This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2008, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A publishing company founded this year by the Mormon church is releasing its first volume.
The 500-page Joseph Smith Papers, released Monday, chronicles the church founder's journals between 1832 and 1839. It's the first in a series expected to run 30 volumes and the inaugural work of The Church Historian's Press.
Painstakingly transcribed from hundreds of fragile, handwritten pages, the book offers a look at Smith not just as a confident, charismatic church leader, but as a family man, who often prayed for guidance and strength.
The journals record letters, business transactions and religious revelations, some of which became church doctrine.
