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Tonight I was at Costco with my daughter, and I happened to see a stack of 1830 replica Book of Mormons. I was kind of dumbfounded to see it there on the long book table at Costco, so as an impulse buy I picked one up and bought it.

On the back it says "This is an authentic replica of the Book of Mormon as it appeared when originally printed in 1830. Bound in leather, like the original edition, it features the same size and content, digital reproduction of the original type, and same-thickness covers as the first printing of the Book of Mormon.

The barcode with the isbn number says it's list price is $34.95, so I guess it's a real steal at $21.99. ;-)

A steal if, I suppose, one wants an original edition of Joseph's Myth.

I don't know if these are the same replicas you can get from the RLDS or not. Maybe someone can say. This was published by Stratford Books.

I'm going to start reading it and see if the original spelling problems, "white and delightsome", and all that are really all there in this replica. I'm not sure if I'll finish it, since I've got many other books that I'm still reading, that I actually give a crap about. In the end this will probably end up being one of those "I have it just to have it" sort of things.

These books are nothing new. I bought my copy in 1986 and have read it at least twice. And yes, I enjoyed every word of it.

It is an exact replica of the original - word for word.

Paul O

I just might have to pick one up. One question that keeps popping up in my head is: I had heard that the whole book was written around the idea that there is only one God figure - Jesus Christ, and the idea of 2 God figures didn't emerge till later. For example, the text might read, ....God the Father even Jesus Christ. Then, when the idea of them being seperate entities developed, the text was changed to read .... God the Father and Jesus Christ. It'd be interesting to read through the book and see if it is evident that the text was geared around one God.

Paul Osborne wrote:These books are nothing new. I bought my copy in 1986 and have read it at least twice. And yes, I enjoyed every word of it.

It is an exact replica of the original - word for word.

Paul O

So, it has all the mistakes? Including "white and delightsome" and "King Benjamin" before it was changed to "King Mosiah" in Mos 21:28? (http://www.fairlds.org/Book_of_Mormon/K ... osiah.html) I would hardly expect the church to relaease this with the mistakes still in it, so I have not bothered to buy the "replica" from Deseret Book--it it indeed is the origional manuscript as it was first printed, I will. Please enlighten us.

The Church doesn't publish these. A couple of people have made some. You can also get these and replica Book of Commandments from other LDS schisms. I like it but it can be harder to read without verse numbers.

One of the problems is there is no definitive text of the first edition. They kept changing the text and even the type set. Virtually every first edition is unique. If I remember correctly, there are over 100 differences in the known first editions. I think all of the differences are fairly minor. Spelling and grammar mostly.

I'd like to have one of those, Sethbag.

I was lucky to find a 1920 edition of the Book of Mormon at a huge annual book sale held by a Presbyterian school in Tulsa. I love that book sale and go every year. They even have a large room full of rare books for sale! It's heavenly.

At any rate, I found the old Book of Mormon and purchased it for a quarter.

I bought dozens of books that day, but the Book of Mormon was my favorite find.

KA

hobart wrote:So, it has all the mistakes? Including "white and delightsome" and "King Benjamin" before it was changed to "King Mosiah" in Mos 21:28? (http://www.fairlds.org/Book_of_Mormon/K ... osiah.html) I would hardly expect the church to relaease this with the mistakes still in it, so I have not bothered to buy the "replica" from Deseret Book--it it indeed is the origional manuscript as it was first printed, I will. Please enlighten us.

Deseret Book does indeed have a "replica." In fact, I have seen serveral different copies in my ventures into the store (a hardback edition, a paperback, a leather bound...). The paperback one that I have seen (I believe put out by "Archive Publishers") is actually a kind of fascimile of the original (i.e. it looks like they just made copies of an original 1830 and then slapped them into a book).

For some reason, "the church" doesn't seem to share your expectation.

I find it humorous that you found it at Costco and in abundance.

Not living in Utah this would be an odd thing to see at Costco indeed!

MishMagnet wrote:I find it humorous that you found it at Costco and in abundance.

Not living in Utah this would be an odd thing to see at Costco indeed!

Yeah, but it was Arizona, at the southern extent of the Morridor, so it's not that surprising.

As far as these being new, I know they're not new, but I've never gone out of my way to get a 1830 replica before. What was new to me was being presented with a pile of them at Costco. It's more of a curiosity to me now that the book has lost it's mystique, and I can regard it the way I'd regard a printing of Lord of the Rings, only not as interesting.