History of the Prophet Joseph, by His Mother

What would it mean to tell your son's story before the world could distort it? Lucy Mack Smith dictated this account in the wake of her son's violent death, while grief was still fresh and the memory of his voice vivid. This is not official history. It is a mother remembering, defending, and bearing witness. The narrative traces the Smith family from Lucy's father Solomon Mack through the humble years in upstate New York, the extraordinary spiritual experiences that shaped young Joseph, and the emergence of a prophetic calling that divided communities and ignited relentless persecution. Lucy writes as both mother and theologian, explaining visions and translations with the certainty of someone who watched her son kneel in the grove, who saw the gold plates returned, who understood that what the world called deception, she had witnessed as miracle. The book endures because it captures what no official history can: the texture of belief as lived from inside a family, the cost of following revelation, and a mother's right to tell her own son's story.