Valerie Haws

The book starts out with a history of Joseph Smith's grandparents, parents, and childhood. Then the author states that Joseph Smith was known for being a treasure seeker. He says that Joseph Smith lost his temper easily, hit two people at different occasions, and threw a bugle at another person. Joseph Smith didn't want to share his prophetic authority, and the author cites the Doctrine and Covenants as his source. Church leaders were constantly brought before church court if they said anything negative about Joseph Smith. If they did not apologize, they were removed from the church. The author felt sustaining church leaders was "tedious" (author's word used), collected stories and citations of slanders against Joseph Smith from his family and friends, and concluded each slander reference stating that there was no proof. He repeated that Joseph Smith married 30 women, 10 of them already married. When Emma, his wife found out, he just waited until the husbands of married women were out of town, and just had "dinner" alone with them. The author made it sound like Jo Smith had his pick from all the wives in the town and told the reader, at different times in the book, that Emma Smith was "hated by all the Utah Mormons." I wanted to read a biography about Joseph Smith, but I don't think the author liked Joseph Smith let alone respected him.