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See also: Mormon studies
Signature Books
Signature Books office
StatusActive
Founded1980
FounderGeorge D. Smith and Scott G. Kenney
Country of originUnited States of America
Headquarters locationSalt Lake City, UT
DistributionChicago Distribution Center[1]
Publication typesfiction, non-fiction, biography, history, documentary history, essays, poetry, women's studies
Nonfiction topicsMormon and Western Americana
No. of employees8
Official websitewww.signaturebooks.com

Signature Books is an American press specializing in subjects related to Utah, Mormonism, and Western Americana. The company was founded in 1980 by George D. Smith and Scott Kenney and is based in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is majority owned by the Smith-Pettit Foundation.

History

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In the late 1970s, Scott Kenney decided there needed to be a Mormon-related press that didn't have ties to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Among those present at Signature Books's 1980 inception were George D. Smith and Scott Kenney, assisted by a board of directors composed of historians and business leaders: Eugene E. Campbell, Everett L. Cooley, David Lisonbee, D. Michael Quinn, Allen Dale Roberts, and Richard S. Van Wagoner; and an editorial board consisting of Lavina Fielding Anderson, Maureen Ursenbach Beecher, Davis Bitton, Orson Scott Card, and Jay Parry. In 1981 they published their first book, the satire Saintspeak by Orson Scott Card.

Several of Signature Books' publications have won awards from the Association for Mormon Letters, the John Whitmer Historical Association, the Mormon History Association, the Mountain West Center for Western Studies, and the Utah Center for the Book.

Present

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Signature Books produces from eight to ten books a year, which deal with topics of western and Mormon history, fiction, essay, humor and art. Among these are the diaries of Mormon leaders such as Joseph Smith, William Clayton, Heber C. Kimball, Wilford Woodruff, L. John Nuttall, Anthon H. Lund, John Henry Smith, Rudger Clawson, B. H. Roberts and Reed Smoot. Signature has also published noted studies of well-known early Mormon theologians such as James E. Talmage, B. H. Roberts, Orson Pratt, Parley P. Pratt, Brigham Young, John Widtsoe, and award-winning biographies of significant early Mormons such as, Joseph Smith, Sidney Rigdon, Wilford Woodruff, John Taylor, as well as a biography of thirty three of the plural wives of Joseph Smith.

Criticism

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A number of books produced by the publisher related to Mormon history have been considered controversial. Some Signature Books authors view this as "quality liberal thinking on controversial LDS topics,"[2] while some more orthodox writers view Signature as "the main vehicle for publications that challenge the borders of Mormon orthodoxy,"[3] as Terryl Givens wrote.

Many Signature Books authors have been excommunicated from the LDS Church, and some have resigned their membership.[4] These include D. Michael Quinn, Lavina Fielding Anderson, Brent Metcalfe, David P. Wright, Dan Vogel, Grant H. Palmer, Stan Larson, Simon G. Southerton, H. Michael Marquardt, David J. Buerger,[5][6] Edward J. Ashment[7], Janice Merrill Allred, Paul Toscano, and Maxine Hanks.

Controversy with FARMS

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Signature Books is sometimes at odds with the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS), an organization of Mormon scholars and apologists which promotes orthodox Mormon historical scholarship. Author Simon Southerton referred to Signature Books as "a perennial thorn in the side of FARMS."[8] One example was Signature Book's publication of Grant H. Palmer's 2002 book An Insider's View of Mormon Origins. The publication of this book immediately resulted in five negative book reviews by FARMS.[9] Ron Priddis of Signature Books responded to these reviews by stating: "Is nothing beyond the reach of sarcasm by FARMS polemicists?"[10]

At one point in early 1991, FARMS claims that Signature Books threatened a lawsuit over several reviews of its books that appeared in the Review on Books of the Book of Mormon.[11] The reviews that initiated the threatened suit were of the Signature-published The Word of God: Essays on Mormon Scripture. In one of the contested reviews in Review of Books on the Book of Mormon Stephen E. Robinson had written, "Korihor's back, and this time he's got a printing press. In its continuing assault upon traditional Mormonism, Signature Books promotes with its recent and dubiously titled work, The Word of God, ...naturalistic assumptions...in dealing with Latter-day Saint belief."[12]

Signature Books asserts that several of the scholars who participated in New Approaches to the Book of Mormon: Explorations in Critical Methodology considered themselves active and participating members of the LDS faith. The FARMS reviewers, for their part, considered these authors to be opponents to the LDS tradition.[citation needed] And indeed at least three of the authors in New Approaches were shortly afterward excommunicated from the church.[4] Signature management made an inquiry with FARMS management, holding that such inferences were insulting and could be considered libelous. Signature then requested a retraction.

Daniel C. Peterson, an LDS scholar and member of FARMS, published a response in various newspapers in Utah. In his response, he stated that "Signature Books and George D. Smith seem...to have a clear (if unadmitted) agenda, an agenda that is often hostile to centrally important beliefs of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints".[13][14]

In 2004, Signature Books posted on its web site a speech given by John Hatch, in which Hatch said, "After reading the (FARMS) reviews myself, it appears to me, and is my opinion, that FARMS is interested in making Mormonism's past appear as normal as possible to readers by attacking history books that discuss complex or difficult aspects of the church's past. ... I am deeply troubled by what I see as continued efforts to attack honest scholarly work."[15][16]

Notes

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  1. ^ "Publishers served by the Chicago Distribution Center". University of Chicago Press. Retrieved 2017-09-12.
  2. ^ Ostling & Ostling 2000, p. 353
  3. ^ Givens 2002, p. 296 note 123
  4. ^ a b Carolyn Mooney (1994-05-18). "Another Mormon Scholar is Punished". The Chronicle of Higher Education.
  5. ^ "David J. Buerger papers - Archives West". archiveswest.orbiscascade.org. Retrieved 2025-01-31.
  6. ^ "David John Buerger's study of Brigham Young's Adam-God teachings..." B. H. Roberts Foundation. Retrieved January 31, 2025. Notes that Buerger "has withdrawn their own membership from the Church at the time of the record."
  7. ^ Henetz, Patty (December 11, 2002). "Dissident LDS intellectuals say excommunications will continue". Provo Daily Herald. Associated Press. Retrieved 31 January 2025.
  8. ^ Southerton 2004, pp. 148–149
  9. ^ Cobabe 2003
  10. ^ Priddis, Ron. "A Reply to FARMS and the Joseph Fielding Smith Institute". Signature Books. Archived from the original on 20 March 2015. Retrieved 2007-02-01.
  11. ^ Peterson 1992
  12. ^ Robinson 1991
  13. ^ "Fullscreen | Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship". Archived from the original on 2014-12-05. Retrieved 2014-11-30.
  14. ^ Utah County Journal, 2 August 1991; Provo Daily Herald, 12 August 1991; Salt Lake Tribune, 21 August 1991.
  15. ^ Midgley 2004
  16. ^ Hatch, John (2001). "Why I No Longer Trust the FARMS 'Review of Books'". Sunstone. Archived from the original on 6 January 2006 – via Signature Books.

References

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