The Story of the Mormons, from the Date of Their Origin to the Year 1901Linn, William Alexander
History
The Story of the Mormons, from the Date of Their Origin to the Year 1901
Linn, William Alexander
Latter Day Saints -- History; Utah -- History
The translation being ready for the press, in June, 1829 (I follow
Tucker's account of the printing of the work), Joseph, his brother
Hyrum, Cowdery, and Harris asked Egbert B. Grandin, publisher of the
Wayne Sentinel at Palmyra, to give them an estimate of the cost of
printing an edition of three thousand copies, with Harris as security
for the payment. Grandin told them he did not want to undertake the job
at any price, and he tried to persuade Harris not to invest his money
in the scheme, assuring him that it was fraudulent. Application was next
made to Thurlow Weed, then the publisher of the Anti-Masonic Inquirer,
at Rochester, New York. "After reading a few chapters," says Mr. Weed,
"it seemed such a jumble of unintelligent absurdities that we refused
the work, advising Harris not to mortgage his farm and beggar his
family." Finally, Smith and his associates obtained from Elihu F.
Marshall, a Rochester publisher, a definite bid for the work, and with
this they applied again to Grandin, explaining that it would be much
more convenient for them to have the printing done at home, and pointing
out to him that he might as well take the job, as his refusal would not
prevent the publication of the book. This argument had weight with him,
and he made a definite contract to print and bind five thousand copies
for the sum of $3000, a mortgage on Harris's farm to be given him as
security. Mrs. Harris had persisted in her refusal to be in any way a
party to the scheme, and she and her husband had finally made a legal
separation, with a division of the property, after she had entered a
complaint against Joe, charging him with getting money from her husband
on fraudulent representation. At the hearing on this complaint, Harris
denied that he had ever contributed a dollar to Joe at the latter's
persuasion.
Tucker, who did much of the proof-reading of the new Bible, comparing it
with the manuscript copy, says that, when the printing began, Smith
and his associates watched the manuscript with the greatest vigilance,
bringing to the office every morning as much as the printers could set
up during the day, and taking it away in the evening, forbidding also
any alteration. The foreman, John H. Gilbert, found the manuscript
so poorly prepared as regards grammatical construction, spelling,
punctuation, etc., that he told them that some corrections must be made,
and to this they finally consented.
Daniel Hendrix, in his recollections, says in confirmation of this:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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