Mormon Literature Bibliography--Historical Periods

Read the essay by Eugene England which establishes these periods, or refer to other, similar overview essays on the history of Mormon Literature on the Mormon Criticism page

This list includes some of the more significant contributions to Mormon literature, according to genre, in each period. For a more exhaustive list, search the Bibliography database.


FOUNDATIONS (1830-1880)

The Book of Mormon
Reviewed

Diaries George Laub, BYU Studies (Winter 1978);

Joseph Millett, The New Era (June 1975);

Eliza R. Snow, Selected Writings (1957)

Autobiography

Joseph Smith, Pearl of Great Price

---. History of the Church;

The Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt (1888)

Reviewed: R. A. Christmas, "The Autobiography of PPP," Dialogue (Spring 1966).


Letters

Dear Ellen edited by George S. Ellsworth, (University of Utah, 1974)

My Dear Son: . . . Brigham Young to his Sons (Desert Book, 1974)

[William Mulder, Review, Dialogue (Winter 1974)];

Twelve Mormon Homes, Elizabeth Kane (University of Utah, 1974).

Sermons

Joseph Smith, "King Follett Discourse," Amalgamated Text and Scholarly Articles, BYU Studies (Winter 1978);

Journal of Discourses (26 vols., 1854-86)

Discourses of Brigham Young (1925).

MIDDLE ("FALLOW") PERIOD (1880-1930)

Nephi Anderson, Added Upon (Deseret, 1898)

Josephine Spencer in C & L

Eliza R. Snow, Poems (1877)

Orson F. Whitney, Elias, An Epic of the Ages (1904)

Orson F. Whitney, Poetical Writings (1889). History B. H. Roberts, Comprehensive History of the Church (6 vols., 1930).

Theology

B. H. Roberts, Joseph Smith, Prophet-Teacher (1908)

B. H. Roberts, Seventies Course in Theology (1907)

John A. Widtsoe, A Rational Theology (1915).

LOST GENERATION (1930-1970)

Fiction

Virginia Sorensen, The Evening and the Morning (1949)

Virginia Sorensen, Where Nothing ls Long Ago (stories, 1963), especially "The Darling Lady,"

Maureen Whipple, The Giant Joshua (1941 and 1977)

Samuel Taylor, Hearen Knows Why (comic novel, 1948 and 1979)

[Edward Geary, "The Poetics of Provincialism: Mormon Regional Fiction," Dialogue (Summer 1978); Bruce Jorgensen, "The Shape of Mormon Belief in Virginia Sorenson's The Evening..." Dialogue (Fall 1980); 43-61. Bruce Jorgensen, "Retrospection: Giant Joshua", Sunstone (1978); Richard Cracroft, "Freshet in the Dearth: S. Taylor's Heaven Knows Why and 'Mormon Humor,'" Proceedings of the Association for Mormon Letters, 1978].

FAITHFUL REALISM (1960-present)

Poetry

Clinton Larson, The Lord of Experience (1967) (See especially "Homestead in Idaho")

---. The Mantle of the Prophet and Other Plays (1966)

---. The Western World (1978) (see especially "Jesse" and "Lovers at Twilight")

---. "Letter from Israel Whiton, 1851," (C & L)

[John B. Harris, Review, BYU Studies (Winter 1968); Karl Keller, "A Pilgrimage of Awe," Dialogue (Autumn 1968); Thomas Schwartz, "Sacrament of Terror: Violence in the Poetry of Clinton Larson," Dialogue (Autumn 1974)];

Emma Lou Thayne, Spaces in the Sage (1971)

John S. Harris, Barbed Wire (1974)

Edward Hart, To Utah (1979)

Marden Clark, Moods, Of Late (1979); Carol Lynn Pearson

Bruce Jorgensen

Linda Sillitoe

Clifton Jolley

Elouise Bell

Dennis Clark

Fiction

Douglas Thayer, Under the Cottonwoods (1977)

---. "Red-tailed Hawk," Dialogue (Autumn 1969)

Don Marshall, The Rummage Sale (1972)

---. Frost in the Orchard (1977)

Eileen Kump, Bread and Milk (1980)

Bela Petsco, Nothing Very Important . . . (1979)

Dian Saterup, "A Blessing of Duty," Sunstone (May 1979)

Personal Essay

Hugh Nibley, Nibley on the Timely and the Timeless (1979)

Edward Geary, Goodbye to Poplarhaven (DATE)

"Personal Voices" section in many issues of Dialogue after 1971

Carole Hansen, "The Death of a Son" Dialogue (Autumn 1967) Karl Keller, "Every Soul Has Its South," Dialogue (Summer 1966)

Levi Peterson, "The Mormons and Wilderness," Sunstone (December 1979)

[Mary Bradford, "I, Eye, Aye . . ." Dialogue (Summer 1979); Clifton Jolley, "Mormons and the Beast," Dialogue (Autumn 1978)].
Drama

Robert Elliot, "Fires of the Mind," Sunstone (Winter 1975)

Tom Rogers, "Huebner" and "Reunion"

[Review of contemporary Mormon drama by "Bliss and Gump," Sunstone (Spring 1976)].
Biography

Edward and Andrew Kimball, Spencer W. Kimball (1977)

[Review, Eugene England and Charles Tate, BYU Studies (Summer 1978)].

History

Arrington, Fox, and May, Building the City of God (1976)

Arrington and Bitton, The Mormon Experience (1979). [Richard L. Bushman, "Faithful History," Dialogue (Winter, 1969).]

Folklore

Austin Fife, Saints of Sage and Saddle (1956)

Special issue on folklore of Utah Historical Quarierly (Fall 1976)

William A. (Bert) Wilson, "The Paradox of Mormon Folklore," BYU Siudies (Autumn 1976).