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A few years back fifty LDS academics were asked to list the most eminent intellectuals in Mormon history. B. H. Roberts and Orson Pratt were most frequently nominated. James E. Talmage and John A. Widtsoe ranked fifth and sixth just below Joseph Smith and Sterling McMurrin. Parley Pratt was a dis tant ninth.[1] Today Parley is remembered mainly as a writer of hymns, the author of a lively autobiography, or as “one of the great explorers, orators, and missionaries of the Mormons.”[2] His Voice of Warning and Key to Theology—suitably edited—are reprinted more as memorabilia than as important pieces of gospel exposition. Forgotten is the fact that this composer of hymns all but single-handedly invented Mormon book writing. More than this, the arguments he put in print one hundred and forty years ago—although now unrecognized as his—have become a permanent part of modern Mormonism. 

To measure Parley Pratt’s achievement, it is helpful to review the circumstances surrounding the writing of his first books. This, in turn, begins with some mention of the so-called primitive gospel movement, a part of the religious milieu in which Mormonism was born. The primitive gospel movement was really a collection of diverse, independent movements which arose in New England, the South, and the West between 1790 and 1830 in response to the revivalism and sectarian conflict that characterized evangelical Protestantism. Certain attitudes tended to be shared by the various components, among them a biblicist point of view; the rejection of Galvinist predestination; an anticipation of mass conversions foreshadowing an imminent Second Advent; a belief that the established churches were corrupt departures from the original, primitive Christian faith; and the belief that religion should be more personal, more independent of organized, hierarchal institutions. One other attitude is especially pertinent. Primitive gospelers tended to be anticreedal: Deploring the disunity and conflict among the established churches resulting from widely differing interpretations of the Bible, they attacked this problem, not by imposing an authoritarian statement of doctrine, but by eschewing any dogma beyond the most fundamental principles enunciated in the scriptures.[3]

Primitive gospel leanings are clearly discernible in Joseph Smith’s parents and grandparents as well as in those who surrounded him during Mormonism’s earliest months. David Whitmer’s account of the birth of the Church describes a loosely organized, anticreedal group of “seekers” in which Joseph Smith was distinguished only by his “call” to translate the gold plates. Whitmer, who reflected the most apparent primitivistic orientation, felt that the Church was as organized as it needed to be during the eight months preceding its formal organization on 6 April 1930, that in this embryonic state it was closer to the primitive ideal than at any other time in its history.[4]

Mormonism differed from other primitive gospel movements, however, in a number of significant ways. It rejected the infallibility of the Bible and accepted the Book of Mormon as a new volume of scripture. More funda mental, this loosely organized, anticreedal group of seekers centered on a man who spoke with God. Other primitive gospelers—the Vermont lay preacher Elias Smith for example—began their ministries as a result of personal visions. Joseph Smith, on the other hand, continued to receive revelations throughout his life. As new converts were drawn into the fold and Joseph Smith’s revelations multiplied, his stature in the new church inevitably grew to a position of overwhelming preeminence, and his revelations took on the weight of scripture and became part of an expanding body of dogma. In an anticreedal church, a growing body of dogma produces fundamental tensions. And a significant part of the history of Mormonism’s first decade can be viewed as the ebb and flow of these tensions which ultimately were resolved only by the excommunication of David and John Whitmer, Oliver Cowdery, and Martin Harris in 1838 and the Church’s move to Nauvoo the next year.[5] Moreover, the anticreedalism of the early Church insured that little of the developing theology would be openly discussed or written about until the Church settled in Nauvoo. Although Mormonism began with a book, few others were written during this first decade that dealt with any aspect of Mormon theology.[6] On the two occasions when the Church attempted to print the revelations to Joseph Smith in book form, these stresses broke into the open.[7] The preface of the 1835 Doc trine and Covenants alludes to these tensions and to the reluctance of the early Mormons to solidify the gospel in print: “There may be an aversion in the minds of some against receiving any thing purporting to be articles of religious faith, in consequence of there being so many now extant; but if men believe a system, and profess that it was given by inspiration, certainly, the more intelligibly they can present it, the better. It does not make a principle untrue to print it, neither does it make it true not to print it.” 

It was against the backdrop of these attitudes that Parley Pratt journeyed to New York City in July 1837. The Mormon economy in Kirtland was in a state of collapse; dissension was rife. Parley himself had been touched by the Kirtland apostasy. And in an act of renewal he fled to New York to preach the gospel and purify himself. Few New York doors opened to him, so impelled by the literary instincts within him, he retired to his room to write. In two months he produced the most important of all noncanonical Mormon books, the Voice of Warning.[8]

This was not quite the first Mormon tract nor was it the first outline of the tenets of Mormonism. A year before Orson Hyde had published his single sheet broadside Prophetic Warning in Toronto which enumerated the judgments to accompany the Second Advent — and avoided any mention of the Latter-day Saints. Two years before that, Oliver Cowdery had published a one-page outline of the beliefs of the Mormons in the first issue of the Kirtland Messenger and Advocate. But Cowdery’s guarded outline could just as easily have represented any evangelical Christian sect and seems to have been written to underscore the similarities between Mormonism and other Christian denominations. Voice of Warning emphasized the differences. More significant, it erected a standard for all future Mormon pamphleteers by setting down a formula for describing Mormonism’s basic doctrines and listing biblical proof texts, arguments, examples, and expressions which would be used by others for another century. It was, finally, the first use of a book other than the standard works to spread the Mormon message. 

Three months after Voice of Warning was published, the proselytizing effort in New York City was bearing fruit. A growing congregation of Latter day Saints met in a room outfitted for them by a local chairmaker, David W. Rogers, and a few copies of Voice of Warning were in circulation around the city. The inevitable counterattack by the sectarian clergy came quickly. La Roy Sunderland, editor of the Methodist Zion’s Watchman, attacked the Mormons in an eight-part article (January 13-March 3, 1838). Sunderland based his series on the father of all anti-Mormon books, E. D. Howe’s Mormonism Un vailed [sic] (Painesville, Ohio, 1834); and he quoted freely from the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Voice of Warning. When Mormonism Unvailed was first published, the Mormons all but ignored it. One finds only four or five passing references to it in the entire three-year run of the Messenger and Advocate. But in New York City, away from the main body of the Church, having felt the power of the press and seeing his own work attacked in print, Parley Pratt could only respond in kind. In April 1838, just before he left New York for the new Mormon colony at Far West, Missouri, he published his response to Sunderland, Mormonism Unveiled: Zion’s Watchman Unmasked, and Its Editor Mr. L. R. Sunderland, Exposed: Truth Vindicated: the Devil Mad, and Priestcraft in Danger! This 47-page pamphlet marks another bibliographical milestone; it is the first of a vast number of tracts written in response to anti-Mormon attacks. And like Voice of Warning, it established a formula that would be followed by Mormon pamphleteers for another century, balancing a defense of Mormonism’s sacred books and its doctrines with an assault on the religion of the attacker. 

Parley reached Far West in the spring of 1838. There he found the colony wracked by the same dissension from which he had fled the year before. Within six months anti-Mormon violence had driven the Latter-day Saints from Missouri, and some of its leaders, including Joseph and Hyrum Smith, Sidney Rig don, and Parley Pratt, were beginning terms of many months in Liberty and Columbia jails. 

For Parley the months of solitude in Columbia Jail meant a time to write; and before he escaped on 4 July 1839, he produced a number of hymns and two significant essays. The first of these essays is an account of the anti-Mormon violence in Missouri. In October 1839, enroute to his mission in Great Britain, he paused in Detroit to publish this account as an eighty-four-page pamphlet entitled History of the Late Persecution.[9] Three months later he republished it in New York City as a hardback book with the title Late Persecution of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The second edition incorporates an introduction, not included in the first, which gives some of the early history of Mormonism as well as a summary of its most fundamental beliefs. None of the doctrinal concepts appearing in this introduction were new to the printed record; all are discussed, for example, in Voice of Warning. What was new was the concise formulation of these concepts in a few pages. In February 1840 Parley reworked the doctrinal portion of this introduction into a four page pamphlet entitled An Address by Judge Higbee and Parley P. Pratt . . . To the Citizens of Washington and to the Public in General. This was the first short missionary tract outlining the fundamentals of Mormonism. Immediately after he reached England in April 1840, Parley reprinted his four-page address, slightly rewritten for a British audience, with the title An Address by a Minister of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to the People of England. During the next three years it was reprinted twice more in England and three times in the United States.[10]

Parley’s second prison essay is the more interesting of the two. Entitled “A Treatise on the Regeneration and Eternal Duration of Matter” and printed in his Millennium and Other Poems (New York, 1840), it was the first writing to deal with the truly distinguishing doctrines of Mormonism. Earlier articles such as Sidney Rigdon’s three serial pieces, “Millennium,” “Faith of the Church,” and “The Gospel,” begun in The Evening and the Morning Star and continued in the Messenger and Advocate, could just as well have been published in the magazine of any Christian denomination. Even the “Lectures on Faith,” printed first in the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants, treat only the most general Christian principles; just a single distinctive idea — that God and Jesus Christ are separate beings — appears in them, in the fifth lecture. “A Treatise,” on the other hand, put in print for the first time such radical ideas as: matter and spirit can neither be created nor annihilated; the world was not created ex nihilo but organized out of existing matter; and God is bound by certain overriding laws. In short it announced that the “omnis” of traditional Christianity did not apply to Mormonism. Four years later the thoughts in “A Treatise” were amplified in a pair of essays, “Immortality of the Body” and “Intelligence and Affection,” both included in Parley’s An Appeal to the Inhabitants of the State of New York (Nauvoo, 1844). These two essays express the most optimistic view of man in any Mormon printed source. And they establish, in my opinion, a high-water mark in Mormon theological writing. 

The year 1840 marked the confluence of several streams of events which changed the course of Mormon intellectual history. During the two years following its appearance in 1837, the Voice of Warning demonstrated the use fulness of the press in spreading the Mormon message. By the fall of 1839, the first edition of 3,000 was sold out and Parley was preparing a second edition. At this same time others turned to the press to advertise the Mormon expulsion from Missouri, while Joseph Smith journeyed to Washington, D.C., to seek redress from the U.S. Congress for the Mormon losses.[11] Free from the inhibiting anticreedal influence of David Whitmer and the old guard, Joseph Smith now began to openly discuss the unique doctrines of Mormonism which before had only been whispered of in Kirtland.[12] These public teachings, in turn, drew anti-Mormon attacks from the sectarian clergy.[13] In addition, by the spring of 1840 nine of the twelve apostles were beginning their cataclysmic mission in Great Britain; and this massing of activity brought further attacks from the British clerics. Thus the stage was set for a flowering of Mormon pamphle teering. Where only three polemical tracts were published during the nine years 1830-38, eighteen were published by Mormons in 1840, eight by Parley Pratt.[14] Before the death of Joseph Smith in 1844, Mormon writers produced more than seventy works, twenty by Parley.[15]

These ephemeral pamphlets fundamentally changed Mormonism. For as they multiplied, the tenets of the Church, bit by bit, were identified in print. In the absence of an official statement of doctrine, the ideas printed in these missionary tracts came to serve as the Church’s confession of faith. And thus was Mormonism transformed from an anticreedal religion to one identified with a number of distinguishing doctrines. 

By the early 1850s essentially all of Mormonism’s distinctive beliefs had been discussed somewhere in print, but no single comprehensive treatment had yet been written. Again it fell to Parley Pratt to produce the first book of this kind. In San Francisco in August 1851, just prior to leaving for his mission to Chile, Parley began work on his Key to the Science of Theology. Sixteen months later the next-to-last chapter, Chapter 16, was printed in the Deseret News; and in March 1855 the first edition was offered for sale.[16] Key to Theology is Mormonism’s earliest comprehensive synthetical work. Its scope is complete: beginning with a definition of theology, it traces the loss of the true gospel among the Jews and the gentiles; then in linking chapters it discusses the nature of the Godhead, the origin of the universe, the restoration of the gospel, the means by which man regains the presence of God, the resurrection, the three degrees of glory, and the ultimate position of exalted men and women as procreative beings. Unlike the writings of Orson Pratt, Parley’s brother, which are definitive, almost dogmatic, Key to Theology is poetic, allusive, at times ambiguous. It is a masterly book. It is also Parley Pratt’s last major work, published just two years before his assassination. 

There are other “firsts” to Parley’s credit. During his mission with the Twelve to the eastern states in the summer of 1835, Parley stopped in Boston to publish The Millennium, a Poem. To Which is Added Hymns and Songs, the first book of Mormon poetry.[17] Again in Boston nine years later, he took a day off from campaigning for Joseph Smith’s presidency and wrote “A Dialogue Between Joe Smith and the Devil,” which was printed in the New York Herald and later reprinted in pamphlet form. Although written to make a point — that modern Christendom was corrupt and Mormonism was the only true Christian faith — A Dialogue Between Joe Smith and the Devil is the earliest work that can be classified as Mormon fiction.[18]

Just prior to leaving San Francisco for Chile in September 1851, Parley composed Proclamation to the People of the Coasts and Island of the Pacific and handed the manuscript to a fellow missionary Charles W. Wandell for publication. Two months later, immediately upon reaching Sydney, Australia, Wandell arranged for the printing of Proclamation.[19] This was the first Mormon book published outside of North America and Western Europe, the first book associated with that extraordinary effort that sent Mormon missionaries in the early 1850s to Africa, India, China, and Australia. 

While he was in Chile, Parley wrote Proclamacion Extraordinaria Para Los Americanos Espanoles, which he published in San Francisco after his return in May 1852. Soon after it appeared, a San Francisco newspaper attacked this tract and questioned the practice of polygamy among the Mormons. Not until 28 August 1852, would the Latter-day Saints first publicly acknowledge what had been a fact for more than ten years, that polygamous families existed among them.[20] But six weeks before this announcement and two months before it was put in print, Parley replied to the newspaper attack with his broadside “Mormonism!” “Plurality of Wives!” in which he implicitly admitted that Brigham Young was a polygamist and outlined a defense of plural marriage that, with various amplifications, would be repeated for another fifty years. 

Parley Pratt’s contribution goes beyond merely producing “first books,” however. Although most of his works are now virtually unknown, much of what was printed in them has survived. The early Mormon pamphleteers thought little of borrowing from one another, and many of Parley’s arguments and ideas flowed into the works of others and thus were perpetuated as a permanent part of Mormonism’s gospel tradition. A few examples from pub lications by missionaries will illustrate this process. 

Chapter 3 of Voice of Warning deals with the kingdom of God and is based on the following outline: the kingdom has (1) a king, (2) officers, (3) laws, (4) subjects; (5) faith, repentance, baptism by one with authority, and the gift of the Holy Ghost are requisite for entrance into the kingdom; (6) the kingdom must embrace apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, etc.; (7) its members must enjoy the “gifts of the spirit.” Benjamin Winchester used this out line in the second number of his Gospel Reflector (Philadelphia, 1841) and again in his History of the Priesthood (Philadelphia, 1843). William I. Appelby followed it in his tract A Dissertation on Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream (Philadelphia, 1844), at one point quoting Parley directly — without attribution. And the first number of David Candland’s Fireside Visitor or Plain Reasoner (Liverpool, 1846) borrowed Parley’s treatment of the necessity of baptism. But the most important use of this chapter was by Orson Pratt. 

Orson arrived in Liverpool, England, in August 1848 to assume the presidency of the British Mission. Enjoined to “print, publish, and superintend the emigration,”[21] he wrote sixteen tracts during the next two-and-one-half years which were published and republished by the tens of thousands and formed the basis of the missionary work in Great Britain. Early in 1851 these tracts were bound together with a title page and table of contents forming a book which eventually came to be known as Orson Pratt’s Works. This was an extremely influential book. It was published at a time when the British Mission was producing its most converts. For many of these new converts, Orson’s tracts provided the first contact with published Mormon works. Orson Pratt was a towering figure in the British Mission, loved and admired as “the St. Paul of Mormondom,” the “Gauge of Philosophy.” With the onset of the Utah War in 1857, Mormon book writing almost totally ceased, and for the next twenty years virtually no new books were printed.[22] What this meant was that those books which were in print before the Utah War continued to exert their influence for another generation, especially Orson Pratt’s Works which simply out numbered all others by many thousands. (The 1851 edition even now is a common “rare” book.) When LDS books began to be published again after the death of Brigham Young, Orson Pratt’s Works was reprinted three times (1884, 1891, 1899). Two more editions have been published in our century. More important, Orson Pratt’s Works was a principal point of departure for Mormonism’s twentieth-century writers, e.g. B. H. Roberts, James E. Talmage, and John A. Widtsoe. 

Orson Pratt’s Works includes a series of four tracts, The Kingdom of God (1848-1849), which treats, as the title suggests, the same subject as the third chapter of Voice of Warning and is constructed on an outline of seven topics essentially identical to Parley’s outline in Voice of Warning. 

Anticipating the claim of the sectarians that the Bible contains all sacred writings, Parley listed, in the fourth chapter of Voice of Warning, a number of sacred books mentioned in the Bible but not included in it. Expanded and accompanied by the biblical citations, this list was printed in his tract Plain Facts, Showing the Falsehood and Folly of the Rev. C. S. Bush (Manchester, 1840). A few months later John Taylor included Parley’s list in his Truth Defended and Methodism Weighed in the Balance and Found Wanting (Liverpool, 1840). Benjamin Winchester reprinted the list and citations in his Gospel Reflector, and Lorenzo D. Barnes incorporated it in his References to Prove the Gospel in its Fulness [Philadelphia and Nauvoo, 1841]. It was printed again in Erastus Snow and Benjamin Winchester’s An Address to the Citizens of Salem and Vicinity (Salem, 1841). Finally, Orson Pratt used half of Parley’s list together with the accompanying argument in the first installment of his six-part Divine Authenticity of the Book of Mormon (1850-1851), also a part of Orson Pratt’s Works. 

The concluding section of Mormonism Unveiled: Zion’s Watchman Un masked attacks the doctrines of the Methodists, particularly their concept of a God without body, parts, or passions. Parley expanded this in his unsigned pamphlet The True God and His Worship Contrasted with Idolatry [Liver pool? 1842?] which argues that a belief in a God without body, parts, or passions is equivalent to a belief in a God that does not exist — a belief, the tract declares, that is nothing short of atheism. John Taylor quotes Parley’s attack on the Methodists in Truth Defended, and W. I. Appleby incorporates it in Dissertation on Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream. The idea that those who believe in a God without body or passions are atheists is one of the central ideas in Orson’s Absurdities of Immaterialism (1849), an important pamphlet in Orson Pratt’s Works. 

As mentioned above, Parley’s An Address by a Minister of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to the People of England was derived from the doctrinal part of his introduction to Late Persecution. An Address is quoted in part — with a citation — in Snow and Winchester’s Address to the Citizens of Salem and Vicinity. It is reprinted in full — without citation — in John E. Page’s Slander Refuted [Philadelphia? 1841?]; and its discussion of authority is evident in Moses Martin’s A Treatise on the Fulness of the Everlasting Gospel (New York, 1842). But again it is Orson Pratt who makes the most intriguing use of this text. In Edinburgh in the fall of 1840 Orson published his Interesting Account of Several Remarkable Visions and of the Late Discovery of Ancient American Records. This is a signal book, the first printed account of Joseph Smith’s 1820 vision. Reprinted in 1848 with the title Remarkable Visions, it was included in Orson Pratt’s Works. The last seven pages of Interesting Account contain “a sketch of the faith and doctrine” of the Church, which is generally considered to be the precursor of the thirteen Articles of Faith. It is clear, however, that Orson’s “sketch of the faith and doctrine” was written with Parley’s introduction to Late Persecution in view; at one point a paragraph from the introduction is quoted directly — again without credit. 

The most egregious case of borrowing involved one of Mormondom’s more outrageous characters. George J. Adams published A Letter to His Excellency John Tyler, President of the United States, Touching the Signs of the Times, and the Political Destiny of the World: By G. ]. Adams (New York, 1844). This is nothing more or less than a faithful reprint, including typographical errors, of Parley’s Letter to the Queen of England (New York? 1841). Adams supplied only a short concluding paragraph and acknowledged the source of his text in a grudging and disingenuous postscript: “It is but justice for me to add, that I am indebted to Elder P. P. Pratt for many truths contained in the foregoing letter.” 

If Parley Pratt was the inventor of Mormon book writing, why is his name not remembered as prominently as Roberts, Orson Pratt, Talmage, and Widtsoe? The answer lies in the accidents of history as well as in the nature of Mormon theology itself. 

Even though it is a revealed religion, Mormonism is all but creedless—an inheritance from its primitivistic beginnings. While certain doctrines are enunciated in the standard works and some doctrinal issues have been addressed in formal pronouncements by the First Presidency, there is nothing in Mormon ism comparable to the Westminster Confession of Faith or the Augsburg Confession. Few of the truly distinctive doctrines of Mormonism are discussed in “official” sources. It is mainly by “unofficial” means — Sunday school lessons, seminary, institute, and BYU religion classes, sacrament meeting talks, and books by church officials and others who ultimately speak only for themselves — that the theology is passed from one generation to the next. Indeed it would seem that a significant part of Mormon theology exists primarily in the minds of the members. 

The absence of a formal creed means that each generation must produce a new set of gospel expositors to restate and reinterpret the doctrines of Mor monism. And as one looks back at the flow of LDS doctrinal exposition, one sees, beginning in the 1850s, this process of restatement occurring roughly every thirty years.[23] The books that are now best remembered are the great synthetical books that came out of these periodic restatements. Here the names of Widtsoe, Talmage, and Roberts come to mind. 

Widtsoe was the most prominent gospel writer of the period near the Second World War. His three-volume Evidences of Reconciliations (1943—1951) discussed Mormonism with an eye to the prevailing notions of science and his tory. Roberts and Talmage were the preeminent Mormon writers of the period just after the turn of the century. Roberts’s Mormon Doctrine of Diety (1903), Seventy’s Course in Theology (1907—1912), his edited seven-volume History of the Church (1902-1932), and his six-volume Comprehensive History (1930) are still in print and still read, as are Talmage’s monumental books Articles of Faith (1899) and Jesus the Christ (1915). 

Roberts, whose The Gospel was first published in 1888, actually spanned two generations as did Orson Pratt. After Parley’s death in 1857, Orson lived another twenty-five years, a period when almost no other Mormon books were written and most of the Latter-day Saints had a copy of Orson Pratt’s Works on their shelves. His reputation as the great nineteenth-century Mormon intel lectual was greatly enhanced by his lectures and articles in the Deseret News and Millennial Star on science and mathematics, his bettering of John P. New man, chaplain of the U.S. Senate, in a debate on polygamy, and his conflicts with Brigham Young over doctrinal matters.[24] 

Except for Voice of Warning and Key to Theology, Parley’s books were ephemeral missionary tracts printed in small editions. And it is tempting to conjecture that the Latter-day Saints preferred more direct, unambiguous books such as Orson Pratt’s series True Faith, True Repentance, etc. (1856-1857) ; John Jaques’s Catechism for Children (1854, 1855, 1870, 1872, 1877, 1879, 1887, 1888); Charles W. Penrosc’s “Mormon” Doctrine Plain and Simple (1882, 1888, 1897, 1917, 1921, 1923, 1928, 1929); and Franklin D. Richards and James A. Little’s Compendium (1882, 1884, 1886, 1892, 1898, 1912, 1914, 1925), to the poetic Key to Theology — in spite of the fact that in spirit and approach Key to Theology is more faithful to the informal, idiosyncratic nature of Mormon theology. 

Nevertheless Voice of Warning and Key to Theology are still in print and still affectionately read by a few twentieth-century Mormons. Parley grew prophetic when he wrote in the preface of the 1847 edition of Voice of Warning, “And should the author be called to sacrifice his life for the cause of truth, he will have the consolation that it will be said of him, as it was said of Abel, viz, ‘He, being dead, yet speaketh.'”

Bibliography

Works by Parley Parker Pratt (1807-1857) published during his lifetime. Nineteenth-century capitalization of titles has been regularized to approach Library of Congress practice. 

1. A short account of a shameful outrage, committed by a part of the inhabitants of the town of Mentor, upon the person of Elder Parley P. Pratt, while delivering a public dis course upon the subject of the gospel; April 7th, 1835. [Kirtland? 1835?] 11 pp. 18.7 cm. 

2. The Millennium, a poem. To which is added hymns and songs on various subjects, new and interesting, adapted to the dispensation of the fulness of times, [six-line quotation] Boston: Printed for Elder Parley P. Pratt, author and proprietor. 1835. 52pp. 14.7 cm. 

3. A voice of warning and instruction to all people, containing a declaration of the faith and doctrine of the Church of the Latter Day Saints, commonly called Mormons. By P. P. Pratt, Minister of the Gospel, [five-line quotation] New-York: Printed by W. Sandford, 29 Ann St. MDCCCXXXVII. x[ll]-216 pp. 14.7 cm. Other editions: New York, 1839; Manchester, England, 1841; New York, 1842; Nauvoo, 1844; Edinburgh, 1847; Liverpool, 1852; Jersey, 1853 (in French); Hamburg, 1853 (in German); Liverpool, 1854; Copenhagen, 1855 (in Danish); Copenhagen, 1856 (in Danish). 

4. Mormonism unveiled: Zion’s Watchman unmasked, and its editor, Mr. L. R. Sunder land, exposed: truth vindicated: the Devil mad, and priestcraft in danger! By P. P. Pratt, Minister of the Gospel, [two-line quotation] New-York: Printed for the publisher. 1838. 47pp. 18cm. Other editions: New York, 1838 (two editions); Painesville, Ohio, 1838; New York, 1842. 

5. History of the late persecution inflicted by the state of Missouri upon the Mormons, in which ten thousand American citizens were robbed, plundered, and driven from the state, and many others imprisoned, martyred, &c. for their religion, and all this by military force, by order of the executive. By P. P. Pratt, Minister of the Gospel. Written during eight months imprisonment in that state, [one-line quotation, prices] Detroit: Dawson & Bates, Printers. 1839. v[6]-84 pp. 18.6 cm. Other editions: Mexico, New York, 1840: New York, 1840. 

6. The millennium, and other poems: to which is annexed, a treatise on the regeneration and eternal duration of matter. By P. P. Pratt, Minister of the Gospel. New York: Printed by W. Molineux, cor. of Ann and Nassau Streets. MDCCCXL. iv,2/,148 pp. 17.7 cm. 

7. Late persecution of the Church of Jesus Christ, of Latter Day Saints. Ten thousand American citizens robbed, plundered, and banished; others imprisoned, and others martyred for their religion. With a sketech of their rise, progress and doctrine. By P. P. Pratt, Minister of the Gospel: written in prison, [two-line quotation] New-York: J. W. Harrison, Printer, 28 Catharine-St. 1840. xx[21]-215[l] pp. 14.8 cm. 

8. An address by Judge Higbee and Parley P. Pratt, Ministers of the gospel, of the Church of Jesus Christ of “Latter-day Saints,” to the citizens of Washington and to the public in general, [at end:] Washington, February 9, 1840. 4 pp. 21 cm. 

9. An address by a minister of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to the people of England, [at end:] Manchester, May 18, 1840. Printed by W. R. Thomas, 61, Spring Gardens. 4 pp. 19.2 cm. Other editions: Manchester, 1840; Bristol, 1841?; New York? 1841? (two editions); Philadelphia? 1843? 

10. Farewell song. By P. P. Pratt. Sung at the general conference of the Latter Day Saints, in the city of New York, as six of their elders, viz: B. Young, H. C. Kimball, O. Pratt, G. A. Smith, R. Hadlock [sic], and P. P. Pratt, were about to sail for Europe. They took passage on board the ship Patrick Henry, for Liverpool, and sailed on 7th March, 1840. [N.p., 1840?] Broadside 25X19.5 cm. on yellow paper. 

11. Plain facts, showing the falsehood and folly of the Rev. C. S. Bush, (a Church Minister of the Parish of Peover,) being a reply to his tract against the Latter-day Saints, [at foot of p. 16:] W. R. Thomas, Printer, 61, Spring Gardens, Manchester. [1840] 16 pp. 17.5 cm. 

12. A reply to Mr. Thomas Taylor’s “Complete Failure,” &c, and Mr. Richard Livesey’s “Mormonism Exposed.” [one-line quotation] By Parley P. Pratt. Manchester: Printed by W. R. Thomas, 61, Spring Gardens. 1840. 12 pp. 18 cm. 

13. An answer to Mr. William Hewitt’s tract against the Latter-day Saints, [two-line quotation] By Parley P. Pratt. Manchester: Printed by W. R. Thomas, 61, Spring Gardens. 1840. 12 pp. 17.1 cm. 

14. An epistle of Demetrius, Junior, the silversmith, to the workmen of like occupation, and all others whom it may concern, — greeting: showing the best way to preserve our craft, & to put down the Latter Day Saints, [at foot:] Wm. Shackleton and Sons, Printers, Ducie-Place, Exchange, Manchester. [1840?] Broadside 36.8X23.8 cm. Text in three columns, ornamental border. Other editions: Birmingham, 1841?; Norwich, 1842?; Peterboro, New Hampshire? 1842?; Philadelphia? 1842? 

15. A letter to the Queen, touching the signs of the times, and the political destiny of the world, [two-line quotation] Manchester: Printed and published by P. P. Pratt, No. 47, Oxford-Street. 1841. 12 pp. 18.7 cm. Other editions: Manchester, 1841; New York? 1841? 

16. Truth defended, or a reply to the “Preston Chronicle,” and to Mr. J. B. Rollo’s “Mor monism Exposed.” Extracted from the Millennial Star for July, 1841. [two-line quota tion] Manchester: Printed and published by P. P. Pratt, 47, Oxford Street. 1841. 8 pp. 20.5 cm. 

17. Dialogue between a Latter-day Saint and an enquirer after truth. (Reprinted from the Star of January 1.) To which is added, a solemn warning to the Methodists. By one who was formerly a Preacher among them. Published by P. P. Pratt, 47, Oxford Street, Manchester, where all publications of the Latter-day Saints may be obtained. [1842] 4 pp. 21 cm. 

18. The true God and His worship contrasted with idolatry. [Liverpool? 1842?] 8 pp. 19 cm.

19. The world turned upside down, or heaven on earth. The material universe is eternal. — Immortal man has flesh and bones. — Earth is his everlasting inheritance. — To this bear all the prophets and apostles witness; the physical worlds were not formed for annihilation, but for the pleasure of God they are and were created. By P. P. Pratt. Published at the Millennial Star Office, 36, Chapel-Street, Liverpool, and sold by the booksellers. Printed by James and Woodbum, 14, Hanover-Street. [1842] iv[5]-25 pp. 18 cm.

20. An appeal to the inhabitants of the state of New York, letter to Queen Victoria, (reprinted from the tenth European edition,) the fountain of knowledge; immortality of the body, and intelligence and affection: By Parley P. Pratt, [price] John Taylor, Printer, Nauvoo, Illinois. [1844] [2]40 pp. 21.1cm. Other editions: Milwaukee, 1844? 

21. Proclamation of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ, of Latter-day Saints. To all the kings of the world; to the President of the United States of America; to the governors of the several states; and to the rulers and people of all nations: Greeting: [at end:] New York, April 6, 1845. [New York, 1845] 16 pp. 21.7 cm. Other editions: Liverpool, 1845. 

22. A dialogue between Joe. Smith and the devil! [New York? 1845?] 12 pp. 16.5 cm. Other editions: Liverpool? 1846? (two editions). 

23. An apostle of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was in the Island of Great Britain, for the gospel’s sake; and being in the spirit on the 21st. of November, A.D. 1846, addressed the following words of comfort to his dearly-beloved wife and family, dwelling in tents, in the camp of Israel, at Council Bluffs, Missouri [sic] Territory, North America; where they and twenty thousand others were banished by the civilized Christians of the United States, for the word of God, and the testimony of Jesus, [at foot:] Printed by Br. J. B. Fanklin, 5, Northampton Street, King’s Cross. [London, 1851?] Broadside 44X23 cm. Text in two columns, ornamental border; gold print on blue paper, black print on orange paper. Other editions: London? 1851? 

24. What do the Latter-day Saints believe; or, what is “Mormonism?” [at end:] Printed by J. Sadler, 16, Moorfields, Liverpool. [1851?] Broadside 21X13 cm. 

25. Proclamation! To the people of the coasts and islands of the Pacific; of every nation, kindred and tongue. By an apostle of Jesus Christ. Published for the author, by C. W. Wandell, Minister of the Gospel, [at end:] William Baker, Printer, Hibernian Press, King-Street. [Sydney, Australia, 1851] 16 pp. 21 cm. Other editions: Madras, 1853. 

26. Proclamacion! extraordinaria, para los Americanos Espanoles. Por Parley P. Pratt, apostol de la Iglesia de Jesu Christo, de los Postiros Dias Santos [sic]. Read, preserve, and hand this book to your neighbor. Proclamation extraordinary! To the Spanish Americans by Parley P. Pratt, apostle of the Church of Jesus Christ of Later [sic] Day Saints. San Francisco: Monson, Haswell & Co., Printers, 1852. Wrapper title, [3]-18 pp. 21 cm. 

27. “Mormonism!” “Plurality of wives!” An especial chapter, for the especial edification of certain inquisitive news editors, etc. [at end:] San Francisco, Cal. July 13th, 1852. Broadside 28X19 cm. 

28. Spiritual communication. A sermon delivered by Elder P. P. Pratt, Senr. before the con ference at Salt Lake City, April 7, 1853. [San Francisco? 1853?] 8 pp. 24.2 cm. 

29. Repent! Ye people of California! For, know assuredly, the Kingdom of God, has come nigh unto you. [San Francisco, 1854] Broadside 17.5X22.5 cm. 

30. Key to the science of theology: designed as an introduction to the first principles of spiritual philosophy; religion; law and government; as delivered by the ancients, and as restored in this age, for the final development of universal peace, truth and knowledge. By Parley P. Pratt, [four-line verse] Liverpool: F. D. Richards, 15, Wilton Street, Lon don: L.D. Saints’ Book Depot, 35, Jewin St., City, and all booksellers. 1855. 2 p./., [vii]-xv[l]-173[2] pp. 19.5 cm. 

31. Marriage and morals in Utah, an address by P. P. Pratt, one of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and Chaplain to the Council of the Utah Legislature. Read in joint session of the legislature, in the Representatives’ Hall, Fillmore City, Dec. 31, 1855, by Mr. Thomas Bullock, Chief Clerk of the House. Re printed from the “Deseret News.” Liverpool: F. D. Richards, 42, Islington; London: L.D.S. Book & Star Depot, 35, Jewin St., City. 1856. 8 pp. 22 cm. Other editions: Copenhagen, 1856 (in Danish); Abertawy, Wales, 1856 (in Welsh); San Francisco, 1856; Geneva, 1857 (in French).

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[1] Leonard J. Arrington, “The Intellectual Tradition of the Latter-day Saints,” DIALOGUE: A JOURNAL OF MORMON THOUGHT 4 (Spring 1969): 13-26. 

[2] Everett L. Cooley, ed., Diary of Brigham Young, 1857 (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Library, 1980), p. 28, n. 32. 

[3] Marvin S. Hill, “The Role of Christian Primitivism in the Origin and Development of the Mormon Kingdom, 1830-1844” (Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago, 1968), pp. 6-36.

[4] See ibid., pp. 37-60. Peter Crawley, “The Passage of Mormon Primitivism,” DIALOGUE: A JOURNAL OF MORMON THOUGHT 13 (Winter 1980): 26-37. David Whitmer, An Address to All Believers in Christ (Richmond, Mo., 1887), pp. 28-33, 45-48.

[5] Crawley, “The Passage of Mormon Primitivism,” pp. 26-37. 

[6] Just three polemical tracts were published before 1839: Orson Hyde, Prophetic Warn ing (Toronto, 1836) ; Parley P. Pratt, Voice of Warning (New York, 1837) ; and Parley P. Pratt, Mormonism Unveiled: Zion’s Watchman Unmasked (New York, 1838). Virtually all of the early Mormon tracts were self-published, including most of those cited herein. 

[7] Crawley, “The Passage of Mormon Primitivism,” pp. 29-32. 

[8] Peter Crawley, “A Bibliography of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in New York, Ohio, and Missouri,” BYU Studies 12 (Summer 1972) : 516-18. Apart from its importance in the intellectual history of Mormonism, Voice of Warning was probably the most effective nineteenth-century Mormon missionary tract. Before 1900 the Utah Church printed twenty-four editions in English as well as editions in Danish, Dutch, French, German, Icelandic, Spanish, and Swedish.

[9] Crawley, “Bibliography of the Church,” pp. 535-37. 

[10] Two editions were published in Manchester, England, in 1840; a third was published in Bristol, England, in 1841. Two editions were published in New York City in 1841; a third American edition was published in Philadelphia in 1843. 

[11] See, for example, John P. Greene’s Facts Relative to the Expulsion of the Mormons (Cincinnati, 1839) ; and John Taylor’s A Short Account of the Murders, Roberies [sic], Burnings, Thefts, and Other Outrages [Springfield, 1839].

[12] Crawley, “The Passage of Mormon Primitivism,” p. 34. 

[13] Caleb Jones, a Methodist preacher, published two tracts under the pseudonym Philanthropist which were responded to by Samuel Bennett and Erastus Snow; and H. Perkins, a Presbyterian, delivered an anti-Mormon lecture which brought a response from Benjamin Winchester. See note 14.

[14] The three early tracts are cited in n. 6. In addition to the works of Parley Pratt listed below, those works published in 1840 include: Samuel Bennett, A Few Remarks by Way of Reply to an Anonymous Scribbler (Philadelphia, 1840); Orson Hyde, A Timely Warning to the People of England (Manchester, 1840); Orson Pratt, Interesting Account of Several Remarkable Visions (Edinburgh, 1840) ; Sidney Rigdon, An Appeal to the American People (Cincinnati, 1840) ; Erastus Snow, E. Snow’s Reply to the Self-Styled Philanthropist, of Chester County (Philadelphia, 1840) ; three tracts by John Taylor — An Answer to Some False Statements and Misrepresentations Made by the Rev. Roberts Heys (Douglas, 1840), Calumny Refuted and the Truth Defended: Being a Reply to the Second Address of the Rev. Robert Heys (Douglas, 1840), Truth Defended and Methodism Weighted in the Balance and Found Wanting: Being a Reply to the Third Address of the Rev. Robert Heys (Liverpool, 1840) ; two tracts by Benjamin Winchester — An Examination of a Lecture Delivered by the Rev. H. Perkins (n.p., 1840), and The Origin of the Spaulding Story (Philadelphia, 1840). 

[15] Chad J. Flake, A Mormon Bibliography 1830-1930 (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1978). 

[16] Parley P. Pratt, Autobiography (New York, 1874), p. 433. Deseret News 8 Jan. 1853. Millennial Star 17 (31 March 1855) : 208. 

[17] Crawley, “Bibliography of the Church,” pp. 498-9. 

[18] Pratt, Autobiography, p. 376; New York Herald 25 Aug. 1844.

[19] P. Crawley, “The First Australian Mormon Imprints,” Gradalis Review 2 (Fall 1973): 38-51. 

[20] Deseret News Extra, 14 Sep. 1852. 

[21] Millennial Star 10 (15 Aug. 1848): 241. 

[22] Flake, A Mormon Bibliography 1830-1930. 

[23] The first synthetical books include Orson Spencer, Letters Exhibiting the Most Prom inent Doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Liverpool, 1848) ; John Jaques, Catechism for Children (Liverpool, 1854); Key to Theology (Liverpool, 1855); Orson Pratt’s series of eight tracts, True Faith, True Repentance, etc. (Liverpool, 18561857) ; and Franklin D. Richards, Compendium (Liverpool, 1857). In the 1880s this restatement occurred with such books as John Taylor, Items on Priesthood (Salt Lake City, 1882) and his Mediation and Atonement (Salt Lake City, 1882) ; Charles W. Penrose, “Mormon” Doctrine Plain and Simple (Salt Lake City, 1882); Franklin D. Richards and James A. Little, Compendium (Salt Lake City, 1882); John Nicholson, The Preceptor (Salt Lake City, 1883), and B. H. Roberts, The Gospel (Salt Lake City, 1888). After the turn of the century it occurred again through such works as B. H. Roberts, Mormon Doctrine of Deity (Salt Lake City, 1903) and his Seventy’s Course in Theology (Salt Lake City, 1907-1912) ; and James E. Talmage’s two books Articles of Faith (Salt Lake City, 1899) and Jesus the Christ (Salt Lake City, 1915). In the mid-twentieth century this process of restatement was repeated through the writings of John A. Widtsoe, Joseph Fielding Smith, Lowell Bennion, and others.

[24] Thomas Edgar Lyon, “Orson Pratt — Early Mormon Leader” (MA Thesis, University of Chicago, 1932), pp. 86-134. Orson’s reputation greatly extended beyond the facts; he was certainly not “one of the world’s greatest scientists.” Ibid., pp. 2.