President Kimball Journals and other stuff now available

[Duncan]

https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/blog/spencer-w-kimball-journals-now-accessible?lang=eng

 

wow is all I can say

[JustAnAustralian]

It's interesting that the only stuff on the priesthood revelation (that I could find) were a few short diary entries.

Maybe I missed the point of what this release was.

[Nevo]

1 hour ago, JustAnAustralian said:

Maybe I missed the point of what this release was.

This is the first time that the Church has made all the diaries of a 20th-century president of the Church available to the public. The Heber J. Grant collection, for example, contains over 60 years of journals and correspondence in nearly 200 archival boxes taking up 100 linear feet of shelving. It is closed to research. So are the papers of David O. McKay, Joseph Fielding Smith, Harold B. Lee, Ezra Taft Benson, Howard W. Hunter, and Gordon B. Hinckley. Some of Joseph F. Smith’s diaries are online, but most are unavailable. George Albert Smith's papers are available for research, but that is because they were donated to the University of Utah.

So it's a big deal.

Leonard Arrington commented on the Kimball journals in his memoir:

Quote

Within two weeks of my call to the Historical Department, Kimball invited me to his office to show me his numerous journals. He opened the first one, which he had begun when he was appointed to the Twelve, and read aloud from the title page: "To My Family: Upon my death I want you to present this to the Church Historian. This is a record of my service in the cause of the Lord's Kingdom, and should be made a part of the Church records and archives." He then asked me to familiarize myself with the diaries for a few hours and instructed me to tell him if I had suggestions for improvement. I spent the rest of the day reading selections from these journals. They had full, informative, honest entries. I reported to my colleagues: "Three great diaries have chronicled the history of the Church. The first is the diary of President Wilford Woodruff, which provides a day-by-day record of the Church from 1834 until his death in 1898. The second is the diary of President Heber J. Grant, which supplies a daily history of the Church from 1882 until 1944. The third is the diary of Elder Spencer W. Kimball, which carries the history of the Church, in painstaking detail, from 1942 until this very day." Kimball's diary is a marvelous record.

— Leonard J. Arrington, Adventures of a Church Historian (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1998), 105–106.

 

Edited February 18, 2023 by Nevo

[Investigator]

Found in President Kimball's journal was the below listed entry regarding Russell Nelson requesting President Kimball approve a forward to Nelson's autobiography which was actually written by Nelson. President Kimball gave Pres Nelson approval to use the forward.  Here is the entry:

Here is the definition of fulsome: Fulsome is complimentary or flattering to an excessive degree. Offensive to good taste, esp. as being excessive; overdone or gross.

Here is a copy of the forward to the book From Heart to Heart, an Autobiography, Russell Marion Nelson:

Quote

Foreword

This book, the engaging record of the life and experiences of Russell Marion Nelson, is a fulfillment of a great dream. In these pages he has set forth a chronicle of his noble parentage and crystallized the many experiences of himself and his adorable family. This work will bring joy and peace and happiness to its readers.

The first time I saw the Nelson family was at a stake conference meeting in 1964. Eight daughters were singing a song, accompanied by their mother, Dantzel. I was amazed and pleased, and I thought, “What a perfect family! What beautiful parents! And what delightful children to grow up in one household.” I have known them from that time forward, and now there are nine daughters and one son. Brother Nelson has always been a family man first, and now all his family unite to bring him honor.

I owe much to him as a doctor. It was in 1971 in England that I first spoke to him of my heart problems. When we returned to the United States, investigation showed that I had problems with a deteriorating valve in my heart and an obstruction in an artery. I felt my life slipping away, and I wondered if perhaps the time had come for a younger man to enter the Quorum of the Twelve and do the work I could no longer do. But at the inspired insistence of President Harold B. Lee, I was prompted to press on. Therefore, my life was placed in the hands of this young doctor, in whom we noted a sweet Spirituality. Because of his skill as a surgeon—one who trusts in the power of the priesthood and relies on the Spirit of the Lord—my life was spared, even though the risks were very great for a man of my seventy-seven years.

We became close as I recovered from the open-heart surgery that he performed perfectly. Whenever I became discouraged, there was always his sweet, understanding spirit to buoy me up.

Then President Lee died in December 1973. We never thought it could happen, for he was younger than I and seemingly in good health; therefore, we were all taken by surprise. Brother Nelson, of his own accord, came to my side immediately in case he should be needed. I appreciated his thoughtfulness very much...

It pleases me very much to note that he has done a superb work in assembling the information to bring this book into existence...It seems to me that it has been done beautifully and without flaw. Long will his children and their posterity honor this great man, and long will they remember that he followed the precepts of his Lord through his prophets...

President Spencer W. Kimball Salt Lake City, Utah March 1979

 

Here is a photo of the forward from the actual book:

Do you think it is "fulsome" for a man to write this about himself?

 

[Tacenda]

Maybe there was prior correspondence about the forward and Nelson was putting it all together, maybe Kimball spoke these to Nelson beforehand? 

[Calm]

5 hours ago, Tacenda said:

Maybe there was prior correspondence about the forward and Nelson was putting it all together, maybe Kimball spoke these to Nelson beforehand? 

That makes sense to me. I think he would be asking for trouble to make up that kind of inner dialogue for the Prophet even if Pres Kimball didn’t call him publicly on it. It would surely sour their relationship some. 
 

I think the below is more than enough to cover the fulsome comment:

“This work will bring joy and peace and happiness to its readers.”

It was a suggested foreword as well, Pres. Kimball could have added to it. I think approval of the suggested stuff would apply to not deleting or changing what was suggested, but doesn’t exclude adding stuff. 

Edited February 19, 2023 by Calm

[Duncan]

10 minutes ago, Calm said:

That makes sense to me. I think he would be asking for trouble to make up that kind of inner dialogue for the Prophet even if Pres Kimball didn’t call him publicly on it. It would surely sour their relationship some. 
 

I think the below is more than enough to cover the fulsome comment:

“This work will bring joy and peace and happiness to its readers.”

It was a suggested foreword as well, Pres. Kimball could have added to it. I think approval of the suggested stuff would apply to not deleting or changing what was suggested, but doesn’t exclude adding stuff. 

the other thing too is I don't want to fault someone for what they said of themself in what 1977?!

[Calm]

Yeah, there are plenty of things I cringe over that I did 50 years ago. That haircut I had and some of my outfits in 1977 are among them, things I said to friends thinking I was being helpful.