About the Collection

Acknowledgments

This collection is dedicated to Louis C. Midgley, who first proposed the idea and then provided continual prodding and much needed encouragement. Professor Midgley was aware of the earlier efforts of Francis Kirkham and knew that further work could be done to compile documentation of early, published responses to the Book of Mormon. We are grateful for his vision.

Many people and organizations have been helpful in bringing this effort to fruition. The administration of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship has supported the project under the leadership of directors Andrew Skinner and M. Gerald Bradford. Many hours have been dedicated to the multitude of tasks required to gather these documents and present them as a collection. We thank the editors, interns, and secretaries, including Alison Coutts, Larry Morris, Don Brugger, Shirley S. Ricks, Paula Hicken, Jacob Rawlins, Brenna A. King, Sabrina Clifford, Laurel Barlow, Katie Newbold, Kelley Konzak, Keegan Taylor, Emma Andrews, Rebekah Atkin, Josh Perkey, Leanne Vesloski, Marne Millet, Megan Brimhall, Jann Cahoon, Elin Roberts, Heather Baron, Ashley Tucker, and Kelsie Christensen. And thanks to Daniel Peterson and Melvin J. Thorne for many helpful suggestions.

We are also grateful to the Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young University. Larry Draper, the Curator of Mormon Americana, and the staff of L. Tom Perry Special Collections were very helpful in locating and scanning many of these early publications. The administrators of the Lee Library’s Digital Collections, including Kayla Willey and Jacob Jenson, as well as Tom DeForest and Grant Zabriskie of the library’s Web design department, made it possible to present this collection in a searchable electronic form, easily available through the Internet.