35 Wives

The Mormon Polygamist Joseph Smith

35 Wives opens with 37-year-old Mormon prophet Joseph Smith marrying 14-year-old Helen Mar Kimball. Was it a sacred ceremony? Or was it the rape of a vulnerable girl by a predatory prophet under cover of religious sponsorship? For 120 years, Mormon apologists have argued it was holy matrimony.

Telling Helen and her sisters’ stories, 35 Wives is the counter thrust to the Church’s sacred mendacity. Was Joseph a saint or a sinner?

Written from an energetic outsider’s POV, 35 Wives is a naturalistic dissection of Joseph and the Church’s truth claims for a skeptical general audience. 35 Wives is grounded in fact-based scholarship and freed from the supernatural burden of saints, miracles, and Jesus.

©2025 Terry Houlahan (P)2025 Terry Houlahan