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'''Todd Merlin Compton''' (born 1952) is an [[United States|American]] [[historian]] in the fields of [[Mormon history]] and [[Classics]]. Compton is a respected authority on [[List of Joseph Smith's wives|the plural wives of the LDS Church founder, Joseph Smith]].<ref>{{cite web | title=Comparing Mormon founder, FLDS leader on polygamy | website=The Salt Lake Tribune | date=2020-03-06 | url=https://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=52371806&itype=CMSID | access-date=2020-07-06}}</ref>

== Biographical background ==
Compton is a member of [[The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]]<ref name=Smith>Smith, Julie M. "An Interview with Todd Compton". http://www.timesandseasons.org/?p=2826. Accessed 1 November 2007.</ref> who lived for a number of years in [[Santa Monica, California]].<ref name=Sign/>  He has served an [[Missionary (LDS Church)|LDS mission]] to [[Latter-day Saint movement in Ireland|Ireland]].<ref>*{{cite journal|first=Todd|last=Compton|title=Counter-Hierarchical Revelation|journal=[[Sunstone Magazine]]|volume=15|issue=2|date=June 1991|pages=34–41|format=[[PDF]]|url=https://www.sunstonemagazine.com/pdf/082-34-41.pdf}}</ref>  He studied [[violin]] with [[Richard Nibley]]<ref name=Smith/> and has played electric violin with singer-songwriter Mark Davis.<ref name=Sign/>  In 1982 he completed a [[Master of Arts|master's degree]] from [[Brigham Young University]].  He later received a [[Ph.D.]] from [[UCLA]] in [[Classics]] (concentrating on [[Greek mythology|Greek]] and [[Indo-European mythology]]) which he taught for a year at [[University of Southern California|USC]].<ref name=Smith/>  He also taught at UCLA and [[California State University, Northridge]].  He has been an independent researcher since 1993, drawing a regular income by working as an ADS specialist for a law office.<ref name=Smith/>

Compton began his serious work in Mormon history as a Visiting Fellow at [[the Huntington Library]] studying the journals of [[Eliza R. Snow]].  He found that his [[Classics]] background helped his Mormon history work by teaching him respect for these primary documents.<ref name=Smith/>  While researching, and trying to note people identified in Snow's journals, Compton found that he needed a good list of [[Joseph Smith, Jr.|Joseph Smith]]'s plural wives.  Not finding one, he began researching his own list, which eventually grew into his 1997 book, ''In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith''.

== Publications ==
(contracted; show full)

Compton's biography of [[Jacob Hamblin]], ''A Frontier Life: Jacob Hamblin, Explorer and Indian Missionary'', was published by the 
[[University of Utah]] Press in September, 2013. {{citation span|It has received the Juanita Brooks Prize in Mormon Studies, the Mormon History Association's Best Biography award, the John Whitmer Historical Association's Best Biography award, The Evans Biography Award from the Mountain West Center for Regional Studies, and the Francis Armstrong Madsen Best Utah History Book Award from the Utah State Historical Society.|date=January 2015}} His article, "'In & through the roughefist country it has ever bee(contracted; show full)[[Category:American Mormon missionaries in Ireland]]
[[Category:Brigham Young University alumni]]
[[Category:Historians of the Latter Day Saint movement]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Mormon studies]]
[[Category:University of California, Los Angeles alumni]]
[[Category:Latter Day Saints from Utah]]
[[Category:Latter Day Saints from California]]
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<small>This page was moved from [[:en:Todd Compton]]. Its edit history can be viewed at [[Todd Compton/edithistory]]</small></noinclude>
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