From Orphaned Boy to Prophet of God : The Story of Joseph F. Smith
Odgen, Utah
Living Scriptures
2001
422
When Jared F. Brown, President of Living Scriptures, first contacted me about writing From Orphaned Boy to Prophet of God: The Story of Joseph F. Smith, I was troubled as well as excited. He explained that he wanted this to be the first in a multi-volume series that would be called Stories of the Modern Prophets. [...]
The difficult part of Mr. Brown's plan—the part which troubled me—was his description of the approach he was seeking. First, he wanted each manuscript to be written in an interesting story format that is not fictional and did not use fictional characters to carry the theme. Second, he wanted this series of books to be historical but not ponderous—the stories not of prophets, but of how the Lord turned boys and men into them. Third, he felt like each book should be advantageous to scholars without being burdened by footnotes or other types of documentation. Fourth, he wanted numerous photographs without turning them into photo albums. And finally, he wanted each of these volumes to be so unique that they would stand alone, independent of all other biographies and books about these great men. [From the Foreword]