Mormon Book Bits #26: Mark E. Petersen, The Way of the Master

Editor's note: This is # 25 in a series of posts by Dennis Horne about collectible books. The introduction is here.

            “As a reporter in 1932, [Mark] had covered a story on a man who announced the world would end in 1937. It seemed only logical to go on to study polygamists, dream-mine advocates, the Church of the Firstborn, and various other groups whose common denominator was their belief that the Church had gone astray. Mark found many good qualities in most of the members of these organizations, but he felt that their leadership was extremely misguided. He hoped that The Way of the Master might convince some of his ‘clients,’ as he called them, to reconsider the source of plural marriage. He was pleased when the First Presidency ordered a special edition of 5,000 copies to be sent to all the bishops and stake presidents in western America and wherever the polygamists might be” (Peggy Barton, Mark E. Petersen, 108).