In The
1830 Book of Mormon listing Joseph Smith as “Author and Proprietor” I
respond to Kieron Wood, a Catholic critic, who tried (lamely) to argue that the
1830 copyright calling Joseph "Author and Proprietor" as evidence
that Joseph initially presented the Book of Mormon as his own creation and not
a translation of an ancient text.
In his book on the lost portion of the Book of Mormon (the so-called 116
pages [“so-called” was there were more than 116 pages [as proven in his book]),
Don Bradley presented some interesting background to understanding Joseph Smith
seeking out a copyright for the 1830 Book of Mormon:
In addition to
replacing the lost manuscript with another text, Joseph took another step that
appears to have been aimed at foiling the conspirators described in Doctrine
and Covenants 10. Early in June 1829, when Joseph had finished translating
Mormon's abridgment, he dispatched one of those assisting him to go to Utica to
secure a copyright for the book. There are four oddities in how this was done.
First, acquiring a copyright for a book was not usually considered necessary at
the time and not usually done. Second, the book was not yet complete. Third,
Joseph's assistant, presumably at his behest, insisted that not just the book's
title as required by law, but its entire title page, be transcribed into the
copyright application. Fourth, the copyright, thus acquired, technically did
not cover Nephi's small plates! The title page transcribed into the copyright
record explicitly identified Mormon's record as the work to be
copyrighted--making no mention of Nephi's text--and the small plates text
mostly had not been translated. What the copyright specifically protected was
the translation of Mormon's abridgment. Since the lost manuscript was, Joseph
tells us, part of Mormon's abridgment, the lost manuscript would have been
protected by the copyright Joseph obtained. It thus appears that Joseph's
decision to pursue a copyright for the Book of Mormon text was aimed at
stopping the conspirators from publishing the stolen manuscript. (Don Bradley, The Lost 116 Pages: Reconstructing the Book
of Mormon’s Missing Stories [Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2019], 64
n. 25)
