Todd Compton

Todd Merlin Compton (born 1952) is an American historian in the fields of Mormon history and Classics.

Contents 1 Biographical background 2 Publications 3 Writings 3.1 Books 3.2 Chapters 3.3 Articles and papers 4 References 5 External links

Biographical background

Compton is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints^[1] who lived for a number of years in Santa Monica, California.^[2] He has served an LDS mission to Ireland.^[3] He studied violin with Richard Nibley^[1] and has played electric violin with singer-songwriter Mark Davis.^[2] In 1982 he completed a master's degree from Brigham Young University. He later received a Ph.D. from UCLA in Classics (concentrating on Greek and Indo-European mythology) which he taught for a year at USC.^[1] He also taught at UCLA and California State University, Northridge.^[4] He has been an independent researcher since 1993, drawing a regular income by working as an ADS specialist for a law office.^[1]

Compton began his serious work in Mormon history as a Visiting Fellow at the Huntington Library studying the journals of Eliza R. Snow.^[4] He found that his Classics background helped his Mormon history work by teaching him respect for these primary documents.^[1] While researching, and trying to note people identified in Snow's journals, Compton found that he needed a good list of Joseph Smith's plural wives. Not finding one, he began researching his own list, which eventually grew into his 1997 book, In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith.^[4]

Publications

Compton's notable works include In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith, which was awarded the Best Book Award from both the John Whitmer Historical Association and the Mormon History Association.^[2] The Mormon History Association also awarded him the 2002 Best Documentary Award for his and Charles Hatch's book A Widow’s Tale, The 1884-1886 Diary of Helen Mar Kimball Whitney, and the 1996 Award of Excellence for his article "A Trajectory of Plurality: An Overview of Joseph Smith's Thirty Three Plural Wives".^[5]

Compton has contributed publications to the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS), including articles in FARMS Review of Books and Journal of Book of Mormon Studies and as an editor of the 1987 edition of Hugh Nibley's Mormonism and Early Christianity.^[6] He has also been published in The Encyclopedia of Mormonism, Women and Authority: Re-emerging Mormon Feminism, American Journal of Philology, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Sunstone Magazine, Classical Quarterly, and the Journal of Popular Culture.^[2]

From 1993–1998, Compton served on the Editorial Board for the periodical Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought.^[7][8] Starting in 2004, Compton returned to work at Dialogue, this time as the editorial staff's History Editor.^[9][10] Compton has also served on the Board of Editors for the Journal of Mormon History since 2000.^[11][12]

Compton is presently working on a biography of Indian missionary Jacob Hamblin.

Writings

Books

• Nibley, Hugh W. (1987). Todd Compton; Stephen D. Ricks. ed. Mormonism and Early Christianity. The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley. 4. Salt Lake City: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies. ISBN 0875791271. http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/books/?bookid=55. 
• Compton, Todd M. (1997). In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith. Salt Lake City: Signature Books. ISBN 1-56085-085-X. 
• Whitney, Helen Mar (2003). Charles M. Hatch and Todd M. Compton. ed. A Widow’s Tale: The 1884-1896 Diary of Helen Mar Whitney. Life Writings of Frontier Women. 6. Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press. ISBN 0-87421-557-9. 
• Compton, Todd M. (2006). Victim of The Muses: Poet as Scapegoat, Warrior and Hero in Greco-Roman and Indo-European Myth and History. Washington, D.C.: Center for Hellenic Studies, Trustees for Harvard University. ISBN 0-674-01958-X. 
• Gentry, Leland Homer; Compton, Todd M. (2011). Fire and Sword: A History of the Latter-day Saints in Northern Missouri, 1836-39. Salt Lake City, Utah: Greg Kofford Books. ISBN 978-1-58958-120-3. 

Chapters

• Compton, Todd M. (1987). "Foreword". Mormonism and Early Christianity. The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley. 4. Salt Lake City: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies. ISBN 0875791271. http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/books/?bookid=55&chapid=518. 
• —— (1990). "The Handclasp and Embrace as Tokens of Recognition". In John M. Lundquist, Stephen D. Ricks. By Study and Also by Faith, Volume 1: Essays in Honor of Hugh W. Nibley on the Occasion of His Eightieth Birthday. Salt Lake City: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies. pp. 611–42. ISBN 0875793398. http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/books/?bookid=108&chapid=1249. 
• —— (1992). "Non-Hierarchical Revelation". In Maxine Hanks. Women and Authority: Re-emerging Mormon Feminism. Salt Lake City: Signature Books. ISBN 1-56085-014-0. http://www.signaturebookslibrary.org/women/chapter7.htm#Revelation. 
• —— (1992). "Apostasy". In Daniel H. Ludlow. Encyclopedia of Mormonism. 1. New York: Macmillan. pp. 56–58. ISBN 0028796004. http://eom.byu.edu/index.php/Apostasy. 
• —— (1992). "Symbolism". In Daniel H. Ludlow. Encyclopedia of Mormonism. 3. New York: Macmillan. pp. 1428–30. ISBN 0028796020. http://eom.byu.edu/index.php/Symbolism. 
• —— (1996). "Fawn Brodie on Joseph Smith's Plural Wives and Polygamy: A Critical View". In Newell G. Bringhurst. Reconsidering 'No Man Knows My History': Fawn M. Brodie and Joseph Smith in Retrospect. Logan: Utah State University Press. ISBN 0874212146. 
• —— (2003). "Introduction". A Widow’s Tale: The 1884-1896 Diary of Helen Mar Whitney. Life Writings of Frontier Women. 6. Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press. ISBN 0-87421-557-9. 
• —— (2004). "The New Mormon Women's History". In Newell G. Bringhurst, Lavina Fielding Anderson. Excavating Mormon Pasts: The New Historiography of the Last Half Century. Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books. pp. 273–302. ISBN 1-58958-091-5. 
• —— (2005). "Foreword". In Devery S. Anderson, Gary James Bergera. Joseph Smith's Quorum of the Anointed, 1842-1845. Salt Lake City: Signature Books. ISBN 1-56085-186-4. 

Articles and papers

• Compton, Todd M. (1982). The Homeric roots of Virgil's Elysium, and Notes on the manuscript Montpellier 360 of Sallust. Master's thesis. Provo, UT: Dept. of Humanities, Classics, and Comparative Literature, Brigham Young University. 
• —— (1988). The Exile of the Poet: Bardic Expulsion and Death in the Archaic Greek and Indo-European Traditions. Doctoral thesis. University of California, Los Angeles. 
• —— (1988). "McCartney or Lennon?: Beatle Myths and the Composing of the Lennon-McCartney Songs". The Journal of Popular Culture 22 (2): 99–131. doi:10.1111/j.0022-3840.1988.2202_99.x. 
• —— (1990). "What Are the Topnoi in Philebus 51C?". The Classical Quarterly 40 (2): 549–552. doi:10.1017/S0009838800043160. JSTOR 639118. 
• —— (Autumn 1990). "The Trial of the Satirist: Poetic Vitae (Aesop, Archilochus, Homer) as Background for Plato's Apology". American Journal of Philology 111 (3): 330–347. JSTOR 295155. 
• —— (June 1991). "Counter-Hierarchical Revelation" (PDF). Sunstone 15 (2): 34–41. https://www.sunstonemagazine.com/pdf/082-34-41.pdf. 
• —— (Spring 1993). "The Spirituality of the Outcast in the Book of Mormon". Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 2 (1): 139–60. http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/jbms/?vol=2&num=1&id=24. 
• —— (Spring 1996). "Fanny Alger Smith Custer, Mormonism's First Plural Wife?". Journal of Mormon History 22 (1): 172–205. http://content.lib.utah.edu/u?/jmh,18163. 
• —— (Summer 1996). "A Trajectory of Plurality: An Overview of Joseph Smith's Thirty-three Plural Wives". Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 29 (2): 1–38. http://content.lib.utah.edu/u?/dialogue,11268. 
• —— (September 1996). "Christian Scholarship and the Book of Mormon" (PDF). Sunstone 20 (3): 74–81. https://www.sunstonemagazine.com/pdf/103-74-81.pdf. 
• —— (Winter 1996). "Heaven and Hell: The Parable of the Loving Father and the Judgmental Son". Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 29 (4): 31–44. http://content.lib.utah.edu/u?/dialogue,11061. 
• —— (1999). "In Sacred Loneliness: An Introduction and Some RLDS Portraits". John Whitmer Historical Association Journal 19: 62–78. 
• —— (March 1999). "Thoughts on the Possibility of an Open Temple" (PDF). Sunstone 23 (1): 42–9. https://www.sunstonemagazine.com/pdf/113-41-49.pdf. 
• —— (Fall 1999). ""Remember Me in My Affliction": Louisa Beaman Young and Eliza R. Snow Letters, 1849". Journal of Mormon History 25 (2): 46–69. http://content.lib.utah.edu/u?/jmh,11476. 
• —— (Winter 1999). "Was Jesus a Feminist?". Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 32 (4): 1–17. http://content.lib.utah.edu/u?/dialogue,7853. 
• —— (Summer 2001). The Spiritual Roots of the Democratic Party: Why I Am a Mormon Democrat. Sunstone Symposium. Archived from the original on 2009-10-28. http://web.archive.org/web/20091028183243/http://geocities.com/Athens/Oracle/7207/demosp.html. 
• —— (Winter 2002). "John Willard Young, Brigham Young, and the Development of Presidential Succession in the LDS Church". Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 35 (4): 111–34. http://content.lib.utah.edu/u?/dialogue,28022. 
• —— (Fall 2003). ""Kingdom of Priests": Priesthood, Temple, and Women in the Old Testament and in the Restoration". Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 36 (3): 41–59. http://content.lib.utah.edu/u?/dialogue,29103. 
• —— (Summer 2007). "Civilizing the Ragged Edge: The Wives of Jacob Hamblin". Journal of Mormon History 33 (2): 155–98. 
• —— (Spring 2008). "A Playwright with a Passion for Unvarnished Depictions: An Interview with Tom Rogers". Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 41 (1): 67–90. https://dialoguejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/articles/Dialogue_V41N01_77.pdf. 
• —— (Spring 2009). "Becoming a "Messenger of Peace": Jacob Hamblin in Tooele". Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 42 (1): 1–29. 
• —— (Spring 2009). "The Big Washout: The 1862 Flood in Santa Clara". Utah Historical Quarterly 77 (2): 108–125. http://utah.ptfs.com/awweb/guest.jsp?smd=1&cl=all_lib&lb_document_id=22760. 

References

External links

• Todd Compton's Home Page
• Works by or about Todd Compton in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Audio of interview by John Dehlin for Mormon Stories podcast: Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3

Persondata
Name	Compton, Todd
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Date of birth	1952
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