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| First Edition 'Book Of Mormon' Found In New York Home |
599 Views |
| posted on Sunday, September 16, 2007 |
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RARE BOOK OF MORMON FOUND IN NEW YORK HOME, SET FOR AUCTION
By William Kates
Associated Press
September 14, 2007
Original Link
SYRACUSE, N.Y. - A 177-year-old first edition of the Book of Mormon found in a home near Palmyra -- the birthplace of the Mormon religion -- will be put up for bid next week at an upstate New York estate auction.
The rare book was discovered at the bottom of a box of books by workers cleaning out the house, said Mark Witmer, manager of the Hessney Auction Co. in Geneva, N.Y.
"We had to throw the other books out. The box was already packed when we found it. It was right at the bottom. When I picked it up, I froze. I used to own an antiquarian book store, so I knew what it was right away," Witmer said Friday.
Witmer said he would not identify the owner.
"I believe the current owner acquired it at some point," he said.
"It has some handwriting in the very front on the border that says 'Scarce. First edition' done in pencil the way a book dealer would normally do it. Underneath it, it has been erased, but it looks like it says $25 or $250 or something like that," Witmer said.
The book will be sold Wednesday during a combined estate auction at the company's center in Geneva.
Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints consider the Book of Mormon to be scripture on par with the Bible.
Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon religion, said he translated the book from gold plates delivered to him by an angel. The first editions were printed and published by E. B. Grandin in Palmyra, N.Y., in 1830. While there were roughly 5,000 copies printed, only a few hundred still exist.
Hessney's book is in good, unrestored condition with its original binding. However, the gold-leaf lettering has worn off and a blank page in the front is missing, Witmer said.
Latter-Day Harvest, a Utah-based book seller with stores in Palmyra and Nauvoo, Ill., is selling a first edition Book of Mormon for $100,000, Witmer said.
"If theirs is up for sale for $100,000 we will presumably get less than that ... but it will be considerably more than $25 or $250," Witmer said.
The auction has already attracted a great deal of attention from rare book collectors and religious historians. Witmer said he's received dozens of calls from across the country; several prospective bidders have said they would be flying to Geneva to attend.
Increasing interest in rare Mormon documents has sent prices booming in the past decade, said John Hajicek, a private collector from Missouri who owns 75 first editions of the Book of Mormon among his $20 million collection of rare books.
There are about 250 first editions held in private collections (including his) and perhaps an equal number yet undiscovered, Hajicek said. Research libraries and museums hold about 50 copies, he said.
In March, Auction Galleries of New York City sold a first edition for $180,000 -- $150,000 bid plus a 20 percent buyer's premium -- among the highest prices ever paid for documents associated with the early history of the LDS Church.
That first edition was signed by early apostle Orson Pratt. An inscription by the book's original owner, Denison Root, indicated the book was a gift from Joseph Smith's brother, Hyrum Smith.
In 1997, Sotheby's auction house sold a first edition for $32,200. In 2000, an unnamed buyer purchased a first edition at a West Virginia auction for $44,000.
Hajicek paid $58,000 for a copy in 1999 during an auction in Salt Lake City. He said he would be in Geneva to bid on the Hessney copy.
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RELATED LINK:
3,913 CHANGES IN THE BOOK OF MORMON
In this study we will show that there have been at least 3,913 changes made in the Book of Mormon from the time it was first published in 1830.
In making this study we obtained photocopies of an original 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon from the University of Utah Library. This copy was donated to the library by the Mormon Apostle John A. Widtsoe.
After comparing the first edition of the Book of Mormon with the 1964 edition we marked the changes on the photocopies of the 1830 edition. Therefore, the text is an exact photographic reproduction of the first edition of the Book of Mormon, and the handwriting shows the changes that would have to be made in the text to bring it into conformity with the 1964 edition. We have not tried to show capitalization or punctuation changes in this study.
In 1981 the LDS Church published a new edition of the Book of Mormon, making a number of additional changes in the text. They also reset the type thus changing the page numbers from the previous editions.
It is very interesting to note that the Mormon Historian Joseph Fielding Smith has claimed that there is no truth in the statement that there have been thousands of changes in the Book of Mormon. He was reported as saying the following at the fall conference of 1961:
"During the past week or two I have received a number of letters from different parts of the United States written by people, some of whom at least are a little concerned because they have been approached by enemies of the Church and enemies of the Book of Mormon, who have made the statement that there have been one or two or more thousand changes in the Book of Mormon since the first edition was published. Well, of course, there is no truth in that statement.
"It is true that when the Book of Mormon was printed the printer was a man who was unfriendly. The publication of the book was done under adverse circumstances, and there were a few errors, mostly typographical -- conditions that arise in most any book that is being published -- but there was not one thing in the Book of Mormon or in the second edition or any other edition since that in any way contradicts the first edition, and such changes as were made were made by the Prophet Joseph Smith because under those adverse conditions the Book of Mormon was published. But there was no change of doctrine.
"Now, these Sons of Belial who circulate these reports evidently know better. I will not use the word that is in my mind." (The Improvement Era, December, 1961, pp. 924-925)
This study will show that there have been thousands of changes in the Book of Mormon and that Joseph Fielding Smith is the one who is not telling the truth.
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NHNE Joseph Smith & The Mormons
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