“BYU historian Marvin S. Hill has … observed: ‘Now, most historians, Mormon or not, who work with the sources, accept as fact Joseph Smith’s career as village magician. Too many of his closest friends and family admitted as much, and some of Joseph’s own revelations support the contention.’”

D. Michael Quinn, Early Mormonism and the Magic World View (Salt Lake City, UT: Signature Books, Revised and enlarged edition, 1998), 59.