History
Brigham Young University Press was formed in 1967 through the consolidation of BYU's various publishing activities into one central organization.
In its prime, BYU Press was a robust press publishing in a wide array of subjects, such as interior design, preschools, dancing, and wood-burning, as well as intellectual, scholarly and fine arts titles. In 1974, the press published Roughing it Easy: A Unique Ideabook for Camping and Cooking, by Dian Thomas, which later made the New York Times Best Seller list.
The press also published works for Mormon readers and scholars, including BYU speeches and symposia proceedings and the periodical BYU Studies. Amongst its major publications in Mormon history are James B. Allen's Studies in Mormon History series, several of the "Charles Redd Monographs in Western History", the LDS Church's 1965 reprint of A Comprehensive History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Fox and Quinn's biographies of J. Reuben Clark, and Davis Bitton's Guide to Mormon Diaries and Autobiographies. The press itself received a 1978 Special Citation from the Mormon History Association for encouraging and publishing fine Mormon histories that year. Many of its LDS books have been published in conjunction with Deseret Book. It also maintained the imprint "Young House" during the 1970s.
BYU Press had a reputation of selecting for publication only church approved material. Press officials scrutinized and rejected manuscripts they found too technical or too controversial. These rejections include Dennis Lythgoe's Let 'Em Holler: A Political Biography of J. Bracken Lee, Béla Petsco's Nothing Very Important and Other Stories (1979 AML Best Fiction Award winner), and Science and Religion: Toward a More Useful Dialogue by several BYU faculty. In 1973, BYU Press recalled Thomas Cheney's The Golden Legacy: A Folk History of J. Golden Kimball, a new release, over concerns with some of Kimball's vulgar language. The book was edited and republished by Peregrine Press in 1974.
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