Elvis Has Left the Library: Identifying Forged Annotations in a Book of Mormon

In 1989, a copy of the Book of Mormon was donated to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints containing, purportedly, marginal annotations made by Elvis Presley. Over the next several years, various speakers, newspaper columnists, and even a documentary film producer made claims that Elvis really had made these markings. The author of this article, who is director of the Church History Library, conducted an in-depth analysis of the book and its markings. He worked with Elvis Presley handwriting authenticators and studied the final weeks of Elvis’s life. His analysis concluded that none of the annotations in the book came from Elvis, nor did he likely have time to read the book between the time it was given to him and his death. The evidence presented in this article shows that this story deserves to be discarded.