Rare Book of Mormon found in NY home, up for auction

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) — A 177-year-old first edition of the Book of Mormon found in a home near Palmyra — the birthplace of the Mormon religion — will be put up for bid next week at an upstate New York estate auction.

The rare book was discovered at the bottom of a box of books by workers cleaning out the house, said Mark Witmer, manager of the Hessney Auction Co. in Geneva, N.Y.

"We had to throw the other books out. The box was already packed when we found it. It was right at the bottom. When I picked it up, I froze. I used to own an antiquarian book store, so I knew what it was right away," Witmer said Friday.

Witmer said he would not identify the owner.

"I believe the current owner acquired it at some point," he said.

"It has some handwriting in the very front on the border that says 'Scarce. First edition' done in pencil the way a book dealer would normally do it. Underneath it, it has been erased, but it looks like it says $25 or $250 or something like that," Witmer said.

The book will be sold Wednesday during a combined estate auction at the company's center in Geneva.

Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints consider the Book of Mormon to be scripture on par with the Bible.

Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon religion, said he translated the book from gold plates delivered to him by an angel. The first editions were printed and published by E. B. Grandin in Palmyra, N.Y., in 1830. While there were roughly 5,000 copies printed, only a few hundred still exist.

Hessney's book is in good, unrestored condition with its original binding. However, the gold-leaf lettering has worn off and a blank page in the front is missing, Witmer said.

Latter-Day Harvest, a Utah-based book seller with stores in Palmyra and Nauvoo, Ill., is selling a first edition Book of Mormon for $100,000, Witmer said.

"If theirs is up for sale for $100,000 we will presumably get less than that . . . but it will be considerably more than $25 or $250," Witmer said.

The auction has already attracted a great deal of attention from rare book collectors and religious historians. Witmer said he's received dozens of calls from across the country; several prospective bidders have said they would be flying to Geneva to attend.