Joseph Smith Papers, Revelations and Translations, Volume 3: Printer’s Manuscript of the Book of Mormon Edited by Royal Skousen and Robin Scott Jensen

Anyone seriously interested in that history must be delighted with this important addition to the Joseph Smith Papers, which for the first time makes the printer’s manuscript of the Book of Mormon available, both in print and online, to anyone. Since less than 30 percent of the original manuscript exists, the printer’s manuscript is the closest we will ever come to seeing the full original text of the Book of Mormon. It is virtually a complete copy, missing only three lines of text. In this Joseph Smith Papers volume, carefully prepared transcriptions provide not only a clearly readable text but also important notations and other aids that help the reader understand textual changes made during the lifetime of Joseph Smith.

The editors of this volume are well suited to the task. Royal Skousen, one of BYU’s preeminent Book of Mormon scholars, has spent most of his career studying and writing about the Book of Mormon text. His more than a quarter century of study has produced the highly lauded Critical Text Project. Robin Scott Jensen is an associate managing editor for the Joseph Smith Papers and has been coeditor of three previous volumes.