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Lengthen Your Stride: The Presidency of Spencer W. Kimball

Edward L. Kimball, Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book, 2005, hardbound and CD-rom. ISBN: 1590384571

The sequel to one of the bestselling LDS biographies of all time by Edward L. Kimball and Andrew E. Kimball Jr.'s, Spencer W. Kimball: Twelfth President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was an excellent biography which primarily covered President Spencer W. Kimball's youth and his service in the Quorum of the Twelve. That intimate portrait written by his son focused exclusively on the many dramatic events that occurred during President Kimball's 12 years as Church president and obviously did not cover the revelation on priesthood, among other later events during President Kimball's tenure.

An accompanying CD-Rom includes a longer version of the biography, additional photos, and some audio clips.

The first book notes the approach to writing biography in the 1977 preface:

We have tried to be candid, neither omitting weaknesses and problems nor exaggerating strengths. Happily we were faced with no real test of our integrity as biographers, since our burrowing into the past only confirmed our personal impressions that this was a man of rare consistency, exemplifying in his private life the same virtues ascribed to the public man.
Spencer and Camilla Kimball read through the manuscript for this book in rough draft stage and made factual corrections and a few suggestions, but neither had a hand in writing or editing the book beyond that. They would not have written the same book, but they were trusting and generous enough to allow us our own perspective on their lives. The responsibility for selecting the events which would paint a fair picture and for the resulting emphases is wholly ours, though the whole undertaking was possible only because of their willingness to talk and write openly about themselves.

Review Excerpt:

"The CD [included with the book] includes the contents of several related books, including Camilla: A Biography of Camilla Eyring Kimball, Spencer W. Kimball: Twelfth President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in English and Spanish, The Story of Spencer W. Kimball: A Short Man, a Long Stride, and <=/i>The Writings of Camilla Eyring Kimball. . . . What is most striking about the CD is the fact that it provides an earlier draft of the book. Reportedly there were disagreements between the author and the publisher regarding the book's final content. The book's preface states: "The publisher and the biographer do not agree on the interpretations or weight of importance given to a number of events or the choices of characterizations of some of the people." -- Justin Butterfield, 2005

Edward Kimball, an emeritus professor of law at Brigham Young University has authored several books and also published articles in BYU Studies, and Dialogue including, "Spencer W. Kimball: A Man for His Times". The first volume of this book won the 1977 David Woolley and Beatrice Cannon Evans award which is now administered by the Mountain West Center for Regional Studies at Utah State University).

Title: Lengthen Your Stride: The Presidency of Spencer W. Kimball

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