---
title: Life of Joseph the Prophet
description: 1878 biography of Joseph Smith by Edward W. Tullidge, a Mormon writer and publisher, written at the request of Mormon leaders; forty-seven chapters, with accounts of Mormon origins, doctrines and the Nauvoo period.
authors:
  - Tullidge, Edward William
collections:
  - history
tags:
  - biography
  - joseph-smith
  - 19th-century
  - mormon-writings
  - history
published: "1878"
publisher: Tullidge & Crandall
publisher_place: New York
edition: First edition (New York, 1878)
language: en
type: book
reference: 'Edward W. Tullidge, *Life of Joseph the Prophet* (New York: Tullidge & Crandall, 1878), "Preface."'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/lifeofjosephprop00byu2tull
  identifier: lifeofjosephprop00byu2tull
  scan: Brigham Young University copy of the 1878 Tullidge & Crandall edition, Internet Archive
  transcription: OCR text of the 1878 scan, with line-break hyphens joined, running heads and page numbers removed, library stamps dropped and obvious scan errors corrected; printed pagination kept as page markers. The italic line under each chapter heading is the chapter summary from the original table of contents. Not proofread against the page images.
curator_note: Written by a Mormon author at the request of Brigham Young and published in 1878; treated as a Mormon primary source, included for historical study. Inclusion does not imply endorsement.
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: 1878 US publication (New York, Tullidge & Crandall); published before 1931, so public domain in the United States
  source: https://archive.org/details/lifeofjosephprop00byu2tull
  publication_year: 1878
  note: Publication year of the edition used is 1878; any modern rights notice in the Internet Archive metadata does not apply to this 1878 text.
---

# Preface

In the subjoined " Life of Joseph the Prophet," I have not attempted to give an exhaustive record of his acts and sayings. Rather have I attempted to present those matters only of wide and general significance— those gems of thought and deed that best exhibit the prophet-nature of the man.

Whenever I have had occasion to incorporate any portion of his many and voluminous revelations, the endeavor has been to set them in their proper historical connections and surroundings, as only in such a presentation are some of them clear to the general reader.

In its compilation I have been placed under obligations to the Hon. Joseph F. Smith and Eliza R. Snow, who kindly read and revised the manuscript.

The late President Young requested me to write this book, and the late Apostle George A. Smith, on his death-bed, charged me solemnly concerning it. Its production has therefore been both a work of duty and affection. Its kind acceptance by the Saints, and fair consideration by the world at large will be my ample reward.

Respectfully,

Edward W. Tullidge.

Salt Lake City, Utah, April, 1878.