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.

Yet none of the writers of those reviews — Western novelist Larry McMurtry or popular novelist Walter Kirn, for example — is a historian or academic. Kirn is a lapsed Mormon, and Bushman said he doubts that McMurtry read the entire book.

They both tended to review Joseph Smith as a "scalawag, a bit of a buffoon or con artist" rather than the author's treatment of his subject.

But now the reviews have become much more positive, although Bushman is convinced that "it's not possible to hit the right tone with academics — at least not yet. If a non-Mormon, non-academic were to have written the book exactly as it is, they might like it."

Bushman remains happy the book is selling all over the country (including at Deseret Book and the LDS Church Museum of Church History and Art). "No one has put it on any forbidden list, as far as I know. It's healthy to get Joseph Smith's history out in the open. It shouldn't be concealed."

At any rate, Bushman is glad he did it — and now he's gravitating back to his study of farming in early America. He's also proud of his faith. Being a Mormon is "something I could never give up. It's too delicious." That's a term he borrowed from the preacher of the Great Awakening, Jonathan Edwards, "who had a taste for the doctrine of grace."

Bushman is happy that wherever he goes LDS readers seem to like the book — and he gets many complimentary letters. "The book seems to have hit the right tone for Mormons," said Bushman, "and every academic will at least have to take it seriously. That's fine with me."

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E-mail: dennis@desnews.com