Spencer W. Kimball Edward L. Kimball and Andrew E., Jr.

BYU Studies Quarterly Volume 18 | Issue 4 Article 13 10-1-1978 Spencer W. Kimball Edward L. Kimball and Andrew E., Jr. Eugene England Charles D. Tate Jr. Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/byusq Recommended Citation England, Eugene and Tate, Charles D. Jr. (1978) "Spencer W. Kimball Edward L. Kimball and Andrew E., Jr.," BYU Studies Quarterly: Vol. 18 : Iss. 4 , Article 13. Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/byusq/vol18/iss4/13 This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the All Journals at BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in BYU Studies Quarterly by an authorized editor of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact , . England and Tate: <em>Spencer W. Kimball</em> Edward L. Kimball and Andrew E., Jr. KIMBALL EDWARD L L and ANDREW E JR spencer W kimball salt lake city bookcraft 1977 x 438 pp 8.95 ap 895 895 reviewed by eugene england associate professor of english at brigham young tare jr professor of english at brigham young university and charles D tate university ON BEING HUMAN AND BEING A PROPHET with the death of president lee many members of the church wondered as elder W grant bangerter expressed it in we had general conference last fall what will we do now never expected spencer W kimball to become the president and we had not looked to him for the same leadership evident in the life of harold B lee we knew of course that he would manage somehow until the next great leader arose but it would not be 591 Published by BYU ScholarsArchive, 1978 1 BYU Studies Quarterly, Vol. 18, Iss. 4 [1978], Art. 13 things would not be the same 0 lord we prayed please bless president kimball he needs all the help you can give him ensign november 1977 p 26 since that time spencer W kimball has announced the first additions to the canon of scripture in our century has activated and nearly filled the first quorum of seventy and has sought and received a revelation giving blacks the priesthood with his call to lengthen our stride and by his own example he has sparked an explosion of new energy and growth in the whole church in just four years the number of full time missionaries has increased fifty percent and convert baptisms have doubled organized stakes of zion have gone from 600 to nearly 1000 and membership has increased from three to over four million half again as many temples are in process or announced new countries including poland have given the church official standing there is expectation that other countries will be opened and many more temples built and that his goal of 45000 missionaries many from other countries will soon be met that energy that quickening spirit of extation pervades the church and there is a surge of faith that pec pectation the kingdom will indeed soon fill the whole earth and the savior come along with all this there is closer moral scrutiny greater concern about inadequacy in others and ourselves greater attention to homely fundamentals like getting married working in the earth with our own hands keeping our yards clean writing journals carefully examining our own lives and trying to improve the church in just four years has been profoundly influenced by the vision the energy the moral rigor and restless sense of inadequacy of president kimball and in the biography spencer W kimball edward L kimball a son and andrew E kimball jr a grandson have shown us with unusual and moving clarity the roots of these qualities As good as it is this mormon biography is not without weaknesses it is not the best structured and does not contain the most elegant writing or best analysis the chapter stake president is weak in organization and sparse in detail and the usual biographical challenge of theme versus chronology is badly resolved there and a problem elsewhere also the book is not the best researched while most biographies suffer from not having sufficient first person primary materials this one relies almost wholly on them we see how president kimball perceives himself but not enough of how others perceived him in the same situations or of easy for him and 592 https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/byusq/vol18/iss4/13 2 England and Tate: <em>Spencer W. Kimball</em> Edward L. Kimball and Andrew E., Jr. documentary evidence that would give the solidity of granite facts good biography needs nevertheless spencer W kimball is a landmark in mormon biswells boswells boswelll og raphy it stands in relation to mormon biography as Bo ography samuel johnson stands in relation to all english biography life of samueljohnson it is the best so far and the first to take a great subject and give us the whole man warts divinity and all and thus make his life unavoidably and eternally part of our own for the first time we LIDS church president which is not mainly have a book about an LDS an attempt to tell us why he was or was not a prophet of god rather it shows us with remarkable directness and fullness a human life one in many ways like our own which through long painful struggles was touched by extraordinary experiences and influen fluences ces that the reader can believe with the authors were from god the authors achieve this by firmly holding to their decision not to ignore any weakness or problem or exaggerate any strength they say that in that decision we were faced with no real test of our integrity as biographers since our burrowing into the past only confirmed our personal impressions that this was a man of rare consistency exemplifying in his private life the same virtues preface p x nevertheless the auascribed to the public man mormons thors as close relatives and faithful cormons Mor mons and bookcraft as a official LDS publisher have demonstrated remarkable courage semiofficial semi and ability in producing such a handsome well edited detailed and complete piece of work and thus have shown the mormon public how LDS biography has to be written now that it has come of age spencer IV kimball is the first mormon biography to lead the reader so completely to genuine identification rather than to mere adoration or idolizing to accept the prophet as a real model for his own human struggle this is accomplished by the very openness and completeness with which the book deals with a prophets own humanness and sense of inadequacy it is the kind of book that probably could not have been published concerning a dead prophet and it could only be published in the time of a living prophet of the profound humility and habitual self examination of president and sister kimball whose concern for truth and lack of personal protectiveness not only prevented censorship but provided in their great volume of personal journals correspondence and oral history the bulk of material for the book As the authors say the whole undertaking was possible only because of their 593 Published by BYU ScholarsArchive, 1978 3 BYU Studies Quarterly, Vol. 18, Iss. 4 [1978], Art. 13 p (...truncated)