Rough Stone Rolling: Richard Bushman Reflects 20 Years Later

Twenty years after writing Rough Stone Rolling, Richard Bushman says his biography of Joseph Smith met a pressing need and still largely stands, though he would now give far more space to plural marriage, especially Sarah Ann Whitney. He recalls the book’s unexpected reception, marvels at Joseph’s reinvisioning of heaven and reinstatement of temple worship, and concedes he missed later allegations like attempted murder. In this interview, Richard Bushman looks back on Rough Stone Rolling, now seeing Joseph as even more inventive than he thought—and more revolutionary than we recognize.

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Looking Back on Rough Stone Rolling

What stands out when you reflect on writing Rough Stone Rolling?

What stands out now is my surprise at the reception of my biography of Joseph Smith.

Walking into a book signing soon after publication, I met a man with about ten copies in his arms. He was sending a copy to each of his children, as well as a few others.

The book met a much larger need than I anticipated.

Was there a spiritual cost to writing the book?

I would not call it a spiritual cost. I had to keep in mind I was writing for two audiences—the Saints and the general reader.

Sometimes I would head off in one direction and sometimes in the other. On the whole, though, it was not a hard book to write.

Things seemed to fall into place pretty naturally as I rolled along.

Would Rough Stone Rolling be substantially different if you’d had access to the full Joseph Smith Papers?

I don’t think so. I might have been able to dig up more details on this or that, especially concerning his court cases.

What single significant criticism of your book do you most agree with?

Inadequate attention to Joseph Smith’s plural wives. They should have at least been named and given a place of their own in his history. I was wrong to think I could simply sample them.

I should have said much more about Sarah Ann Whitney, the young wife whose marriage to Joseph darkened Smith’s reputation so badly.

In Sacred Loneliness: The Documents of Joseph Smith’s Wives

Is there anything you hoped Rough Stone Rolling would accomplish that it didn’t?

My hope was to be as candid as possible about Joseph Smith’s character and exploits. I wanted to look at everything. I missed on a few things, such as later charges of attempted murder.

I did not expect it to win over everyone, but I hoped it would offer a plausible account of a real person.

I think it has served its purpose for the past two decades.

How do Rough Stone Rolling and John Turner’s biography of Joseph Smith compare?

A figure as expansive as Joseph Smith will attract biographers forever. Each writer will bring a perspective suitable for their time.

When I published Rough Stone Rolling in 2005, I spoke for a moment when many Church members were ready for more candor about Joseph’s character and exploits.

Most general readers will probably be more comfortable with John Turner’s biography of Joseph Smith, The Rise and Fall of an American Prophet.

And we can rest assured that there will be many more biographies to come.

What’s in John Turner’s Joseph Smith Biography?

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Interpreting the Prophet Anew

What’s a meaningful new opinion you’ve formed about Joseph Smith since Rough Stone Rolling was published?

I think Joseph was more inventive and ingenious than I claimed. I am amazed at the number of religious initiatives he instituted:

• Translation as a form of revelation
• Ancient texts adapted to our time
• Restoration of priesthood
• A reformed society, Zion—as a religious goal
• The reenvisioning of heaven
• Reinstatement of temple worship
• Salvation of the dead
• Plural marriage
• Restoration from all ages of the world, not just the New Testament
• Angels from the past as active participants in restoration
• The human capacity for godhood

I probably have missed even more.

What part of Joseph Smith’s character have we failed to capture?

Two things come to mind. First, his haunting sense of powers and possibilities beyond the ordinary, even while rooted in the mundane.

And second, what did Joseph Smith’s own revelations mean to him?

A Latter-day Saint college student asks, “What does Rough Stone Rolling say about Joseph Smith?” How would you answer?

I would say that Joseph Smith was one of the great revelators of all time, unmatched in the variety and scope of his visions:

• Resilience: As a person, he was immensely resilient. He was dealt one stunning blow after another, but he would not give up.

• Organization: Joseph had a genius for organization, forming councils to manage the Church after his death and routinizing charisma. Everyone in the organization had the right to inspiration.

• Passion: He was passionate in both his capacity for anger and for love.

• Depression: Late in life, he suffered from deep melancholy, much like Abraham Lincoln, and spoke often of the grave.

• Violence: He never solved the problem of how to deal with violent opposition: should he fight or flee? Quite appropriately, in the end, he was murdered.

How did melancholy manifest in Joseph’s life?

Joseph Smith is so regularly robust and seemingly invincible that we can hardly imagine melancholy, but we catch a glimpse of it in his history, where he speaks of the desperate condition of his family in the years between the First Vision and Moroni.

It becomes more visible towards the end of his life, when he appears to need people around him to keep him going. Emma Smith, who had to make the dinners, complained that he always needed people at the table where his ebullience––his public self–-could shine forth.

There was all the talk of the grave.

Then there was all the talk of the grave and his concern with being buried near his friends so he would not be alone at the resurrection. And the mournful ‘my life is of no value to me if it is not to my friends.’

Like Lincoln and William James, Joseph Smith had a genius for talk and good spirits, but the sorrow shone through from time to time.

The Lonely Soul of Joseph Smith

Do you find Joseph Smith easier or harder to understand than when you published Rough Stone Rolling?

Joseph Smith still eludes me. I marvel at the texts he produced as revelation. In places, the language is majestic. How did he learn to speak for God?

He could be petty, but he also had a great heart. I think he is the epitome of a charismatic figure.

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Counsel and Closing Reflections

What do you want the next generation of Latter-day Saint historians to know?

I think Joseph Smith was far more revolutionary in his views than we recognize today. Moses 1 and the King Follett discourse open vistas we can’t bear to look at. I hope that the radical tradition survives so that it can be developed in generations to come.

As Terryl Givens said long ago, Joseph Smith diminishes sacred distance. In Moses 1 and the King Follett discourse, God is an expanded and evolved man with immense powers and flooded with glory—but a real, live character.

We scarcely know what to do.

He makes worlds. He deals with his rebellious son Lucifer, who is vanquished but not destroyed. Moses speaks with God one moment and then comes across Lucifer the next. There is drama in heaven, not just supernal, otherworldly glory.

We scarcely know what to do with these insights theologically, but it seems to open entirely different views of God and man.

The Latter-day Saint View of Human Nature

Is there anything you’ve never said publicly about Joseph Smith that you’d like to say now?

I am pretty candid about my views of Joseph Smith. I have never concealed any secrets I know of. Anything I have missed is due to my limited capacities.

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About the Scholar

Richard Lyman Bushman is a historian and emeritus professor of history at Columbia University, widely recognized for his expertise in early American and Latter-day Saint history. He is the author of numerous influential works, including the landmark Rough Stone Rolling book, a cultural biography of Joseph Smith that has shaped both scholarly and faith-based discussions for over two decades. In this interview, Bushman’s reflections 20 years after writing Rough Stone Rolling highlight how the book remains relevant while his perspective on Joseph Smith has evolved.

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Further Reading

Learn more in these From the Desk articles about Joseph Smith:

• What’s in John Turner’s Joseph Smith Biography?
• What Is the Cultural History of the Gold Plates?
• Who Were Joseph Smith’s Plural Wives?
• How Did Joseph Smith Produce Ancient Scripture?
• Repicturing the Restoration: Anthony Sweat Artwork

Richard Bushman Reflects on Rough Stone Rolling

See what other scholars, publishers, and readers are saying about Richard Bushman’s Rough Stone Rolling book:

• On the Road with Joseph Smith: An Author’s Diary (Greg Kofford Books)
• Richard Bushman Ask Me Anything [AMA] (Reddit)
• Richard Bushman Revisits Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling (Maxwell Institute Podcast)
• A Retrospective on the Scholarship of Richard Bushman (Dialogue Journal [PDF])
• First Writing of Joseph (The Cultural Hall)