Eugene England, associate professor of English at Brigham Young University when this was written, has published widely on topics as diverse as Brigham Young and the poetry of Frederick Goddard Tuckerman, and his original poetry appears in various magazines and journals. England received an AB from the University of Utah, then won a Danforth Graduate Fellowship, and earned his MA and PhD at Stanford University. Co-founder of Dialogue, A Journal of Mormon Thought, he has been an LDS institute instructor and has taught literature and writing at several colleges and universities.

He has carefully studied the passage in the Book of Mormon recounting the emigration of Lehi from Jerusalem, thoroughly reviewed the information about Arabia accessible to Joseph Smith, and examined the reports of explorations since then, particularly the records of a journey in 1975 along the route described in the Book of Mormon as reported by Lynn M. and Hope Hilton in their book In Search of Lehi’s Trail.