Latter-day Saints are accustomed to speaking of Joseph Smith
as the inspired translator of the Book of Mormon.
Indeed, the Prophet himself left several accounts how he translated the record by the gift and power of God.
However, the title page of the first edition of the Book of Mormon
identifies Joseph Smith as the “Author and Proprietor” of the book, not the translator.
It wasn’t until 1837 that Joseph was first named the translator of the Book of Mormon on the Title Page.
Does this somehow show that Joseph Smith made contradictory claims about translating the Book of Mormon, as some have claimed?
A careful look at the historical evidence,
including recently discovered historical documents,
helps us answer this question.
The first place to start is with the 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon itself.
In this edition of the text,
the copyright page describes how “authors and proprietors”
may be counted as the legal possessors of copyright.
By legal standards of the day, an “author” or “proprietor” of a work
with claims to copyright could include
“musical composers, cartographers,
etchers, engravers, designers”
and, yes, even “translators.”
So the easiest explanation for why Joseph was named “author and proprietor”
was that he simply wanted to comply with copyright law of the day.
Even so, the first edition of the Book of Mormon
actually does speak of Joseph Smith as the translator in the book’s preface
as well as in the testimonies of the 3 and eight witnesses that appeared at the end of that edition.
Furthermore,
revelations received during and shortly after the time of the coming forth and publication of the Book of Mormon
likewise speak of Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery as “translating” the record,
never of writing or authoring it in the mundane sense.
The fact that Joseph himself never claimed authorship for the Book of Mormon
led one non-Latter-day Saint scholar to conclude,
In 1829, Oliver Cowdery himself
wrote a recently-discovered letter to an inquirer, in which he responded to this very question.
“Your first inquiry was, whether it was proper to say, that Joseph Smith Jr., was the author?
If I rightly understand the meaning of the word author,
it is, the first beginner, or mover of any thing, or a writer.
Now Joseph Smith Jr., certainly was the writer of the work, called the Book of Mormon,
which was written in ancient Egyptian characters,
which was a dead record to us until translated.
And he, by a gift from God, has translated it into our language.
Certainly he was the writer of it, and could be no less than the author.”
Trying to clarify an ambiguity in the contemporary definition of the words,
Oliver here was arguing that the words writer and author
could apply to more than just someone who wrote an original composition.
In his view, it could equally apply to a translator like Joseph Smith.
Clearly, Oliver’s and Joseph’s understanding of the translation
provides another important piece of evidence
for how they understood the Book of Mormon from the very beginning.
All of this indicates
that whatever ambiguity there may have been
in the technical or legal 19th century designation
of Joseph Smith as the “author and proprietor” of the Book of Mormon,
there is abundant historical documentation
affirming that Joseph and the other witnesses of its coming forth
gave a consistent, undeviating, and believable account of its miraculous translation.