John H. Gilbert was the typesetter for the 1830 Book of Mormon. He, alongside a number of other people who knew the Smith family in the Palmyra/Manchester area was interviewed in 1880 by William H. and Edmund Kelley, two members of the RLDS Church. In William H. Kelley, "The Hill Cumorah, and the Book of Mormon," Saints' Herald, June 1, 1881, p. 164, we read the following:
“I did the whole of it myself, and helped to read the proof, too; there was no one who worked at that but myself. Did you ever see one of the first copies? I have one here that was never bound. Mr. Grandin, the printer, gave it to me. If you ever saw a Book of Mormon you will see that they changed it afterwards.”
They did! Well, let us see your copy; that is a good point. How is it changed now?
“I will show you,” (bringing out his copy).
“Here on the title page, it says,” (reading)
“’Joseph Smith, Jr., author and proprietor.’ Afterwards, in getting out other editions they left that out, and only claimed that Joseph Smith translated it.”
Well, did they claim anything else than that he was the translator when they brought the manuscript to you?
“On, no; they claimed that he was translating it by means of some instruments he got at the same time he did the plates and that the Lord helped him.” (A Documentary History of the Book of Mormon, comp. Larry E. Morris [New York: Oxford University Press, 2019], 141, emphasis added)
Therefore, contrary to some critics who still bring up this issue, Joseph never denied that he translated the Book of Mormon and that his being called an “author and proprietor” in for the 1830 edition was due to legal/copyright reasons only.
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