E. B. Grandin - Grandin Print Shop and The First Publication of The Book of Mormon

Grandin Print Shop and The First Publication of The Book of Mormon

See also: Book of Mormon Historic Publication Site

Grandin first rejected the request of Joseph Smith, Jr. to publish the Book of Mormon possibly "out of principle because he considered the book to be fraudulent and suspected that it would be a risky financial venture." Smith then sought a Rochester printer to do the job. "Realizing the work would proceed anyway, Grandin apparently overcame his scruples or his reservations and agreed to publish the work in Palmyra," requiring a $3,000 security to print five thousand copies. "Fulfilling his wife's worst fears," Martin Harris, a well-to-do farmer and early believer in Smith's revelations, mortgaged his farm as security for the costly endeavor, effectively ending his marriage.

On June 26, 1829, the twenty-three-year-old Grandin announced in the Wayne Sentinel that he intended to publish the Book of Mormon "as soon as the translation is complete." Oliver Cowdery prepared a copy of the manuscript, and Grandin bought "500 pounds of new small pica" type in New York. The chief compositor, John H. Gilbert, found that the manuscript was "closely written and legible, but not a punctuation mark from beginning to end." Gilbert said that he added punctuation and capitalization in the evenings. Cowdery also set some type. To print the book, Grandin used a Smith Improved Printing Press invented by Peter Smith (1795–1823), which first appeared on the market about 1821 and was the most up-to-date press available to the small printer of the day.

In October, Smith wrote that locals were "very much excited" by the prospect of publication, but their excitement was not the sort that Joseph had hoped for. The Palmyra Freeman called the prospective book "the greatest piece of superstition that has come to our knowledge." In September, Abner Cole began a weekly, the Palmyra Reflector, and because he used Grandin's press, Cole had access to the unbound sheets and reprinted mocking excerpts until Smith threatened legal action. According to Joseph's mother, Lucy Mack Smith, locals then organized a boycott, and Grandin "panicked and suspended publication until Joseph managed to allay his fears." Joseph received a revelation for Martin Harris, "a commandment of God and not of man," that he should "not covet" his property "but impart it freely to the printing of the Book of Mormon which contains the truth and the word of God....Pay the debt thou hast contracted with the printer."

By late March 1830, the Book of Mormon was available for sale, but the entire first edition was not complete until early summer. Harris desperately tried to sell the books himself but lamented that "no Body wants them." Harris's farm was sold for $3,000 and the proceeds paid to Grandin. But in 1999 a copy of Grandin's first edition of the Book of Mormon sold for $58,000; in 2000 another copy was sold for $44,000; and in 2007 a copy was sold at auction for $180,000.

On March 26, 1998, the official anniversary of the first printing, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints dedicated a restoration of part of the original Grandin establishment, which the church maintains and where it offers free guided tours.