Author Bushman's diary of 'Rough Stone Rolling' tour is a page-turner

A little over a year ago, I reviewed "Rough Stone Rolling" (Knopf), Richard Bushman's splendid biography of the first LDS prophet, Joseph Smith. I thought Bushman accomplished what no historian had before, a balanced, interesting, perhaps even definitive look at the life of the founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — "warts and all."

As a prolific American historian, a respected Columbia University professor, and a believing, practicing Mormon, Bushman seemed right for the task. He spent seven years researching and writing the book, which may yet change the Mormon intellectual landscape.

To date, 80,000 copies have been printed, which would seem to clearly indicate that both Mormons and non-Mormons are reading it.

Interestingly, Bushman kept a diary about this book project and about his speaking and signing tour last year, which has been published in a limited edition, titled, "On the Road with Joseph Smith: An Author's Diary."

The diary is possibly unparalleled — an author of a recent book candidly dissecting his experiences with both Mormon and non-Mormon audiences. There are even descriptions of his own feelings of inadequacy.

This is no arrogant academic proclaiming his perfect product to the world. It is a humble, gentle man with whom we can identify, discussing feelings of anxiety, even panic and frustration over his performance at the podium and the answers he gave to difficult questions.

Now that this limited edition has attracted such avid interest, both the author and the publisher have proclaimed their willingness to pursue unlimited commercial publication. The document certainly deserves wider distribution — in part because it shows a talented historian laying open his vulnerabilities, and also because it shows how much any historian lays on the line when he writes about Joseph Smith.

During a conversation by phone from his New York City home, Bushman said he was "flabbergasted" by the print run, and he wondered aloud if there is any other profession (a historian writing about the church leader he reveres) in which someone "joined professional qualifications and personal philosophy so completely."

Bushman said he enjoyed writing the diary. "It was like eating peanuts. It lures you from one page to another."

And reading it is a similar experience.

The reasons for his candor lie "partly in my age," said Bushman, who is in his 70s. "I'm not protecting anything now. I think we reach other people by opening ourselves. So I go back to who I really am rather than to use any pretense."

As he traveled, reviews of the book gradually popped up in journals and newspapers. When the book was reviewed in The New York Review of Books and the New York Times, Bushman found himself perhaps unaccountably bothered by critiques that seemed not to understand Joseph Smith.

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