Daniel Peterson Posted February 1, 2010 Posted February 1, 2010 Nice item from the February 2010 issue of CHOICE:The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text, ed. by Royal Skousen. Yale, 2009. 789p; ISBN 9780300142181, $35.00. Reviewed in 2010feb CHOICE.The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text is a defining, immediately essential work of rare scholarly achievement. Skousen (linguistics and English, Brigham Young Univ.) has been consumed with untangling the threads of the Book of Mormon's transmission history for 21 years. For a comparatively recent world scripture, that history is surprisingly complex, and Skousen's task has been to sift through manuscript and early print versions to reconstruct the most probable original text: that which was dictated by Joseph Smith to various scribes in 1828-29. This edition contains a preface and an appendix detailing its most significant deviations from the commonly received version, but the text itself is presented without editorial interpolations or most of the ad hoc formatting used in traditional editions. The result is a work of unique aesthetic and scholarly value. This is the tenth book to result from Skousen's Critical Text Project. For full explanation of the methods and reasoning underlying his reconstructed text, one may use it in conjunction with volume 4 of the project's publications, the massive six-book Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon (2004-09). A digital critical edition is forthcoming. Summing Up: Essential. Lower-level undergraduates and above; general readers. -- S. Perry, University of Chicago Divinity School
consiglieri Posted February 1, 2010 Posted February 1, 2010 Nice item from the February 2010 issue of CHOICE:Bravo for Professor Skousen!He deserves every accolade he receives.All the Best!--ConsiglieriP.S. Shouldn't it be, "Skousen (linguistics and English, Brigham Young Univ.) has been consumed (for 21 years) with untangling the threads of the Book of Mormon's transmission history for 21 years."?
sethpayne Posted February 2, 2010 Posted February 2, 2010 Bravo for Professor Skousen!He deserves every accolade he receives.All the Best!--ConsiglieriP.S. Shouldn't it be, "Skousen (linguistics and English, Brigham Young Univ.) has been consumed (for 21 years) with untangling the threads of the Book of Mormon's transmission history for 21 years."?I second this.
Calm Posted February 2, 2010 Posted February 2, 2010 If one is forced to choose between Grant Hardy and Skousen's works due to budgetary concerns (it being too soon after Christmas), which do you think should be consumed first?
sethpayne Posted February 2, 2010 Posted February 2, 2010 If one is forced to choose between Grant Hardy and Skousen's works due to budgetary concerns (it being too soon after Christmas), which do you think should be consumed first?Probably Hardy's, I would think. Skousen's book will provide you with hours of interesting textual variation but you won't really learn anything "new", so to speak.If you are in the mood for new info, go with Hardy.
Calm Posted February 2, 2010 Posted February 2, 2010 Probably Hardy's, I would think. Skousen's book will provide you with hours of interesting textual variation but you won't really learn anything "new", so to speak.If you are in the mood for new info, go with Hardy.Thank you, I was leaning that way because of a suspicion that this would be the way it was, it's good to be confirmed.
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