Palmyra, New York: E. B. Grandin, 1830. First edition. Leather bound. 588pp. Duodecimo [19 cm] Original sheep. Spine rebacked with original leather and both boards reattached. One front free endpaper, none in rear. Rear endsheet reads: "Mrs. Gale 222 # 19_(?). Extremities rubbed. Foxing throughout, as usual for this edition, else text is unmarked. Housed in a custom clamshell case of brown leather, decoratively stamped in gilt and black, with raised bands and a red leather spine label. An attractive example of this important book. Very good. Item #54554 The first edition of the Book of Mormon was printed in an edition of five thousand copies by Egbert B. Grandin in upstate New York. Printing took place between August 1829 and March 1830.The type was set based largely on the so-called "Printer's Manuscript," a transcription made by Oliver Cowdery from Joseph Smith's original manuscript. This transcription, like the original, was almost wholly lacking in punctuation, and was not broken into paragraphs; typesetter John H. Gilbert would remedy these issues as he set the type. The edition includes many variant copies with errors in pagination and spelling. Some of these are due to errors in the Printer's Manuscript, some to errors...

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Kirtland, Ohio: Printed by O. Cowdery & Company for P.P. Pratt and J. Goodson, 1837. Second Edition. 619pp. Sextodecimo [16 cm] in original full brown sheep with decorative gilt-stamped backstrip divided into five compartments, with gilt-stamped black leather spine label, double gilt rule on boards, original owner’s name (M. A. Young) stamped in gilt on front board, top edge brown. Heavy rubbing to extremities, fine surface cracks to backstrip leather, rubbed area of about 1” square to front board at foot; textblock almost completely disbound, connected to binding by about 1” of front hinge at top; heavy rubbing to endpapers, rear endpaper torn out; dampstains to front matter and to rear flyleaf; pencil scribble to margins of last few pages of text; fingertip-sized portion torn from margin of p415-416 and p437-438, taking a very small portion of text with it; occasional light soiling to text, moderate to heavy foxing throughout. Item #53984 Based on the personalized binding and date, this copy was presumably presented to Mary Ann Angell Young, Brigham Young's second wife. The Church History Library is in possession of an 1841 Book of Mormon known to have belonged to Mary Ann Angell; that copy is also stamped with...

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New York: Printed by W. Sandford, 1837. First Edition. 216 pp. [14.5 cm] Original tan diced cloth. Titles gilt stamped on backstrip (faint). Gentle wear to boards with some spotting and rubbing. Internally clean. This is an unsophisticated copy of this major LDS work. Item #43226 Parley Pratt left on a mission to the east coast in the summer of 1837. Upon arriving in New York he found few willing listeners, when they opened the door at all. Filled with inspiration he locked himself in his room. After almost two months Pratt had finished what has become one of the major works of Mormonism. Pratt's Voice of Warning was not the first LDS publication to lay out the tenets and theology of the fledgling Mormon Faith, but it was the first to specifically lay out the differences of Mormonism and other Christian Faiths. One of the most important and early volumes of Mormon doctrine from the 1830's.According to Crawley: "...it erected a standard for all future Mormon pamphleteers by setting down a formula for describing Mormonism's basic doctrines and by listing biblical proof texts, arguments, and examples which would be used by others for the next century". Flake/Draper 6627. Crawley 38. Scallawagiana 12. Auerbach 1000. Mormon Fifty 7.

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Nauvoo: Robinson & Smith; Joseph Smith; John Taylor and Wilford Woodruff; John Taylor, November, 1839 - February, 1846. Six volumes (131 numbers) bound as four (1-2, 3-4, 5, 6) 958; 383; [384]-767; [768]-1135pp. Octavos [23 cm.] Volumes 1-5 bound in later 3/4 brown leather over marbled boards, with gilt stamped titles on the backstrips, and red speckled edges. Volume 6 bound in modern black cloth over boards, with the title and single ruled borders in gilt on the backstrip. The extremities are a bit dinged and rubbed. The underlying boards are exposed occasionally along the edges. Most of the facsimile plate at p. 721 in Volume III, Number 10, is absent. The pages have very occasional open tears in the margins, causing only minor loss to the text. There are losses, measuring 2" wide by 2 1/2" deep, from the top fore-edge corners of pp. 738-741, which have resulted in more significant loss to the text. The pages of volumes 3 and 4 have light tide marks here and there, with the most prominent tide marks on the 336-383. Several pages in Volume 5 contain trivial marginalia. Volume 1, number 1, is the third state, with "Ptevail" and a date...

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[Mexico, NY?]: Printed for the publisher, 1839. Leather bound. iv[5]-152[i]-vii pp. Vigesimo-quarto [10.5 cm] Original brown sheep. The spine label has perished. There is a small loss from the top edge of the title page, measuring 1 1/2" wide by 3/4" deep, which obscures the first three words of the title, and there is slightly larger loss from the bottom edge of the rear free endpaper. The fore-edge margins of a number of the preliminary pages are trimmed close. A thin 2" tear to pp. 29/30 has been neatly stitched by a contemporary hand, with several letters concealed. Very good. Item #53709 An uncommon early LDS Hymnal. OCLC locates 6 institutional copies. This is only the second copy of this we have ever handled. The contents of this work are taken almost entirely from the Emma Smith hymnal (1835), including the preface verbatim, and David White Rogers (1838) hymnals.In A Descriptive Bibliography of the Mormon Church, Peter Crawley writes, "Little is known about Benjamin C. Elsworth. On November 16, 1836, John E. Page ordained him a teacher at a conference in South Crosby, twenty-five miles north of Kingston, Canada, and fifteen months later he was chosen a member of the...

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Boston: Dow & Jackson's Press, 1843. 160pp. Vigesimo-quarto [12 cm] Original brown mottled sheep with "Saints Hymns" stamped in gilt on black spine label. Speckled text block edges. Housed in an attractive custom clamshell box of mottled decoratively embossed red leather and linen, with 6 gilt stamped compartments and "Saints Hymns, Hardy Edition, Boston 1843" stamped in gilt on the backstrip. The underlying boards are exposed at the fore-edge corners. The pages are sporadically lightly foxed, with slightly more prominent foxing to the preliminary and terminal leaves. There are also several minor pencil marks within the text, and there is a neat crease to top fore-edge corner of p. 77/78. This copy, nearly unrestored and in its original binding, is surprisingly well-preserved and extraordinarily handsome, both externally and internally, with the majority of its pages in an astonishingly clean and bright state. Flake 3856. Crawley I: 186. Chism 18. OCLC lists 12 copies. Item #54418 An early LDS hymnal in exceptional condition, published in Boston, containing the texts of 155 numbered hymns, followed by an index of first lines. John Hardy, a composer of hymns himself, oversaw the Boston Branch of the Church from February 1843 to October 1844. Hardy...

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