1. Hugh W. Nibley, interview by author, tape recording, Provo, Utah, June 9, 1996.

2. Hugh W. Nibley, “An Intellectual Autobiography” in Nibley on the Timely and the Timeless (Provo, Utah: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1978), xix–xxviii.

3. John A. Widtsoe to Howard S. McDonald, March 14, 1946, Howard S. McDonald Presidential Papers, Special Collections and Manuscripts, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah (hereafter cited as BYU Archives).

4. Hugh Nibley to Paul Springer, [ca. August 5, 1946], in possession of Hugh Nibley. All of the correspondence cited in this article is in possession of Hugh Nibley or the author unless otherwise noted. The letters reproduced here retain the original spelling, punctuation, and underlining.

5. Todd F. Maynes, “Nibleys: Pianist, Scholar, Brilliant but Different,” Daily Universe, November 1, 1982, 7.

6. Hugh Nibley, personal journal, May 25, 1946, in possession of Hugh Nibley.

7. Hugh Nibley to Agnes Sloan Nibley, postmarked August 23, 1946.

8. Nibley, personal journal, August 18, 1946; Hugh Nibley to Agnes Sloan Nibley, August 19, 1946.

9. Maynes, “Nibleys,” 7. The cycle of folklore that has been built up around the Nibley courtship story is immense. For example, see Jane D. Brady, “The Brigham Young University Folklore of Hugh Winder Nibley: Gifted Scholar, Eccentric Professor and Latter-day Saint Spiritual Guide” (master’s thesis, Brigham Young University, 1996), 30–32.

10. Charles W. Nibley to Hugh Nibley, March 25, 1924, Family Correspondence, Charles W. Nibley Collection, Archives Division, Historical Department, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City (hereafter cited as LDS Church Archives).

11. Hugh Nibley to Charles W. Nibley, 1924, Family Correspondence, C. Nibley Collection, LDS Church Archives.

12. Hugh Nibley to Charles W. Nibley, April 13, 1927.

13. Nibley, “An Intellectual Autobiography,” xxi.

14. Hugh Nibley to Agnes Sloan Nibley, August 4, 1925, Charles W. Nibley Papers, 1915–1978, BYU Archives.

15. The Faith of an Observer—Conversations with Hugh W. Nibley, 63 min., Brigham Young University Productions in association with FARMS, 1985, videocassette.

16. Hugh W. Nibley, “Our Glory or Our Condemnation,” in Approaching Zion, vol. 9 of The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book; Provo, Utah: FARMS, 1989), 10.

17. Nibley’s vision of the sacredness of the earth contrasts with that of his grandfather. In one of the few comments I have discovered where sugar beet businessman Charles W. Nibley discusses the beauty of nature, he reveals his main motive. In a letter to Hugh’s father, Alex Nibley, Charles W. Nibley follows a lyrical description of the beauties of spring in Utah with the comment, “There will be a world of money come from the ground this season. After all, the good old farm land is the best and richest gold mine in all the world.” Charles W. Nibley to Alexander Nibley, September 12, 1925, C. Nibley Papers, BYU Archives. Hugh, even in his youth, has viewed the beauty of the earth as valuable in and of itself, while his grandfather saw it, despite its beauty, as a commodity. In the video The Faith of an Observer—Conversations with Hugh W. Nibley, Hugh stated that Charles W. Nibley could see “only the feet of timber in a forest and that’s all it [was] to him.” And because he could not fully appreciate nature, Hugh argued, Charles W. Nibley was prevented from having “a fullness of joy” on this earth. The Faith of an Observer—Conversations with Hugh W. Nibley, transcript of videocassette, 1985, FARMS, 9.

18. Hugh W. Nibley, open letter, read by Zina Nibley Petersen, Bureau of Land Management hearings on wilderness designation, Provo, Utah, May 7, 1986.

19. Hugh Nibley to Agnes Sloan Nibley, postmarked February 14, 1942.

20. Hugh Nibley to Agnes Sloan Nibley, April 13, 1943.

21. Hugh to Agnes Sloan Nibley, n.d. This letter was written after the invasion of Normandy and while Hugh was still in Europe, so it dates to either late 1944 or early 1945.

22. Hugh Nibley to Paul Springer, May 24, 1958.

23. Hugh W. Nibley, The World and the Prophets, vol. 3 of The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book; Provo, Utah: FARMS, 1987), 275. Nibley further expresses his view of learning: “Until the final returns are in, no one is in a position to make final pronouncements, as long as science continues to progress, the final returns will remain at the other end of the future of wonders and surprises.” Nibley, The World and the Prophets, 134. See also Hugh W. Nibley, Since Cumorah, vol. 7 of The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book; Provo, Utah: FARMS, 1988), 213–27; and Hugh W. Nibley, “Paths That Stray: Some Notes on Sophic and Mantic,” in The Ancient State, vol. 10 of The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book; Provo, Utah: FARMS, 1991), 406.

24. Hugh W. Nibley, “Some Reasons for the Restored Gospel,” 1975, unpublished paper, in possession of Hugh W. Nibley.

25. Hugh W. Nibley, “Leaders to Managers: The Fatal Shift,” in Brother Brigham Challenges the Saints, vol. 13 of The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book; Provo, Utah: FARMS, 1994), 491–508.

26. Hugh Nibley, interview by author, Provo, Utah, June 9, 1996.

27. Hugh Nibley to Charles W. Nibley, [ca. 1924], Family Correspondence, C. Nibley Collection, LDS Church Archives.

28. Hugh Nibley to Agnes Sloan Nibley, 1928, C. Nibley Papers, BYU Archives.

29. Hugh Nibley, interview by author, Provo, Utah, June 16, 1996.

30. Victoria Ann Decker Witesman, telephone conversation with author, November 6, 1997.

31. Quayle Cannon, as quoted in Donald Q. Cannon to author, February 27, 1990.

32. Richard Stratford to John Welch, December 11, 1984, in possession of John W. Welch.

33. Hugh Nibley to Agnes Sloan Nibley, February 5, 1945.

34. Hugh Nibley to Brent Lewis, February 24, 1988.

35. Hugh W. Nibley, “Work We Must, but the Lunch Is Free,” in Approaching Zion, 202–51; Hugh W. Nibley, “What Is Zion? A Distant View,” in Approaching Zion, 25–62.

36. Hugh W. Nibley, “Brigham Young as a Leader,” in Brother Brigham Challenges the Saints, 449–90; Nibley, “Leaders to Managers,” 491–508.

37. Hugh W. Nibley, “Beyond Politics,” in Nibley on the Timely and the Timeless, 279–305.

38. Hugh W. Nibley, “In the Party but Not of the Party,” in Brother Brigham Challenges the Saints, 105–37.

39. Eugene England, “Hugh Nibley as Cassandra,” BYU Studies 30, no. 4 (1990): 104.

40. Hugh Nibley to Margaret Violet Reid Sloan, May 31, 1928, in possession of Barbara Nibley Richards; underlining in original.

41. Hugh Nibley to Agnes Sloan Nibley, [ca. 1928], C. Nibley Papers, BYU Archives.

42. Nibley to Margaret Sloan, May 31, 1928.

43. Hugh Nibley to Paul Springer, [ca. summer 1946].

44. Hugh Nibley to Agnes Sloan Nibley, November 5, 1944.

45. Hugh Nibley to Agnes Sloan Nibley, [ca. 1945]; underlining in original.

46. Hugh Nibley to Agnes Sloan Nibley, August 24, 1944.

47. Hugh Nibley to Agnes Sloan Nibley, August 24, 1944. I have not yet found the letter from his mother to which Hugh responds in this letter, so it is unclear what events in America prompt Hugh’s remarks.

48. Hugh Nibley to Agnes Sloan Nibley, September 12, 1944.

49. The Faith of an Observer—Conversations with Hugh W. Nibley, transcript, 2.

50. John W. Welch, “Hugh Nibley and the Book of Mormon,” Ensign 15 (April 1985): 50–56.

51. Hugh Nibley to Agnes Sloan Nibley, April 8, 1944.

52. Nibley was then teaching a special course on the Book of Mormon to visiting Moslem students.

53. Nibley gave a lecture, “The Early Christian Church in Light of Some Newly Discovered Papyri from Egypt” on March 3, 1964, at a BYU tri-stake fireside (Provo, Utah: BYU Extension Publications, 1964), which probably reflected the work he was doing at this time.

54. Hugh Nibley to Paul Springer, February 2, 1964.

55. Nibley to Springer, February 2, 1964.

56. Hugh Nibley to Jan Taylor, April 24, 1975. For more on this subject, see Boyd Petersen, “Something to Move Mountains: The Book of Mormon in the Correspondence of Hugh Nibley,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 6, no. 2 (1997): 1–25.

57. Hugh Nibley to Paul Springer, “harvest time,” 1950.

58. Hugh Nibley to Paul Springer, August 1952.

59. Hugh W. Nibley, “Mediocre Meditations on the Media,” in Brother Brigham Challenges the Saints, 394.

60. Hugh Nibley to Barbara Nibley, April 8, 1935, in possession of Barbara Nibley Richards.

61. Brigham Young, in Journal of Discourses, 26 vols. (Liverpool: F. D. Richards, 1855–86), 11:136, August 1–10, 1865.

Boyd J. Petersen

BYU Studies Publications