In June 1829 Joseph Smith and others first approached Egbert B Grandin about printing the Book of Mormon. Just months before, Grandin had purchased an advanced "Smith Patented Improved Press" that significantly speeded up the printing process and was the most up-to-date press available to the small printer of the day. That a press and printer should be available in Palmyra, N.Y. at the precise time they were needed for printing the Book of Mormon is remarkable. He initially rejected the commission on moral and religious grounds.
Martin Harris at the Lords command (see D&C 19:26, 27, 34, 35) appealed to Grandin to reconsider and offered a mortgage on 151 acres of his farm as security, with the Harris property to be sold at public auction to pay the debt if necessary. Grandin then agreed to print 5,000 copies of the book, a very large number for that time for $3,000.
In August 1829, the Prophet Joseph, with Martin Harris, Oliver Cowdery, Hyrum Smith, Joseph Smith Senior and several others gathered around Grandin's press to print and inspect a proof sheet. Joseph declared the work was "excellent," and printing of the book began.
In the third-floor printing room each character or spacer was picked by hand from the type case and set in forms. The type was inked, and large sheets of paper were placed in a frame and positioned over the type. Pulling on a lever lowered the heavy iron platen onto the paper and type.
This process was repeated five thousand times, and each sheet was hung up to dry. The reverse side of the page was then printed. For binding, pieces of “cover-board” were covered with white paper and attached to the book. Then thin leather was glued on the outside and gold letters tooled onto it.
On 26 March 1830 about a week and a half before the formal organization of the Church on April 6 the first copies of the Book of Mormon were made available to the public in Grandin's bookstore.
Shortly after, Samuel Smith left on the first missionary journey of the Church and placed copies of the newly printed Book of Mormon that would result in the conversion of Brigham Young, his brother Phineas Young, Heber C. Kimball and their families.
On 7 April 1831 Martin Harris sold the specified number of acres of his farm to pay the printing debt. The financial support of Martin Harris to bring forth the Book of Mormon is often forgotten. He helped a prophet of God to facilitate the first publication of the keystone of the Restoration and fulfilled that important role at great personal cost.
Approximately 140 million copies of the Book of Mormon have been printed since 1830. It has been translated into 83 languages, and selections of the Book of Mormon have been translated into an additional 25 languages. It has never been out of print since the original edition.
