E. B. Grandin

Egbert Bratt Grandin (March 30, 1806-April 16, 1845) was owner of a printing shop in Palmyra, New York, which first published the "Book of Mormon" in 1829-30.

Biography

E. B. Grandin was born in Freehold, Monmouth County, New Jersey, the youngest of ten children, and was reared on a farm near Palmyra, New York. At age eighteen he became an apprentice printer at the office of Palmyra's "Wayne Sentinel", which he purchased in 1827. Besides publishing the newspaper, Grandin sold and bound books and operated a lending library. He married Harriet Rogers in 1828; they had no children. He died at Palmyra. [ [http://www.familysearch.org Family Search] ; Dean C. Jessee, ed., "The Papers of Joseph Smith" (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1989), I: 488; D. Michael Quinn, "Early Mormonism and the Magic World View", rev. ed. (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1998), 184. On June 26, 1828, Grandin advertised that he operated a "book bindery and circulating library."]

First publisher of The Book of Mormon

Grandin first rejected the request of Joseph Smith, Jr. to publish the "Book of Mormon" perhaps "out of principle because he considered the book to be fraudulent and suspected that it would be a risky financial venture." [Dan Vogel, "Joseph Smith, The Making of a Prophet" (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2004), 419.] He overcame his scruples, perhaps after Smith received an offer from a Rochester printer; but Grandin demanded a security of $3000 before printing 5000 copies. [Terryl L. Givens, "By the Hand of Mormon: The American Scripture that Launched a New World Religion" (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), 55.] "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, [Givens, 55.] effectively ending his marriage. [Richard Lyman Bushman, "" (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005), 80.]

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." [Vogel, 469.] 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. [Vogel, 471.]

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." [Givens, 58.] In September, one 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." [Givens, 59-60. Gilbert, the typesetter, disputed that there had been a suspension of publication saying that because Martin Harris "had given security for the full amount agreed upon for printing, before the work was commenced...there was no delay because of financial embarrassment." "Early Mormon Documents", 2: 540.] 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." ["D&C" 19:26, 35. This revelation is still part of Mormon scripture.]

By late March 1830, the "Book of Mormon" was available for sale, but the entire first edition was not complete until early summer. [Bushman, 82.] Harris desperately tried to sell the books himself but lamented that "no Body wants them." [Givens, 59.] Harris's farm was sold for $3000 and the proceeds paid to Grandin. [Milton V. Backman, "Joseph Smith's First Vision" (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1971), 15.] 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. [ [http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,660205541,00.html| "Deseret News", March 23, 2007] .]

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. The church maintains the nineteenth-century print shop as tourist attraction and center for proselytism. [Hill Cumorah Visitors Center [http://www.hillcumorah.org] ]

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