Nov 21, 2024 - Sale 2687

Sale 2687 - Lot 180

Price Realized: $ 938
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
(MORMONS.) [Lyman Spalding, editor.] Volume of the magazine "Plain Truth," which may have influenced Joseph Smith. Volume II, #1-25. [2], 200 pages including collective title and index leaf. 8vo, contemporary plain wrappers, worn; foxing, minor wear; uncut; some issues inscribed with name of subscriber J.P. Robinson. Canandaigua, NY, 28 March 1823 to 1 March 1824

Additional Details

Plain Truth was a controversial periodical opposed to the mainstream Christian establishment and its missionaries. It was published in Canandaigua, NY, a few miles from Smith's home in Palmyra, and one scholar has noted common threads with Smith's theology (see Persuitte, "Joseph Smith and the Origins of The Book of Mormon," pages 130-2). Oliver Cowdery, later one of the three witnesses to the Book of Mormon, may have worked as a printer for Plain Truth in 1823. Sabin 63242; one known at auction since 1953 (Swann sale, 21 June 2016, lot 209).