Murray, Utah

December 29, 1973

Mr. Brigham E. Roberts

10 West Broadway

Salt Lake City, Utah

Dear Bob:

I am enclosing a note I received from my friend, Doctor george H. Hansen, former head of the geology department at Brigham Young University. It was Dr. Hansen who first discovered the Ethan Smith book in a Washington, D.C. library, borrowed and brought it to Provo. There he showed it to Guy C. Wilson, head of the department of religious education, and Professor Wilson took it to your grandfather. I thought you might be interested in knowing just how this book fell into the hands of your grandfather's hands.

But I am sending you this Hansen note more to let you know how the people in the higher education field felt about the reputation of B. H. Roberts as "an honest and courageous historian." I think his statement, quoted by George Hansen, to the effect that B. H. wished he had twenty years in which to correct some of the errors he had made clearly indicated that your grandfather really did wish the world to know that he was ready to admit those mistakes and prove himself a true searcher after truth, not merely a propagandist to some preconceived ideas. I am sure he would have wanted the entire intellectual world to know that he had made one last effort to correct some of the errors he had made in the historical work to which he had devoted so much of his life. I do not doubt for a moment that he would wish to have his Book of Mormon Study published.

This document has been hidden for forty years. It seems to me that it is time that your grandfather's reputation can not be harmed by publication of this study. On the contrary, I think we who admired and respected him so much owe it to him to see that his reputation as a great historian should now be vindicated.

Cordially,

H. Grant Ivins