We at Signature are deeply saddened by the recent passing of our lifelong colleague and friend, Lavina Fielding Anderson. To honor Lavina and her work at Signature and in the Mormon Studies community, we are hosting a public event at our office on Thursday, November 30, at 6:30 p.m. Attendees will be welcome to share their thoughts about Lavina and what she meant to them. Lavina’s son and daughter-in-law will be in attendance. Signature’s offices are located at 508 West 400 North, Salt Lake City. If you are unable to attend in person, feel free to send your thoughts to people@signaturebooks.com and we will read them at the event.

Born in Norway, John A. Widtsoe (1872–1952) was renowned for his expertise in irrigation and dry farming. His pioneering work pushed the boundaries of and contributed significantly to advancements in agricultural practices. Moreover, his forays into the field of biochemistry exemplified his relentless pursuit of scientific understanding.

After receiving a liberal arts education at the Munro Academy in Elbridge, New York, and a stint in the US-Mexican War, James Henry Martineau spent his life as a surveyor, civil engineer, clerk, mapmaker, and pathfinder in Utah. After becoming a Latter-day Saint in 1850, Martineau went with Apostle George A. Smith to settle Parowan in southern Utah, with a commitment to building God's kingdom in the West. As a leader in the Utah territorial militia he conducted military drills, witnessed events surrounding the Mountain Meadows Massacre and the legal trials of its perpetrators, explored wilderness areas, submitted reports, and drew maps to record his travels throughout the entire Mormon corridor.

The Book of Mormon prophet Nephi describes the journey to eternal life as going through a gate of ordinances and traveling a “straight and narrow path.” Twenty-three authors took that gospel roadmap passage as a prompt to write “a Mormon story.” They responded with a surprisingly wide range of realistic and fantastic tales. Many are human reactions to unexpected steps on the path: a lifetime of faith in a patriarchal blessing’s unfulfilled promise, a survivor of violence calling a divided community to repentance, a baptism gone very wrong, and spiritual gifts that extend far beyond the apostle Paul’s list.

In today’s podcast, we talk with Andrew Hall, associate professor of East Asian History at Kyushu University, and Robert Raleigh, editor of In Our Lovely Deseret: Mormon Fictions, published by Signature Books.

Signature has a strong tradition of publishing outstanding fiction. This month we will release a superb collection of short stories edited by Andrew Hall and Robert Raleigh called The Path and the Gate: Mormon Short Fiction. Among the short stories are pieces by Todd Robert Petersen, Alison Brimney, Heidi Naylor, Phyllis Barber, Jack Harrell, David G. Pace, Michael Fillerup, and Steven Peck. The Book of Mormon prophet Nephi described the journey to eternal life as going through a gate of ordinances and traveling a “straight and narrow path.” Twenty-three authors took that gospel roadmap passage as a prompt to write “a Mormon story.” They responded with a surprisingly wide range of realistic and fantastic tales. Put together in a volume of nearly 300 pages, these gems pack quite a punch!

September 2023 marks the thirtieth anniversary of what came to be dubbed “The September Six,” in which the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints excommunicated or disciplined six intellectuals and activists. Today’s guest is Professor Sara M. Patterson, speaking about her just-released book on the subject, The September Six and the Struggle for the Soul of Mormonism. In this thirty-year retrospective, Patterson challenges us to think more deeply about the events of that month and the era in which they unfolded, arguing that it was part of a much broader, decades-long cultural and theological debate over the nature of the church and its Restoration narrative.

In the single month of September 1993, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints excommunicated or disciplined six of its members. These six individuals—some of them intellectuals, some activists, and some both—were dubbed the "September Six." In The September Six and the Struggle for the Soul of Mormonism, Sara M. Patterson challenges readers to think more deeply about the events of that month and the era in which they unfolded. Patterson argues that the clever alliterative phrase "September Six" masks our ability to see that what happened that month was part of a much broader, decades-long cultural and theological debate over the nature of the church and its restoration narrative.

From 1872–1914, Latter-day Saint suffragists in Utah published a women’s rights newspaper called the Woman’s Exponent. In 1974, a group of Boston women that included historians Laurel Thatcher Ulrich and Claudia Bushman began publishing Exponent II, a quarterly periodical that they called a “spiritual descendant” of the original Exponent. Exponent II will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2024. As part of that commemoration, Signature Books is honored to publish a book on Fifty Years of Exponent II, co-edited by Katie Ludlow Rich and Heather Sundahl. Today’s podcast offers a sneak peak of this forthcoming book, as presented by Rich at the 2023 Sunstone Symposium.

In September 1993, six scholars and feminists were excommunicated or disfellowshipped by local leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for their writings or activism. Marking the thirty-year anniversary of that month, Signature Books is publishing Dr. Sara M. Patterson’s The September Six and the Struggle for the Soul of Mormonism. A professor of theological studies and gender studies at Hanover College, Patterson argues that for decades before and after the events of 1993, the institutional church invested in and policed a purity system, expecting believers to practice doctrinal, familial, and bodily purity. Dissenters within the institution pushed back, imagining instead a vision of the Restoration that embraced personal conscience, truth-seeking and telling, and social egalitarianism at its core.

Signature Books is thrilled to be working with the new director of the Smith-Pettit Foundation, Martha Bradley-Evans, who recently retired from the University of Utah. During her tenure at the university, she was a professor in the College of Architecture and Planning, served as dean of Undergraduate Studies, taught for the Honors College, and was senior associate vice president of Academic Affairs. Bradley-Evans takes the place of Gary James Bergera, who led the foundation from its inception in 1999 through his retirement in 2022.

For episode twenty-seven, Signature Marketing Manager Devery Anderson interviews Ken Cannon II about his new book, "George Q. Cannon: Politician, Publisher, Apostle of Polygamy." George Q. Cannon is generally acknowledged as second only to Brigham Young as the most visible leader of Mormonism in the mid- to late-nineteenth century. He became Young’s protégé and was an influential first counselor in the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for almost twenty-five years, serving with presidents Brigham Young, John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff, and Lorenzo Snow.

George Q. Cannon is generally acknowledged as second only to Brigham Young as the most visible leader of Mormonism in the mid- to late-nineteenth century. He became Young’s protégé and was an influential first counselor in the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for almost twenty-five years, serving with presidents Brigham Young, John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff, and Lorenzo Snow. Known as the “spokesman for the kingdom,” Cannon was the central political figure of the church, not only serving as Utah territory’s delegate to Congress for ten years but also as chief political advisor and long-term editor of the Deseret News.

This year’s Sunstone Symposium will be held July 27–29 at the Mountain America Expo Center in Sandy, Utah. Signature Books will have a table there where you can browse and buy a large collection of Signature titles. Please stop by and say hello!

Several of our authors will be presenting at the symposium. On Friday, July 28, at 4:25 p.m., Session #164 will feature a discussion on Dan Vogel’s Charisma under Pressure: Joseph Smith, American Prophet, 1831–1839. Vogel will join the discussion via Zoom.

For episode twenty-five of the Signature Books Podcast, marketing manager Devery Anderson talks with Dan Vogel about his new book, “Charisma under Pressure: Joseph Smith, American Prophet, 1831–1839,” which deals with Joseph Smith’s middle years while he directed the Latter-day Saint movement from Kirtland, Ohio, and later, Far West, Missouri. Vogel focuses on the word “charisma” and how it applies to Joseph Smith and how this trait won him so many followers. This is also a period of many highs and lows for both the prophet and the church, which Vogel also discusses.

The Mormon History Association 2023 conference will take place June 8–10 in Rochester, New York, just miles from Palmyra, the place of Mormonism’s beginnings. Signature Books will be there with an exhibit of books for sale. Several Signature authors will also be presenting and available to sign copies of their titles.

With the release of Dan Vogel’s highly anticipated new book, Charisma under Pressure: Joseph Smith, American Prophet, 1831–1839, Signature’s three-volume biography of Mormonism’s founding prophet is now complete. The other two volumes in this series, Richard S. Van Wagoner’s Natural Born Seer: Joseph Smith, American Prophet, 1805–1830, and Martha Bradley-Evans’s Glorious in Persecution: Joseph Smith, American Prophet, 1839–1844 continue to be available for purchase.

In this new book, Dan Vogel takes us deep inside the inner workings of Joseph Smith’s Ohio and Missouri years, illuminating what drove Smith and animated his growing number of followers. Vogel narrates the day-to-day events in the Mormon prophet’s life, then steps back with his customary incisiveness to analyze and deconstruct the changing nature of the church Smith founded. Events of the era—the developing priesthood, the emergence of administrative offices, the tarring and feathering of Smith, divine revelations, the settlement of Zion, the Army of Israel, the Book of Abraham, Smith’s relationship with Fanny Alger and his fallout with Oliver Cordery, the Kirtland Safety Society, and the Mormon War in Missouri—are all detailed in lively fashion and framed in the context of their time.

In this episode, marketing manager Devery Anderson discusses with company director Barbara Jones Brown and managing editor John Hatch a few of Signature’s forthcoming titles. This episode is sure to whet your appetite for some great books in biography, documentary history, contemporary issues, and memoir.

Did you know that Signature staff members are also book authors? In this episode, marketing specialist Beth Brumer Reeve talks with marketing manager Devery Anderson, company director Barbara Jones Brown, and editorial manager John Hatch about the books they’ve recently authored––all coincidentally released in 2023––and how being authors informs their efforts in working with the writers Signature publishes!