Mother Goose nursery rhymes tied to the Book of Mormon? Take a look . . .

A special thanks to John Hajicek for this rare find (the text and photos are his)!!

The first edition BOOK OF MORMON was first published (and offered for sale) on March 26, 1830, at a drugstore in Palmyra, N.Y.

There were only six books or imprints containing the word MORMON or MORMONISM on their title pages in the first six years of the Church between 1830 and 1836.

Below is the third such imprint. The first was the 1830 BOOK OF MORMON; the second was the Campellite response in 1832 entitled DELUSIONS of the BOOK OF MORMON.

This third item, the 1833 MOTHER GOOSE, included the BOOK OF MORMON in its own long title.

This book shows the impact Mormons (then called Mormonites) had made on *popular culture* in just three years. It is also, in some sense, the first Mormon song book, the first Mormon children’s book, and the first Mormon illustrated book.

Mother Goose did not actually exist as a person. These were printed collections of folk rhymes from oral tradition, and so each publisher had a different collection. Mentioning the sensational Book of Mormon discovery was a satirical way of claiming this collection was more complete than other collections. The title also invokes the Herculaneum manuscripts (mss.) on papyrus which were being unraveled in the early 1800s.

This was the first popular edition of Mother Goose, and brought to average residents their first reading of Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, and other stories.

And maybe the Book of Mormon.