Mormon Publications: 19th Century - A series of pamphlets

PRATT, Orson. A series of pamphlets, by Orson Pratt, one of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, with portrait. To which is appended a discussion held in Bolton, between Elder William Gibson, President of the Saints in the Manchester Conference, and the Rev. Mr. Woodman. Also a discussion held in France, between Elder John Taylor, one of the Twelve Apostles, and three reverend gentlemen of different orders, containing a facsimile of writings engraved on six metallic plates, taken out of an ancient mound in the state of Illinois, in the year 1843. Liverpool: Printed by R. James, 1851. 18 parts 24 cm.

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Orson Pratt assumed the presidency of the British Mission in August 1848. Enjoined by Brigham Young to "print, publish, and superintend the emigration," he wrote sixteen tracts during the next two-and-one-half years which were published and republished by the tens of thousands and formed the basis of the missionary efforts of the Latter-day Saints in Great Britain. Early in 1851 these tracts, together with the two debates mentioned in the title, were bound together with a title page, table of contents, and frontispiece, to form a book which eventually became known as Orson Pratt's Works.

The pamphlets in order are entitled: Divine Authority, The Kingdom of God in four parts, Remarkable Visions and New Jerusalem - these seven tracts identified as the "First Series" in the table of contents; then Divine Authenticity of the Book of Mormon in six parts - identified as the "Second Series"; and then Reply to a Pamphlet Printed in Glasgow, Absurdities of Immaterialism, and Great First Cause - identified as the "Third Series." These are followed by William Gibson's Report of Three Nights' Public Discussion and John Taylor's Three Nights' Public Discussion. The frontispiece is a steel engraving of Orson Pratt by Frederick Piercy, dated 1849 - which the Millennial Star office began selling separately in January 1850. And at the back of the book is the folded sheet Fac-Simile of the Brass Plates Recently Taken from a Mound in the Vicinity of Kinderhook, Pike County, Illinois, which was issued with Taylor's Three Nights' Public Discussion.

Orson Pratt's Works was an extremely influential book. Its tracts were published at a time when the British Mission was producing its most converts, many of whom learned the tenets of Mormonism from Orson's pamphlets. With the onset of the Utah War in 1857, Mormon book writing almost totally ceased; and for the next twenty years virtually no new books were printed. What this meant was that those books which were in print before the Utah War continued to exert their influence for another generation, especially Orson Pratt's Works which simply outnumbered all others by many thousands.

Excerpted and edited from Peter Crawley and Chad J. Flake, A Mormon Fifty: an exhibition in the Harold B. Lee Library in conjunction with the annual conference of the Mormon History Association. (Provo, Utah, Friends of the Brigham Young University Library, 1984). Item 35, p. [26 - 27].

Used by permission of the authors.