The lost Book of Mormon : a journey through the mythic lands of Nephi, Zarahemla, and Kansas City, Missouri

217 Pages·2014·1.62 MB·English

by  Steinberg

ALSO BY AVI STEINBERG
Running the Books:
The Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian

This is a work of nonfiction. Nonetheless, some of the names of the individuals involved have
been changed in order to disguise their identities. Any resulting resemblance to persons living or
dead is entirely coincidental and unintentional.
Copyright © 2014 by Avi Steinberg
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, a division of
Random House LLC, New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto,
Penguin Random House companies.
www.nanatalese.com
DOUBLEDAY is a registered trademark of Random House LLC. Nan A. Talese and the colophon are
trademarks of Random House LLC.
Grateful acknowledgment is made to Oxford University Press for permission to reprint the bar
graph from “Reassessing authorship of the Book of Mormon using delta and nearest shrunken
centroid classification” by Matthew L. Jockers, Daniela M. Witten, and Craig S. Criddle (Literary
and Linguistic Computing, December 2008, Vol. 23:4, page 478). Reprinted by permission of
Oxford University Press, administered by Copyright Clearance Center.
Map illustration by Emily Wong
Jacket design by Emily Mahon
Jacket illustration by Jason Ford/Heart Agency
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Steinberg, Avi, author.
The lost Book of Mormon : a journey through the mythic lands of Nephi, Zarahemla, and Kansas
City, Missouri / Avi Steinberg.
pages cm
ISBN 978-0-385-53569-4 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-0-38553570-0 (eBook)
1. Book of Mormon—Geography. 2. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—History. 3.
Mormon Church—History. 4. Travelers’ writings, American. I. Title.
BX8627.S779 2014
289.3′22—dc23
2014009464
v3.1
v3.1
To my father, for teaching me maddah
To my mother, for teaching me midrash
Literature was born not the day a boy crying “wolf, wolf”
came running out of the Neanderthal valley with a big gray
wolf at his heels; literature was born on the day when a boy
came crying “wolf, wolf” and there was no wolf behind him.
That the poor little fellow because he lied too often was finally
eaten up by a real beast is quite incidental. But here is what is
important. Between the wolf in the tall grass and the wolf in
the tall story there is a shimmering go-between. That go-
between, that prism, is the art of literature.
—VLADIMIR NABOKOV
There can be no doubt that such a creature exists, for in our
museum we have its tail and bones.
—FATHER ATHANASIUS KIRCHER
CONTENTS
Cover
Other Books by This Author
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Epigraph
Map
Loomings
Leaving Jerusalem
The Land of Zarahemla
Day One: Arrival in The City of Nephi
Day Two: The “And It came to Pass” Glyph
Day Three: Tikal, Petén Jungle
Day Four: The City of Nephi
Days Five, Six, and Seven: On The Waters of Mormon
Day Eight: Izapa
Day Nine: ¡Zarahemla!
Days Ten and Eleven: The Land of Wild Beasts
Final Days: Palenque and Mount Cumorah
Hill Cumorah
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Eden: An Epilogue
Acknowledgments
A Note About the Author