"Outside of my little bungalow of a storey and a half, the present market value of my assets would not reach ten thousand dollars," Grant continued. "It so happens that out of my fifty years of business life, because of losses in the panic of 1898 and subsequent losses through having endorsed notes for friends and corporations, I have spent thirty-two years of my life with every dollar lost before I made it."

In a subsequent letter to the National Employment Commission, Grant wrote that "The Church over which I have the honor to preside is taxed to capacity in taking care of its members who are out of employment and in need of assistance during these distressing times."

Hessney Auction Center did not reveal the name of the owner of the first edition Book of Mormon to be auctioned Wednesday. But Witmer said that it was previously purchased in a Hollywood bookstore in 1944 by Harold Lundstrom, former music critic for the Deseret News.

According to Missouri-based rare book collector John Hajicek, who owns 80 1830 editions of the Book of Mormon, 250 copies of the book are now in the hands of private collectors, 50 are owned by libraries or museums and another estimated 250 are still undiscovered.

Recent sales of rare LDS books and documents

• October 2007: 1830 Book of Mormon, $103,900

• September 2007: 1830 Book of Mormon, $105,600

• March 2007: 1830 Book of Mormon, $180,000, and second edition LDS hymnal compiled by Emma Smith, wife of church founder Joseph Smith, $180,000.

• December 2006: 1835 hymnal compiled by Emma Smith, $273,000

• June 2005: Last will and testament of LDS prophet Brigham Young, $70,000

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E-mail: jarvik@desnews.com