218

Book of Mormon

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:40,000.00 - 50,000.00 USD
Book of Mormon

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Auction Date:2020 Oct 07 @ 18:00 (UTC-05:00 : EST/CDT)
Location:15th Floor WeWork, Boston, Massachusetts, 02108, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
Extremely rare unsigned book: The Book of Mormon: An Account Written by the Hand of Mormon, Upon Plates Taken from the Plates of Nephi. Second edition. Kirtland, Ohio: Printed by O. Cowdery & Co. for P. P. Pratt and J. Goodson, 1837. Hardcover bound in contemporary calf, 3.5 x 6, [iii]-vi, [7]-619, [2] pp. Book condition: VG/None, with covers scuffed but solid, the front free endpaper lacking, some darkening to the title, occasional minor foxing, soiling, and staining within. Originally from the Library of Marion Prentice Huntington, daughter of Henry E. Huntington.

This very rare second edition of the Book of Mormon, printed seven years after the 1830 first edition, is in some ways more important than its predecessor: there seem to have been over 3000 textual changes from the first edition, as documented by Richard P. Howard, and these changes have been passed down through the various editions to the present time, so that the present edition is considered 'the textually critical edition.'

Following the destruction of the Mormon press in Missouri, and the expulsion of the Mormons from that state, Oliver Cowdery, the Latter Day Saints printer, was sent from Kirtland, Ohio, to New York to purchase another printing press. It was upon this press that this second edition of the Book of Mormon was printed, along with many other seminal LDS pieces. Although the preface to this edition states that the rights to print 5000 copies were obtained, the recollections of Ebenezer Robinson, a typesetter working in Cowdery's shop, were that only about 3000 were produced—a figure that seems more accurate, given the relative rarity of this volume today. The book is of a smaller size than the first edition, and it is thought that Joseph Smith requested this reduction so that missionaries would have an easier time carrying it on their journeys.