The surprising career of Joseph Smith's famous book Late one night in 1823, Joseph Smith, Jr., was reportedly visited in his family's farmhouse in upstate New York by an angel named Moroni. According to Smith, Moroni told him of a buried stack of gold plates that were inscribed with a history of the Americas' ancient peoples, and which would restore the pure Gospel message as Jesus had delivered it to them. Thus began the unlikely career of the Book of Mormon , the founding text of the Mormon religion and perhaps the most important sacred text ever to originate in the United States. Paul Gutjahr traces the life of this remarkable book, showing how it launched one of the fastest-growing new religions on the planet and has featured in everything from comic books and action figures to movies and an award-winning Broadway musical. "Winner of the 2013 Cover/Jacket Merit Award in the Professional, Scholarly Series category, New York Book Show" "One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2013" "Paul Gutjahr has written the perfect book on the Book of Mormon : fascinating, forthright, empathetic, critical, and discerning. Gutjahr employs his sheer intellectual curiosity to produce a lively, enlightening history that deftly circles among Joseph Smith, Mormons, and critics as though they were themselves engaged in an intelligent civil conversation. The result is an ideal guide to the life of a now-iconic American religious text." ―Jon Butler, Yale University "This is a fascinating history of an important document of American culture." ―Steven Poole, The Guardian "Enjoyable and thought-provoking." ―Grant Hardy, Meridian Magazine Paul C. Gutjahr is Ruth N. Halls Professor of English at Indiana University. His books include Charles Hodge: Guardian of American Orthodoxy and An American Bible: A History of the Good Book in the United States, 1777–1880 .