In April 1832, as Brigham Young sat wet after his baptism and ordination to the office of elder in the newly restored Church of Christ, a fire began to blaze within him. “I wanted to thunder and roar out the Gospel to the nations,” he recalled. “I had to go out and preach, lest my bones should consume within me.”

The same impulse that spurred him to preach far and wide for years prompted him to begin a journal to preserve a record of those labors. This first volume of The Brigham Young Journals presents Young’s pre-Utah journals, which include three written in his own hand (1832 to 1845) and his Nauvoo office journal kept by clerks (18441846). Despite some substantial gaps, both records afford unique glimpses into Young’s life and ministry as well as matters of moment —both triumphant and turbulent—in early Church history.

This first volume, produced under the imprimatur of BYU Press, comes from a research team of editors of The Joseph Smith Papers. It features frequent editorial overviews, minimal use of transcription symbols, extensive annotation, detailed physical descriptions of each journal, and photographs. Reference material includes maps, a chronology, and trip itineraries. The verbatim transcriptions reproduced herein show Brigham Young to be a tireless missionary, devoted family man, and able Church leader in the making.