From the Publisher
"The republication of Hosea Stout’s autobiography is long overdue and makes an essential companion volume to his diary. The autobiography fills in what the diary misses, the events from his birth in 1810 to the start of the diary in 1844. It chronicles his early life in Kentucky, his participation in the Black Hawk War, his conversion to Mormonism, and his subsequent rise in the ranks of the new religious movement to positions of influence. Stout served as a Danite in Missouri and later as a body guard to Joseph Smith, Jr. He was chief of police at Nauvoo, Illinois, a member of the Nauvoo Legion, and of the LDS hierarchy’s quorum of Seventy and Council of Fifty. These pre-diary aspects of Stout’s life are available for the first time in over forty years. Combined with the diary, the autobiography is an indispensable resource in Mormon history.”—W. Paul Reeve, University of Utah