Andrew Jenson undertook a lifelong quest to render the LDS historical record complete and comprehensive. As Assistant Church Historian of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Jenson tirelessly carried out his office's archival mission and advocated for fixed recordkeeping to become a duty for Latter-day Saints. Reid L. Neilson and Scott D. Marianno offer a new in-depth study of Jenson's long life and career. Their account follows Jenson from his arrival as a Danish immigrant to 1860s Utah through trips around the world to secure documents from far-flung missions, and on to his public life as a newspaper columnist and interpreter of LDS history. Throughout, Jenson emerges as a figure dedicated to the belief that recorded history united past and present Latter-day Saints in heaven and on earth--and for all eternity.

Engaging and informed, Restless Pilgrim is a groundbreaking study of an important figure in Latter-day Saint intellectual life during a transformative era in Church history.

Reid L. Neilson has served as the Assistant Church Historian and Recorder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He is an award-winning author and editor of dozens of books on the Latter-day Saints, and coeditor of Pacific Apostle: The 1920-21 Diary of David O. McKay in the Latter-day Saint Island Missions. Scott D. Marianno is an historian in the Church History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and coeditor of A Voice in the Wilderness: The 1888–1930 General Conference Sermons of Mormon Historian Andrew Jenson.

Acknowledgments ix

Prologue 1

1 Danish American Emigrant 7

2 Entrepreneurial Chronicler 29

3 Historian’s Office Affiliate 50

4 Itinerant World Traveler 79

5 Assistant Church Historian 104

6 Elder and Emissary 121

7 Scandinavian Mission President 140

8 Modern Record Keeper 165

9 Explorer of Latin America 183

10 Public Commemorator 203

11 Twilight Church Historian 221

Epilogue 240

Notes 247

Bibliography 293

Index 309