Two interesting articles in this morning’s Deseret News:

Topic: Joseph Smith

“Warts and all”

Here’s an excerpt from the second article:

“Like any historian worth his salt, Richard Bushman was determined early on to write about Joseph Smith’s life ‘warts and all.”I didn’t want to cover up anything,’ he said by phone from his New York apartment. ‘I purposely sought to deal with all the problems, trying always to see things as Joseph saw them. I wanted to be empathetic, because that’s what readers want.’

Bushman’s historical philosophy was strictly applied to “Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling” (Knopf, 730 pages, $35), his work on the Mormon prophet. ‘I wanted to write a book in which Joseph could recognize himself.’

‘I once told a graduate student that I do it this way because I might meet this person in the afterlife. You have to write the book thinking the subject is in the room.’
….

When asked about the balance of his work, Bushman said, ‘I’m not sure I want ‘Joseph Smith’ to be balanced. Prophets have a right to be wild. I want him to be a sculpted figure with distinctive qualities of his own.

‘We are so sold on the genteel, noble kind of prophet that we forget about the Old Testament prophets. I take Joseph and I love the warts. None of his flaws stopped him from getting the job done. He was tremendously effective.’”