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To: Utah Binger
what is your connection to Denmark?

None at all. I was reading another source about Lucy Mack Smith's book and it linked to the source of this article.

This one is supposed to be the unsanitized version, that Brigham Young refused to be allowed to be published. He later heavily edited and then published this "History Of J. Smith"

This version, though I haven't read it all yet, is supposed to have a lot of criticism in it about Young and his minions.

44 posted on 02/29/2012 6:32:24 AM PST by Graybeard58 (Eccl 10 v. 19 A feast is made for laughter, and wine maketh merry: but money answereth all things.)
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To: Graybeard58; Utah Binger
This one is supposed to be the unsanitized version, that Brigham Young refused to be allowed to be published.

my understanding is that it's more complicated. unfortunately, i just had surgery and am pecking with one hand so i don't have the patience to write much.

young ordered one edition collected and destroyed; i have the desert news cite to young's order when i'm better.

however, all of the versions have undergone editing. here's a diagram prepared by one scholar:


46 posted on 02/29/2012 7:31:59 AM PST by Scoutmaster (You knew the job was dangerous when you took it)
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To: Graybeard58; Utah Binger; greyfoxx39
an allegedly unabridged, unchanged copy of the original lucy mack smith manuscript of the biography of her son, joseph, jr., was published in 2001 as lucy's book, edited by Lavina Fielding Anderson. it's now out of print, but is available online here.

14% of the original manuscript was deleted before the first (orson pratt) edition. brigham young ordered that edition destroyed in 1865. copies survived. the first edition portrayed the smith family, including brigham young's rival william smith, as the legitimate leaders of mormonism, which (along with young's spat with orson pratt) is why historians speculate young ordered the book destroyed.

it wasn't published by the lds church again until it was published in installments in 1901-03, by the Improvement Era magazine, although parallel changes were made to the manuscript earlier by Smith and Campbell.

there have been sixteen+ editions of lucy mack which became more polished and added or deleted parts, depending on who was editor. also, bear in mind that lucy mack smith died in 1856, so every edition other than the original manuscript and the orson pratt edition, which was ordered destroyed, was edited after lucy's death. there was no way for preston nibley, for example, to interview her in 1945 and to add to her story. nor was there a way george smith and robert campbell to make 'first person voice' changes in utah after 1865. nor improvement era in 1901, arno press on 1969, proctor in 1996, and so on.

i've found one section from the nibley, ingleton, and proctor and editions to demonstrate how they may differ. i haven't found this section yet in the actual manuscript. from nibley (1945):

About this time a man by the name of Joseph Jackson, who had been in the city several months, being desirous to marry Lovina Smith, Hyrum's oldest daughter, asked her father if he was willing to receive him as a son-in-law. Being answered in the negative, he went and requested Joseph to use his influence in his favor. As Joseph refused to do that,he next applied to Law, who was our secret enemy, for assistance in stealing Lovina from her father, and from this time forth he continued seeking out our enemies, till he succeeded in getting a number to join him in a conspiracy to murder the whole Smith family. They commenced holding secret meetings, one of which was attended by a man named Eaton, who was our friend, and he exposed the plot.

ingleton's edition (2005) adds the following words after "stealing Lovina from her father":

Hiram heard of this and came to me several times for anxiety. He said he was alarmed about her; that he felt worse than he did when he was in prison.

The proctor edition (1996) says:

About this time a man by the name of Joseph Jackson, who had been in the city several months, asked Hiram for his daughter Lovina, for he wished to make a wife of her. Hyrum, not choosing to have his daughter marry a man who did not belong to the Church, refused for this and other reasons. Jackson then asked Joseph to use his influence with Hyrum to get the girl for him. As Joseph refused to do that, he next applied to Law, who was our secret enemy, for assistance in stealing Lovina from her father. Hyrum heard of this and came to me several times for advice. He said he was alarmed about her, that he felt worse than he did when he was in prison. Jackson went from one to another, wherever he could learn that anyone had any feelings against our family, till finally he succeeded in getting a number to join in a conspiracy to murder the whole Smith family. They commenced holding secret meetings, one of which was attended by a man named Eaton, who was our friend, and he exposed the plot.

bear in mind this is supposed to be lucy mack smith's first-person account, yet it changes. you should get an idea how the different editions of lucy mack smith's history differs from editor to editor. the ingleton edition (2005) wasn't on the diagram i posted above; it's an edition called "the unabridged original version." yet apparently it's not a reprint of the original manuscript. it's an edition which includes 'restored language and feeling through verification' to bring the narrative 'in line' with the manuscript. i'm not certain if that is different than just reprinting the manuscript, as lavina fielding anderson did with 'lucy's book.' but when you start talking about restoring feelings, it doesn't sound as if you simply published the old manuscript. i can't find the ingleton edition online.

58 posted on 02/29/2012 3:36:45 PM PST by Scoutmaster (You knew the job was dangerous when you took it)
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