50 years ago today - February 14, 1976

[Michael Quinn]

When [my wife] Jan picked me up in the evening, she brought the new issue of BYU Studies with my 47 page [LDS presidential] succession article in it. I literally have prayed that article into print, and feel such relief in seeing it. October 13 [At the conclusion of Quinn¿s session at the Western History Association¿s annual meeting:]

I plead[ed] guilty to ¿overproving¿ (as he [Larry Foster] criticized), but said that I was reacting to the simplistic generalizations and support that have characterized Mormon historiography in the main. I also acknowledged that I spoke first to a Mormon audience[,] because I felt that it was important for Mormons to see their history as process rather than as a series of discrete ¿deus ex machina¿ experiences. But I said that I also felt an obligation and desire to speak to the audience of non-Mormon scholars about a movement that I feel has had profound social-historical influence.

[From the diaries and memoirs of D. Michael Quinn, in 'On Writing Mormon History, 1972-95,' edited by Joseph Geisner, Signature Books, 2020]