Just announced:
"My Candid Opinion": The Sandwich Islands Diaries of Joseph F. Smith, 1856-1857
Nathaniel R. Ricks editor
For the first time, the earliest surviving diaries of Joseph F. Smith (b. 1838), will be available. Smith, the sixth president of the LDS Church, served from 1901 until his death in 1918. He was also one of the youngest LDS missionaries ever called to serve. He arrived in the Sandwich Islands (now Hawaiian Islands) in 1854 at the age of fifteen. For the next three years, he labored to bring native converts into the Church while combating loneliness, depression, a fiery temperament, and doubts about his own competence. In fact, one of the perhaps surprising themes to emerge from the diaries is Joseph F.'s driving quest for self-improvement and intellectual competence. Editor Nathaniel Ricks has carefully annotated these earliest diaries of Joseph F. (earlier volumes were destroyed in a fire) to make them accessible to modern readers. The diaries offer a fun look into the formative years of one of Mormonism's most commanding personalities. "My Candid Opinion" will be a Smith-Pettit Foundation imprint (Smith-Pettit is our sister company).
due: May 2011
ISBN: 978-1-56085-219-3
limitation: 250 copies
price: $100
http://signaturebooks.com/2011/03/new-book-announced-from-smith-pettit/
1 comment:
Sample entry:
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[December 25, 1856; Thursday] Christmass! [sic] I spent this day (the forenoon) in the meeting house reading the Deseret News. I said Nothing to no body—and recieved the same in return, that however did not greave me much, as it is the third Christmass I have spent on the S[andwich]. I[slands]. with haff as little serrimony as the above. I have endevered to content myself with the Idea that my Big Brother, Sisters—and freinds in general, are all enjoying themselvs, at the festive dance, and especially at the 'breed,' [?] playing, feast[ing], and sick-nick over the abundance of natures productions, while I am here, feasting on poi and (see, I believe we had some meat this fore noon—but non[e] in the after noon) now and then some fresh boiled goat. sometimes (when extreemly fortunate!) a small bit of salt or fresh beaf, mearly boiled in (can scarcely call it so) clear watter, with nothing to go with it for a zest. all I have to say, my turn will come sometime if it ever does, and then I will make [up for] the lost time. we went to Kukuiwaluhia, in the evening heard of several accidents at sea. one vessel had been foundered...[entry continues on another diary page]
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You can read more about the origins and development of this project here.
http://www.d49.org/school/fms/classrooms/eighthgrade/titaniumteam/ricks/Pages/ricks.aspx
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