Malline:FirstVisionLinks

First Vision on-line links

Primary sources

• Joseph Smith, Jr. A History of the Life of Joseph Smith (1832) (Contains the 1832 First Vision account)
• Joseph Smith, Jr. Joseph Smith Diary (1835–1836) (Contains the 1835 First Vision account on pages 22-23)

Articles about the First Vision

• James B. Allen, “The Significance of Joseph Smith’s ‘First Vision’ in Mormon Thought,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, vol. 1, no. 3 (Fall 1966), 29–45.
• James B. Allen and Leonard J. Arrington, “Mormon Origins in New York: An Introductory Analysis,” BYU Studies, vol. 9, no. 3 (Spring 1969), 241–74.
• James B. Allen, “Eight Contemporary Accounts of Joseph Smith’s First Vision: What Do We Learn from Them,” Improvement Era, April 1970, 4–13.
• James B. Allen, “Emergence of a Fundamental: The Expanding Role of Joseph Smith’s First Vision in Mormon Religious Thought,” Journal of Mormon History, vol. 7 (1980), 43–61.
• James B. Allen and John W. Welch, “The Appearance of the Father and the Son to Joseph Smith in 1820,” in John W. Welch and Erick B. Carlson, eds., Opening the Heavens: Accounts of Divine Manifestations, 1820–1844 (Provo and Salt Lake City, UT: BYU Press and Deseret Book, 2005), 35–75.
• Richard L. Anderson, “The Reliability of the Early History of Lucy and Joseph Smith,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, vol. 4, o. 2 (Summer 1969), 13–28.
• Richard L. Anderson, “Circumstantial Confirmation of the First Vision through Reminiscences," BYU Studies, vol. 9, no. 3 (Spring 1969), 373-404.
• Richard L. Anderson, “Joseph Smith’s Home Environment,” Ensign, July 1971, 57–59.
• Richard L. Anderson, “‘Of Goodly Parents’,” New Era, December 1973, 34–39.
• Richard L. Anderson, “Joseph Smith’s Testimony of the First Vision,” Ensign, April 1996, 10–21.
• Richard L. Anderson, “Alvin Smith,” in Kyle R. Walker, ed., United By Faith: The Joseph Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith Family (American Fork, UT: Covenant Communications, 2005), 83–121.
• Carlos E. Asay, “‘Oh, How Lovely Was the Morning!’: Joseph Smith’s First Prayer and the First Vision,” Ensign, April 1995, 44–49.
• Milton V. Backman Jr., “Awakenings in the Burned-over District: New Light on the Historical Setting of the First Vision,” BYU Studies, vol. 9, no. 3 (Spring 1969), 301–20.
• Milton V. Backman Jr. and James B. Allen, “Membership of Certain of Joseph Smith’s Family in the Western Presbyterian Church of Palmyra,” BYU Studies, vol. 10, no. 4 (Summer1970), 482–84.
• Milton V. Backman Jr., “Joseph Smith’s Recitals of the First Vision,” Ensign, January 1985, 8–17.
• Milton V. Backman Jr., “Confirming Witnesses of the First Vision,” Ensign, January 1986, 32–37.
• Milton V. Backman Jr., Joseph Smith’s First Vision: Cornerstone of a Latter-day Faith,” in Robert L. Millet, ed., To Be Learned Is Good, If . . . (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1987), 21–41.
• Milton V. Backman Jr., “Lo, Here! Lo, There! Early in the Spring of 1820,” in Larry C. Porter and Susan Easton Black, eds., The Prophet Joseph: Essays on the Life and Mission of Joseph Smith (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1988), 19–35.
• Milton V. Backman Jr., “Verification of the 1838 Account of the First Vision,” in H. Donl Peterson and Charles D. Tate Jr., eds., The Pearl of Great Price: Revelations from God (Provo, UT: BYU Religious Studies Center, 1989), 237–48.
• Milton V. Backman Jr., “Did Brigham Young Confirm or Expound on Joseph Smith’s First Vision?” Ensign, April 1992, 59–60.
• Milton V. Backman Jr., “First Vision,” in Daniel H. Ludlow, ed., Encyclopedia of Mormonism (New York: Macmillan, 1992), 2:515–16.
• Milton V. Backman Jr., “Defender of the First Vision [Elder Orson Pratt],” in Larry C. Porter, Milton V. Backman Jr., and Susan Easton Black, eds., Regional Studies in Latter-day Saint Church History: New York (Provo, UT: BYU Department of Church History and Doctrine, 1992), 33–48.
• Ronald O. Barney, “The First Vision: Searching for the Truth,” Ensign, January 2005, 14–19.
• Dale L. Berge, “Archeological Work at the Smith Log House,” Ensign, August 1985, 24–26.
• Davis Bitton, [review of Richard P. Howard, The Church through the Years, vol. 1,] BYU Studies, vol. 33, no. 3 (1993), 607–608.
• Hoyt W. Brewster Jr., “What Was There in the Creeds of Men that the Lord Found Abominable, as He Stated in the First Vision?” Ensign, July 1987, 65–67.
• Richard L. Bushman, “The First Vision Story Revived,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, vol. 4, no. 1 (Spring 1969), 82–93.
• Richard L. Bushman, “Just the Facts Please,” Review of Books on the Book of Mormon, vol. 6, no. 2 (1994), 122–33.
• Richard L. Bushman, “The Visionary World of Joseph Smith,” BYU Studies, vol. 37, no. 1 (1997–98), 183–204.
• Donald Q. Cannon, “Palmyra, New York: 1820–1830,” in Larry C. Porter, Milton V. Backman Jr., and Susan Easton Black, eds., Regional Studies in Latter-day Saint Church History: New York (Provo, UT: BYU Department of Church History and Doctrine, 1992), 1–13.
• Church Educational System, “Additional Details from Joseph Smith’s 1832 Account of the First Vision,” in Presidents of the Church: Student Manual (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2003), 5–6.
• Church Educational System, “The First Vision,” in Church History in the Fullness of Times: Student Manual (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2003), 29–36.
• Richard H. Cracroft, “Rendering the Ineffable Effable: Treating Joseph Smith’s First Vision in Imaginative Literature,” BYU Studies, vol. 36, no. 2 (1996–97), 93–116.
• Peter Crawley, “A Comment on Joseph Smith’s Account of His First Vision and the 1820 Revival,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, vol. 6, no. 1 (Spring 1971), 106–107.
• Larry E. Dahl, “The Theological Significance of the First Vision,” in Robert L. Millet and Kent P. Jackson, eds., Studies in Scripture, Volume 2: The Pearl of Great Price (Salt Lake City: Randall Book, 1985), 315–37.
• Donald L. Enders, “A Snug Log House,” Ensign, August 1985, 14–23.
• Donald L. Enders, “The Sacred Grove,” Ensign, April 1990, 14–17.
• Donald L. Enders, “The Joseph Smith Sr., Family: Farmers of the Genesee,” in Susan Easton Black and Charles D. Tate Jr., eds., Joseph Smith: The Prophet, The Man (Provo, UT: BYU Religious Studies Center, 1993), 213–25.
• James E. Faust, “The Magnificent Vision Near Palmyra,” Ensign, May 1984, 67–69.
• Marvin S. Hill, “A Note on Joseph Smith’s First Vision and Its Import in the Shaping of Early Mormonism,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, vol. 12, no. 1 (Spring 1979), 90–99.
• Marvin S. Hill, “The First Vision Controversy: A Critique and Reconciliation,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, vol. 15, no. 2 (Summer 1982), 31–46.
• Kent P. Jackson, “The First Vision,” in Kent P. Jackson, From Apostasy to Restoration (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1996), 66–79.
• Kent P. Jackson, “Lessons from the Sacred Grove,” in Kent P. Jackson, From Apostasy to Restoration (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1996), 80–89.
• Dean C. Jessee, “The Early Accounts of Joseph Smith’s First Vision,” BYU Studies, vol. 9, no. 3 (Spring 1969), 275–94.
• Dean C. Jessee, “The Early Accounts of Joseph Smith’s First Vision,” in Robert L. Millet and Kent P. Jackson, eds., Studies in Scripture, Volume 2: The Pearl of Great Price (Salt Lake City: Randall Book, 1985), 303–314.
• Dean C. Jessee, “The Earliest Documented Accounts of Joseph Smith’s First Vision,” in John W. Welch and Erick B. Carlson, eds., Opening the Heavens: Accounts of Divine Manifestations, 1820–1844 (Provo and Salt Lake City, UT: BYU Press and Deseret Book, 2005), 1–33.
• Neal E. Lambert and Richard H. Cracroft, “Literary Form and Historical Understanding: Joseph Smith’s First Vision,” Journal of Mormon History, vol. 7 (1980), 31–42.
• Truman G. Madsen, “The First Vision and Its Aftermath,” in Truman G. Madsen, Joseph Smith the Prophet (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1989), 7–18.
• Adele Brannon McCollum, “The First Vision: Re-Visioning Historical Experience,” in Neal E. Lambert, ed., Literature of Belief: Sacred Scripture and Religious Experience (Provo, UT: BYU Religious Studies Center, 1981), 177–96.
• Melvin J. Peterson, “Does D&C 84:19–22 Indicate that a Person Has to Have the Melchizedek Priesthood in Order to See God? Joseph Smith Didn’t Have the Priesthood at the Time of the First Vision,” Ensign, December 1985, 60–61.
• Paul H. Peterson, [review of Marquardt and Walters, Inventing Mormonism,] BYU Studies, vol. 35, no. 4 (1995–96), 209–15.
• Larry C. Porter, “Reverend George Lane—Good ‘Gifts,’ Much ‘Grace,’ and Marked ‘Usefulness,’” BYU Studies, vol. 9, no. 3 (Spring 1969), 321–40.
• Larry C. Porter, “Reinventing Mormonism: To Remake or Redo,” Review of Books on the Book of Mormon, vol. 7, no. 2 (1995), 123–43.
• Larry C. Porter, “Solomon Chamberlain’s Missing Pamphlet: Dreams, Visions, and Angelic Ministrants,” BYU Studies, vol. 37, no. 2 (1997–98), 113–29.
• Larry C. Porter, “The Youth of the Grove and the Prophet of the Restoration,” in Susan Easton Black and Andrew C. Skinner, eds., Joseph: Exploring the Life and Ministry of the Prophet (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2005), 36–46.
• Joseph Fielding Smith, “What evidences do we have to substantiate the First Vision of Joseph Smith?” Ensign, October 1987, 58–59.
• “The First Vision,” in Our Heritage: A Brief History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1996), 1–4.
• Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “The Fruits of the First Vision,” Ensign, May 2005, 36–38.
• John W. Welch, “‘All Their Creeds Were an Abomination’: A BriefLook at Creeds as Part of the Apostasy,” in Fred E. Woods, et al., eds., Prelude to the Restoration: From Apostasy to the Restored Church (Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: Deseret Book and BYU Religious Studies Center, 2004), 228–49.

• Richard L. Anderson, "Circumstantial Confirmation of the First Vision through Reminiscences," Brigham Young University Studies 9 no. 3 (1969), 1–27. PDF link
• Milton V. Backman Jr., "Awakenings in the Burned-over District: New Light on the Historical Setting of the First Vision," Brigham Young University Studies 9 no. 3 (1969), 301. PDF link
• Milton V. Backman, Jr., "Confirming Witnesses of the First Vision," Ensign (January 1986), 32. off-site
• Milton V. Backman, "First Vision," in Encyclopedia of Mormonism, 4 vols., edited by Daniel H. Ludlow, (New York, Macmillan Publishing, 1992), 2:515–516. off-site off-site off-site
• Milton V. Backman, Jr., "Joseph Smith's Recitals of the First Vision," Ensign (January 1985), 8. off-site
• Richard L. Bushman, "The First Vision Story Revived," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 4 no. 1 (Spring 1969), 82–93. off-site
• Eugene England, "Orson Scott Card: The Book of Mormon as History and Science Fiction (Review of Homecoming, vols. 1-5; A Storyteller in Zion: Essays and Speeches; by Orson Scott Card)," FARMS Review of Books 6/2 (1994): 59–78. off-site PDF link
• Dean C. Jessee, "Early Accounts of Joseph Smith (1831–1839)," Brigham Young University Studies 9 no. 3 (1969), 275–294. PDF link
• Dean C. Jessee, The Personal Writings of Joseph Smith, revised edition, (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book, 2002), 9–20. ISBN 1573457876. off-site  (Key source)
• D. Michael Quinn, "Joseph Smith's Experience of a Methodist 'Camp-Meeting'," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought - Dialogue Paperless: E-Paper #3 (12 July 2006), PDF link
• Elden Watson, "Joseph Smith's First Vision—A Harmony";—complete text of all Joseph Smith's accounts on-line off-site  (Key source)
• Elden Watson, "Joseph Smith's First Vision (introduction)" off-site

Joseph Smith other visionary issues on-line links

• Dean C. Jessee, "Early Accounts of Joseph Smith (1831–1839)," Brigham Young University Studies 9 no. 3 (1969), 275–294. PDF link
• David L. Paulsen, "The Doctrine of Divine Embodiment: Restoration, Judeo-Christian, and Philosophical Perspectives," Brigham Young University Studies 35 no. 4 (1995–96), 6–94. PDF link (Key source)