1830 First Edition Book of Mormon to be sold at Auction
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CHICAGO - illiNews -- The Potter & Potter Auction House of Chicago, Illinois is holding a curated sale of 110 "Select Rarities" on Thursday, September 4, 2025 beginning at 10 a.m. CST. The lead item in the auction is an 1830 First Edition of the Book of Mormon, the foundational sacred text of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS). The book was first published in Palmyra, New York just two weeks before the offical founding of the LDS Church. Only on this first edtion is Joseph Smith, Jr. listed as the "Author and Proprietor". Later editions list him as the "Translator" as the text was said to have been translated by Smith from golden plates transcribed by a ancient native American named Mormon and unearthed in Manchester, New York by Smith, guided by the angel Moroni. The work tells of the resurrected Jesus Christ's appearance in the New World and is considered a second testimony of Christ's teachings. The first edition is the only edition that includes the author's Preface, in which he laments the loss of 116 pages of the completed transation of the Book of Lehi, which had been taken from him. Smith says he was divinely commanded not to retranslate this section, lest the old and new translations be compared. The last two pages of the first edition include the testimonies of 11 witnesses who had been shown the golden plates. 5,000 copies of the first edition were printed in Palmyra by E. B. Grandin, but it is estimated that only a few hundred survive today, most of them in institutions, rather than private collections.

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The sale also boasts a host of other treasures: a beautiful complete collection of the Lakeside Classics; the first appearance of the superhero, Wolverine, in The Incredible Hulk #181;  the scarce first edition Langston Hughes' The Negro Mother (one of only 17 copies signed by him); a specially bound copy of the screenplay of Gone with the Wind created for Norma Shearer by David O. Selznick; an autograph note signed by Abraham Lincoln and other Lincoln-related material; an original mugshot of Malcolm Little (later known as Malcolm X); an advance review copy of To Kill a Mockingbird; and much more. Each lot in the auction was carefully selected for inclusion based on its rarity or historical significance.

Select Rarities: Exceptional Books and Manuscripts begins both live in the Potter & Potter saleroom and online at 10am CST on Thursday, September 4, 2025: https://auctions.potterauctions.com/Catalog.aspx?auctionid=1213

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