A Professor's Comment on the Book of Mormon

A PROFESSOR’S COMMENT ON THE BOOK OF MORMON

The following is taken from a letter written by Mr. Charles II. Hull, Professor of American History at Cornell University, U.S.A., to Elder George H. Brimhall, President-emeritus of the Brigham Young University, U.S.A. The writing reveals tile status of the Book of Mormon in the opinion of learned men who are not members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—a position which no fraudulent work could maintain for a century:

Miss Effie Smith, a former student in my classes, is now, or lately was, Mr. North’s secretary and bibliographer. She sent me a catalogue, in which she took some justifiable pride, of “First Editions of One Hundred Famous American Books”—or some such title—and in acknowl­edging it I remarked that it did not contain what I supposed to be one of the most famous, or perhaps I may have said the most widely dis­cussed, books ever published in America; could she guess what it was? She and Mr. North gave it up, but when I mentioned the Book of Mor­mon they agreed, and eventually Mr. North bought one of my copies.

I am perfectly willing to say to anyone that I suppose the Book of Mormon to be one of the most famous and widely discussed books ever published in America. I think an arguable case can be made for the assertion that it is the most famous and widely discussed book ever first published in America.