You may think that we know all there is to know about polygamy in the LDS church. Â However, historians continue to debate the issue. Â A press release from Signature Books a few days ago let me know about some interesting developments. Â In 2008, George D Smith released a book called Nauvoo Polygamy – …but we called it Celestial Marriage. Â Apparently, the 2nd edition was just released with new charts and corrections.

As I understand it, the 2008 book caused a few waves among the Foundation or Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS–now known as the Neal A Maxwell Center). Â According to the release, FARMS reviewer “Gregory L. Smith criticized Nauvoo Polygamy for assuming the founder had sex with his plural wives.” Â The release notes the irony that “the reviewer then admitted Joseph Smith did had sex with at least nine women.” Â Signature has hailed the review as the “landmark 2008 review [that] constituted the first-ever admission in an LDS publication that Smith was sexually active with his wives.”

One of the other controversies on polygamy deals with the age of Joseph Smith’s wives. Â Apparently some people view the book edited by Newell Bringhurst called Persistence of Polygamy as a response to Nauvoo Polygamy. Â It has been noted that 30% of Joseph Smith’s plural wives were teenagers, yet the average age of a woman’s first marriage in the 1840’s was usually in their 20’s.

In attempting to assert that people married younger in the 1830-40’s, Craig L. Foster, David Keller, and Gregory L. Smith wrote a chapter in Bringhurst’s book defending the young marriage ages. Â The chapter is titled, â€œThe Age of Joseph Smithâ€™s Plural Wives in Social and Demographic Context.â€ ButÂ Joe Geisner, an LDS blogger noted some very different interpretations of these graphs. Â The press release states,

â€œThe parts that are understandable do not seem to support the authorsâ€™ thesis or conclusions.â€ Geisner found that two charts show how, in the 1840s, only about 1 percent of American women married at fifteen years or younger. Another chart shows that in New England, only 9 percent of men of Joseph Smithâ€™s age (34-38 years old) married teenagers. Additional charts show that the age of Joseph Smithâ€™s wives put him in company only with the southwest region of the country comprising Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas and the western region of the United States at a time when it was dominated by Mormons, who tended to marry much younger than other Americans. â€œIn addition to that,â€ says Geisner, â€œthe authors treat Joseph Smith as if he were his own region of the country, marrying teenagers 30 percent of the time rather than classifying him as one 38-year-old individual who married teenagers.â€ A final chart shows that in the 1840s, most women in the United States married in their twenties.

I haven’t seen the chapter in question, but Geisner’s point about making Joseph Smith his own demographic seems to be an abuse of statistics. Â Richard Bushman has noted that Joseph turned societal norms on its ear when introducing polygamy. Â I’m not sure if this is more or less troubling, but these types of revelations about early polygamy make me very uncomfortable.

Have any of you read the books in question? Â What do you think?

I added this table on 7/5/2011 to answer Glenn’s comment about teenagers.Â This list is derived from the website http://www.wivesofjosephsmith.org/

Wife Date Age Husband* Joseph age difference Helen Mar KimballÂ May 1843Â 14 NONEÂ 37 Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 23.00 Nancy WinchesterÂ 1843Â 14 NONEÂ 37 Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 23.00 Fanny AlgerÂ 1833Â 16 NONEÂ 27 Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 11.00 Flora Ann WoodworthÂ Spring 1843Â 16 NONEÂ 37 Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 21.00 Sarah Ann WhitneyÂ Jul 1842Â 17 NONEÂ 36 Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 19.00 Lucy WalkerÂ May 1843Â 17 NONEÂ 37 Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 20.00 Sarah LawrenceÂ May 1843Â 17 NONEÂ 37 Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 20.00 Emily Dow PartridgeÂ Mar 1843Â 19 NONEÂ 37 Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 18.00 Maria LawrenceÂ May 1843Â 19 NONEÂ 37 Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 18.00 Melissa LottÂ Sep 1843Â 19 NONEÂ 37 Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 18.00

Now, here is a list of the other wives.Â As you can see Joseph was 21 years younger than Rhoda Richards.Â You mayor may not know that Joseph was sealed to women currently legallyÂ married to other Mormon men.Â I didn’t realize that Joseph was younger than Emma.)Â His marriage practices are hard to comprehend.