BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY A collection of sacred hymns, for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in Europe. Selected by Brigham Young, Parley P. Pratt, and John Taylor. Fourth edition. Liverpool: Published and sold by R. Hedlock and T. Ward, 36, Chapel Street, and by the agents throughout England. 1844.
336 pp. 10.5 cm.
In October 1844, the Millennial Star (see this digital collection) reported that the third European edition of the hymnbook was out of print and a new edition was then in press, which would “be forwarded and completed with the greatest possible dispatch.” It seems, however, that this book was not finished until after the first of the year. Wilford Woodruff, who arrived in England on January 3, 1845, remarks in his journal that, “during AD 1845 I Published … in Liverpool England … 3,000 copies of the Hymn Book.” The Star of August 15, 1851 (see this digital collection) also notes that a fourth edition of 3,000 was published in 1845.
This edition, printed in a larger run, did not sell out as quickly as the two preceding ones. At the end of 1845, 2,166 copies remained unsold in the Millennial Star office, and the office still owed Mr. Fazakerly £24 3s. 7d. for binding them. In November 1846 the Star advertised the hymnal for 1s. 9d., and six weeks later it reduced the price to 1s. 6d. retail and 1s. 3d. wholesale. By the following April the book was out of print.
Other than a few minor spelling changes and a different numbering of the songs, the fourth edition is essentially a line-for-line reprint of the third edition. It includes the same 272 hymn texts, in the same sequence. An index of first lines is at the end.
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 252, p. 291.
Used by permission of the author and the Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University