The Spaulding Manuscript (1883)

(Volume 11) One of the first attacks against the authenticity of the Book of Mormon was by the excommunicated Doctor Philastus Hurlburt whose story about the book's origins has fed detractors of the LDS Church since the 1830s. Hurlburt claimed that Sidney Rigdon had stolen a novel written by the Rev. Solomon F. Spaulding and had given it to Joseph Smith to be published as scripture. Because Spaulding's original manuscript was lost, researchers were unable to verify the claim and those opposed to the Latter-day Saints found the story to be a convenient way to explain the authorship of the Book of Mormon as well as to add evidence to Joseph Smith's deception. In this double volume, Elder George Reynolds researches affidavits by members of the Spaulding family and demonstrates the lack of both internal and external evidences pointing to the manuscript as a base for the Book of Mormon; after which the Spaulding Manuscript (now found) is quoted in its entirety. 223 pages