"If scholars cannot trust the text as being a faithful reproduction of the original, then our work is in vain," Jensen said.

Linda Adams, who recently joined the project, is working with a crew of editors and BYU students to make sure that the writing "reads smoothly" and to double-check footnotes.

Checking footnotes "involved a number of students, which is really a good part of this project too because it is generational," Adams said. "We are getting the young people involved in this project."

It is estimated that the first volume of the series, which is in reading stage, will be available at the end of the year.

"Much of the first volume has to do with the world Joseph Smith lived in that would have encouraged him to be record-keeping," said David Whittaker, co-editor of the first book. "(Joseph Smith was) a man (wife) Emma (Smith) said could barely form a sentence. Yet here's a man who directs a major effort to record all things in the founding of the church in the last dispensation."

As he has worked on the project, Whittaker said he has seen "puzzle pieces come together" and that it "has deepened (his) appreciation and love for the Prophet Joseph."

The work the scholars do may help dispel some of the inaccuracies about the life of Joseph Smith.

"The terrible things said about Joseph Smith come largely from ignorance about the past," Jensen said. "(The project) is just a connection to the past that helps you visualize and understand the early Saints."

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E-mail: lriddle@desnews.com