“The earliest published Mormon history, begun with Joseph’s collaboration in 1834 by Oliver Cowdery, ignored it [the First Vision] altogether…

“Joseph’s own description of the first vision was not published until 1842, twenty-two years after the memorable event [Times and Seasons – 15 March 1842]…

“If something happened that spring morning in 1820, it passed totally unnoticed in Joseph’s home town, and apparently did not even fix itself in the minds of members of his own family. The awesome vision he described in later years was probably the elaboration of some half-remembered dream stimulated by the early revival excitement and reinforced by the rich folklore of visions circulating in his neighborhood. Or it may have been sheer invention, created some time after 1834 when the need arose for a magnificent tradition to cancel out the stories of his fortune-telling and money-digging.”

Fawn Brodie, No Man Knows My History (New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1946), 24-25.