Any decent biography of Sidney Rigdon?

[ben_dy]

Looking for as objective a book as may be found on the life of Sidney Rigdon - he seems an interesting and very influential figure in early LDS history yet the few books I’ve found either seem to have a heavy bias on the evil that he visited upon the LDS church or seeks solely to paint him as the primary plagiaristic source of the BoM.

I’ve read portions of the “Who Really Wrote the Book of Mormon” as well as the Orson Hyde speech but I’m looking for something a bit more ‘fair and balanced’.

 

[mormon_fool]

ben_dy:

Looking for as objective a book as may be found on the life of Sidney Rigdon - he seems an interesting and very influential figure in early LDS history yet the few books I’ve found either seem to have a heavy bias on the evil that he visited upon the LDS church or seeks solely to paint him as the primary plagiaristic source of the BoM.

I’ve read portions of the “Who Really Wrote the Book of Mormon” as well as the Orson Hyde speech but I’m looking for something a bit more ‘fair and balanced’.

You might want to try out Van Wagoner’s biography *Sidney Rigdon: A Portrait of Religous Excess. *That was off the top of my head, so it might be a little off. I believe the book was published by Signature Books, a secularistic publisher that often contests the truth claims of the LDS Church. I don’t hesitate recommending this book, though because I think that if it read with the review by the Harper brothers in the FARMS Review, considering both angles will confer a more balanced picture.

Happy reading! It is a very fat book and a lengthy review. Fascinating man! I honor him for using talents in building up the LDS church and am saddened about his falling out with Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. Some sympathy is due him for sure for getting beat up pretty bad by a mob and catching a chronic and recurring strain of malaria. My .sig quote has an interesting history involving President Rigdon.
later,
fool

 

[ben_dy]

mormon fool:

You might want to try out Van Wagoner’s biography *Sidney Rigdon: A Portrait of Religous Excess. *That was off the top of my head, so it might be a little off. I believe the book was published by Signature Books, a secularistic publisher that often contests the truth claims of the LDS Church. I don’t hesitate recommending this book, though because I think that if it read with the review by the Harper brothers in the FARMS Review, considering both angles will confer a more balanced picture.

Happy reading! It is a very fat book and a lengthy review. Fascinating man! I honor him for using talents in building up the LDS church and am saddened about his falling out with Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. Some sympathy is due him for sure for getting beat up pretty bad by a mob and catching a chronic and recurring strain of malaria. My .sig quote has an interesting history involving President Rigdon.
later,
fool

Fool-

Thanks! That was the first book that came up on Amazon but I couldn’t quite tell what the ‘slant’ was (the psychoanalysis part rather made me back away). But I’ll look at the FARMS review and then decide whether or not to order.

Thanks again - I had just read the D&C chapter from whence springs your sig, by the way, looking at all mentions of Rigdon!