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

320pp. Octavo [21.5 cm] Modern black leather with the title, date, and five double ruled borders gilt stamped on the spine. New endsheets and flyleaves. In a custom beige cloth clamshell box, with "The Seer, Liverpool 1853-4" stamped in gilt on the black leather spine label. Skillful tissue repairs to the margins of the first 16 pages. Periodic underlining in pen (more pronounced at the beginning) and marginal markings. Occasional foxing. The clamshell box has a tiny ink stain on the rear panel. "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.…