Review
Title: The Juvenile Instructor Office: The Growth of Specialized Publishing in Utah in the 1880’s, a History and Bibliography
Author: Craig Smith
Publisher: Greg Kofford Books
Genre: History/Bibliography
Year Published: 2025
Number of Pages: 288
Binding: Smythe Sewn
ISBN: 978-1-58958-818-9
Price: 99.99
Reviewed by Andrew Hamilton for the Association of Mormon Letters
You NEED this book for Christmas. Okay, let me narrow that down a bit. IF you LOVE books, if you love Mormon history, if you love to hear the stories about how things were made and how publications came into existence, then you need a copy of The Juvenile Instructor Office: The Growth of Specialized Publishing in Utah in the 1880’s, a History and Bibliography (pretty sure they were going for a long book title prize!).
First, this book is a thing of beauty, it is ABSOLUTELY stunning to hold. The Juvenile Instructor Office is clothbound and Smythe-sewn. The paper is of archival quality. The majority of the pages include photographs and illustrations, many of which are in color. It is a BEAUTIFUL thing to own. It will look very good on your shelf or book table.
The Juvenile Instructor Office is divided into two parts. Part One takes up the first fifty pages. It is an essay called “The Juvenile Instructor office: A History.” Smith starts with a brief history of the beginning of publishing in Utah, covers the beginning of the Juvenile Instructor under George Q. Cannon, and takes the history to the 1880’s. Then he discusses the founding of Cannon and Sons (the precursor of Deseret Book). He also discusses the publishing of The Life of Joseph Smith, the Prophet, the publishing activities in the 1880s, and the transition of the Juvenile Instructor to the LDS church in the early 1890’s. I found it all to be very fascinating. Smith did a great job of researching the essay (there are 243 footnotes!), and his writing is very engaging.
Part Two (pp 53 to 278) is the bibliography. A seven-page illustrated introduction sets up the catalog. Starting with the year 1865 and continuing to 1890, Smith documents 194 items published by the Instructor office during this period. Each item gets a description of one to several paragraphs. Many are accompanied by beautiful photographs, quite a few of which are in color. The descriptions provide information about the books, their contents, and offer a brief history of their authors when applicable. For example, Item 40, published in 1882, is President Heber C. Kimball’s Journal, Seventh Book of the Faith Promoting Series. Designed for the Instruction and Encouragement of Young Latter-day Saints (YES, that IS the full title!). The first paragraph describes the book’s appearance. The second tells briefly of Kimball and the contents of the book. It describes which parts were compiled by R.B. Thompson and which were compiled by his daughter. The Flake/Draper number is given as a reference. There are then two full pages of color photos (most don’t get that many).
Another major entry is 105 from 1888, The Life of Joseph Smith. Its description takes up the better part of two pages, and it gets two and a half pages of photographs. But even the shorter entries are fun and fascinating. The publications covered include books about the laws in Utah, hymnbooks, publications for various celebrations, editions of the Book of Mormon, The Life of Heber C. Kimball by O.F. Whitney, Catechism and Sunday School Cards, and so much more.
Mormons LOVE books. Reading them, writing them, publishing them – Mormons are a book people. They have a long history of publishing and distributing books of every kind. Craig T. Smith has produced an important and remarkable history of these efforts by the Instructor’s Office in the late 1800’s. This book is an excellent companion to Flake and Draper’s, A Mormon Bibliography, 1830-1930, and the Kofford volume The 1920 Edition of the Book of Mormon: A Centennial Adventure in Latter-day Saint Book History, which matches it in size and style.
WARNING – THIS BOOK COULD be dangerous to your wallet. IF you are not already a book collector, The Juvenile Instructor Office by Craig Smith may just turn you into one. Craig Smith is a retired archeologist, and he did his best “Indiana Jones” impersonation (minus whip, I assume) to compile so many engrossing and captivating entries about the publishing of so many LDS items in the 1860s through 1890. After reading the book, I may just have to put in a call to my favorite LDS bookseller to work on my own collection. As a reviewer, yes, it is my job to try to find good things to say about the books I read and review, but with The Juvenile Instructor Office, it was not hard to find nice things to say, and it was a real pleasure to do so. The Juvenile Instructor Office: The Growth of Specialized Publishing in Utah in the 1880’s, a History and Bibliography by Craig Smith, has earned a respected place on my bookshelf. I own thousands of books (NOT exaggerating), and this one is one of the prizes of my collection. DO yourself a favor and contact a respected LDS bookseller or ring up Kofford Books and add this fine volume to your collection.