An addition to my library

The first paperback edition of the classic biography of the founder of the Mormon church, this book attempts to answer the questions that continue to surround Joseph Smith. Was he a genuine prophet, or a gifted fabulist who became enthralled by the products of his imagination and ended up being martyred for them?

After her first son was born in 1942, Brodie was awarded an Alfred A. Knopf biography fellowship in 1943 to write a biography of Joseph Smith, Jr., founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. Called No Man Knows My History, the title alludes to a speech Smith gave shortly before his death in which he denies any mortal could fully know his saga. Brodie's book was published to critical praise in late 1945. The biography made many claims contrary to official LDS Church doctrine about Smith's life and teachings. For example, it speculated about how Smith may have written the Book of Mormon which he claimed was translated with divine aid from Golden Plates. Brodie also wrote about how Smith supposedly convinced people he even had Golden Plates. She detailed connections between Masonic rituals and LDS temple rituals; some Latter-day Saints find Brodie's perspective on this connection both simplistic and sacrilegious. Brodie interpreted all of Smith's purported revelations as being merely expedient, and saw Smith as power-hungry and lustful. This opinion was formed, in part, by her research of James Strang, leader of a small splinter-group who claimed that Smith recorded power-obsessed thoughts in an encoded diary. A power-hungry conception of Smith is portrayed througout No Man Knows My History. Initial drafts of the book were even more hostile to Smith, but Bernard Brodie, her husband, and Dale Morgan, who was Fawn Brodie's mentor, urged her to write a more balanced account in order to be taken seriously. These reviewers thought the drafts were unsatisfactory because they failed to be sympathetic enough even to explain Smith's popularity. Some readers still cite this problem. However, the book remains notable, especially for its laborious attempts to document Smith's plural marriages. An expanded edition was published in 1971. Brodie was excommunicated from the LDS Church in May, 1946 for apostasy, which included refusing to edit or alter controversial material in her book. She was unsurprised about the excommunication, and proclaimed that she had lost her faith before her work on the book began. Brodie regretted hurting her parents, but never sought to rejoin the church. Like Brodie's later biography of Thomas Jefferson, No Man Knows My History has been criticized by some historians as speculative and biased. Another excommunicated Mormon historian, D. Michael Quinn, claims that Brodie failed to take Smith's religious claims seriously (New Mormon History, xiv). This view is popularly held among mainstream historians, much more so now than when the book was initially published. Prominent LDS writer and apologist Hugh Nibley challenged many of Brodie's claims in a booklet, No, Ma'am, That's Not History. Primarily, Nibley challenged her selective use of sources. Too often, Nibley asserted, Brodie relied on anti-Mormon newspaper stories over less biased sources. Nonetheless, Brodie's biography is a favorite among some critics of the Latter Day Saint movement, especially anti-Mormons. Interestingly, some anti-Mormons such as Jerald and Sandra Tanner regard Brodie's work as sloppy and unreliable even though her unsympathetic view of Smith mirrors their own. One such criticism attacks Brodie's brief treatment of the so-called "Solomon Spalding hypothesis" in appendix B. The Spalding hypothesis supposed that Joseph Smith based the book of Mormon off of the Spalding manuscript, a narrative about pre-Columbian Americans. The theory speculated Smith may have been aided by Sidney Rigdon, who was more formally educated than Smith. Brodie rejected the hypothesis proposing Smith as the sole writer, but the appendix is thought to be less rigorously researched, an afterthought. In spite of its shortcomings, No Man Knows My History is often considered the standard naturalistic biography of Joseph Smith.