Censoring Joseph Smith’s Story

Abstract

Fawn Brodie’s biography of Joseph Smith and related forces generated dissonance for many Latter-day Saints in the 1950s and 1960s. Some like Jerald Tanner, Sandra McGee, and LaMar Petersen left Mormonism, citing LDS Church censorship of source material related to Smith’s first vision as a reason. Historian James B. Allen expected Joseph Smith’s multiple memories to be complex. He was fascinated by the historical record, not fearful of it. He expected it to be ambivalent and open to various interpretations. His approach to it led to the mature scholarship on Smith’s vision in this era as Smith’s 1832 and 1835 accounts came to light.