Episode 161: Brave Little Book of Mormon

**Bryan Buchanan** (0:27)
Lindsay, we need to tell you a story.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:29)
Okay.

**Bryan Buchanan** (0:29)
This is the tale of a book. Some might call him a Brave Little Book. One day, he heard about the new copyright laws, and he set off on a journey to find the reader. Along the way, he had to contend with the Brigham Young, threatening lawsuits and the difficulties of being a book anyone wanted to purchase. Along the way, he was rescued by the brave Zadok Brooks, who took out the original introduction and replaced it with a shiny new one. However, the other copies of the Book of Mormon resented him and...

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:55)
Wait, aren't you describing the Brave Little Toaster?

**Bryan Buchanan** (0:58)
What'd I say?

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:59)
You seem to be preaching a fever dream about an addition of the Book of Mormon?

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:04)
Uh, this is awkward. Is it too late to save the story?

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:10)
Probably.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:11)
Well, as the Brave Book said, the Master gave me a brand new introduction and I just glowed.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:24)
Hi, this is Lindsay Hansen Park.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:26)
And this is Bryan Buchanan.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:27)
Bringing you the story of Mormonism from the shadow of the Everlasting Hills, straight out of Zion, this isn't your grandpa's Mormon history.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:55)
This is the tale of Mormon saints and sinners from our roots until present day. Saddle up.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (2:00)
Gird your loins, lock your hearts, and pay your tithing, because we're bringing you the story of Mormonism in all its paradisiacal glory.

**Bryan Buchanan** (2:08)
It's the Sunstone History Podcast.
The next chapter of our saga entitled, Bryan is Always in a Rabbit Hole, starts with me being just a little too curious. A benchmark, we're working on a catalog. We have this really fun, quirky edition of the Book of Mormon. It's published in 1858 You'll often hear it called the first unauthorized edition. And I knew kind of the vague details of the story, but that was about it. Books are always very successful at waving the red flag at me. Creating a catalog at work is more or less me in the book, in an interrogation room. Who are you? Who sent you? Where'd you come from?

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (3:00)
Oh, I don't think you're telling people things they don't already know. Mean. However, in your defense, this is a fun story. It's not just the Book of Mormon, it's the evolving copyright law, and probably most interesting, it's the intersection of people in the Midwest who are best categorized as never Brighams. But let's back up first though, and let's bring our Brave Little Book on the stage. Well, the first version of it, at least.

**Bryan Buchanan** (3:29)
Hey, that's a book tease if I've ever heard one. All right, here is a quick rundown of Book of Mormon history to set the stage. As you, being the savvy listeners you are, you already know this, the first edition of the Book of Mormons published in 1830, it's tangible, legible evidence of this new American religion. There are a couple more editions published during Joseph Smith's lifetime, mostly in the US, but there's even one in England by Brigham Young.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (3:52)
Excuse me? Oh, sorry. Never Brigham.

**Bryan Buchanan** (3:55)
Hang on, we're not there yet. Now, even savvy listeners may not realize that after the 1842 edition, published to Nauvoo, that is the end of American editions of the Book of Mormon for a long time, almost 20 years. Why? Simple. It is way cheaper to publish in England and then ship them across the pond than it was to do it here, especially in Utah. While Draper might seem super hip and cosmopolitan now.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (4:19)
Excuse me?

**Bryan Buchanan** (4:21)
You know what I mean. We have sidecar donuts here now. Early Utah, on the other hand, is, let's say, isolated. And we've talked about this somewhat. Getting paper, especially for a big printing job, is prohibitively expensive. So that's why we let John Bull and not Uncle Sam supply our bibliophilic needs.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (4:38)
The next actor on the stage is copyright. The original Copyright Act of 1790 provided for a 14-year-old protection with one non-renewable term of equal length provided the original holder was still alive. I know how we all feel about math, but this will be less painful than it sounds.
If we take 1830, the year the Book of Mormon was first published, plus 14, we get 1844, just in time before Joseph Smith is murdered. One more 14-year term puts us in 1858, just in time to open our big-ass vintage newspaper.