Truman G.
Madsen wrote of this book:
“In December
1890 Roberts had been given a kind of temporary release from his duties as a
member of the First Council of the Seventy ‘to sustain his family,’ which was
now composed of ‘three wives and six children.’ President Cannon remarked that ‘a
man's first duty is to his family.’ Roberts continued to write semiweekly
editorials for the Herald and installments of the history of President
John Taylor, which ‘enabled me to meet my current expenses.’…
“For some time Roberts had been working
on his biographical study of President John Taylor. On January 20, 1891, he had
written to L. John Nuttall, who had served as President Taylor's secretary,
requesting details of the passing of President John Taylor at Kaysville in
1887, ‘as I have reached that stage in my work when I need it.’ It became the
last chapter of the book.
“Apparently he had been gathering
material on this subject since the 1880s, just after his mission to Britain. In
February 1891 he wrote to the Taylor family to say he had completed seven
chapters and had presented them to the First Presidency (Wilford Woodruff,
George Q. Cannon, Joseph F. Smith) for ‘review, examination and correction.’
Elders John Jacques and L. John Nuttall, who had served as President Taylor's
secretaries, were assigned to carefully scrutinize the manuscript. For nearly a
month they met frequently with Roberts and made suggestions. By late March nine
chapters were completed and approved, and the book was published early in 1892.
“The book is the most laudatory in tone
of Roberts's writings. It begins with the preface that ‘the author loved the
subject’ and ends with the pronouncement, ‘he was one of the great ones of the
earth.’…
“Roberts later wrote that the ‘spirit
and power’ of John Taylor's biography had its beginning as boyish ‘admiration
[which] grew almost into hero worship,’ which was first nurtured by stories
Mother Tovey read to him in England. ‘I admired greatly the courage that
prompted this man, Taylor, to stand by his chief at the opening door as the
guns were thrust through pressing their deadly messages into... the chamber
where the Prophet and his friends were confined.’ John Taylor, with only a walking
stick, had ‘deliberately parried the guns, drawing them out of range.'
“The Taylor family (two sons, John J.
Taylor and John W. Taylor, were executors of the estate) had commissioned
Roberts to write this memorial. Their decision perhaps reflects the esteem
President Taylor had for the thirty-five-year-old Roberts. Roberts was given
access to John Taylor's own journals and his personal papers. Members of the
Taylor family were open, cooperative and conscientious in responding to
Roberts's searching queries in interviews. Since President Taylor's own
counselor, George Q. Cannon, was related to John Taylor by marriage and had
(Roberts believed) himself aspired to write his biography, Roberts felt a
special responsibility.
“The biography seems today almost a
eulogy which sober rethinking would qualify. But four decades later, Roberts
printed his tributes to the ‘commanding strength’ of John Taylor, unmodified,
in his A Comprehensive History of the Church.
“Overall, Roberts's Life of John
Taylor is chronological, the episodes of Elder Taylor's service to the
Church being presented in a setting that is semipersonal. The personality of
the man comes less into focus than the massive contribution he made in the
larger setting of the nation and the Church. Taylor's association with the
Prophet Joseph Smith, particularly, in the final days (during which he was one
of the two note-taking eyewitnesses), dominate four of the chapters. Through
this and a study of John Taylor's discourses, later published in The Gospel Kingdom, Roberts saw
with increasing clarity the British-Canadian convert who steadied the knees of
many during the Kirtland crises; the missionary in France who debated with
honor and who pronounced some French philosophy ‘fried froth’; the elder who
stood at the Place Vendome and Napoleon's Column, looked at the names scratched
on it, and said, ‘I will not write my name there; but I will yet write it in
living, imperishable characters!’; the editor who wrote temperate answers to
hate literature from New York.” (Truman G. Madsen, Defender of the Faith, 207-210)
A mutually
beneficial agreement between Roberts and George Q. Cannon was worked out at
Roberts's request. Cannon and Sons Company purchased the copyright on all of
Roberts's published books for a flat fee of five thousand dollars "to him
in hand paid.' By this time he had
written seven volumes: The Gospel, The Life of John Taylor, Outlines of
Ecclesiastical History, Succession in the Presidency, New Witnesses for
God, volume one, The Missouri Persecutions, and The Rise and Fall
of Nauvoo. So far as the records can be traced, that is the only
remuneration he ever received from these writings. (Truman G. Madsen, Defender of the Faith, 214)
From the L. John Nuttall diary:
“March 18, 1891: I commenced this morning with Bro. John Jacques to hear Bro.
B. H. Roberts read his manuscript of the History of the life of President John
Taylor which he has written. We passed upon 9 chapters.” And, “March, 19, 1891:
I attended the reading of the manuscript of the History of President John
Taylor till 12 m.”
As
to its publication, Abraham H. Cannon, manager of George Q. Cannon and Sons
publishing company, wrote in his journal for Friday, February 26, 1892: “We
today commenced to set the type for the Life
of President John Taylor, which we expect to issue during the spring….”
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