Mormon Literature Database

Notice: The Mormon Literature & Creative Arts database has moved to mormonarts.lib.byu.edu.

Fiction \| View all Works in this Category	2336 total items.
Description The Mormon Literature Database attempts to include records of all fiction written by or about Mormons. These are placed in the categories of novel, novel excerpt, and short story (q.v.).
Associated Genres Novel, Novel Excerpt, Short Story,
Genre History Although Mormon fiction has flourished since the late twentieth century, the reading and writing of fiction was at first frowned upon in Mormon culture (see "From Foe to Friend: The Mormon Embrace of Fiction" and "How to Condemn Noxious Novels, by Brigham Young"), and in the nineteenth century depictions of Mormons by non-Mormons in popular fiction was almost universally inaccurate and sensational, and played off of stereotypes about polygamy and about the authoritarian leaders of the Mormon people as made popular in the tabloid press . Near the end of the nineteenth century Mormons began calling for a "home literature" (largely, but not exclusively, for consumption within the culture) and fictional stories and novels began slowly to appear, especially from certain figures such as Nephi Anderson and Susa Young Gates. In the 1930s and 40s second-generation and "expatriate" Mormons (our "Lost Generation") began publishing novels of high literary quality (though not esteemed well among Mormons until much later), and since the 1970s inspirational and historical fiction has become enormously popular within LDS markets.