The Evening and the Morning Star. Independence, Missouri: June 1832–July 1833; Kirtland, Ohio, December 1833–September 1834.

2 v. (24 nos. in 192 p.) 32 cm.

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The first Mormon newspaper had its conception at a Church conference in Ohio in September 1831 when William W. Phelps, a new convert and a veteran newspaperman, was directed to purchase a press and type in Cincinnati and establish a newspaper in Independence, Missouri. The first regular number of the Star appeared in June, and between June 1832 and July 1833, Phelps published a total of fourteen numbers before the press was destroyed on July 20, 1833.

The first fourteen issues include the earliest authorized printings of Joseph Smith’s revelations. The Star opens with “Articles and Covenants of the Church of Christ” (D&C 20), and all or parts of twenty-two other revelations, each subsequently incorporated into the Doctrine and Covenants. In addition Phelps included doctrinal discussions, instructions for the Saints, letters from the elders in various parts of the country, and bits of national and foreign news, particularly the catastrophic events which he saw as foreshadowing the Second Advent.

The Star, of course, was partly responsible for its own demise; for it was Phelp’s article “Free People of Color,” in the fourteenth issue, that precipitated the destruction of the printing office. According to the Star Extra of February 1834, he published “Free People of Color” to scotch the rumors that the Mormons were tampering with the Jackson County slaves. Unfortunately it only ignited the animosities of the local Missourians, leading immediately to the destruction of the print shop and ultimately to the expulsion of the Latter-day Saints from Jackson County.

For the non-Mormons in Jackson the Star certainly represented those characteristics which they found most objectionable in the Saints, their peculiar religious beliefs including a belief in direct revelation from God, their communitarianism, their rapidly increasing numbers in the county, and the fact that they were northerners in a slave-holding state.

The Star was resuscitated in Kirtland, Ohio, in December 1833 by Oliver Cowdery, who published ten additional numbers, making two volumes of twelve issues each. The ten issues published in Kirtland reflect the change in editor. They contain, for example, no revelations, and the articles are generally longer and better written. But then Cowdery had “hot copy,” and eight of the ten Kirtland issues include detailed discussions of the Mormons’ expulsion from Jackson County.

The circulation of the Star was small, probably no more than a few hundred, and it is clear that when it ceased publication, only a handful of files existed. Consequently, the entire twenty-four issues were reprinted in Kirtland between January 1835 and October 1836, in octavo format to conform with the Messenger and Advocate, so that more of the Church membership could retain those first Mormon writings.

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 3, p.32–34.

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