suggesting that he was going to attempt to translate the plates by conventional means, rather than by use of a seer stone or direct revelation. On 1 May, Clayton wrote in his journal: Joseph Smith planned to translate the plates in their entirety. The editors of the Nauvoo Neighbor (apostles John Taylor and Wilford Woodruff), promised in a June 1843 article that "The contents of the plates, together with a Fac-simile of the same, will be published in the 'Times and Seasons,' as soon as the translation is completed." The History of the Church also states Smith said the following: Stanley B. Kimball says the statement found in History of the Church could have been an altered version of William Clayton's statement, placing Smith in the first person. Diane Wirth, writing in Review of Books on the Book of Mormon (2:210), states: "A first-person narrative was apparently a common practice of this time period when a biographical work was being compiled. Since such words were never penned by the Prophet, they cannot be uncritically accepted as his words or his opinion". Connection with the Grammar and Alphabet of the Egyptian Language A number of translation documents were created in 1835 in connection with the translation of the Book of Abraham, one of which is called the Grammar and Alphabet of the Egyptian Language (GAEL). There is evidence that this document was used in deciphering the Kinderhook Plates. In a May 7, 1843 letter to a friend, apostle Parley P. Pratt wrote, "A large number of Citizens have seen them and compared the characters with those on the Egyptian papyrus which is now in this city." A sympathetic letter also dated May 7, 1843, published in the New York Herald for May 30, 1843, presents further evidence: The plates are evidently brass, and are covered on both sides with hyerogliphics. They were brought up and shown to Joseph Smith. He compared them, in my presence, with his Egyptian Alphabet…and they are evidently the same characters. He therefore will be able to decipher them ... You may expect something very remarkable pretty soon. A prominent character from one of the plates matches well with a character in the Grammar and Alphabet of the Egyptian Language (GAEL), and the translation of that character in the GAEL compares with the description given by William Clayton. Rediscovery, analysis, and classification as a hoax The Kinderhook