Early Patriarchal Blessings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Salt Lake City, UT: Smith-Pettit Foundation, 2007. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good +. 447pp. Quarto [28.5 cm] Maroon cloth boards with stamped gilt titles on the front cover and spine. No dust jacket as issued. Includes bibliographical references and index. Boards barely perceptibly bowed. First edition, first state, with "Blesings" on the spine. Contained in this volume are 755 blessings from 1833 through 1845 delivered by the church’s first oracles, Joseph Smith Sr., Joseph Smith Jr., Hyrum Smith, and William Smith. Prominent in these blessings is the promise that the recipients will live to witness the Second Coming of Christ, together with other period-specific expectations and doctrinally based beliefs. The compilation is an indispensable source of early Mormon intellectual history, as well as a valuable resource for historians, biographers, and genealogists.