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MORMON

Gregg, Thomas. History of Hancock County, Illinois; Together with an Outline History of the State, and a Digest of State Laws. Chicago: C.C. Chapman, 1880. 4to - over 9¾" - 12" tall. Near Fine 1036p. colored map of Hancock county. Flake 3718; Howes G403. Wright Howes wrote: Best history of the Mormons in Illinois by an eyewitness of many of the events described. Engravings of Joseph Smith, the Nauvoo Temple, The Nauvoo Jail and other participants. Beautifully rebacked in leather with matching corners over the original boards, clean throughout. Complete original copies with plates are scarce often lacking the engravings of Joseph Smith and the Nauvoo Jail, usually only available in paper print on demand copies.

 [014601]                 $2250

Smith, Joseph. The Pearl of Great Price; Being a Choice Selection from the Revelations, Translations and Narrations of Joseph Smith . Salt Lake City: Deseret News Company, 1888. 12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall. Cloth. Very Good / Fine Slipcase. iv, 136p. 5th Edition. Facsimiles from the Book of Abraham #2 and #3 are folding plates. Second Edition to be published in Salt Lake City. Poem "truth" by John Jacques at end. Flake #6170; Sabin #83261. A beautiful copy in original brown cloth with gilt lettering in a specially made full leather in clamshell case with five raised bands and gilt on black morocco label. There is a large chip in the margin on p. 49 not extending to the text else a fine copy.

[014077]             $550

Smith, Joseph. The Book of Mormon; an Account Written By the Hand of Mormon, upon Plates Taken from the Plates of Nephi (Part I). Salt Lake City: Deseret University By Russell Bros, 1869. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Leather Spine. Near Fine [8] 116p. . The scarce first rendering of the first part of the Book of Mormon into the Deseret Alphabet. Gilt Deseret lettering on black leather spine over light blue paper covered boards. Title and Text printed in the Deseret Alphabet (see Bancroft, History of Utah, 1889, p. 712-714). Brigham Young realized how difficult English was to learn by foreigners so he decided that the Book of Mormon could be translated into this alphabet making it much easier for foreigners to learn as Mormon Missionaries went to new countries (or for foreign-speaking converts who knew little English). There were also two primers in the new alphabet also designed and cast at the same time. Flake 608; Eborn p. 44. The copies of Part I produced in New York all have a dark blue (or black leather spine) over paper covered boards (the only English is the place of publication information at the foot of the title page). Though historians consider the Deseret Alphabet one of Brigham Young's two worst miscalculations (the other being the attempt to settle at Fillmore, Utah in 1851 instead of Salt Lake City). The use of Isaac Pitman's shorthand book and Egyptian characters was modified by George Watt, an English convert. This alphabet actually created unique pronunciations and colloqualisms which led older Mormons to refer to the words "horse, corner and Mormon" as "harse, carner, and Marmon". The books were printed in New York and sent West but the coming of the transcontinental railroad made it a disadvantage for trading with non-Mormons so it began to fall into disuse and with Brigham Young's death in 1877, it became an historical curiosity.

[014082]                       $650
 

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