Who I Am

I’m a rural guy born in an outlying Mormon settlement (no, really, the 2000 census deemed my country the “frontier”). I received my M.A. in history from the University of Kentucky and spent the past years immersing myself in the words of Brigham Young.  I’ve handled John D. Lee’s and George A. Smith’s report describing the circumstances surrounding the Mountain Meadows Massacre.  I’ve read meeting minutes, court decisions, private correspondence, and wartime casualty reports.  I only deal in the original materials: letters written by Brigham’s own hand, office journals kept by Joseph Smith’s closest associates. I am probably more obsessed–should I see someone about this–with Mormon history (and really, anything remotely associated with it) than anyone you know.

Russell Stevenson