The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will publish a new biography about Joseph Smith, announced President Dallin H. Oaks, First Counselor in the Church’s First Presidency, during the seventh annual Joseph Smith Papers Conference on Friday, Sept. 15.
With the completion of the Joseph Smith Papers project on June 27, the Church is now ready to effectively tell the story of the Prophet of the Restoration, said President Oaks.
“We announce today that the First Presidency has commissioned a new biography of the Church’s founding prophet, to be titled ‘Joseph the Prophet,’” President Oaks said to hundreds of attendees in the Conference Center Theater in Salt Lake City.
The new biography will be written by Richard E. Turley Jr., former assistant Church historian and recorder, with help from teams of historians and other professionals at Church headquarters, Brigham Young University, and elsewhere.
“The Joseph Smith Papers project has laid a firm foundation on which we can now build a biography of the Prophet Joseph Smith unlike any that has previously been written,” Turley said. “This book will focus on Joseph Smith’s role as a prophet, which will distinguish it from other recent biographies that focus on other aspects of his life.”
You can read the full story from Church News here.
