Nephi, Seer of Modern Times

The Home Literature Novels of Nephi Anderson

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Nephi Anderson, known primarily among late twentieth-century Latter-day Saints as the author of Added Upon (1898), attempted in that widely read, ambitious failure, to encompass “all things in heaven and earth within 140 pages.” B. H. Roberts wrote this statement in admiration, but I assume Anderson knew better—at least, if he didn’t then, he would later, when he came to be a much more accomplished writer. Endowed as he was with a fine narrative gift, a rich imagination, and a keen sense of appreciation for literary style, Anderson subsequently attempted two major revisions of Added Upon in a futile effort to transform his wooden tour de force into a lively novel on par with his nine later works. Inevitably and sadly, Anderson has been dismissed—or heralded—on the basis of this first novel, when in fact he would be better served by study of his nine later—and always better—novels. Unfortunately, the nine later works are now generally unavailable and thus virtually ignored, and Anderson, if discussed at all by modern Mormon critics, is dismissed as a one-novel, one-failure author. The truth is otherwise. As an examination of Anderson’s ten novels, four additional books, forty various articles and at least forty-eight identified short stories makes impressively evident, Anderson was a vital and positive force in turn-of-the-century Mormon letters.

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Print ISSN: 2837-0031
Online ISSN: 2837-004X