Published less than a year ago, the 5 volume Complete Discourses of Brigham Young, compiled-officially-by Richard S. Van Wagoner (the word on the street is that a relative of his did the bulk of the work and then balked at having their name associated with the project and asked RSVW to take it) is out of print. Priced at $500, this set has likely remained elusive to all but the most avid of collectors.
The lack of an accompanying electronic text limits its usefulness as a reference in the digital age. In addition, despite what its rather presumptuous title suggests, these 5 volumes (some 3,260 pages) do not contain all known Brigham Young sermons. Mark Staker’s recently published Hearken O Ye People makes use of some previously unpublished Brigham Young sermons which have recently been “translated” from shorthand notes. Many of these sermons taken down in shorthand remain undeciphered.
Limited to only 350 sets, its impact as a reference is yet to be seen. At best, this is a (welcome) stop-gap until something more comprehensive and reliable (read: which can be verified against original records) comes along. That could be a long wait, however, and so this effort is welcome in the interim.
Nevertheless, if you haven’t gotten the chance to get a set, I understand some booksellers still have a few. Check availability with your favorite Mormon bookseller before prices rise, which they are sure to do before long.
Here is the set alongside some other out of print Smith-Pettit Foundation publications (drooling permitted…at a distance). I’ll give them that–the matching bindings sure look good together on a shelf (Notice the scarce [?] “Blesings” misspelling on the spine of the red volume–I’m not sure how many of those survived. Word is that the publishers were mortified and had the remaining copies corrected.)
[Click on the photo for the full view.]
I just found your site, and was very intersted in your masthead. Do you know anything about whether Signature is going to re-print the Woodruff journals?
I am fortunate enough to have the Lengthen Your Stride, the Discourses of Brigham Young and the Partriarchal Blessings books. However, since so much of my reading in now in digital form, I cannot see myself utilizing them as much as I originally thought.
The times are changing quickly.
Interested, I think it’s been an ongoing thought to reprint them. I haven’ t been plugged into those conversations for a little while, but you’re definitely not the first to ask. I really don’t know but that it’s been an ongoing subject of discussion for a number of years.
Michael, it’s true, though having the reference, well organized and indexed is better than nothing, I guess. At least the Lengthen Your Stride is actually the print version of something that is electronic (on the cd that comes with the regular trade edition), so at least that is electronic.
An electronic copy of BY Discourses exists, but it was only given out to a handful of people. Not sure why it would be that much harder to just include it on a cd in the back of one of these volumes. Oh well.
Although, on the plus side, you’ll note that many of Signature Books’ out of print publications have been placed on their website. These, of course, are Smith-Pettit, not Signature, but it’s a good resource.
http://www.signaturebookslibrary.org/
I should mention that the Working Draft of Lengthen Your Stride is not a Smith-Pettit publication, it was done by Benchmark Books. I’ll probably put up a post about that at some point. I just have it there on the shelf by those other ones cuz it has a similar look.
Someone desperately needs to update the Signature Library CSS file. Please.
If the best use of such volumes requires keeping them sealed in plastic to retain their value to collectors (as depicted in the photo), then it is a good thing that they are now out of print so the investment can rise in value. Would the inclusion of a disk in the unopened wrapper have made any difference?
John, I have a second set that I use as reference. And yes, I hope value rises soon.
Jared,
Since you have a second set for reference, I need to ask a question. Are there entries from 1873 until 1877 for sermons given by BY in St. George that are not included in the regular Journal of Discourses?
I’m still chasing the primary source on an elusive quote from that era, reputedly heard in St. George.
Kevin, when I get home later, I’ll take a look. Thanks.
Jared,
Turns out Ardis at Keepa saw my post, and has one of the mysterious electronic copies of this. She kindly answered my ultimate question for me, which is certainly easier on a CD than in a massive volume. Thanks.
Cool.
Wow! I thought this site was dead! I am glad to see it is still alive and someone is posting something. It would be nice to see more postings and more discussions.
Thanks, Gary. We’ll try to better maintain it. I think there’s a lot to talk about.
I hope I can answer a few questions.
The Wilford Woodruf Journals are an open wound around the Signature offices. We originally had a contract with the Joseph Fielding Smith Institute at BYU for an annotated version. A project they never completed. A new version of the project would desperately need annotation and is something a few of us would like to finish before we retire. There is some progress, but it’s too early to comment as such things tend to have a high blow up rate. But hold on to your seats as the Smith-Pettit Foundation is expected to receive the multi-volume Joseph Smith History, early next year from the editor/researcher. Signature will either publish or distribute the project.
As for the CSS feeds. The modestly staffed cadre at Sig is attempting to complete our recently updated signaturebooks.com website. When we finish this project, we plan to switch our attention back to our library site and move that entire database over to wordpress. We have almost 50 more manuscripts ready to post after that happens. I personally would welcome critical feedback as that happens.
As for The “Complete” Discourses of Brigham Young. This project made all other attempts at publishing them, over the past 170 years, nearly obsolete. It contains every version of every speech. All books are a snapshot in time. Authors bios change, new documents are found, ideologies shift. At the moment in time when these volumes were published, until the present moment, it contains the complete collection of speeches by Brigham Young that are or were accessible (and many that weren’t).
I doubt we will see another attempt at this project in our lifetime. The researcher spent one day a week for almost 15 years to complete this project. There has been some suggestion that there are more speeches out there that have been unavailable to the common researcher. Of course this is true, and it looks like the project might have flushed a few of them out. They will be welcome additions to history as we ever see them published in their entirety or made available generally to researchers. But don’t hold your breath. These things tend to play out in increments of decades.
As for the mysterious electronic copies. I saw ten “numbered” discs go out to friends of the Smith-Pettit foundation. I didn’t get one (and I really wanted one).
Kind regards.
–Tom Kimball
publicist
Signature Books
Tom, I didn’t see this until now, so thank you for stopping by and giving more information.