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(1811)
The world’s written histories of Joseph and of Christ are not the real truth. This authorized and official
biography of Joseph contains real truth, based on face-to-face interviews with Joseph and through the
instrumentality of the Urim and Thummim. The role of Timothy (one of the “Three Nephites”),
who was chiefly responsible for Joseph’s mortal development and protection, is revealed.Suspect Accounts of Joseph’s Childhood
There have been countless biographies written about Joseph Smith, most of them
published by descendants of some of his early followers. Ordinarily, such accounts, being
closely associated with the time of the events, would be regarded by historians as their “best
guess” for accuracy. Unfortunately, because of the myriad motives and prejudices of
modern-day LDS/Mormon historians, compounded by the constraints of recording
information, and the scramble, after the fact, to embellish the memory of their “prophet,”
modern historical accounts must be considered as highly suspect. It must be taken into
account that one of the last things that the mortal Joseph said was, “No man knows my
history.” And he meant it!
With every passing day of his life, Joseph knew that no one would be able to
assemble anything of sufficient import or relate to his unique experiences; nor would
anyone be able to make sense of any “events” related to him. This, combined with the
prejudicial motives with which they were written,^1 doomed all biographies about him to be
little more than subjective assumptions about his life made by oblivious observers.
Not to be outdone, other biographies, written by critics and defectors from the LDS
faith, have their own spin on what happened in Joseph’s early years. In either case, there is
no definitive history, until now, that had a source from which correct information about
Joseph’s childhood was either reliable or obtainable. None of those who recorded these
accounts were witnesses at the time the events occurred; and personal prejudice further
skewed the pretended logic and judgment of these authors.
Presently (circa 2012), the only available and accepted source of Joseph’s early years is
a history that his mother, Lucy, dictated to Martha Jane Knowlton Coray during the winter of
1844–45.^2 At that time, Lucy was nearing 70 years of age and had just experienced the worst
thing that could happen to a mother—the deaths of three of her sons—Joseph and Hyrum at
once, and Samuel the following month. Any rational mind could understand how difficult it
would have been for Lucy to accurately account in detail—without allowing her own personal
prejudice and bias to taint the real truth—the events surrounding Joseph’s childhood.
What Lucy dictated to Ms. Coray was chattering conversation between the two
women, with Martha taking notes as best she could. The notes were turned into a
manuscript that was eventually published, but never authorized by Lucy herself. The
first publication of the transcript was a quasi-LDS sanctioned version prepared by Orson
Pratt in England in 1853. Adding to the suspicion of the publication is that Lucy Smith,
personally, did not regard Pratt highly—an apostle in Brigham Young’s church—any