CASPER, Wyo. — A highly touted biography of LDS Church founder Joseph Smith earned top honors Friday at the 41st annual Mormon History Association conference.

"Joseph Smith, Rough Stone Rolling," by Columbia scholar Richard Bushman, was named Best Book on Mormon History. Penned after decades of research into Smith's life, family and teachings, the book was published by Knopf last year and received wide critical acclaim.

Bushman is now working with other scholars and historians of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints toward publication of the Joseph Smith Papers project. Spearheaded by the Family and Church History Department and Brigham Young University, the first volumes of the anticipated 26-volume work are slated for publication in 2007.

Other winners announced at an awards banquet Friday night are:

• Robert S. Wicks and Fred R. Foister, Best First Book Award for "Junius and Joseph: Presidential Politics and the Assassination of the First Mormon Prophet."

• Greg Prince and William Wright, Best Biography Award for "David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism."

• Devery S. Anderson and Gary James Bergera, Best Documentary Award for "Joseph Smith's Quorum of the Anointed, 1842-1845: A Documentary History," and "The Nauvoo Endowment Companies, 1845-1846: A Documentary History."

• Stephen C. LeSueur, Best Article Award for "Missouri's Failed Compromise: The Creation of Caldwell County for the Mormons."

•Craig Livingston, Awards of Excellence for, "Eyes on the Whole European World Mormon Observers of the 1848 Revolutions," and Gregory Prince and Gary Topping for "A Turbulent Coexistence: Duane Hunt, David O. McKay and a Quarter-Century of Mormon-Catholic Relations."

Students Matthew Grow, Stanley Thayne and Benjamin Allred were also honored for their papers. Publisher Robert A. Clark and former University of Illinois Press associate director Elizabeth Dulaney were lauded for their contributions to the popularization of Western and Mormon history.