In 1940, LDS Church
president Heber J. Grant asked the church's
Improvement Era magazine to compile his sermons into a book called
Gospel Standards. Compiler
G. Homer Durham published it in 1941 as "An Improvement Era Publication", rather than through
Deseret Book, the church's official book publisher. During production, Grant suggested that the magazine's staff should start a new LDS publishing company, separate from Deseret Book. In 1942, the
Era's business manager, John Kenneth Orton, started Bookcraft as a private publishing house in
Salt Lake City,
Utah. When Durham presented a later manuscript to the
Era, church leadership restricted book publishing to Deseret Book.
John A. Widtsoe and
Richard L. Evans, staff members of the
Era and early supporters of Bookcraft, referred Durham to Orton's new publishing house.
The Gospel Kingdom, Durham's compilation of
John Taylor's teachings, was Bookcraft's first major venture in 1943. Bookcraft remained an Orton family business. When John K. Orton retired to Arizona in 1946, Marvin Wallin became the company's general manager. When Orton died in 1959, ownership passed to his wife. When she died in 1980, the Ortons' son Russell took over with his sister-in-law, Diane Orton. and was very careful to follow church leadership. Bookcraft eventually became large enough to compete with Deseret Book's lower publishing costs, and become the second largest LDS publisher. Over the years, Bookcraft innovated and tried new approaches to LDS publishing. In the 1960s, the company experimented with developing LDS
young adult fiction. In 1968, Bookcraft hired George Bickerstaff as its first full-time publishing editor. In the early 1970s, it began the Parliament Press imprint for authors to
self-publish their books. In 1995, Bookcraft produced
The Book of Mormon Studybase, a
digital library CD-ROM of books about
The Book of Mormon, and contributed to
Infobases'
LDS Collectors Library CD-ROM. Because Deseret Book was the largest LDS publisher and bookseller, independents like Bookcraft also distributed to national retailers like
B. Dalton,
Media Play, and
Barnes & Noble. For a time, Bookcraft even planned to create its own chain of retail bookstores. makers of the popular
LDS Collectors Library digital library since the early 1990s. Infobases
president and
CEO,
Brad Pelo, assumed these same roles in the new Bookcraft, Inc., and
WordPerfect founder
Alan C. Ashton became chairman. With Bookcraft's licenses, the company released the
Infobases PocketLibrary for
PalmPilot in 1997, an electronic 25-book collection. Bookcraft then created
online stores for its network of resellers, to counter Deseret Book's web sales.
Deseret Book merger In early 1999, Bookcraft was acquired by
Deseret Management Corporation (DMC), the parent company of the LDS Church's for-profit businesses. This allowed the church to expand in the larger "values-oriented" publishing market, and reduce translation costs of titles for international sale. The merger also brought more writings by
general authorities under the church's ownership, allowing for electronic and print collaborations with other DMC entities (such as Deseret Book, the
Deseret News, and
Bonneville International) and church entities (such as
Brigham Young University and other entities within the
Church Educational System). The Bookcraft brand name continued as an imprint for inspirational, self-help, youth and fiction titles, while doctrinal, historical and biographical works would be under the Deseret Book brand. Shadow Mountain was also created as a new imprint for "values-oriented" books in the national market, and Eagle Gate Press was created for specialty items such as library editions, art books and non-book products such as bookmarks and jewelry. DMC then formed World Media Inc. to oversee Bookcraft's electronic projects, and decide fate of Infobase products and GospeLink. A new
Infobases Library was released in 1999, before merging into
GospeLink, to become
GospeLink 2001. The expanded collection was also at LDSWorld.com, along with new
General Conference audio streaming, and was hosted by Millennial Star (MStar.net), the church's new
ISP. The merger created a publisher with a dominant position in the LDS market. Over next few years, Deseret Book would also acquire
Excel Entertainment Group (an LDS-oriented film and music company), The Bookcraft imprint was eventually discontinued by Deseret Book Publishing and currently its only imprints in use are Deseret Book, Shadow Mountain, and Ensign Peak. ==Notable work==