The Seer (periodical)

1853, with future editions being produced monthly. The contents of The Seer were composed almost entirely of original writings by Pratt. Throughout its publication his- tory, the majority of Pratt’s writing stressed the ratio- nality of the doctrine of plural marriage.[2] For example, Pratt dedicated 107 of the 192 total pages of The Seer to a twelve-part exposition on what he called celestial mar- riage. The Seer was published in Washington, D.C. until July 1854, when publication was shifted to Liverpool, England. After only 18 issues, Pratt was forced to cease publication due to mounting financial losses. Circulation peaked at 400 copies in late 1853. “The world will not subscribe for nor read The Seer,”[3] Pratt lamented to his brother Parley.

2 Resulting doctrinal controversy

In 1865, a majority of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the LDS Church of- ficially condemned some of Pratt’s doctrinal declarations contained in The Seer:

"The Seer [and other writings by Pratt] con- tain doctrines which we cannot sanction, and which we have felt impressed to disown, so that the Saints who now live, and who may live hereafter, may not be misled by our silence, or Second issue of The Seer February, 1853. be left to misinterpret it. Where these objec- tionable works, or parts of works, are bound in volumes, or otherwise, they should be cut out The Seer was an official periodical of The Church of Je- and destroyed.”[4] sus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) which first appeared in 1853 and was published throughout 1854.[1] 3 Legacy 1 History of publication Despite the failure of The Seer and the controversy that After the LDS Church publicly acknowledged that it was resulted from some of its contents, many of the traditional teaching and practicing plural marriage at its Septem- explanations and justifications for Mormon polygamy had ber 1852 conference, LDS Church president Brigham their beginning in Pratt’s writings in the magazine. Young dispatched Apostle to Washington, D.C., where he was asked to publish an apologetic mag- azine targeted at non-. The primary purpose of the magazine would be to explain and defend the princi- 4 See also ples of . The first edition of The Seer was published in January • List of Latter Day Saint periodicals

1 2 7 EXTERNAL LINKS

5 Notes

[1] Neilson, Reid Larkin. Exhibiting Mormonism: The Latter- day Saints and the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011, p. 37, ISBN 978-0-19- 538403-1.

[2] Bergera, Gary James. Conflict in the Quorum: Orson Pratt, , . Salt Lake City, Utah: Sig- nature Books, 2002, ISBN 978-1-56085-164-6.

[3] Letter from Orson Pratt to Parley P. Pratt (Feb. 12, 1854), quoted in Gary James Bergera, (2002) Conflict in the Quo- rum : Orson Pratt, Brigham Young, Joseph Smith, p. 111.

[4] , Aug. 23, 1865, 373; see also B.H. Roberts, Defense of the Faith and the Saints, 2:294 (1912).

6 References

• Gary James Bergera, Conflict in the Quorum : Orson Pratt, Brigham Young, Joseph Smith, Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2002.

7 External links

• The Seer : searchable PDF scans of Washington D.C. printing • The Seer (PDF scans), L. Tom Perry Special Collec- tions, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young Uni- versity.

• The Seer : wikisource (incomplete) • Lance Starr, 'The Seer': Reliable Source?, from FairMormon, an LDS apologetics website 3

8 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

8.1 Text

• The Seer (periodical) Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seer_(periodical)?oldid=711179230 Contributors: Sesmith, Epachamo, Meco, WildKazoo, Cydebot, ARTEST4ECHO, Dsp13, Johnpacklambert, Matthewrlee, Funandtrvl, Beigestudent, JL-Bot, Snocrates, Good Olfactory, Kbdankbot, Addbot, Dawynn, Rich jj, Deelith, Sonicyouth86, Mhiji, Helpful Pixie Bot, Dromidaon, AsteriskStarSplat and Anonymous: 11

8.2 Images

• File:Christus_statue_temple_square_salt_lake_city.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/Christus_ statue_temple_square_salt_lake_city.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: ? Original artist: ? • File:The_Seer_1853.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/The_Seer_1853.jpg License: Public do- main Contributors: http://www.archive.org/details/seer00unse Original artist: Orson Pratt. Original uploader was Matthewrlee at en.wikipedia.org.

8.3 Content license

• Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0