Todd Compton's Home Page

In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith (Signature Books, 1997) An e-book: Truth, Honesty and Moderation in Mormon History: A Response to Anderson, Faulring and Bachman's Reviews of In Sacred Loneliness Assistant Church Historian Andrew Jenson's May 1887 article, "Plural Marriage."	Music "Who Wrote the Beatle Songs? - An Introduction" "Pahreah Press" Melody in Music	A Frontier Life: Jacob Hamblin, Explorer and Indian Missionary (University of Utah Press, 2013)
Victim of the Muses: Poet as Scapegoat, Warrior and Hero in Greco-Roman and Indo-European Myth and History (Center for Hellenic Studies/Harvard University Press, 2006)	The Ethics of the Uncanny: An Anthology of Great Ghost Stories (Pahreah Press 2018)	Fiction Dickens "Infinite Canons: A Few Axioms and Questions, and in Addition, a Proposed Definition" an e-essay "Favorite Ghost Stories of the Masters, a Halloween special
A Widow's Tale: the 1884-1896 Diaries of Helen Mar Kimball Whitney (Utah State University Press, 2003)	Movies The Dekalog (Ten Commandments) by Krzysztof Kieslowski	The Democratic Party and Mormonism The Spiritual Roots of the Democratic Party: Why I Am a Mormon Democrat, an e-article Famous Writers on Bush and the Bush Administration Heber J. Grant: Mormon Democrat Worthy Causes
Angels, Gargoyles and Shadows, an on-line anthology P'u Sung-ling, Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio Palma's Peruvian Traditions	Research Tools Jerome in his study	by C.C. Christensen: Handcart pioneers reaching the Salt Lake Valley Mormon History Mormon Links "The Families of Wilford Woodruff," an e-essay "Plural Lives: Mitt Romney's Polygamous Heritage" an e-essay

If you're interested in other things I've written, my CV is available here .

In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith

In my book, In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith, I look at the 33 women who married the first Mormon prophet, taking them from birth to death. I started writing the book because I was fascinated by the puzzle of trying to work out their complex marriage histories (many married four or five times, sometimes with overlapping, polyandrous marriages), but I gradually became very caught up in the drama of their lives, and became deeply attached to them as real, living people.

Vern Anderson did a fine story about my book for AP: AP Story

If you're interested in how I came to write this book, here's a speech I gave at the Association of Intermountain Booksellers on February 25, 1998.

Additional information on the plural wives I have collected since the book was published.

Changes made in Second Printing of ISL

Futher corrections

My response to the Tanners' use of my book.

Awards the book has received

Some reviews

A mini-essay I wrote on the history of polygamy in Mormonism
An excerpt from my book: the Prologue
Another excerpt from my book: Miracle Tale: Elizabeth Rollins (Lightner Smith Young)

Desert Island Books: Mormon History

Mormon History Links

Yearly Mormon History Association Awards
Updates at Mormon History Association

DESERT ISLAND BOOKS: MORMON HISTORY

• Brooks, Juanita: The Mountain Meadows Massacre / John D. Lee: Zealot, Pioneer Builder, Scapegoat / On the Mormon Frontier: The Diary of Hosea Stout, 1844-1861
  Brilliant revisionist history, and aesthetically a gripping tragedy. See Levi Peterson's biography of Brooks.
  
• Leonard Arrington: Great Basin Kingdom: An Economic History of Latter-Day Saints 1830-1900 / Brigham Young : American Moses / The Mormon Experience : A History of the Latter-Day Saints
  Great Basin Kingdom is another brilliant revisionist book, an economic retelling of LDS history. Brigham Young is a landmark of scholary biography, even if it underplays Brigham's limitations just a bit.
• Linda King Newell and Valeen Tippetts Avery: Mormon Enigma: Emma Hales Smith
  
• Roger Launius: Joseph Smith III: Pragmatic Prophet
  It is a mistake to see LDS and RLDS history as distinct categories.
• Samuel Taylor: Family Kingdom (1951, 2nd edition, revised, 1974 ) / Taylor- Made Tales / Heaven Knows Why
  Family Kingdom is a fascinating, moving memoir of Samuel Taylor's father, John W. Taylor, the apostle who was excommunicated for post-Manifesto polygamy. Though Sam views him with enormous affection, and though he does not attack polygamy per se, problems in polygamy are implicitly reflected in this book. Taylor-Made Tales is a hilarious autobiography that ends with the writing of Family Kingdom.
• D. Michael Quinn: The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power / The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power / J. Reuben Clark: The Church Years / The New Mormon History (ed.)
  There are many specific points in Quinn's books that can and should be debated, but his books nevertheless are groundbreaking in their willingness to look frankly at many specific "problems" in Mormon history. They raise the question: is "faith-promoting" history a kind of history that portrays church leaders as never making mistakes or going in wrong directions, or is "faith-promoting" history a kind of history that sees God working in subtle, sometimes indirect ways through church leaders who are real human beings, i.e., constantly making mistakes? J. Reuben Clark is in some ways Quinn's finest book, but the Hierarchy books are his magnum opus.
• Carmon Hardy: Solemn Covenant: The Mormon Polygamous Passage
  The tragic ordeal of post-Manifesto polygamy. A fascinating, haunting narrative, and a thoughtful examination of the ethics and consequences of deciding to prevaricate for a perceived justified cause. See also Quinn's long article, "LDS Church Authority and New Plural Marriages, 1890-1904," Dialogue 18.1 (Spring 1985): 9-105.
  
• The Best of Lowell L. Bennion: Selected Writings 1928-1988 (ed. Eugene England) / Mary Lythgoe Bradford, Lowell L. Bennion: Teacher, Counselor, Humanitarian . SLC: Dialogue Foundation, 1995.
• Patty Sessions, Diaries, as found in: Donna Smart, ed., Mormon Midwife: The 1846-1888 Diaries of Patty Bartlett Sessions
• Wilford Woodruff Journal (ed. Scott Kenney)
• Annie Clark Tanner: A Mormon Mother
• Wallace Stegner: The Gathering of Zion / Mormon Country
• Snow, Eliza R.: Diaries and Memoir, see Maureen Ursenbach Beecher, ed., The Personal Writings of Eliza Roxcy Snow. SLC: University of Utah Press, 1995.
• Dean Jessee, ed. The Papers of Joseph Smith , 2 vols.
• Richard Bushman: Joseph Smith and the Beginnings of Mormonism
  This scholarly, conservative biography dealt frankly with problem issues such as Joseph Smith and magic and date of Melchizedek Priesthood restoration.
• Maureen Ursenbach Beecher and Lavina Fielding Anderson, eds., Sisters in Spirit: Mormon Women in Historical and Cultural Perspective
• Jill Mulvay Derr, Janath Russell Cannon and Maureen Ursenbach Beecher: Women of Covenant: The Story of the Relief Society
• Kenneth Godfrey, Audrey M. Godfrey and Jill Mulvay Derr: Women's Voices: An Untold History of the Latter-day Saints 1830-1900 . SLC: Deseret Book, 1982.
• Maxine Hanks, ed.: Women and Authority
• Stanley Kimball: Heber C. Kimball: Mormon Patriarch and Pioneer
• Gene Sessions: Mormon Thunder: A Documentary History of Jedediah Morgan Grant
  Jedediah was my great great grandfather, believe it or not. I often wonder how our meeting on the other side of the veil will play out.
• Newell Bringhurst: Brigham Young and the Expanding American Frontier Very short, but very worthwhile. Particularly illuminating on Young's polygamy.
• Thomas Alexander: Things In Heaven and In Earth: The Life and Times of Wilford Woodruff / Mormonism in Transition: A History of the Latter-day Saints, 1890-1930
• Edward Leo Lyman: Political Deliverance: The Mormon Quest for Utah Statehood / San Bernardino: The Rise and Fall of a California Community . SLC: Signature Books, 1996.
• Irene Bates and Gary Smith: Lost Legacy: The Mormon Office of Presiding Patriarch
  What you thought would be merely fascinating turns out to be very moving, as the last general patriarch ends his career. There is an intriguing Weberian analysis, too. As has been said elsewhere about another book, this is "a truly scholarly work that reaches the heart."
• Greg Prince: Power From On High: The Development of Mormon Priesthood
• Gary Bergera and Ron Priddis: BYU: House of Faith
  An important analysis of the conflict of absolutism and liberalism in modern Mormonism.
• Richard Van Wagoner: Mormon Polygamy / Sidney Rigdon: A Portrait of Religious Excess
  
• Lawrence Foster: Religion and Sexuality: Three American Communal Experiments of the Nineteenth Century
  Superb scholarly look at Mormon polygamy, viewing it in the context of the Shakers and the Oneida Community.
• Klaus Hansen: Quest for Empire
• Marvin Hill: Quest for Refuge: The Mormon Flight from American Pluralism
• Armand Mauss: The Angel and the Beehive: The Mormon Struggle with Assimilation
• Will Bagley, ed.: Scoundrel's Tale: The Sam Brannan Papers. Spokane, WA: Arthur H. Clark Co., 1999.
• Dan Ericksen, As a Thief in the Night: The Mormon Quest for Millennial Deliverance. SLC: Signature Books, 1998.
• Jan Shipps: Mormonism: The Story of a New Religious Tradition
• Helen Mar Whitney's Woman's Exponent reminiscences, as found in Jeni Broberg Holzapfel and Richard Neitzel Holzapfel, eds., A Woman's View: Helen Mar Whitney's Reminiscences of Early Church History . Provo: Religious Studies Center, BYU, 1997.
• Poll, Alexander, Campbell, Miller: Utah's History
• James B. Allen and Glen M. Leonard: The Story of the Latter-day Saints . SLC: Deseret Book, 1992. 2nd edition revised and enlarged.
• Donna Ricketts: The Mormon Battalion, U.S. Army of the West
• Lyndon Cook: The Revelations of the Prophet Joseph Smith / William Law
• Dan Vogel: Religious Seekers and the Advent of Mormonism

"Scott Kenney's "Saints Without Halos" Mormon History Page" This is a magnificent site, especially strong on Joseph F. Smith and the LDS Church in the 1880s and 90s.

Bob Fillerup's Home Page This page by my friend Bob Fillerup includes an online version of the William Clayton diaries and a critical edition of the Book of Abraham. Highly recommended.
A Site with Mormon Texts , including the History of the Church and Early Mormon Diaries
Utah Crossroads Chapter (Pioneer Trail Organization -- Lots of Nice Stuff Here)
An interesting story about the Mountain Meadows Massacre that appeared in, strangely enough, the Deseret News
Michael Marquardt's Mormon Origins Home Page -- Contains valuable documents on Joseph Smith
Perry Porter's Mormon history page, which has some interesting material on polygamy
David Wright, one of the leading Mormon scholars in Old Testament and ritual studies

Feminism:
domestic violence
Women's issues links

Environment:
Greenpeace Page
animal rights links
animal law
animal rights resource site

Politics:
Democratic party
I distrust almost all politicians, but nevertheless we have to work with the political system. On some issues, I sympathize with Republicans.