Footnotes
Pratt, Autobiography, 327–328. Parley P. Pratt had been in Detroit for two weeks visiting family after spending six days ministering to “several small branches of the Church” located “within part of a day’s journey of Detroit.” Though a group of church missionaries, including Pratt, had first preached in the Buffalo, New York, area in September 1830 and Pratt had preached in that city while en route to Canada in 1836, he did not record the details of any interaction with church members there on this 1839 journey. Pratt arrived in New York City by 24 October 1839. (Woodruff, Journal, 24 Oct. 1839.)
Pratt, Parley P. The Autobiography of Parley Parker Pratt, One of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Embracing His Life, Ministry and Travels, with Extracts, in Prose and Verse, from His Miscellaneous Writings. Edited by Parley P. Pratt Jr. New York: Russell Brothers, 1874.
Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.
Pratt, Autobiography, 331.
Pratt, Parley P. The Autobiography of Parley Parker Pratt, One of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Embracing His Life, Ministry and Travels, with Extracts, in Prose and Verse, from His Miscellaneous Writings. Edited by Parley P. Pratt Jr. New York: Russell Brothers, 1874.
See Collection of Sacred Hymns [1835], ii. In 1829 JS took steps to obtain a copyright for the Book of Mormon, but he may not have completed the process. Nevertheless, JS asserted his copyright authority for the Book of Mormon on at least one occasion in 1830 when a newspaper editor printed passages of the book without JS’s permission. (Copyright for Book of Mormon, 11 June 1829.)
Revelation, 12 Nov. 1831 [D&C 70:1–6]. In his reply to this letter, Hyrum Smith stated that the Book of Mormon fell under the stewardship of this group. (Hyrum Smith, Nauvoo, IL, to Parley P. Pratt, New York City, NY, 22 Dec. 1839, in JS Letterbook 2, pp. 80–81; Hyrum Smith, Nauvoo, IL, to Lucian R. Foster, New York City, NY, Jan. 1840, in JS Letterbook 2, pp. 82–84.)
Minutes and Discourses, 5–7 Oct. 1839. When Rogers faced church discipline the following year, his unauthorized hymnbook was the subject of one of three charges a general conference of the church brought against him. A 28 October meeting of the Nauvoo high council took up the matter of funding a new edition of the hymnbook and voted to request financial assistance from Oliver Granger. (Minutes and Discourse, 6–8 Apr. 1840; Nauvoo High Council Minutes, 28 Oct. 1839, 28–29.)
Nauvoo High Council Minutes, 1839–1845. CHL. LR 3102 22.
Letter from Hyrum Smith, 2 Jan. 1840; Hyrum Smith, Nauvoo, IL, to Parley P. Pratt, New York City, NY, 22 Dec. 1839, in JS Letterbook 2, pp. 80–81; Hyrum Smith, Nauvoo, IL, to Lucian R. Foster, New York City, NY, Jan. 1840, in JS Letterbook 2, pp. 82–84.
News Item, Wisconsin Enquirer (Madison), 9 Nov. 1839, [2]. At this time, approximately eight thousand copies of the Book of Mormon had been printed in two editions. However, not all of those copies were in circulation, as an undisclosed number were destroyed in a fire in the Kirtland printing office on 15 January 1838. In December 1839, the Nauvoo high council reported to the Times and Seasons that several missionaries traveling throughout the country requested church publications “of all kinds” and that the high council resolved to reprint thousands of new copies of the Book of Mormon and hymnbook. (Crawley, Descriptive Bibliography, 1:29–32, 66–68; “Sheriff Sale,” Painesville [OH] Telegraph, 5 Jan. 1838, [3]; Prospectus for the Elders’ Journal, 30 Apr. 1838; News Item, Times and Seasons, Dec. 1839, 1:25.)
Wisconsin Enquirer. Madison, Wisconsin Territory. 1838–1840.
Crawley, Peter. A Descriptive Bibliography of the Mormon Church. 3 vols. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1997–2012.
Painesville Telegraph. Painesville, OH. 1822–1986.
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
Hyrum Smith, Nauvoo, IL, to Parley P. Pratt, New York City, NY, 22 Dec. 1839, in JS Letterbook 2, p. 80.
Hyrum Smith appointed Thompson as a clerk after James Mulholland died in November 1839. In April 1840, Howard Coray took up the task of recording letters in JS Letterbook 2. Thompson, therefore, must have copied this letter into the letterbook sometime between late November 1839 and April 1840. (Letter from Emma Smith, 6 Dec. 1839; Coray, Autobiographical Sketch, 17–19.)
Coray, Howard. Autobiographical Sketch, after 1883. Howard Coray, Papers, ca. 1840–1941. Photocopy. CHL. MS 2043, fd. 1.
In 1837 Pratt and his business partner, John Goodson, published the second edition of the Book of Mormon. (Crawley, Descriptive Bibliography, 1:66–68.)
Crawley, Peter. A Descriptive Bibliography of the Mormon Church. 3 vols. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1997–2012.
Pratt tarried in New York for a number of reasons, including the need to arrange housing for his family in New York while he served his mission overseas, as well as a keen interest in continuing to build up the church in the eastern United States. Hyrum Smith expressed displeasure that Pratt had delayed traveling to England and had induced other apostles appointed to serve the same mission to “tarry and assist” him in his undertakings. (Pratt, Autobiography, 328, 331; Givens and Grow, Parley P. Pratt, 176–177; Letter from Hyrum Smith, 2 Jan. 1840; Hyrum Smith, Nauvoo, IL, to Parley P. Pratt, New York City, NY, 22 Dec. 1839, in JS Letterbook 2, pp. 80–81.)
Pratt, Parley P. The Autobiography of Parley Parker Pratt, One of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Embracing His Life, Ministry and Travels, with Extracts, in Prose and Verse, from His Miscellaneous Writings. Edited by Parley P. Pratt Jr. New York: Russell Brothers, 1874.
Givens, Terryl L., and Matthew J. Grow. Parley P. Pratt: The Apostle Paul of Mormonism. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.
A person wanting to publish books at this time had several options for financial arrangements. These arrangements included the author gathering subscriptions for the book in advance, consenting to take payment from the publisher in the form of books that the author could then sell, or agreeing to buy any unsold books from the publisher after a designated period of time. The arrangement accepted by the printer was often based on the book’s sales prospects. (See Green, “Rise of Book Publishing,” 101; and Historical Introduction to Copyright for Book of Mormon, 11 June 1829.)
Green, James N. “The Rise of Book Publishing.” In A History of the Book in America, vol. 2, An Extensive Republic: Print, Culture, and Society in the New Nation, 1790–1840, edited by Robert A. Gross and Mary Kelley, 75–127. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2010.
During this period, only one church-authorized periodical, Times and Seasons, was circulating.
JS applied for copyright protection of the Book of Mormon in the United States in 1829. An 1830 revelation instructed him to “be dilligent in Securing the Copy right” of the Book of Mormon “upon all the face of the Earth.” Furthermore, a 23 April 1834 revelation addressed to the United Firm in Kirtland, Ohio, stated that copyrights to the church’s published works were essential so “that others may not take the blessings away from you which I have conferred upon you”—the “blessings” being control of JS’s revelations and the profits earned from publishing them. (Revelation, ca. Early 1830; Revelation, 23 Apr. 1834.)
In his response to this letter, Hyrum Smith informed Pratt, “As to publishing the Book of Mormon in Europe and other Nations I should entirely acquiesce to your proposition I do not know of any more suitable for attending to that business than the Twelve. If it should be deem’d wisdom to have the same publishd in England or elsewhere soon, You will be further advised on the subject and full powers given you immediately on the return of Joseph.” (Hyrum Smith, Nauvoo, IL, to Parley P. Pratt, New York City, NY, 22 Dec. 1839, in JS Letterbook 2, p. 81.)
See Revelation 10:11; and Book of Mormon, 1837 ed., 115 [2 Nephi 26:13].
In writing about “the pattern given,” Pratt may have been referring to an 1831 revelation that designated JS, Martin Harris, Oliver Cowdery, John Whitmer, William W. Phelps, and Sidney Rigdon as “stewards over the revelations and commandments,” meaning that only the men listed in that revelation were permitted to approve and manage the church’s publication of revelations and commandments. Hyrum Smith referred to this revelation in a January 1840 letter to Lucian R. Foster describing why he had denied Pratt’s request in this letter to publish additional copies of the Book of Mormon and the hymnal. Hyrum explained to Foster that “the printing of the Book of Mormon Doctrine & Covenants, Hymn Book and new translation of the old Scriptures . . . must be printed under the immediate inspection of those into whose care they are especially committed.” (Revelation, 12 Nov. 1831 [D&C 70:1–6]; Hyrum Smith, Nauvoo, IL, to Lucian R. Foster, New York City, NY, Jan. 1840, in JS Letterbook 2, p. 83.)