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Egbert Bratt Grandin (March 30, 1806-April 16, 1845) was a printer in Palmyra, New York
Palmyra (town), New York

Palmyra is a town in Wayne County, New York, New York, USA. The population was 7,672 at the 2000 census. The town is named after the ancient city Palmyra in Syria....
, known for publishing the first order of the Book of Mormon
Book of Mormon

The Book of Mormon is a sacred text of the churches of the Latter Day Saint Movement. It was first published in March 1830 by Joseph Smith, Jr....
, a sacred text of the churches of the Latter Day Saint movement
Latter Day Saint movement

The Latter Day Saint movement is a group of Restorationism religious denominations and adherents who follow at least some of the Teachings of Joseph Smith, Jr....
.

Biography
E. B. Grandin was born in Freehold
Freehold Borough, New Jersey

Freehold Borough is a Borough in Monmouth County, New Jersey, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the borough population was 10,976....
, Monmouth County, New Jersey
New Jersey

New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic States and Northeastern United States regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north by New York, on the east by the Hudson River and the Atlantic Ocean, on the southwest by Delaware, and on the west by Pennsylvania....
, 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.






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Egbert Bratt Grandin (March 30, 1806-April 16, 1845) was a printer in Palmyra, New York
Palmyra (town), New York

Palmyra is a town in Wayne County, New York, New York, USA. The population was 7,672 at the 2000 census. The town is named after the ancient city Palmyra in Syria....
, known for publishing the first order of the Book of Mormon
Book of Mormon

The Book of Mormon is a sacred text of the churches of the Latter Day Saint Movement. It was first published in March 1830 by Joseph Smith, Jr....
, a sacred text of the churches of the Latter Day Saint movement
Latter Day Saint movement

The Latter Day Saint movement is a group of Restorationism religious denominations and adherents who follow at least some of the Teachings of Joseph Smith, Jr....
.

Biography


E. B. Grandin was born in Freehold
Freehold Borough, New Jersey

Freehold Borough is a Borough in Monmouth County, New Jersey, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the borough population was 10,976....
, Monmouth County, New Jersey
New Jersey

New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic States and Northeastern United States regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north by New York, on the east by the Hudson River and the Atlantic Ocean, on the southwest by Delaware, and on the west by Pennsylvania....
, 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.

Grandin Print Shop and the first publication of the Book of Mormon

Grandin first rejected the request of Joseph Smith, Jr.
Joseph Smith, Jr.

Joseph Smith, Jr. was the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, also known as Mormonism, and an important religious and political figure during the 1830s and 1840s....
 to publish the Book of Mormon possibly "out of principle because he considered the book to be fraudulent and suspected that it would be a risky financial venture." Smith then sought a Rochester printer to do the job. "Realizing the work would proceed anyway, Grandin apparently overcame his scruples or his reservations and agreed to publish the work in Palmyra," requiring a $3,000 security to print five thousand copies."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, effectively ending his marriage.

On June 26, 1829, the twenty-three-year-old Grandin announced in the Wayne Sentinel that he intended to publish the Book of Mormon
Book of Mormon

The Book of Mormon is a sacred text of the churches of the Latter Day Saint Movement. It was first published in March 1830 by Joseph Smith, Jr....
 "as soon as the translation is complete." Oliver Cowdery
Oliver Cowdery

Oliver Hervy Pliny Cowdery was the primary participant with Joseph Smith, Jr. in the formative period of the Latter Day Saint movement from 1829 through 1836....
 prepared a copy of the manuscript, and Grandin bought "500 pounds of new small pica
Pica

Pica may refer to:*Pica , in typesetting and document layout*Pica , abnormal appetite for earth and other non-foods*Pica , a genus of magpie...
" 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. To print the book, Grandin used a Smith Improved Printing Press invented by Peter Smith (1795-1823), which first appeared on the market about 1821 and was the most up-to-date press available to the small printer of the day.

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." 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
Lucy Mack Smith

Lucy Mack Smith was the mother of Joseph Smith, Jr., founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. She is most noted for writing an award-winning memoir: The History of Joseph Smith by His Mother. She was an important leader of the movement during the life of Joseph....
, locals then organized a boycott, and Grandin "panicked and suspended publication until Joseph managed to allay his fears." 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."

By late March 1830, the Book of Mormon was available for sale, but the entire first edition was not complete until early summer. Harris desperately tried to sell the books himself but lamented that "no Body [sic] wants them." Harris's farm was sold for $3,000 and the proceeds paid to Grandin. But 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.

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, which the church maintains and where it offers free guided tours.

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