Vernal Holley's "Book of Mormon Authorship" -- annotated --

Vernal Holley
(1924-2000)
Book of Mormon Authorship
Third Edition: Revised & Enlarged
(Roy, Utah: self-published 1992)

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Front Cover

Introduction

Contents

BoM Maps

Acknowledgement Holley Library

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In 1989 Vernal Holley of Roy, Utah, issued a "revised and enlarged" second edition of Book of Mormon Authorship: A Closer Look. The title page of his interesting little booklet says that it is:  "A comprehensive study of the similarities between the Book of Mormon and the writings of Solomon Spaulding."

Though it is hardly comprehensive, Holley's work is significant in that contains numerous (and elsewhere unavailable) textual excerpts and citations in support of the Spalding Theory for Book of Mormon authorship. Holley's booklet is here reproduced as an authorized e-text for web-publication via The Sidney Rigdon Home Page's "Mormon Classics" section and the on-line Library of The Spalding Studies Home Page. This reformatted and slightly revised version of Holley's work was first placed on the world-wide web in 1998, with the permission and support of its author and copyright holder. Vernal Holley passed away in 2000, leaving numerous notes and unfinished writings dealing with Book of Mormon sources, etc. Information from that unpublished material will be inserted as notes into the current e-text at a later date.

Since the appearance of Holley's first edition of Book of Mormon Authorship: A Closer Look, nearly sixteen years ago, his ideas in regard to Book of Mormon structure, content, and authorship have received widespread notice both within and without the Latter Day Saint community. Holley's work has been reviewed and discussed both in printed works and in several electronic news-lists and on-line news-groups. Generally speaking, non-Mormons have found his reporting to be of intererst and of use, particularly in their modern efforts to construct Book of Mormon geographies that represent alternatives to traditional Latter Day Saint viewpoints.

Mormon defenders have tended to fault Holley's highly speculative opinions and his lack of professional methodology in conducting his historical and textual research. Holley's low-key approach to questioning traditional Mormon assumptions has typically been non-confrontational; so his admittedly speculative opinions have not drawn the harsh response Mormon writers sometimes apply to openly hostile opponents. Since Holley does not credit Joseph Smith, Jr. with the authorship of the Book of Mormon (as do many contemporary non-Mormon critics), he occasionally finds himself sharing a small patch of common ideological ground with Mormon defenders. Given this refreshingly non-confrontational reporting environment, Holley has been content to address a few of the criticisms expressed against his published views merely by offering new, updated editions of his booklet. Other criticisms he has simply ignored. His lack of any significant response, to the various problems and errors perceived by critics of his reporting, represents the author's greatest shortcoming in publishing his findings. With his demise these past criticisms will have to remain largely unanswered.

The sort of views Holley expresses in support of the Solomon Spalding authorship claims have not been in vogue among the critics of Mormonism for the last several decades; so both the scholars and the popular writers defending or attacking the Book of Mormon have geberally passed over this portion of his reporting without offering much in the way of useful comments. This is an unfortunate oversight, as Holley has highlighted numerous original insights and possibilities regarding the probable connection between the earliest Mormon scriptures and the little-known writings of the Rev. Solomon Spalding (whose name Holley spells "Spaulding"). Until all of Holley's claims and questions have been very carefully investigated and intelligently addressed, many of the "Spalding issues" he has raised remain unresolved and are naturally subject to further investigative consideration.

In 1989, in an article appearing in the Review of Books on the Book of Mormon, LDS writer L. Ara Norwood wrote an in-depth response to the first printing of Holley's work. This review is on-line at the FARMS web-site. Norwood's generally upbeat review was followed four years later by Michael T. Griffith's less commendable attempt to refute Holley's work. Griffith's "The Book of Mormon and Solomon Spaulding" comprises an entire chapter in his 1993 book Refuting the Critics and is also available on-line as a condensed e-text.

Although several other responses to Holley's work might be cited here, on-line viewers can discover these for themselves among the numerous web-links and on-site materials at The Spalding Studies Library and the Mormon Classics links page. Some discussion of on-line reviews of Holley's work at the may be found in the Sciota Revisited" report at the Spalding Research Project. Citations for several of the published responses to Mr. Holley may also be found in the Addendum to Holley's Bibliography section of this e-text.

Apart from some unauthorized excerpts appearing in certain publications and some web-sites, only this slightly modified third edition of Book of Mormon Authorship: A Closer Look is currently available as authorized re-publication of Mr. Holley's writings. The remaining supply of the hard-copy third edition of his work is almost exhausted: a few copies may be obtained directly from the site host. General comments and inquiries regarding may be sent as e-mail to Dale R. Broadhurst, site host for the Spalding Studies Home Page, the Sidney Rigdon Home Page, etc.