Many years ago B. H. Roberts "announc[ed] what was then a list of prospective books, the writer declared his intention to publish a 'Scrap Book, ' promising that it should be a choice selection of his miscellaneous [fictional] writings.... About then, however, the writer's energies began to be devoted more exclusively to doctrinal and historical themes, and one circumstance after another arose which called him to the defense of the Mormon faith and the Mormon people, so that the character of his literary efforts were turned away from the line of purpose fiction work he had proposed to himself. But the scrap-book, nevertheless, became a possibility through the multiplication of the defensive articles, though its character would be changed, owing the change in the writer's line of work." "Through the years that have elapsed since the 'Scrap Book' idea was first entertained as a depository of the author's miscellaneous writings, a great mass of material in the form of discourses and papers, contributed to magazines and newspapers has accumulated and it is from this mass of materials that following collection of articles has been chosen"-Taken from the General Forward, Volume 1