Books: Polygamist Epic

CHILDREN OF GOD—Vardis Fisher—Harper ($3).

One warm spring day in 1820 a tall, towheaded, 14-year-old farm boy named Joseph Smith stumbled into his parents' log cabin at Palmyra, N. Y., looking as though he had seen a ghost. He had just talked with God in an oak grove. "And it came to pass," reported ragged Joe, "that the Son spake unto me, saying, 'verily, verily, I say unto you, my servant Joseph, that a new church will be established in these latter days and you will be my prophet.' "

Two years later an angel...