45 years ago today - Jan 12, 1981-Monday

[Leonard Arrington]

Lowell Durham and I have now conducted conversations with 10 of the 16 scholars appointed to do volumes for the Sesquicentennial series. Here is a brief summary, as I remember it, of these.

Richard Bushman, who has finished his manuscript in final form, will be paid in full $20,000 for his work. I strongly encouraged him to submit his manuscript to Johns Hopkins University Press for possible publication by them, or, alternatively, with Cornell University Press. I told him I thought he owed it to the Church and to the Mormon community to have it published as soon as possible so as to provide an alternative to [Fawn M.] Brodie's No Man Knows My History, which is used as a basic source for early Mormon history. If he does so and if they agree to publish the manuscript, they are to understand that Deseret Book will also reserve the right to publish the book eventually in a series, and Richard will agree to share royalties he may receive from such university press publication with Deseret Book, up to the amount of $10,000. Of course he'll never receive any such amount, but this is Deseret Book's way of trying to recoup on paying him the full amount if it is
published elsewhere first. [[Joseph Smith and the Beginnings of Mormonism was published by the University of Illinois Press in 1986.]]

Mick Backman. Since his manuscript [on the Kirtland era] has been completed and approved, he has already been paid the $20,000-or received part of the payment spread over several years-and will leave his manuscript with Deseret Book to be published eventually by them. [[The Heavens Resound: A History of the Latter-Day Saints in Ohio, 1830-1838, pub- lished by Deseret Book in 1983.]]

Max Parkin has essentially finished his research for his volume on Missouri and will be given a payment of $10,000 from Deseret Book. He will expect to finish the volume on his own good time-perhaps within two years-and have it published by Deseret Book. He does not expect to submit it elsewhere. [[Parkin never finished the manuscript, although he wrote several articles and contrib- uted to other books on the subject.]]

Glen Leonard, representing also the Ed Lyon family. An agreement had already been made at the time of the death of Ed Lyon that Glen was to receive $15,000 and the Lyon family $ [[Nauvoo: A Place of Peace, A People of Promise, published by Deseret Book in 2002.]],000. Glen expects to suggest to Deseret Book that payment of $5,000 be made to the Lyon family. He, Glen, will then work on the volume [on the Nauvoo era] during the next couple of years and expect to finish it and expect to give the manuscript to Deseret Book, which will then hold it until they are ready to publish it. Gene Campbell brought his manuscript [on early pioneer Utah] with him, something like 24 chapters in rough form and roughly 3 chapters in finished form. He has done all the research. He will expect Deseret Book to give him $15,000 for all that he has done. He will then put in finished form all of the chapters, expecting that task to be completed by July, and the manuscript will go to Deseret Book
which will then hold it for possible publication sometime in the future. [[Establishing Zion: The Mormon Church in the American West, 1847-69, published by Signature Books in 1988.]]

Richard Cowan was assigned the period 1930 to 1950. He says he has completed one draft and has received suggestions from Maureen [Ursenbach Beecher] and us about improving the manuscript. He will be given $15,000 by Deseret Book and will then put the manuscript on the shelf, and in a matter of 2 or 3 years when Deseret Book is ready to consider publication he will complete the job using Maureen's suggestions and others that come up in the meantime and leave it to them to publish. ... [[The Church in the Twentieth Century, published by Bookcraft in 1985.]]

Jim Allen has not yet indicated definitely his plan, but essentially he wants to finish the book [on the late pioneer period] in a matter of a year or two and then receive the full payment from Deseret Book and leave it to them to publish.

Doug Tobler has done all the research and one hundred pages of the manuscript for his book [on the church in Europe]. Lowell estimated this to be roughly 3/4 completed and therefore suggested it would give him $15,000 and the remaining $5,000 when he delivers the manuscript which he said he would do within two years. He would leave the publication up to Deseret Book. If he should consider publishing it earlier through BYU Press, he will work out an arrangement with Deseret Book. [[Tobler's book was never published, though he authored several articles on the topic.]]

Lanier Britsch has finished both of his manuscripts [on Asia and Oceania]; one of them has been approved, the other being reworked by Maureen. Lanier has already received part of the full payment of $20,000. He will expect both manuscripts to be published by Deseret Book. Lowell indicated that he will submit one of Lanier's manuscripts to his board within a year and that will hopefully be the first volume of the sesquicentennial history to be published. While Lowell is now thinking in terms of Asian history, I am thinking that when Maureen finishes the South Sea islands history, which I expect will be within a month, we will urge Lowell to publish that one first. He will be so excited about having the book that I think he will do so. [[Unto the Islands of the Sea: A History of the Latter-day Saints in the Pacific, published in 1986; From the East: The History of the Latter-day Saints in Asia, 1851-1996, published in 1999, both from Deseret Book. Britsch was originally asked
to do one volume, and he divided the topic in two.]]

Davis Bitton has not yet indicated his own feelings, but I expect he will settle for half of the total payment and finish his volume [on social and cultural issues] within the next year or two [[Bitton's book was never published.]] and leave it to Deseret Book to publish. [[Originally the sixteen-volume series was to be titled "The History of the Latter-day Saints, 1830-1980," with Arrington as the general editor. The other volumes were to have been Reed C. Durham on the early pioneer experience, never published; Charles S. Peterson on the later pioneer period, never published; Thomas G. Alexander on the early twentieth century, published as Mormonism in Transition by University of Illinois Press; F. LaMond Tullis on Central/South America, covered in part by his work from Utah State University Press as Mormons in Mexico; S. George Ellsworth on the expansion of the church through missionary outreach, never published; and John L. Sorenson on twentieth-century social]]

[Confessions of a Mormon historian : the diaries of Leonard J. Arrington, 1971-1997, Gary James Bergera, editor, Signature Books, 2018]