Smith, Joseph

The book of Mormon: an account written by the hand of Mormon, upon plates taken from the plates of Nephi. Translated by Joseph Smith, Jr. Kirtland, Ohio: Printed by O. Cowdery & Co. for P.P. Pratt and J. Goodson, 1837



8vo (5 7/8 x 3 1/4 in.; 150 x 82 mm). With preface after title-page, and "The Testimony of Three Witnesses" "And the Testimony of Eight Witnesses" following page 619; some spotting throughout, dampstain in lower outer corner of last few quires. Original tree sheep, spine with double gilt bands and a brown leather label, sprinkled edges, marbled endpapers; extremities rubbed, a few small scuff marks.

Crawley I:35; Flake-Draper 596

Second edition, the first to identify Smith as the "translator" as in all subsequent editions, and considered rarer than the first. While the preface indicates that Pratt and Goodson had obtained the rights to publish an edition of 5,000, a typesetter in the Kirtland print shop, Ebenezer Robinson, tentatively recalled in 1886 that the edition was 3,000 (Crawley I, p. 67).

Mormon missionaries to the Indians in Ohio and Missouri stopped in Kirtland, Ohio in 1830, where they were joined by Smith and his nascent community in 1831. A grand temple was built there (1833–1836) and a printing press established, until the community was forced to flee to Independence, Missouri, in 1838.

The preface to this edition notes that the text was re-examined and compared with the original manuscripts by Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery. More than three thousand changes were incorporated into the second edition, most of these being grammatical and stylistic, and this edition became the source for all subsequent editions.