Compton began his serious work in Mormon history as a visiting fellow atthe Huntington Library studying the journals ofEliza R. Snow. He found that hisclassics background helped his Mormon history work by teaching him respect for these primary documents.[2] While researching, and trying to note people identified in Snow's journals, Compton found that he needed a good list of Joseph Smith's plural wives. Not finding one, he began researching his own list, which eventually grew into his 1997 book,In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith.
Compton's notable works includeIn Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith, which was awarded the Best Book Award from both theJohn Whitmer Historical Association and theMormon History Association.[3] The Mormon History Association also awarded him the 2002 Best Documentary Award for his and Charles Hatch's bookA Widow's Tale: The 1884–1886 Diary of Helen Mar Kimball Whitney, and the 1996 Award of Excellence for his article "A Trajectory of Plurality: An Overview of Joseph Smith's Thirty Three Plural Wives".[5]
Compton's biography ofJacob Hamblin,A Frontier Life: Jacob Hamblin, Explorer and Indian Missionary, was published by the University of Utah Press in September, 2013.It has received the Juanita Brooks Prize in Mormon Studies, the Mormon History Association's Best Biography award, the John Whitmer Historical Association's Best Biography award, The Evans Biography Award from the Mountain West Center for Regional Studies, and the Francis Armstrong Madsen Best Utah History Book Award from the Utah State Historical Society.[citation needed] His article, "'In & through the roughefist country it has ever been my lot to travel'": Jacob Hamblin's 1858 Expedition Across the Colorado," (Utah Historical Quarterly, Winter 2012) received the Dale L. Morgan Award from the Utah State Historical Society.
In May 2017, through his company Pahreah Press, Compton published a book on the songwriting of theBeatles, titledWho Wrote the Beatle Songs? A History of Lennon-McCartney.
Compton, Todd M. (1997).In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith. Salt Lake City:Signature Books.ISBN1-56085-085-X.
Whitney, Helen Mar (2003). Todd M. Compton; Charles M. Hatch (eds.).A Widow's Tale: The 1884-1896 Diary of Helen Mar Whitney. Life Writings of Frontier Women. Vol. 6. Logan, Utah:Utah State University Press.ISBN0-87421-557-9.
Compton, Todd M. (2006).Victim of The Muses: Poet as Scapegoat, Warrior and Hero in Greco-Roman and Indo-European Myth and History. Washington, D.C.:Center for Hellenic Studies, Trustees for Harvard University.ISBN0-674-01958-X.
Gentry, Leland Homer; Todd M. Compton (2011).Fire and Sword: A History of the Latter-day Saints in Northern Missouri, 1836-39. Salt Lake City, Utah: Greg Kofford Books.ISBN978-1-58958-120-3.
Compton, Todd M. (2013).A Frontier Life: Jacob Hamblin, Explorer and Indian Missionary. Salt Lake City, Utah: University of Utah Press.
Compton, Todd M. (2017).Who Wrote the Beatle Songs? A History of Lennon-McCartney. San Jose, California: Pahreah Press.ISBN978-0-9988997-0-1.
Compton, Todd M. (2018).The Ethics of the Uncanny: An Anthology of Great Ghost Stories. San Jose, California: Pahreah Press.ISBN978-0-9988997-3-2.
Compton, Todd M. (2022).In Sacred Loneliness: The Documents. Salt Lake City, Utah:Signature Books.
Compton, Todd M. (2005). "Foreword". In Anderson, Devery S.; Bergera, Gary James (eds.).Joseph Smith's Quorum of the Anointed, 1842-1845. Salt Lake City:Signature Books.ISBN1-56085-186-4.OCLC57965858.
Compton, Todd M. (2020). "Plural Accidents: Writing In Sacred Loneliness". In Joseph W. Geisner (ed.).Writing Mormon History: Historians and Their Books. Salt Lake City:Signature Books.ISBN9781560852810.
Articles and papers
Compton, Todd M. (1982). "The Homeric roots of Virgil's Elysium, and Notes on the manuscript Montpellier 360 of Sallust". Master's thesis. Provo, UT: Dept. of Humanities, Classics, and Comparative Literature,Brigham Young University.{{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal= (help)
Compton, Todd M. (1988). "The Exile of the Poet: Bardic Expulsion and Death in the Archaic Greek and Indo-European Traditions". Doctoral thesis.University of California, Los Angeles.{{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal= (help)
Compton, Todd M. (2004). "The New Mormon Women's History". In Newell G. Bringhurst;Lavina Fielding Anderson (eds.).Excavating Mormon Pasts: The New Historiography of the Last Half Century. Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books. pp. 273–302.ISBN1-58958-091-5.
Compton, Todd M. (Summer 2007). "Civilizing the Ragged Edge: The Wives of Jacob Hamblin".Journal of Mormon History.33 (2):155–98.
Compton, Todd M. (2010). "Early Marriage in the New England and Northeastern States, and in Mormon Polygamy: What Was the Norm?". In Newell G. Bringhurst; Craig L. Foster (eds.).The Persistence of Polygamy: Joseph Smith and the Origins of Mormon Polygamy. Independence, Missouri:John Whitmer Books.ISBN978-1-934901-13-7.
Compton, Todd M. (Winter 2012). ""In & through the roughefist country it has ever been my lot to travel": Jacob Hamblin's 1858 Expedition Across the Colorado".Utah Historical Quarterly.80 (1):4–21.doi:10.2307/45063375.JSTOR45063375.S2CID254434222.
Compton, Todd M. (2012). "'The Lord Alone Knows How Deep the Sorrow Has Been in My Heart' MARY MINERVA DART JUDD (1838-1909)". In Richard E. Turley; Brittany A. Chapman (eds.).Women of Faith in the Latter Days, Volume Two, 1821-1845. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book. pp. 167–82.
Compton, Todd M. (Summer 2014). "Conquering the Black Ridge: The Communitarian Road in Pioneer Utah".Utah Historical Quarterly.82 (3):220–32.doi:10.2307/45063066.JSTOR45063066.S2CID254438624.
