The library
What's actually in here
Every work indexed in MormonGPT, with what we hold of each. Not summaries — the full texts, split fine enough to cite by verse, paragraph, page and discourse.
MormonGPT indexes the full text of these works — not summaries, and not extracts. Each is split finely enough that an answer can cite the verse, page, paragraph or discourse it came from, and every citation points back to a real location in a real edition.
This page is the shelf list. Every work links onward — to our own guide where one exists, otherwise to the best public edition of the text itself, whether that is the church's own site, the Joseph Smith Papers, Internet Archive or Project Gutenberg. Why every answer carries one is here.
Scripture and the early revelation texts
| Work | Sources indexed | Coverage |
|---|---|---|
| Holy Bible (KJV) | 1,192 | Current LDS edition |
| Book of Mormon | 605 | 1830 first edition, 1981, and current |
| Doctrine and Covenants | 143 | Current edition |
| Book of Commandments | 64 | 1833 printing — the D&C's predecessor |
| Pearl of Great Price | 21 | Current edition |
The 1830 Book of Mormon and the 1833 Book of Commandments are held alongside the modern texts, aligned passage by passage, which is what makes questions about textual change answerable.
The pulpit
| Work | Sources indexed | Coverage |
|---|---|---|
| General Conference | 6,091 | April 1942 to the present |
| Conference Report | 2,465 | 1897–1941 — the only full record of those years |
| Journal of Discourses | 1,426 | 26 volumes, 1854–1886 |
Together these run from 1854 to the present with one gap, which makes the record long enough to measure change across.
The founding era
| Work | Sources indexed | Coverage |
|---|---|---|
| Joseph Smith Papers: Documents | 5,000 | Letters, revelations, minutes, discourses, 1827–1844 |
| Wilford Woodruff's Journal | 726 | December 1833 to August 1898 |
| Scriptural Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith | 523 | BYU edition |
| Times and Seasons | 131 | Nauvoo, 1839–1846 |
| Joseph Smith Papers: Histories | 44 | Early histories and draft material |
| Latter Day Saints' Messenger and Advocate | 36 | Kirtland, 1834–1837 |
| The Seer | 20 | Orson Pratt, Washington D.C., 1853–1854 |
| Joseph Smith Papers: Journals | 20 | 1832–1844 |
| The Lectures on Faith | 8 | 1835 |
| Elders' Journal | 4 | The only periodical Joseph Smith edited himself |
| The Evening and the Morning Star | 3 | The church's first periodical, 1832–1834 |
The periodicals
| Work | Sources indexed | Coverage |
|---|---|---|
| The Improvement Era | 16,000+ | Complete run, 1897–1970 |
| The Latter-day Saints' Millennial Star | 2,861 | 1840–1905 |
| Relief Society Magazine | 477 | 1915–1961 |
| Woman's Exponent | 21 volumes | 1873–1913, indexed whole |
The Improvement Era is the largest single body of material here — the complete seventy-three-year run of the church's own magazine, and very little of it exists in browsable form anywhere else.
Doctrinal books and commentary
| Work | Sources indexed | Coverage |
|---|---|---|
| Mormon Doctrine | 1,451 | 1966 second edition — one source per entry |
| Jesus the Christ | 44 | James E. Talmage |
| The Articles of Faith | 27 | Talmage, 1919 edition |
| The Miracle of Forgiveness | 24 | Spencer W. Kimball, 1969 |
| The House of the Lord | 12 | Talmage, 1912 |
Official and administrative
| Work | Sources indexed | Coverage |
|---|---|---|
| Hymns | 421 | 1985 hymnbook and Hymns for Home and Church |
| Church Newsroom | 280 | 2007 to the present |
| General Handbook | 41 | Current edition |
| Preach My Gospel | 41 | 2004 and 2023 editions |
| For the Strength of Youth | 34 | 2001 and 2022 editions |
| Gospel Topics Essays | 15 | Current |
| First Presidency Letters | 12 | Collected individually |
| Missionary Standards for Disciples of Jesus Christ | 8 | 2019 |
| Internal Church Documents | 3 | Recorded with the source each copy came from |
| The Family: A Proclamation to the World | 1 | 1995 |
| The Living Christ | 1 | 2000 |
| Church Statements and Pamphlets | 1 | Collected |
Topics across the library
Some subjects run through many of these works at once. These pages follow one subject across all of them — doctrine and history alike — with every quote linked to its source.
| Topic | The record |
|---|---|
| The Atonement of Jesus Christ | From the Book of Mormon's sermons to the Savior's own words in the Doctrine and Covenants to The Living Christ — the doctrine at the center of everything else |
| The witnesses of the Book of Mormon | Three men saw the plates, left the church, and never denied it — the testimonies and the reaffirmations, quoted |
| The Three Witnesses | Cowdery, Whitmer and Harris said an angel showed them the plates — all three were out of the church within nine years, and none of them ever denied it |
| The Eight Witnesses | Four Whitmers, three Smiths and Hiram Page — no angel and no voice, just a claim to have handled the plates and turned the leaves |
| Did the witnesses sign their testimony? | The surviving page is entirely in Oliver Cowdery's hand, the original was destroyed in 1841, and David Whitmer's account of it changed three times |
| The First Vision accounts | Joseph Smith told it four times between 1832 and 1842 — the earliest, in his own hand, describes one personage. All four quoted side by side |
| The Kirtland Temple dedication | March 1836 — a thousand people, the prayer that asked for Pentecost, and the accounts printed the same month |
| The founding of the Relief Society | March 1842 — twenty women above a store in Nauvoo, with minutes that survive word for word |
| The martyrdom at Carthage | June 27, 1844 — the killing of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, in the words of a survivor from the room |
| The vision of the redemption of the dead | October 1918 — a dying president, a pandemic year, and the last revelation in the Doctrine and Covenants |
| The Word of Wisdom | 1833 to 1921 — how counsel that says it is not a commandment became a temple requirement, step by step |
| The Adam-God doctrine | What Brigham Young preached from 1852, why an apostle refused it, and the 1976 conference talk that denounced it by name |
| The United Order | 1831 to the 1890s — the revelations that abolished private property, the two hundred settlements that tried it, and how it ended |
| Birth control | 1958 to today — from "gross wickedness" in a church reference book to a decision that rests solely with the couple |
| Race and the priesthood | 1836 to 2013 — the ordinations, the sermons, the letters, the revelation, and the disavowal, quoted and linked |
| Blood atonement | 1856 to 2010 — the Reformation sermons, the pushback from the same pulpit, and the church's denials, quoted and linked |
People
Some of these works are best read through the person who wrote them. These pages follow one life across the library, with every quote linked to its source.
| Person | Why they matter |
|---|---|
| Orson Pratt | Announced plural marriage to the world in 1852, published his own doctrinal newspaper, and spent twenty years publicly disagreeing with Brigham Young |
| Eliza R. Snow | Kept the Relief Society minutes, carried the minute book west, and wrote the Heavenly Mother verse into the hymnbook |
| Parley P. Pratt | Wrote the century’s most widely read missionary book, founded the Millennial Star, and was murdered in Arkansas in May 1857 |
| Oliver Cowdery | Wrote down most of the Book of Mormon as it was dictated, was excommunicated in 1838, and came back ten years later with nothing left to gain |
| David Whitmer | Never rejoined the church after 1838, ran a livery stable in Richmond, Missouri, and reaffirmed his testimony in print in the last year of his life |
| Martin Harris | Mortgaged his farm for three thousand dollars to pay the printer, left the church in 1837, and arrived in Salt Lake City at eighty-seven to be rebaptized |
Ask across the whole library
One question can draw on every work above at once, and every answer says where each piece came from.
3 free questions a month · no card required