The Seer (Volume 1, Number 1, January, 1853 - Volume 2, Number 8, August, 1854)

320pp. Octavo [21.5 cm] Black leather with raised bands, the title in gilt on the spine, blind floral stamping on the boards, and very subtle restoration work to the ends of the backstrip, the joints, and the corners. All edges gilt. Gilt turn ins. Yellow endpapers. Silk ribbon page-marker. Text in two columns. Very good, with a minor chip to the leather of the front joint, and light foxing to the top edge of the text block. The page edges are darkened at the front and rear, there is a contemporary owner's inscription on the front flyleaf, and the pages have scattered mild foxing. A handful of pages have brief markings and discolored patches in the top inside margins, where page markers were laid in. "Reprinted verbatim in Liverpool from the Washington, D.C., edition, with the addition of vol. 2, nos. 7-8, published by F. D. Richards." - Flake Following the fall General Conference in 1852, Orson Pratt was called to preside over the Eastern mission and to publish a periodical defending Mormon theology and practices, particularly polygamy. Pratt covered many doctrinal issues, including Celestial Marriage and the Preexistence. Brigham Young thought some of the ideas discussed were poorly conceived, and had the publication cease operation. In 1865, the Church of Latter-day Saints disowned the writings saying, "The Seer contains doctrines which we cannot sanction, and which we have felt impressed to disown, so that the Saints who now live, and who may live hereafter, may not be misled by our silence, or be left to misinterpret it. Where these objectionable works, or parts of works, are bound in volumes, or otherwise, they should be cut out and destroyed." Mormon Fifty 40. Flake/Draper 7610. Mormon Imprints 42. Crawley 770.…