Craig James Ostler:
In this Palmyra Building, Egbert B. Grandin printed the first 5000 copies of the Book of Mormon in Palmyra village. Edward B. Grandin’s three story business opened in the fall of 1828 and included a bookstore on the first floor, and a book bindery, and print shop on the second, and third floors. He had been open less than one year, when approached about printing 5000 copies of the Book of Mormon.1Kent P. Jackson: Egbert B. Grandin was a 23-year-old publisher at the time that Joseph Smith approached him to print the Book of Mormon. Grandin had been in the publishing business since he was 21.2 He had already published one book—a small book—and the Book of Mormon was a major undertaking for him because it was such a large job.3 Not only was it a large job, which took a lot of technical skills, but it was also a major headache because the local pastors of the churches in the area had already made provisions to boycott it and preaching against it so it couldn’t be sold.
Craig James Ostler: Such a large order without solid financial backing, did not interest Mr. Grandin in addition to the fact that he disagreed with the project on religious principles, and he refused the project. However, after further persuasion and Martin Harris’ offer to secure the $3000 project with the mortgage on his farm, Grandin agreed to publish the book.4 Mr. Grandin managed his business from this office. Thus, it was most likely here that the Prophet Joseph Smith contracted with E. B. Grandin to publish the Book of Mormon.
Kent P. Jackson: The typesetting process in the days of Joseph Smith was a very difficult and detailed process. Everything that you see on the printed page, including space between words, indents, and everything else required somebody by hand to insert a little piece of metal type. One average page of the Book of Mormon contains about 2500 separate little pieces of metal.5
Craig James Ostler: After the type had been set, each sheet was printed on an Acorn Hand Press and hung to dry, after which they were taken to the second floor to the bindery. The Book of Mormon was bound in leather in this room. The printer sheets came down from the third floor and were here cut in half to make two sheets of 16 pages. These sheets were then folded into what was known as a signature page. A total of 37 signature pages composed the first edition of the Book of Mormon. The signature sheets were placed in the standing book press, with its screw-like mechanism adding pressure as it twisted down to flatten the pages. To the side of the press is the planing table at which the folded edges were trimmed to allow them to open for reading. Next, the signature sheets were stitched together with needle and thread at the sewing table and passed to the gluing table. Leather sheepskin stretched over cardboard for the book cover was attached to the pages and the title—The Book of Mormon—was embossed in gold leaf.
Craig James Ostler: I am here with Reid Moon of Moon’s Rare Books and there are a few interesting items that he has that he can share with us particularly dealing with the first edition of the Book of Mormon.
Reid Moon: In 1830, in New York, there was a Bible with a black label, seven double-banded gold lines… printed in New York, 1830—the size, everything… {Craig Ostler: it looks very familiar to me}. Yes, it looks very familiar. You compare the two (referring to the 1830 Bible and 1830 Book of Mormon)
Craig James Ostler: It lines up even (referring to the seven double-banded gold lines on the spine of both volumes)
Reid Moon: It lines up… If you could hold the title page, right there…and I will open this title page and it is almost everything… “the” at the top, by itself; the title—The Book of Mormon—Holy Bible. You go to the bottom—New York—Palmyra; 1830—1830…
Craig James Ostler: I am wondering if this is something that the typesetter knew about, if Joseph requested it… or Oliver, or…
Reid Moon: Somebody in the mix would have seen this (referring to the Bible). You do not…
Craig James Ostler: …have that close of correlation. it is not by accident by any means. On March 26, 1830 the first copies of the Book of Mormon were offered for sale in this shop for $1.75 each.6
1 “Historic Discoveries at the Grandin Building”. Ensign, July 1980, 48-50.
2 Hamilton, Milton W. The Country Printer: New York State, 1785-1830. Port Washington, L. I., New York: Ira J. Friedman, 1964. 275, 302-4. See also, Kent P. Jackson,”Publishing the Book of Mormon,” Joseph: Exploring the Life and Ministry of the Prophet, eds. Susan Easton Black and Andrew C. Skinner, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 2005).
3 Peter Crawley identifies the following as the only books Grandin printed in his publishing career: Tobias Ostrander, The Mathematical Expositor; Containing Rules, Theorems, Lemmas, and Explanations; of various Parts of the Mathematical Science (1828); the Book of Mormon (1830); Notes on Title IV. Chapter II. of Part III. of the Revised statutes of the state of New York (1830); David C. Bunnell, The Travels and Adventures of David C Bunnell . . . also Service among the Greeks, Imprisonment among the Turks, &c. &c. (printed by Grandin; published by J. H. Bortles, 2831); and a revised edition of Ostrander, Mathematical Expositor (1832). See Crawley, First Mormon Book, 11.
4 Tuckett, Madge Harris & Wilson, Belle Harris, The Martin Harris Story, Press Publishing Ltd. Provo, UT (1983) Copy of Mortgage found on Page 42.
5 Counted on a randomly selected page in the book of Alma. Thus each sixteen-page form contained about forty thousand pieces of type.
6 Gayle Goble Ord, “The Book of Mormon Goes to Press,” Ensign, December 1972, 66-70; “Where the Book of Mormon Went to Press,” Ensign, February 1989, 43-50.
