Background
Raised in Utah of a respected, if impoverished, Mormon family, Brodie drifted away from religion during her graduate studies in literature at the University of Chicago. Having found temporary employment at the Harper Library, Brodie began researching the origins of Mormonism. Progress toward her eventual goal of writing a full biography of Joseph Smith was slowed by the birth of her first child and by three rapid moves to follow her husband's career, but in 1943, Brodie entered a three-hundred page draft of her book in a contest for the Alfred A. Knopf literary fellowship, and in May her application was judged the best of the forty-four entries.
Brodie's research was enlarged and critiqued by other students of Mormonism, most notably Dale L. Morgan (1914–1971), who became a lifelong friend, mentor, and sounding board. Brodie finally completed her biography of Smith in 1944, and it was published the following year by Knopf, when the author was thirty.
Read more about this topic: No Man Knows My History: The Life Of Joseph Smith
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