Salamander letter

Common card · No. 355946

The salamander letter was a controversial forged document about the history of the Latter Day Saint movement. The letter was one of hundreds of documents concerning the history of the Latter Day Saint movement that surfaced in the early 1980s. The salamander letter presented a view of the life of the movement's founder, Joseph Smith, that stood sharply at odds with the commonly accepted version of the early progression of the church Smith established. Initially accepted by some document experts and collectors, and rejected by others, the salamander letter generated much discussion and debate inside and outside the Latter Day Saint movement. Kenneth W. Rendell, a prominent dealer of historical papers, lent credence to the salamander letter by stating that the ink, paper, and postmark were all consistent with the period; he concluded that "there is no indication that the document is a forgery." The document was later demonstrated to be a forgery created by Mark Hofmann, who had been responsible...

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