SALT LAKE CITY—The Church Historian’s Press today announced the release of the latest volume of The Joseph Smith Papers. Documents, Volume 10, which includes papers from May through August 1842, covers a time during which Joseph Smith oversaw missionary work, encouraged the construction of the Nauvoo temple, served as editor of the church newspaper Times and Seasons, and struggled to help the hundreds of converts gathering to Nauvoo, Illinois. In May, he was elected mayor, adding new responsibilities to his busy schedule, and during the summer he repeatedly dealt with issues relating to his bankruptcy application. The demands on his time were so great that Wilford Woodruff wrote in June that he had “never seen Joseph as full of business as of late,” noting that “he hardly gets time to sign his name.”

 

Documents, Volume 10: May–August 1842

 

“The period covered in Documents, Volume 10 is another dynamic time in Joseph Smith’s life,” explains Elizabeth A. Kuehn, one of the volume’s coeditors. “These four months are profoundly shaped by the consequences of John C. Bennett’s excommunication and an assassination attempt on former Missouri governor Lilburn W. Boggs, which led to another attempt to extradite Joseph Smith to Missouri. Amidst these concerns, the volume highlights Joseph Smith’s growing municipal responsibilities, his ecclesiastical leadership, and his development of religious ritual and doctrine. This volume offers particular insights into the experiences of women and includes sermons to the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo as well as documents related to Joseph Smith’s practice of plural marriage.”

Documents, Volume 10 features 105 documents, including correspondence, editorials, reports of discourses, minutes of meetings, municipal and legal documents, military records, financial records, and notices, as well as a revelation on conducting a plural marriage sealing. The texts presented in this volume, with their detailed historical annotation, make this book a crucial resource for those seeking a deeper understanding of Joseph Smith as prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as mayor of Nauvoo, as leader of the Nauvoo Legion, and as a man who, despite the constant pressure of events, continued to faithfully lead his people.

Documents, Volume 10 was edited by Elizabeth A. Kuehn, Jordan T. Watkins, Matthew C. Godfrey, and Mason K. Allred. Visit josephsmithpapers.org for more information.