"Responding to Krakauer's characterization of Kimball's marriage to Smith, Mormon author Craig Foster states,

Falling into the same trap as many people and even some historians, he places his own modern values onto another place and time and, when their marriage patterns do not conform to his worldview, he looks upon it and writes about it with an open-mouthed, suitably shocked, and offended approach .Foster cited examples of women marrying at a young age in colonial America, arguing that it was a common practice at the time.