Evening and Morning Star: Independence: June 1832–July 1833; Kirtland: December 1833–September 1834. [Kirtland: January 1835–October 1836]
2 v. (24 nos. in 384 pp.) 24 cm

The final number of The Evening and the Morning Star; September 1834, announced in a prospectus that the entire two volumes of the Star would be reprinted by F.G. Williams & Co., in octavo format better suited for binding, and at least two numbers of the reprint would be issued each month, commencing that November.  One infers that, even at this early date, few complete runs of The Evening and the Morning Star had survived.

Despite the positiveness of the announcement, the first number of the reprinted Star did not appear until January 1835.  Four additional numbers came off the press during the next five months, but only one more came out during the nine months following, undoubtedly because the shop was occupied with the Doctrine and Covenants and the hymnal.  Then, between April and October 1836, the remaining eighteen numbers were reprinted.  One might infer that Oliver Cowdery supervised the republication, at least the early issues, since statements at the end of the first three reprinted numbers are signed by him as editor of the Messenger and Advocate.

The reprint bears a shortened name, Evening and Morning Star, and substantial editing.  Generally the material is rearranged within and among the numbers, and there are additions and deletions.  In the first number, for instance, the prospectus and a statement on changes in the contents are added to the first reprinted number; an extract from the Book of Mormon, the article “On the Government of the Thoughts,” part of “Worldly Matters,” and the poem “The Body is But Chaff” are omitted; and the poems “The Prayer of a Wise Heathen” and “He Died! The Great Redeemer Died!” are moved to the second and third numbers, respectively.

There are significant textual changes.  In the article “The Gathering” in the sixth number, for example, the population of the Jackson County Saints is originally given as 465 Church members and 345 nonmembers and children, while in the reprint these figures are changed to 472 and 358, respectively.  The more important changes occur in the printed revelations.  Apart from numerous grammatical improvements, these mainly reflect additions to the church’s governmental structure and adjustments in the practice of the law of consecration.  The prospectus for the reprint as well as the statements in the first and third reprinted numbers pass these off as corrections of typographical and copying errors.  But this seems disingenuous in view of the letter from Joseph Smith, Sidney Rigdon, and F.G. Williams of June 25, 1833, which mentions typographical errors in the Book of Commandments and lists only four obvious ones.  Generally the versions of the revelations in Evening and Morning Star coincide with those in the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants.

Excerpted and edited from Peter Crawley, A Descriptive Bibliography of the Mormon Church.  Volume One, 1830-1847. (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University, Religious Studies Center, [1997]).  Item 17, p. 50-51.

Used by permission of the author and the Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University.