V. Lewis Kofford (born 1939) [1] is a former Mormon media executive who founded Covenant Communications and Seagull Book & Tape and was President and CEO when he sold them to Deseret Book in 2006. [2]
Kofford started his business enterprises with Covenant Recording, Inc. in 1975. The business actually predated his entering it, but when he did it was a very small operation. This company specialized in production and distribution of tapes and records, primarily Mormon and other Christian music, but also dramatizations of Book of Mormon stories. By 1979 Covenant was providing materials to stores in 15 countries. [3]
The Book of Mormon is a sacred text of the Latter Day Saint movement, which adherents believe contains writings of ancient prophets who lived on the American continent from approximately 2200 BC to AD 421. It was first published in March 1830 by Joseph Smith as The Book of Mormon: An Account Written by the Hand of Mormon upon Plates Taken from the Plates of Nephi.
In 1984 this endeavor was reconstituted as Covenant Communications. In 1987 a direct distribution outlet was added, Seagull Book & Tape.
In the Latter Day Saint movement, the restoration refers to a return to the earth of the authentic priesthood power, spiritual gifts, ordinances, living prophets and revelation of the primitive Church of Christ after a long period of apostasy. While in some contexts the term may also refer to the early history of the Latter-day Saint religion, in other contexts the term is used in a way to include the time that has elapsed from the church's earliest beginnings until the present day. Especially in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints "the restoration" is often used also as a term to encompass the corpus of religious messages from its general leaders down to the present.
Thomas Spencer Monson was an American religious leader, author, and the 16th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As president, he was considered by adherents of the religion to be a "prophet, seer, and revelator." Monson's early career was as a manager at the Deseret News, a Utah newspaper owned by the LDS Church. He spent most of his life engaged in various church leadership positions and public service.
Mormon fiction is fiction by or about members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also called Mormons or Latter-day Saints (LDS). Its history is commonly divided into four sections as first organized by Eugene England. During the first fifty years of the church's existence, 1830–1880, fiction was not popular, though Parley P. Pratt wrote a fictional Dialogue between Joseph Smith and the Devil. With the emergence of the novel and short stories as popular reading material, Orson F. Whitney called on fellow members to write inspirational stories. During the home literature movement, church-published magazines published many didactic stories and Nephi Anderson wrote the novel Added Upon. The generation of writers after the home literature movement produced fiction that was recognized nationally but was seen as rebelling against home literature's outward moralization. Vardis Fisher's Children of God and Maurine Whipple's The Giant Joshua were prominent novels from this time period. In the 1970s and 1980s, authors starting writing realistic fiction as faithful Mormons. Acclaimed examples include Levi S. Peterson's The Backslider and Linda Sillitoe's Sideways to the Sun. Home literature experienced a resurgence in popularity in the 1980s and 1990s when church-owned Deseret Book started to publish more fiction, including Gerald Lund's historical fiction series The Work and the Glory and Jack Weyland's novels.
According to the Book of Mormon, Abinadi was a prophet who lived on the American continent about 150 BC. In the Book of Mormon account, Abinadi visited the court of King Noah at Lehi-Nephi, and pleaded for them to repent of their iniquity. Abinadi gave Noah the message of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to earth in the flesh, to live among the children of men. Noah and his priests threatened Abinadi that unless he recalled all the words he had said against him and his priests, they would kill him. Abinadi stood by his words and Noah had him burned with fire. One of Noah's priests, Alma the Elder, adhered to Abinadi's message and eventually became a prophet himself.
Deseret Book is an American publishing company headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, that also operates a chain of bookstores throughout the western United States. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Deseret Management Corporation, the holding company for business firms owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Deseret Book is a for-profit corporation registered in Utah. Deseret Book publishes under four imprints with media ranging from works explaining LDS theology and doctrine, LDS-related fiction, electronic resources, and sound recordings such as Mormon Tabernacle Choir albums.
Sheri Linn Dew is an American author, publisher, the executive vice president of Deseret Management Corporation, and chief executive officer of the Deseret Book Company, headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah. Dew has also been a religious leader in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and an inspirational speaker. In 2003, she was described as “the most prominent single [unmarried] LDS woman right now.”
There are many works relating to Joseph Smith. These works cover Joseph Smith's his life, legacy, and teachings. Smith is the author of several works of scripture, and several personal histories, letters, and other writings. There have also been several biographies written about him.
Joseph Fielding McConkie was a professor of Ancient Scripture at Brigham Young University (BYU) and an author or co-author of over 25 books.
Seagull Book, formerly called Seagull Book & Tape, is an American retail chain bookstore focusing on products for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, with over two dozen stores in Utah, Idaho, Arizona, and Nevada. It was the second largest LDS bookstore until being acquired in 2006 by market-leader Deseret Book, and since then Seagull has continued to operate as a discount chain, distinct from Deseret Book branded retail stores.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches that Adam and Eve were the first man and the first woman to live on the earth and that their fall was an essential step in the plan of salvation. Adam in particular is a central figure in Mormon cosmology. Robert L. Millet, an LDS author, wrote of his perspective:
Few persons in all eternity have been more directly involved in the plan of salvation—the creation, the fall, and the ultimate redemption of the children of God—than the man Adam. His ministry among the sons and daughters of earth stretches from the distant past of premortality to the distant future of resurrection, judgment, and beyond.
Lorin Calvin Woolley was an American proponent of plural marriage and one of the founders of the Mormon fundamentalist movement. As a young man in Utah Territory, Woolley served as a courier and bodyguard for polygamous leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in hiding during the federal crusade against polygamy. His career as a religious leader in his own right commenced in the early twentieth century, when he began claiming to have been set apart to keep plural marriage alive by church president John Taylor in connection with the 1886 Revelation. Woolley's distinctive teachings on authority, morality, and doctrine are thought to provide the theological foundation for nearly ninety percent of Mormon fundamentalist groups.
Fred Emmett Woods IV is a Brigham Young University professor of Latter-day Saint Church History and Mormon Doctrine, an author specializing in Mormon migration and the Globalization of Mormonism.
Matthew B. Brown was a Latter-day Saint (Mormon) author and historian whose emphasis was on the history and doctrine of Joseph Smith and his successors through Brigham Young.
George Wendell Pace was an American professor of religion at Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo, Utah. He was a popular writer and speaker on religion in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and is known for being publicly criticized by Apostle Bruce R. McConkie in 1982.
Dean Cornell Jessee is a historian of the early Latter Day Saint movement and leading expert on the writings of Joseph Smith, Jr.
Bookcraft was a major publisher of books and products for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Boyd Jay Petersen is program coordinator for Mormon Studies at Utah Valley University (UVU) and teaches English and literature at UVU and Brigham Young University (BYU). He has also been a biographer of Hugh Nibley, a candidate for the Utah House of Representatives, and president of the Association for Mormon Letters. He was named editor of Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought for the term 2016-2020.
Gilbert Woodrow Scharffs was a Latter-day Saint religious educator and author.
Ellis Theo Rasmussen was an American professor and dean of Religious Instruction at Brigham Young University (BYU). He helped produce the edition of the Bible published by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1979.
