The Church History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is partnering with Yale University Press to publish the Nauvoo journal of William Clayton.
The completed manuscript has been submitted to Yale and will undergo peer review and editorial processes in the coming months.
William Clayton, who moved to Nauvoo, Illinois, in 1840 after joining the church in England, served as a clerk, treasurer, temple recorder, and confidante to Joseph Smith and Emma Hale Smith between 1842 and 1846.
Alex Smith, a volume editor on the project, stated that the importance of Clayton's journal for understanding the Nauvoo era cannot be overstated. Smith noted that the journal provides unique insights into Joseph Smith's daily activities, religious teachings, the civic and ecclesiastical administration of Nauvoo, social life, and the lived experience of plural marriage.
Matthew McBride, the department's director of publications, expressed pleasure in working with Yale University Press to make the text available to the public, noting their reputation as a scholarly press.
The Church History Department originally announced plans to publish the three-volume Nauvoo journal in 2017.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has owned the journal since 1854, when Clayton donated it to the Church Historian's Office. For the past eight years, a team of historians, archivists, and editors have worked to transcribe, verify, and annotate the volumes in the style of the Joseph Smith Papers.
