S. Kent Brown, professor of ancient scripture at Brigham Young University, said the Doubleday edition "says, in effect, that the book has arrived and is now a serious player on the American literary scene. Hundreds of thousands of people have read it that way for a very long time, but editors and publishers haven't taken much note until now.

"Someone has recognized that Mormon materials are becoming more mainstream and that the size of the church and the seriousness of its scholars now have to be taken account of," Brown said. Doubleday sees this as a segment of publishing that hasn't yet been tapped and will provide a decent profit. But Latter-day Saints see something more, he believes.

Joseph Smith predicted the book and its teachings would eventually "fill the whole Earth," and a secular printing of the book "certainly becomes a part of that," Brown said. "There is just the tiniest sense that this book now will go into places where it has not yet gone, which may well include libraries in foreign countries, libraries in official organizations like embassies and the like."

Named earlier this year by Book Magazine as one of "20 Books That Changed America," many Latter-day Saints believe the book's own merits will eventually result in its spread around the globe.

Even so, Brown said, most church members will "applaud what Doubleday has done and say, 'thank you very kindly.' "

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