Background
Grandin was born in Freehold, Monmouth County, New Jersey, the youngest of ten children, and was reared on a farm near Palmyra, New New York
Grandin was born in Freehold, Monmouth County, New Jersey, the youngest of ten children, and was reared on a farm near Palmyra, New New York
At eighteen, he became an apprentice printer at the office of Palmyra"s Wayne Sentinel, which he purchased in 1827. Besides publishing the newspaper, Grandin sold and bound books and operated a lending library. Grandin died at Palmyra.
"Realizing the work would proceed anyway, Grandin apparently overcame his scruples or his reservations and agreed to publish the work in Palmyra," requiring a $3000 security to print five thousand copies.
The chief compositor, John H. Gilbert, found that the manuscript was "closely written and legible, but not a punctuation mark from beginning to education" Gilbert said that he added punctuation and capitalization in the evenings. Cowdery also set some type.
To print the book, Grandin used a Smith Improved Printing Press invented by Peter Smith (1795–1823), which first appeared on the market about 1821 and was the most up-to-date press available to the small printer of the day. In October, Smith wrote that locals were "very much excited" by the prospect of publication, but their excitement was not the sort that Smith had hoped foreign
The Palmyra Freeman called the prospective book "the greatest piece of superstition that has come to our knowledge." In September, Abner Cole began a weekly, the Palmyra Reflector, and because he used Grandin"s press, Cole had access to the unbound sheets and reprinted mocking excerpts until Smith threatened legal action.
Pay the debt thou hast contracted with the printer."
Harris desperately tried to sell the books himself but lamented that "no Body wants them." Harris"s farm was sold for $3000 and the proceeds paid to Grandin.
Quotations: "closely written and legible, but not a punctuation mark from beginning to education".