By May 1942, 7,800 copies had been sold. However sales were far lower in Utah, and Deseret Book did not distribute the novel. The success of the novel outside of Utah was credited in some part to the open way Sorensen portrayed this early Mormon culture in a human, unthreatening way. According to publisher Alfred A. Knopf, "General Readers who, at the time, did not have a favorable impression of Mormons, could read the novel knowing that it did not require them to accept the doctrines of the Church because the central character, with whom readers most closely identify, is not a believer."
