Book Reviews

Authors

  • Melvin C. Johnson Independent Historian Author
  • Kevin Folkman Author

Keywords:

William Clayton, James B. Allen, Biography, Heber C. Kimball, Kimball family, Andrew Kimball

Abstract

Mel Johnson's review of No Toil Nor Labor Fear: The Story of William Clayton by James B. Allen emphasizes the biography’s lasting significance. Allen, a former Assistant Church Historian, skillfully uses Clayton’s Nauvoo journals to illuminate the hymnwriter’s role in early Latter-day Saint history, including the advent of plural marriage and the westward migration. The review also notes the valuable appendix, which details how Clayton’s records became part of institutional memory—making the book especially relevant to current discussions about Joseph Smith and polygamy.

 

Kevin Folkman's review of The Blood in Their Veins: The Kimballs, Polygamy, and the Shaping of Mormonism commends Andrew Kimball's thorough account of his family's experiences with Mormon polygamy, detailing both the accomplishments and hardships of Heber C. Kimball's descendants. While the book offers a wealth of anecdotes and historical insight, the reviewer finds its lack of narrative structure makes it best approached as a collection of family stories. The review ultimately recommends the book for readers interested in the complexities and legacy of polygamy in Mormon history.

Author Biographies

  • Melvin C. Johnson, Independent Historian
    Melvin C. Johnson is an independent historian and retired college professor, writer, and speaker who pursues subjects dealing with the East Texas mill town culture, the Texas Hill country before and in the Civil War, and the intersection of Western America and Mormonism. He is the author of Life and Times of John Pierce Hawley: A Mormon Ulysses of the American West, and Polygamy on the Pedernales: Lyman Wight's Mormon Village in Antebellum Texas (Smith-Pettit Best Book Award, 2007). His article in the JWHA Journal, “John Hawley: Mormon Ulysses His LDS Mission to Iowa and Eventual RLDS Conversion,” was awarded the Greg Kofford Best Theological Article in 2017. He and Halli, his wife, live in Mesquite, Nevada.

     

  • Kevin Folkman

    Kevin H. Folkman is a historian and writer with a lifelong interest in Mormon history. A graduate of Weber State College in Ogden, Utah, he holds a bachelor’s degree in communications with emphases in journalism and English. He lives in Redmond, Washington, with his wife, Katie, and before retirement worked professionally in computer hardware and software sales. In his spare time, he reads and writes about history, contributing guest posts to the Mormon history blog Keepapitchinin and book reviews for the Association for Mormon Letters. His articles have appeared in the Journal of Mormon History, including “‘The Moste Desert Lukking Plase I Ever Saw, Amen!’: The ‘Failed’ 1873 Arizona Mission to the Little Colorado River” and “‘Just Like the Mountains of Tennessee and Virginia’: LDS Soldiers in Siberia, 1918–1919.”

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Published

2025-11-11

Issue

Vol. 1 No. 1 (2025): Journal of Mormon Polygamy

Section

Book Reviews