Sep 29, 2022 - Sale 2615

Sale 2615 - Lot 196

Price Realized: $ 8,125
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 10,000 - $ 15,000
(MORMONS.) Joseph Smith, Jr. The Voice of Truth. Woodcut portrait of Smith on page 51. 64 pages. 8vo, disbound, lacking wrappers; foxing, moderate wear; uncut. Nauvoo, IL: John Taylor, 1844 [1845]

Additional Details

A compilation of Smith's political writings, edited by W.W. Phelps. It may have been intended for use in Smith's 1844 presidential campaign, but printing was interrupted by his murder, and was not completed until August 1845 as a memorial volume.

Most of the contents are listed on the title page: "Containing General Joseph Smith's Correspondence with Gen. James Arlington Bennett; Appeal to the Green Mountain Boys; Correspondence with John C. Calhoun, Esq.; Views of the Powers and Policy of the Government of the United States; Pacific Innuendo, and Gov. Ford's Letter; A Friendly Hint to Missouri, and a Few Words of Consolation for the Globe; also Correspondence with the Hon. Henry Clay." Not listed is an appendix, "Joseph Smith's Last Sermon, Delivered at the April Conference, 1844" (pages 59-64), his important funeral oration for King Follett, which was probably added after the title page had been printed. It is the only reference here to Smith in the past tense.

Byrd 899; Crawley 271; Crawley-Flake, Mormon Fifty 27; Flake 8000; Graff 3858; Howes S629 ("b"); Sabin 83288. Only one other traced at auction, in 2018.