Tanner Gilliland of Zelph on the Shelf, in a recent video, made the following claim:
Speaking of histories, I just remembered that
tweet talking about how Leonard Arrington, who was an official Church historian,
during, when, like, they were trying to open things up, the Camelot years, was
charged with writing a biography of Brigham Young wherein he was not allowed to
mention polygamy. The Church commissioned a biography and it was like . . . wow
. . that is like literal gold medal Olympic [mental] gymnastics right there. (source:
Responding to “No one could write
the Book of Mormon" beginning at the 10:01 mark)
For those who have read Arrington's biography, Brigham Young: American Moses (University of Illinois Press, 1986; originally Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1985) will realise that this claim is bogus. Here are the entries under "Plural Marriage" and "Polygamy" on p. 516 (part of the index):
Tanner Gilliland has told us he has not read Arrington's biography of Brigham Young without saying he has not read Arrington's biography of Brigham Young.
