E37: William Clayton and Mr. X

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:26)
If you've read anything about the Nauvoo era published in the last 35 years, and I really mean anything, without fail, the William Clayton diaries show up in the footnotes. They just have to, it's essential. However, if you bothered to look at the footnote, you may have noticed that the editor wasn't named Andrew Ehat, Dean Jesse or Jim Allen. What gives? How did the people that actually got to see the Clayton diaries feel about it? And where the hell is this Mr. X that everyone keeps talking about?
Hi, this is Lindsay Hansen Park.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:04)
And this is Bryan Buchanan.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:06)
Bringing you the story of Mormonism from the shadow of the everlasting hills, straight out of Zion. This isn't your grandpa's Mormon history.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:33)
This is the tale of Mormon saints and sinners from our roots until present day.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:38)
Gird your loins, lock your hearts and pay your tithing, because we're bringing you the story of Mormonism in all its paradisiacal glory.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:47)
It's the Sunstone History Podcast.
In 1981, Signature Books was born. Their website notes that they originally, they envisioned themselves as quote, an outlet for Mormon history left unpublished by the LDS Church. It's a very interesting self-description. Too often, people see Signature as corahor. And I'm not even joking about that. In a review of all things, Dan Vogel's edited collection, The Word of God, BYU professor Stephen Robinson of Believing Christ and the Bicycle parable fame, kicked off his essay with quote, corahor's back and this time he's got a printing press. Book reviews are not known for being great.
That was one of the best opening lines of all time. Those classic farm students, say what you will about them. And part of Signature's vision of unpublished history was the Significant Mormon Diary series. If you know Mormon books, if you've ever seen these, honestly, this might be my favorite thing ever done in Mormon studies. Not only do they have killer content, they look amazing. If you've seen them, they have different colored spines and they have reproductions of their cursive handwriting that's in them, they are truly works of art.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (3:18)
I love them. Listen, Signature Books is the place to get your nerd on. They publish all of this stuff and you can buy their books at Benchmark Books where Bryan is employed.

**Bryan Buchanan** (3:26)
Including the book we will be talking about.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (3:29)
But Signature has done so much for Mormon studies. It's hard to even quantify it because the stuff that they put out is so good.

**Bryan Buchanan** (3:38)
So if you rewind the clock back to 1991, the fifth volume in the series is about to come out hotly anticipated. An Intimate Chronicle, The Journals of William Clayton edited by George Smith.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (3:51)
George's edition of the Clayton Diaries included the following. An abridged version of Clayton's England Journals covering 1840 to 1842 And these had already been published in full by Jim Allen and Tom Alexander as Manchester Mormons. It also included excerpts from the Nauvoo Diaries. The only thing on these had been of course, the E hat note eventually published by the Tanners as Clayton's secret writings uncovered.
It also included the Nauvoo Temple Diary, which is really important, the Pioneer Trail Diary in 1846 and 1847 This had been published by the Clayton family and then reprinted.
It included the diary from a three week visit to settlements in Southern Utah in 1852, which was previously unpublished. And a Mission Diary to England in 1852 to 53, also previously unpublished. In addition, George Smith included three very interesting appendices. Extracts taken from Clayton's Nauvoo Diaries by John Nuttall, A History of the Nauvoo Temple and an 1874 Affidavit on Polygamy. Yeah, this was quite the publishing earthquake. Remember that this was the early 90s and the climate was really starting to heat up.

**Bryan Buchanan** (5:02)
In the interim between when the Tanners had published the Clayton notes and the trial, and then George's edited volume in 1991, Jim Allen had published his long-awaited biography of Clayton that was called Trials of Discipleship. It was published by the University of Illinois Press and it was a justifiable award winner. Stan Kimball, another Mormon historian who knew what he was talking about, he edited the Heber C. Kimball diaries for this significant Mormon diary series, and he'd also published a biography, again with the University Press. He lauded Jim's book for its readability and plowing new ground.
While Jim had cited the Clayton diaries often in his work, the public wanted more. All right, put your nerd hats on and don't even pretend like you don't have a nerd hat. You are listening to this podcast, you own a nerd hat.