Thoughts on Future Projects

Chad Nielsen

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With my Zerah Pulsipher biography being published last week, and my next book manuscript off for some review and feedback, I’m turning my thoughts towards what to work on next. I have no shortage of ideas, but I also want to make sure I’m tapping into things that people are interested in. So, I would love some thoughts from the readers at Times and Seasons.

Here are the main projects I’m debating between:

Annotated Doctrine and Covenants

  • I introduced an early example of what this might look like at the start of last year, here.
  • The basic idea would be to present a version of the Doctrine and Covenants with the formatting that has become standard in modern Bible translations (i.e., paragraph, etc.), with some commentary in footnotes to bring in thoughts from scholarly discussions about the Doctrine and Covenants.
  • I would plan to include a couple of analytical essays as well as appendices with the following:
    • The sections of the Pearl of Great Price that we study during the D&C years of “Come, Follow Me”
    • Documents previously included in the D&C that were later removed
    • Later examples of the different genres of documents in the D&C that have not been canonized
    • Closely related documents to the contents of the D&C (i.e., the poetic rendition of D&C 76, Oliver Cowdery’s draft of the Articles and Covenants, and the Proclamation of the Twelve Apostles that fulfilled D&C 124’s instructions)
  • It would be a stretch to get this finished by the end of 2027 to make sure it comes out before the next D&C cycle, but I would be aiming for that timeframe.

 

Rey L. Pratt biography

  • When I was working on building my background context about the Church in Mexico for my Mexican Mission Hymns Project, I noticed that Rey L. Pratt’s name came up a lot. He was the mission president over Mexico and the Spanish-speaking missionary work in the United States from 1907 until his untimely death in 1931. He was called to the First Council of the Seventy in 1925 and was among the trio of general authorities sent to Argentina at the end of that same year to open missionary work in South America.
    • He has been called the “father of the Mexican mission” for his efforts.
  • I was surprised to realize there isn’t a biography out there about him, given how important he was during a formative and tumultuous period of the Church’s development in Mexico, so it’s been on my radar for a little while now to write one, if no one gets to it before me.
  • Mentally, I’ve had the thought of modeling this one on the brief Mormon lives series that Signature Books has been publishing, but I have no idea how long that series is planned to go.

 

George A. Smith biography

  • This is another major figure in Latter-day Saint history that I’m surprised that it seems like there hasn’t been a major biography published about. (Though it would not surprise me to find out there is one and I just missed it.)
  • George A. Smith was Joseph Smith Jr.’s cousin and the namesake grandfather of George Albert Smith. He was one of the younger members of the Camp of Israel (Zion’s Camp). He was later called as an apostle and then a member of the First Presidency. Smith was one of the Church historians who worked on compiling Joseph Smith’s history, and was a key figure in the settlement of Southern Utah (including cultivating the intense climate that allowed the Mountain Meadows Massacre to occur). He was also a father figure for Joseph F. Smith for a while.
  • That just scratches the surface, so there is a lot there that would be interesting to explore in a biography.

 

Collection of Important Latter-day Saint documents, 1830 to 1930

  • The goal would be to compile documents that apply to modern Latter-day Saints, illuminate the evolution of praxis and doctrine (particularly regarding temple work and Church leadership), and demonstrate ongoing revelation in the Church.
  • The target audience would be a general Church membership, rather than an academic audience.
  • I’m probably furthest along on this project out of any of the ones listed, but I’m also most hesitant to try and publish this one, since the selection criteria and documentary editing approach are things that tend to draw criticism, no matter how they are done.

Again, I’m looking for people’s thoughts about what they would be most interested in reading. Let me know!

Comments

16 responses to “Thoughts on Future Projects”

  1. Jonathan Green

    Two questions I use to help me:

    What can I write that no one else can?

    If the next project is the last thing I publish, what do I want it to be?

  2. John Mansfield

    Since you are asking, those that most draw my interest to read are the 1830-1930 documents collection and a Rey L. Pratt biography. I guess that commits me to buy and read one of those if you create it. Was that the clever marketing purpose of this post, even if unrecognized by the author?

  3. RL

    I loved the Oxford study BOM and would love a comparable D and C version.

  4. Gary Bergera

    George A. Smith biography. Desperately needed.

  5. Mark Ashurst-McGee

    What Gary said

  6. John Taber

    St. George, Utah is named for George A. Smith. Similarly, the St. Joseph Stake (with its core in The Gila Valley in Arizona but went way out from there originally) was named for Joseph Smith Jr.

  7. Curtis Pew

    I’d vote for either biography, or both.

  8. David T

    George A. Smith.

  9. Alan White

    I would be interested in an annotated Doctrine and Covenants. The problem with publishing an independent Doctrine and Covenants is that it so much of it is based on stories not mentioned in the text, so you would have to have some form of introduction to each section.
    For the appendix, I wonder what you mean by sections that used to be in the D & C, since only the Lectures of Faith come to mind. Would you include comparisons ore even inclusions from other LDS denominations of the D & C?
    The Community of Christ for example.

  10. Chad Lawrence Nielsen

    Thanks everyone for the input.

    Jonathan, that’s great advice. I think what I’m struggling with is that there are people out there who can do the projects, I’m just not sure if anyone is going to do them if I don’t.

    It seems like prioritizing the biographies is the way to go.

    Alan White, in addition to Lectures on Faith, there was a statement in marriage that D&C 132 replaced and then two John Taylor revelations that were published in several European edditions. As far as comparisons, in the introductions, I have a note for equivalent sections in the CoChrist D&C, Latter-day Revelation, and older editions of the D&C. I hadn’t planned on including things from non-LDS versions.

  11. Alan White

    Thanks for answering my questions.

  12. Kerry William Bate

    George A. Smith is perhaps the most needed biography of an important nineteenth century Mormon figure. The Pusey Smith family biography was constrained by family timidity and lack of access to good resources (also by a format not lending itself to a full biography). Zorah Jarvis’s book was a strong family effort; given the tremendous resources now available George A. could get a terrific biography by a diligent researcher like yourself.

    I thought the Rey L. Pratt suggestion veery intriguing, too.

  13. Chad Lawrence Nielsen

    Kerry, it was actually while reading your John Steele bio that it clicked that we need a George A. Smith bio.

  14. Mike Winder

    On of my favorite entries in my book “Counselors to the Prophets” published by Eborn Books is the the chapter on George A. Smith contributed to that project by C. Kent Dunford. I agree that George A. would be a fascinating book-length biography, and would happy to share that chapter with you for reference if you start down that path (Kent Dunford died in 2024 at the age of 90. Great scholar!).

  15. Chad Nielsen

    Thanks for pointing that out Mike. I hear that one had a good editor. I’ve added that to my to-read list.

    And thank you to everyone in general for the thoughtful feedback.

  16. Odd one out

    This post and comments strongly feel like a good ol’ boys club. Admittedly, anything related to LDS history is pretty much a branch of that club.

    Of these choices, I would be most interested in the Documents project if it would include historical context, what events prompted the statements, what problems were they meant to address or prevent, and include some that may have been superseded or rescinded. You are correct that you choices and commentary would likely be controversial, but it may provide insight into how these things come about.

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