Fawn McKay Brodie bola životopisyňa a profesorka histórie, ktorá sa preslávila svojimi psychobiografiami. Jej práce často skúmali životy významných osobností, ako boli Thomas Jefferson a Joseph Smith, a snažila sa preniknúť do ich motivácií a vnútorného sveta pomocou freudovskej psychológie. Brodie bola známa svojím neortodoxným prístupom, ktorý často vyvolával kontroverzie, ale tiež znovu objavoval zabudnuté aspekty histórie a uvádzal ich do povedomia verejnosti. Jej štýl písania bol oceňovaný pre svoju hĺbku a schopnosť vtiahnuť čitateľov do komplexných životných príbehov.
The first paperback edition of the classic biography of the founder of the Mormon church, this book attempts to answer the questions that continue to surround Joseph Smith. Was he a genuine prophet, or a gifted fabulist who became enthralled by the products of his imagination and ended up being martyred for them? 24 pages of photos. Map.
"Brilliant. . . . [Brodie's] scholarship is wide and searching, and her understanding of Burton and his wife both deep and wide. She writes with clarity and zest. The result is a first class biography of an exceptional man."--J. H. Plumb, New York Times Book Review
An ambitious, perceptive portrayal of a complex man, this best-selling biography broke new ground in its exploration of Jefferson's inner life. Here for the first time we meet Jefferson as a man of feeling and passion. With a novelist's skill and meticulous scholarship, Fawn M. Brodie shows Jefferson as he wrestled with issues of revolution, religion, power, race, and love-ambivalences that exerted a subtle but powerful influence on his political writing and his decision making. The portrait that results adds a whole new depth to those of the past.