Elder Statesman: A Biography of J. Reuben Clark
Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2002. First edition. Cloth/dj. 629pp. Reg. $49.99. As a counselor to three church presidents—Heber J. Grant, George Albert Smith, and David O. McKay—Clark served longer than any other member of this high church council.
Already controversial before he assumed his church duties, his blunt, independent style created even more ripples at LDS headquarters. Still, his impact, intellectually and administratively, was immense. His most important legacy may well be the professionalization of church government; where apostles previously met and decided issues based mostly on their collective years of experience, Clark drew from his secular training to introduce outside research, position papers, and extended discussion, all of which, for better or for worse, added to the administrative bureaucracy.
In this impressive study of the “elder statesman,” as reporters labeled Clark, D. Michael Quinn considers what it meant for a Latter-day Saint to attain such national and international stature, although Quinn never loses sight of Reuben’s very human qualities either. This fresh, intimate approach presents Clark on his own terms and draws readers into Clark’s world in the context of the larger society of his time and place. New. Item #35555
ISBN: 9781560851554
Price: $17.99