Item Detail
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30448
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1
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6
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English
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Mormon Letters
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The Oxford Handbook of Mormonism
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Cambridge, England
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Oxford University Press
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483-497
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This chapter traces the development of Mormon literature as a subcategory of American literature from pioneer period through to the twentieth century, focusing both on works produced by Mormons for Mormon audiences and on works by and about Mormons written for a general audience. Mormon Literature is grouped into four categories, the final two of which overlap in the contemporary period: (1) the “Home Literature” of the pioneer period; (2) the “Mormon diaspora” of the mid-twentieth century; (3) the contemporary literature written for a Mormon audience and published by Mormon presses, such as Deseret Book, and Mormon journals, such as Sunstone and Dialogue; and (4) the contemporary literature by Mormon writers marketed to a general audience. The chapter contains biographical and bibliographical information on the major Mormon writers from the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries, including Orson F. Whitney, Vardis Fisher, Virginia Sorensen, Levi Peterson, and Phyllis Barber.