New Joseph Smith book to be published

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — In the opening lines of his new book, author and historian Richard Bushman says that 200 years should be enough time to gain perspective on the life and work of Joseph Smith.

Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling, written by Bushman and published in September by Alfred A. Knopf, is an attempt at fleshing out a portrait of Smith as man and prophet that shows his flaws and foibles as well as the genius and inginuity that founded an American religious movement that became a worldwide church.

A lifelong, believing member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint, Bushman acknowledges that he remains sympathetic to his subject and was conscious of the Latter-day Saint audience.