George Q. Cannon is generally acknowledged as second only to Brigham Young as the most visible leader of Mormonism in the mid- to late-nineteenth century. He became Young’s protégé and was an influential first counselor in the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for almost twenty-five years, serving with presidents Brigham Young, John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff, and Lorenzo Snow. Known as the “spokesman for the kingdom,” Cannon was the central political figure of the church, not only serving as Utah territory’s delegate to Congress for ten years but also as chief political advisor and long-term editor of the Deseret News.

This year’s Sunstone Symposium will be held July 27–29 at the Mountain America Expo Center in Sandy, Utah. Signature Books will have a table there where you can browse and buy a large collection of Signature titles. Please stop by and say hello!

Several of our authors will be presenting at the symposium. On Friday, July 28, at 4:25 p.m., Session #164 will feature a discussion on Dan Vogel’s Charisma under Pressure: Joseph Smith, American Prophet, 1831–1839. Vogel will join the discussion via Zoom.

For episode twenty-five of the Signature Books Podcast, marketing manager Devery Anderson talks with Dan Vogel about his new book, “Charisma under Pressure: Joseph Smith, American Prophet, 1831–1839,” which deals with Joseph Smith’s middle years while he directed the Latter-day Saint movement from Kirtland, Ohio, and later, Far West, Missouri. Vogel focuses on the word “charisma” and how it applies to Joseph Smith and how this trait won him so many followers. This is also a period of many highs and lows for both the prophet and the church, which Vogel also discusses.

The Mormon History Association 2023 conference will take place June 8–10 in Rochester, New York, just miles from Palmyra, the place of Mormonism’s beginnings. Signature Books will be there with an exhibit of books for sale. Several Signature authors will also be presenting and available to sign copies of their titles.

With the release of Dan Vogel’s highly anticipated new book, Charisma under Pressure: Joseph Smith, American Prophet, 1831–1839, Signature’s three-volume biography of Mormonism’s founding prophet is now complete. The other two volumes in this series, Richard S. Van Wagoner’s Natural Born Seer: Joseph Smith, American Prophet, 1805–1830, and Martha Bradley-Evans’s Glorious in Persecution: Joseph Smith, American Prophet, 1839–1844 continue to be available for purchase.

In this new book, Dan Vogel takes us deep inside the inner workings of Joseph Smith’s Ohio and Missouri years, illuminating what drove Smith and animated his growing number of followers. Vogel narrates the day-to-day events in the Mormon prophet’s life, then steps back with his customary incisiveness to analyze and deconstruct the changing nature of the church Smith founded. Events of the era—the developing priesthood, the emergence of administrative offices, the tarring and feathering of Smith, divine revelations, the settlement of Zion, the Army of Israel, the Book of Abraham, Smith’s relationship with Fanny Alger and his fallout with Oliver Cordery, the Kirtland Safety Society, and the Mormon War in Missouri—are all detailed in lively fashion and framed in the context of their time.

In this episode, marketing manager Devery Anderson discusses with company director Barbara Jones Brown and managing editor John Hatch a few of Signature’s forthcoming titles. This episode is sure to whet your appetite for some great books in biography, documentary history, contemporary issues, and memoir.

Did you know that Signature staff members are also book authors? In this episode, marketing specialist Beth Brumer Reeve talks with marketing manager Devery Anderson, company director Barbara Jones Brown, and editorial manager John Hatch about the books they’ve recently authored––all coincidentally released in 2023––and how being authors informs their efforts in working with the writers Signature publishes!

First inaugurated by the Academy of American Poets in April 1996, National Poetry Month is an annual celebration in the United States highlighting the valuable role poetry plays in our culture and in individual lives. Signature Books has a long history of proudly publishing poetry. To celebrate National Poetry month, on Wednesday, April 26, at 7:00 p.m., at Signature Books, we are gathering poets whose work we have published for an exciting evening. Our authors will read from their works, all of which will be available for signing and purchase.

This is the first and only biography of Virginia Sorensen (1912–91), winner of the 1957 Newbery Medal, the highest honor given for children’s literature. She was also a New York Times bestselling author—of Mormon novels.

Last month, inclement weather forced us to postpone a book event we had planned at Signature. The good news, however, is that we have rescheduled it for Thursday, March 9, at 7:00 p.m.

Join us for a panel discussion about a mysterious incident in 1977, in which an anonymous writer printed hundreds of pamphlets refuting Jerald and Sandra Tanner’s Mormonism––Shadow or Reality?, placed them in a storage locker, then mailed the key and a letter to bookseller Sam Weller, asking him to distribute them.

From a life of meditation and memory, legend and language, Lisa Bickmore probes in poems intimate yet inclusive the dark spaces of experience where figures align, collapse, and realign. This second edition contains a new foreword by the author.

In this episode of the Signature Books Podcast, Signature marketing specialist Beth Brumer Reeve and poet Dayna Patterson discuss Patterson's new book, O Lady, Speak Again. How does a poet practice their craft, and what is the creative process like? Patterson answers these questions and more.

The witchy, spell-soaked poems in O Lady, Speak Again explore female characters from Shakespeare’s plays, with a feminist twist. The collection grapples with women’s roles in Shakespeare and in Mormon culture, both heavily influenced by patriarchal structures that often silence marginalized voices.

On Wednesday, February 22, Signature will host a panel discussion about a mysterious incident in 1977, in which an anonymous writer printed hundreds of pamphlets refuting Jerald and Sandra Tanner’s Mormonism––Shadow or Reality?, placed them in a storage locker, then mailed the key and a letter to bookseller Sam Weller, asking him to distribute them.

Two of Signature’s 2022 publications are biographies of important women in Mormon history, Martha Hughes Cannon and Susa Young Gates. They were contemporaries who advocated for women’s suffrage and rights. Their biographers, Constance Lieber and Romney Burke, will discuss the lives and contributions of these remarkable women at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, November 22, at Signature Books.

Several Signature authors will be signing books this week at three events in Provo and Salt Lake City. On Wednesday, October 26, The Utah State Historical Society will hold its annual conference at the Provo Marriott Hotel and Conference Center.

At the fiftieth-anniversary conference of the John Whitmer Historical Association, held this September, JWHA announced at its award ceremony that Signature’s 2021 publication, Brigham Young, Colonizer of the American West: Diaries and Office Journals, 1832–1871, was the recipient of its Whittemore Best Documentary History Book Award.