith. 144 DIALOGUE: A JOURNAL OF MORMON THOUGHT

Thus, while the book has an interesting Gentry, Leland. "The Band." BYU theoretical construct, it fails to substantiate Studies, Summer 1974, pp. 421-50. its major thesis and must be classified as . "A History of the Latter-day only the latest in a long line of anti- Saints in Northern Missouri 1836- Mormon books that fail to provide a more 1839." Ph.D. diss. BYU 1965. plausible story than that traditionally ac- Grosbeck, Jess. Joseph Smith and the cepted by Latter-day Saints. Shaman's Vision: A Psychoanalytic Ex- Persuitte's book does, however, point ploration in Mormonism. Paper pre- up the need for competent historians to sented at the 1985 Sunstone Theological Symposium, August 21-24, 1985. Copy explore the New England of Joseph Smith's in my possession. day and the possible environmental im- pact it might have had upon the Prophet Hill, Rooker, and Wimmer. Monograph. and the early Saints. Richard Bushman BYU Studies, Summer 1977. suggests the need to explore Mormon origins. Jessee, Dean C. "Joseph Knight's Recollec- We also need a historical treatment of the tion of Early Mormon History." BYU coming forth of the Book of Mormon, as well Studies, Autumn 1976, pp. 29-39. as a study of Joseph Smith's library, the Pal- . "The Original Book of Mormon myra library, and the intellectual ideas Manuscript." BYU Studies, Spring 1970, among New England's common folk. There pp. 259-78. is much new ground to be plowed regard- Kimball, Stanley B. "Kinderhook Plates ing Joseph Smith. Moreover, some of this Brought to Joseph Smith Appear to be plowing is already beginning. For example, Nineteenth-Century Hoax." Ensign 11 FARMS researchers have recently com- (Aug. 1981): 66-74. pleted a study of View of the Hebrews . "The : People, documenting many instances of radical dif- Primary Sources, and Problems." BYU ferences from Ethan Smith's book ("View Studies, Spring 1970, pp. 325-52. of the Hebrews: An Unparallel," FARMS Larson, Stan. "A Most Sacred Possession." Update, Oct. 1985). Other studies will be Ensign, Sept. 1977, pp. 87-91. forthcoming as this interest continues. Both William of Occam and David Millett, Robert L., and Kent P. Jackson, Hume wrote that one credits a miraculous eds. Studies in Scripture, Volume Two: The Pearl of Great Price. Salt Lake explanation only if alternatives are more City: Randall Book Co., 1985. miraculous (Daniel McDonald, "Occam's Razor," The Language of Argument, New Stocks, Hugh G. "The Book of Mormon, York: Harper and Row, 1983, p. 29). In 1830-1879: A Publishing History." MLS Thesis, UCLA, 1979. the case of Persuitte's book, one comes to the conclusion that it is a greater tax on Tanner, Gerald and Sandra. A Critical human credulity to believe his thesis than Look: A Study of the Overstreet "Con- to believe the story the way Joseph Smith fession" and the Cowdery "Defence." Salt Lake City: Utah Lighthouse Minis- told it. try, n.d. Thomas, Robert K. "A Literary Critic BIBLIOGRAPHY Looks at the Book of Mormon." In Tru- man G. Madsen and Charles D. Tate, Bush, Lester E., Jr. "The Spaulding Theory Jr., eds. To the Glory of God: Mormon Then and Now." DIALOGUE 11 (Au- Essays on Great Issues. Salt Lake City: tumn 1977): 40-69. Deseret Book Co., 1972, pp. 149-64. Ellison, John W. "Computers and the Testa- Wirthlin, LeRoy S. "Joseph Smith's Boy- ments." [No ed.] Computers for the hood Operation, An 1813 Surgical Suc- Humanities. New Haven: Yale Univer- cess." BYU Studies, Spring 1981, pp. sity Press, 1965. 131-54.