Content preview - You need a premium account to view this content.
Book Reviews (2)
On the Potter's Wheel: The Diaries of Heber C. Kimball
STANLEY B. KIMBALL, ed. On the Potter's Wheel: The Diaries of Heber C. Kimball. Salt Lake City: Signature Books and Smith Research Associates, 1987. xxvi; 224 pp. $59.95.
Reviewed by Paul H. Peterson, assistant professor of Church history and doctrine, Brigham Young University.
Editor Stan Kimball, perhaps unwittingly, makes some pretty strong claims about this newest edition of the diaries of Heber C. Kimball. "In some instances," he declares, they "are the best, and occasionally the only, contemporary account of the events they chronicle" (ix). "Without his writings," he adds, "any understanding of early Mormonism would be incomplete" (x).
It may be that such assurances lead the reader to expect more than Heber C. Kimball's diaries can deliver. Most of the diaries have been published previously. More importantly, like many pioneers, Heber noted significant events but seldom analyzed or reflected upon them. In places the sparseness of comment leaves little more than a fast-paced itinerary. The editor notes that Heber did not like to write. I think that it is a fair assessment.
But that is not to say that On the Potter's Wheel is not important or illuminating. While it is a kind of hit-and-miss potpourri, it is also vintage Heber C. Kimball, recording events and occurrences of divine import and bearing testimony to the Lord's frequent intervention and watchful care in the dispensation of the fullness of times. And who better to edit and comment on the legendary Heber's writings than scholar-great-great-grandson Stanley B. Kimball, a noted historian and author of an important 1981 biography about his illustrious forebear.
Heber C. Kimball produced four diaries between 1837 and 1847. With the exception of 1846-47 diaries that were written by scribes Peter O. Hansen and William Clayton, they are all reproduced here. In general, they deal with Heber's first and second missions to England, an eastern states mission, a visit to eastern cities, and accounts of life and events in Nauvoo just before and after the Prophet's death. All of the diaries contain helpful insights and occasionally new information. The later ones that describe the concluding labors on the Nauvoo Temple and the transmission of the endowment to the general Church membership are especially noteworthy.
In addition to the diaries, editor Kimball has reproduced what he calls a memorandum book along with two journal extracts from the Times and Seasons that detail the Zion's Camp march, Heber's call to the apostleship, and the death of David W. Patten. The memorandum section consists of fourteen memoranda dealing with personal revelation Heber received between 1852 and 1864. They chronicle his perceived deteriorating relationship with Brigham Young (or at least his growing sense that he had outlived his ecclesiastical usefulness); the Church's tenuous relationships with the federal government; domestic challenges with plural wives; and a bout with sickness. Included among these entries are some predictions or prophecies Heber made. Some of these were fulfilled; others were not realized.