William Adams ("Wild Bill") Hickman was one of the most notorious outlaws of the nineteenth-century American frontier. As a bodyguard and spy for Mormon church presidents Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, he was popularly known as a "destroying angel."

As he approaches the end of a long and distinguished career, veteran historian Brigham D. Madsen turns an eye toward his final research subject, himself, with equal candor, aware of the same possibility for controversy, that has characterized his other works. Raised in Pocatello, Idaho, at a time when automobiles were just coming into fashion, Madsen's first real encounter with the outside world was on a Mormon mission to...

Hugh Brown Brown (1883-1975) served in the First Presidency of the Mormon church from 1961 to 1970—one of the most controversial decades of Latter-day Saint history. During these years he proved to be a compassionate and tolerant member of the church's general authorities. Shortly before his death, his grandson conducted the in-depth, candid interviews that appear in An Abundant Life, a refreshing look at one of Mormonism's best-loved leaders.

Breathe Life into Your Life Story is an essential read for anyone who aspires to write a life story—but not just any story, one your family and others will actually WANT to read.

Readers may shudder to learn of Clark's views on race. He was partly responsible for the LDS Hospital's segreation of the blood of "whites" and "Negroes," his logic being that since anyone with as little as "one drop" of African blood was ineligible for LDS priesthood ordination, a transfusion from a black donor to a white recipient would render the latter incapable of exercising priesthood authority.

The majority of Smith's wives were younger than he, and one-third were between fourteen and twenty years of age. Another third were already married, and some of the husbands served as witnesses at their own wife's polyandrous wedding. In addition, some of the wives hinted that they bore Smith children—most notably Sylvia Sessions's daughter Josephine—although the children carried their stepfather's surname.

A troubled childhood. A difficult adolescence. How might these have affected the adult character of church founder Joseph Smith? Psychiatrist Robert D. Anderson explores the impact on young Joseph of his family's ten moves in sixteen years, their dire poverty, especially after his father's Chinese export venture failed, and his father's drinking.

Originally published in 1977, this was the first major biography of Mormonism's founder since 1945 and the most fully authenticated story of Joseph Smith's life ever written.

Rarely does a biographer capture the sense of being in a different time and mindset to the extent that readers feel they are reliving events through the eyes of the biographer's subject. This is the skill of Dan Vogel.

Some left, some stayed. Each one found some aspect of their church's history, doctrine, policies, or politics that they could not reconcile with their own personal ethics. Some felt burdened by the conflict, while others embraced it. A few were reticent, even apologetic about their disagreements. Others were barnstormers.