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SMITH, Joseph (1805-1844). 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: Printed by E.B. Grandin, for the Author, 1830.
8o (186 x 111 mm). Title-page (copyright notice on verso), Preface "To the Reader," signed "The Author" (pp.[iii]-iv), text (pp.[5]-588), extra leaf "The Testimonies of Three Witnesses" (recto) "And Also The Testimony of Eight Witnesses" (verso), final blank. Without the two-page index, issued at a later date. (Lacking text leaf 14/4, hole with loss of text on 14/3, some spotting and browning throughout.) Contemporary mottled sheep, smooth spine gilt-ruled, black morocco lettering-piece (wear and some small losses at ends of spines and at corners). Provenance: John Mitchell? (contemporary signature on front free endpaper); A.J. Came? (early signature on front free endpaper); Southwest Baptist University (partially imprinted blindstamp on title; faint number stamp on title and first text leaf).
FIRST EDITION OF THE BOOK OF MORMON, WITH THE EXTRA LEAF OF TESTIMONIES. Joseph Smith's translation of the golden tablets revealed to him by the angel Moroni in the hill of "cumorah" near Manchester, New York. This edition is the only one in which Smith was styled "author," rather than "translator," and was issued only two weeks before the formal founding of the Church of Latter-Day Saints on 6 April 1830. The text was dictated to Oliver Cowdery, who served as scribe, and a local printer, Egbert B. Grandin, proprietor of the Wayne Sentinel, undertook to print the sizeable edition (5,000 copies) for the 25-year old Smith. The manuscript "was delivered a few pages at a time to the typesetter, who supplied all the punctuation and paragraphing" (Crawley and Flake). Church 1342; Crawley & Flake, A Mormon Fifty 1; Grolier American 37; Howes S623; Sabin 83028; Streeter IV:2262.
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FIRST EDITION OF THE BOOK OF MORMON, WITH THE EXTRA LEAF OF TESTIMONIES. Joseph Smith's translation of the golden tablets revealed to him by the angel Moroni in the hill of "cumorah" near Manchester, New York. This edition is the only one in which Smith was styled "author," rather than "translator," and was issued only two weeks before the formal founding of the Church of Latter-Day Saints on 6 April 1830. The text was dictated to Oliver Cowdery, who served as scribe, and a local printer, Egbert B. Grandin, proprietor of the Wayne Sentinel, undertook to print the sizeable edition (5,000 copies) for the 25-year old Smith. The manuscript "was delivered a few pages at a time to the typesetter, who supplied all the punctuation and paragraphing" (Crawley and Flake). Church 1342; Crawley & Flake, A Mormon Fifty 1; Grolier American 37; Howes S623; Sabin 83028; Streeter IV:2262.