Smith, Joseph | Wiith the extra leaf of testimonies

Smith, Joseph

The Book of Mormon: An Account Written by the Hand of Mormon, Upon Plates Taken from the Plates of Nephi … by Joseph Smith, Junior, Author and Proprietor. Palmyra, New York: Printed by E. B. Grandin, for the Author, 1830.

8vo (187 x 114 mm). Printed by E.B. Grandin for the author, contains the leaf with "The Testimony of Three Witnesses" and "The Testimony of Eight Witnesses." Usual intermittent foxing, very faint tidemark at upper gutter of first few leaves. Contemporary sheep, rebacked to style.

First edition of the written basis for the beliefs of the Church of the Latter Day Saints.

The only edition with Smith's preface and the only edition to identify Smith as the author of the text; all subsequent editions have designated him as the translator. The present copy has the elusive leaf of "The Testimony of Three Witnesses [recto] | And Also the Testimony of Eight Witnesses [verso]," all of whom affirm that they had seen the original gold tablets of Nephi. A two-leaf index was printed after the Book of Mormon was published and distributed; it is appropriately not present here, as it is indicative of a later issue.

The printer, Egbert B. Grandin, publisher of the Palmyra Wayne Sentinel, originally refused for fear of adverse publicity, but was finally convinced that it would be viewed only as a business proposition. Grandin agreed to print and bind in leather 5,000 copies for $3,000. During these negotiations a second manuscript was begun by Oliver Cowdery to serve as the typesetter's model, the original being locked away, and the transcription was in process simultaneously with the typesetting. For a few weeks in January 1830 (until Joseph Smith got wind of it), excerpts from the Book of Mormon appeared in The Reflector, a Palmyra newspaper that was assembled in Grandin's shop, and whose publisher had access to the Book of Mormon sheets.

The Church catalogue notes that this first printing of the Mormon Bible forbade freemasonry and polygamy, but the latter doctrine was altered in subsequent editions.

REFERENCE

Church 1342; Crawley 1; Flake 595; Grolier/American 37; Howes S623; Sabin 83038; Streeter sale 4:2262