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Christian Nephi Anderson [ Les boken ]

Av: Ole Podhorny



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CHRISTIAN NEPHI ANDERSON --
POPULAR "MORMON" AUTHOR
OF NORWEGIAN ORIGIN



by
Ole Podhorny







A Thesis Presented to The English Department
University of Oslo
Spring Term, 1980
Paper edition converted to pdf and text-files April 2022, then corrected by author. Any remaining mistakes are mine.

CONTENTS
PREFACE 4
INTRODUCTION 6

CHAPTER I: NEPHI ANDERSON'S LIFE 8
1. Family and Early Life 8
2. Immigration 9
3. Schoolteacher 11
4. Missionary in Norway 12
5. Educator and Author 16
6. Missionary and Editor in England 19
7. Educator in Salt Lake City 22
8. Mission Editor in Missouri 23
9. Editor, Librarian, and Author in Salt Lake City 23

CHAPTER II:
"MORMON" IMMIGRANT THEMES IN NEPHI ANDERSON'S WORKS 27
PART I: DESCRIPTION OF LIFE IN NORWAY
1. Geography and Economic Life 27
2. Social Classes 29
3. Attitude Toward Women 31
4. The Lutheran State Church 31
5. The "Mormon" Church 32
6. Emigration 35

PART II: DESCRIPTION OF THE IMMIGRANT JOURNEY 36

PART III: DESCRIPTION OF "MORMON" LIFE IN UTAH 39
1. Geography and Economic Life 39
2. Marriage 46
3. Children and Parental Authority 51
4. The "Mormon" Church 52
5. Social Life 55
6. Education 58

PART IV: EVALUATION OF NEPHI ANDERSON AS AUTHOR 62

CONCLUSION 67

FOOTNOTES 68

BIBLIOGRAPHY 86
PREFACE

This thesis evolved from Dr. Dorothy B. Skardal's seminar "Norwegian-American Writing as a Mirror of Immigrant Life" which I attended in the spring of 1975. At the time I was, as a practising Latter-day Saint, vaguely aware of a "Mormon" author of Norwegian origin, Nephi Anderson, who had become popular in Utah with a novel which contained some Norwegian immigrant themes. As the seminar progressed, and with Dr. Skårdal's enthusiastic encouragement, I became increasingly curious about finding out whether a study of Anderson's fiction would reveal anything about the particular "Mormon" immigrant experience. Dr. Skårdal soon put me in touch with Sam Weller's Bookstore in Salt Lake City which was very helpful in turning up second-hand copies of Nephi Anderson's books.
In April of 1977, I was invited as an employee of the Church Educational System of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to an international convention in Salt Lake City, Utah. Through the willing support of my CES employers, notably Dr. Dan J. Workman and Dr. Joe J. Christensen, I was able to extend my stay in Utah to six weeks in order to collect the remaining material. The help of many friendly people in the LDS Church Archives saved me countless hours. I am especially grateful to Nephi Anderson's grandson, Grant Allen Anderson, whom I found to be an employee of the Church Library. He copied for me all of Anderson's stories, articles, and poems from more than a hundred periodicals. In addition, he made available a typescript copy of Anderson's complete journal, let me use his own bibliography of Anderson's writings, and arranged a meeting with the author's surviving children. I am also indebted to Richard L. Jensen, research historian in the LDS Church Archives, for providing me on a loan basis hardbound copies of those of Anderson's novels which I could not obtain otherwise.
I also want to express appreciation to my present CES employers, Dr. Bruce M. Lake of Salt Lake City and Heinz Kraft von Selchow of Frankfurt, Germany who immediately granted the suggested two months' leave of absence necessary to finish the thesis. I am further indebted to my never-tiring advisor, Dr. Dorothy B. Skardal, who has taught me invaluable lessons through her constant support and enthusiasm.
Finally, I am grateful to my wife, Tone, for her patience during many lonely evenings and holidays which have been spent to complete the project.


INTRODUCTION

The aim of this thesis is to present an account of Nephi Anderson's life and analyze his fiction as possible source material on the immigrant experience of Norwegian "Mormons." In 1871, at age six, Christian Nephi Anderson left Christiania with.his parents for Utah in a religious gathering which finally brought more than forty thousand Scandinavians to the "Mormon" Zion. Less than thirty years later Anderson, now a school principal, emerged as author of the first "Mormon" novel published in Utah, which since then has remained quite popular. Anderson, who soon became the major writer of "Mormon" fiction, deals in some of his novels with the experience of "Mormon" converts in Norway and their emigration to Utah. In addition, he gives glimpses of family, church, and community life in Utah from the pioneer era to his own time.
It is of interest that an immigrant from Norway should come to occupy such a position as an English language writer in Utah. As far as I have been able to determine, no study has yet been made of Anderson's life and authorship, and I therefore find it valid to undertake such a project. After giving an outline of his life, I shall attempt to construct a picture of the "Mormon" immigrant experience from the glimpses he gives of it in his literature. The thesis is written primarily for non-"Mormon" readers who have little background knowledge of "Mormon" history, doctrine and special idioms. I have therefore tried to provide adequate explanations in footnotes to facilitate the understanding of "Mormon" terminology. However, I have also made an effort to keep in mind potential "Mormon" students in Utah who might find this study of value.
As no complete biography of Nephi Anderson's life exists, I shall try in chapter I to include from the available source material as many facts of his early life and family background as possible to give an impression of the environment in which he grew up. I shall further give an account of his career as educator and editor, a quite detailed description of his missionary labors in Norway and England, and also provide an outline of his major works of fiction.
In chapter II I shall try to draw a picture of the "Mormon" immigrant experience from those of Anderson's works which lend themselves to such analysis. By extracting immigrant themes from his fiction and occasionally comparing him with Lutheran immigrant authors in the Midwest, I shall attempt to evaluate to what extent Anderson's fiction can be of interest as source material on the "Mormon" immigrant experience.
The first part of chapter II deals with life in Norway, the second part with the journey to Utah, and the third part with certain aspects of life in Utah. Finally, in part four, I shall try to make an evaluation of Nephi Anderson as an author.
CHAPTER ONE
NEPHI ANDERSON'S LIFE

1 Family and Early Life
Nephi Anderson's family came from the Eastern part of Norway. His father, Christian Andersen, was born at Vestre Toten on May 12, 1833, the son of Anders Petersen and Gunhild Knudsen. The family was extremely poor, and Christian experienced much privation in his childhood. He managed, however, to acquire a fair basic education through the crude school of those days and through his own study.1
As a youth he went to Christiania and became apprenticed to a painter, Andreas Rasmussen, who joined the "Mormon" Church in the mid-fifties and emigrated to Utah.2 "Mormon" missionaries had started proselyting in Christiania in 1853 against strong opposition and had soon organized several "branches" or congregations in the city.3 Christian married Petronelle Nielsen of Aker in 1856 and moved into Rasmussen's former home "Malerstuen" at Vestre Aker with his young wife.4 Forty years later, Nephi on visiting Christiania, gave this description of his birthplace:
[The house] stood on a rising knoll, a few rods back from the road. It was a small, plain woodenstructure. The tiles on the roof and the boarding on the sides were nearly the same color of rusty red, the corners, cornice and porch being painted white… A stone wall extended along in front of the house.5
To Christian and Petronelle were born seven children in Christiania, one of whom died in infancy. The following six grew to maturity: Carl, Rachel, Richard, Christian Nephi, Gunda, and Peter.6
Christian Andersen was baptized into the "Mormon" Church in 1857 and Petronelle a year and a half later. Their conversion created quite a stir in the neighborhood. Christian was called to preside over the Aker branch of the Church,7 and the Church meetings were held in Malerstuen. According to neighbors, "The devils sat thick on the stone wall in front of the house while the Mormons held services within," Nephi noted in a childhood recollection.8 In 1861 Christian was called on a proselyting mission.9 Leaving his wife and three small children, he started northward to Trondheim, walking most of the way "without purse or scrip." He was gone for three and a half months. On his return he was reappointed president of the Aker branch. Two years later he was sent on another mission, which led to eight days in the Hamar jail and a fine of fifteen dollars for illegal preaching. An additional term of six days on bread and water was added later, when it was found that he had baptized several persons for the remission of their sins.10
Into this family and these circumstances, Christian Nephi was born on a cold January 22, 1865. He later recalled his father's situation: "He was not very rich in worldly goods in those days, and he could leave his family very little save his blessing." But "though in winter the walls of Malerstuen popped with cold, and the fare of its inmates were meager at times, yet there abode with them the peace that comes from a sense of duty well done." Nephi also carried with him "faint remembrances of wonderful Norwegian fairy tales told to the children by [his]father."11
However, like many other converts, the Andersens gradually experienced the material blessings of thrift and industry, as taught and practiced in the "Mormon." Church. Their financial situation improved and in 1868 Christian was able to build his own house on Munthes gade 39, a lot which he purchased for 197 specidaler.12 And there was spiritual growth as well. That same year he was called and sustained president of the large and prosperous Christiania branch.13 "Among the clearest of my childhood recollections," Nephi later wrote, "is that of my father's deep rich voice when he became eloquent in preaching."14
Christian further participated in the erection of the first building on the European continent owned by the "Mormon" Church, Osterhausgade 27. It was dedicated July 23, 1871. 15

2. Immigration
By that time, the Andersens had their plans ready to emigrate to Zion. "Mormon" doctrine taught them that all Latter-day Saints should do everything possible to "gather to Zion" (Utah). There they would also escape the constant trouble with Norwegian law officials and clergy. That very year (1871) a number of missionaries were imprisoned for preaching and baptizing.16 The Andersens were able to finance their journey by selling their house for 900 specidaler.17
On October 10, 1871, the whole family—parents and six children—sailed to Copenhagen where they joined a company of 71 other Scandinavian Saints. On the steamer Najaden they arrived in Hull, England, and continued by train to Liverpool to join about 230 British Saints who left there on the steamer Nevada of the G union Line. Thus, following the emigration pattern of thousands of "Mormons" who since the early 1830's had left Europe for Zion, six-year-old Nephi arrived in New York with his family on November 11, 1871.18 The transcontinental railroad had been finished in 1869, and except for a twelve-hour delay "on the plains at Pole Lodge station" where the train was stuck in the snow, the Andersens arrived quite comfortably in Utah by Union Pacific on November 11, 1871. They were met by William W. Cluff, former president of the Scandinavian Mission, who took them to Coalville. Here they lived for the next eight years.19
The "Mormon" immigrants in Utah had their "dog years" like their Scandinavian countrymen in the Middle West. The 1870's were difficult times in Utah. "Times have been dull here for a considerable period," Deseret News reported in 1878. "Not a few willing hands have been idle."20 Nephi wrote that, "Father had to struggle to provide for the family the first year. His work consisted in what painting he could get and other odd jobs."21 However, Christian and his family had, as average "Mormon" immigrants, a very real sense of building the Kingdom of God in a Latter-day Zion. Christian was ordained a High Priest in the Church22 and became High Councilor23 in the Summit Stake,24 which position he held till the fall of 1879. That year, when Nephi was fourteen, the family moved to Sand Ridge, west of Ogden, where they had bought forty acres of land.
There was a slow but steady improvement in family finances.
Father hewed logs in the mountains and shipped them to Ogden. We hauled them onto the land with our yoke of oxen… The land proved valueless for farming, so we, after two years [sic] struggles, moved our house onto an eight-acre piece which father had bought.25
These years Nephi "worked on the farm, painted in Ogden and went to school in winter at Wilson."26
When Nephi was nineteen and a Seventy27 in the Priesthood (1884), his father was called on a mission to Norway, leaving his family for a third time to preach the Gospel to his countrymen. A partial letter log which he kept while in Norway shows frequent correspondence with his sons Carl and Nephi. Owing to ill health, Christian returned to Utah after a year. In his absence Nephi with his brothers provided for the family through painting and farming. On his return, Christian, now 52, continued his occupation of house painting.28 As his health was no longer so good, the remainder of his life was less active.
Family sources indicate that he painted a landscape mural for the Summit Stake Tabernacle in Coalville, Utah, which was dedicated in 1899.29 He died while attending general conference in Salt Lake City, April 9, 1906.30

3. Schoolteacher
The work to provide for his parents in 1884-85 did not keep Nephi from attending school in winter. Knowledge was and is as important as faith and good works to obtain exaltation in God's Kingdom, according to "Mormon" doctrine. Nephi was able to pass his teacher's examination in Ogden in the spring of 1885 with an average of 94%. In the fall he started teaching in the Third Ward School house on Grant Avenue.31
There is little information about his activities in 1886 except that he on December 22 married Asenath Tillotson, whose parents had been converted to "Mormonism" in Missouri and subsequently settled with the Saints in the West.32 Apostle M.W. Merrill performed the ceremony in the Logan Temple.33 The young couple moved into a rented home in the Fourth Ward, Ogden, in which congregation Nephi served as assistant Sunday School superintendent and counselor in the Young Men's organization. In 1887 Asenath gave birth to a daughter, Ronella.
Teaching history—especially church history—fascinated Nephi so much that he wrote A Young Folks’ History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints which was published by the Deseret News in 1889. He felt that a study of the Church's history would "implant in our boys and girls a love for its heroes, a loyalty to its principles, and an appreciation of its achievements."35 Nephi Anderson continued teaching grade school in Ogden until 1890, when "the Liberals got in power and I was let out."36 That summer a son, Gerald Christian, was added to the family, and Nephi accepted a position in Brigham City, to teach in the Third Ward School, to which city the family moved in the fall.37
At this time his first stories began to appear in the Church youth publication, The Contributor, which encouraged young writers to submit their works for publication. His didactic purpose and "Mormon" subject matter dominate all these stories: "Lester Amsden's Love" (1890), "Grandmother's Rocking Chair" (1890), "Mary: A Story of Sagebrush Bench" (1890), and "Almina," a serial which ran from November 1891 till May 1892. But the material for a "Mormon" literature was readily available, and a pioneer writer was discovering it.

4. Missionary in Norway
The call to serve as a missionary for the Church came to Nephi Anderson as a natural part of his life. He recorded in his diary:
While in Ogden, during the summer of 1891, was met on the street by Pres. C.D. Fjeldsted who spoke to me about a mission. Said if I was called, would try to go. The call duly came, and I made preparations to leave. We stored our household goods in Bro. Browning's basement and Asenath…moved to Ogden where she lived with her parents. Left Ogden on mission Aug. 29, 1891.38
He served as a missionary in Norway till September 9, 1893. The first year he was assigned to Christiania as assistant to the Christiania conference and branch president,39 and was put in charge of the Sunday School and Young Men's organization. The summer and fall of 1892 he spent in the Tromsø branch, and from November 10, 1892, till August 28, 1893, he labored in the Arendal branch, which comprised a number of cities along the west coast of the Christiania fjord.
Nephi Anderson kept a journal from these years, in English. In it he made no comment about language problems, but that there was relearning to do can be deduced from an entry dated December 7, 1891: "In Church yesterday I spoke for 30 minutes, being greatly blessed in my language."40
He belonged to the second-generation missionaries whose accents marked them as foreigners and whose work did not yield as many converts as that of their fathers and predecessors.41 Their usual approach to people -- tract-selling from door to door -- was not very successful. Sometimes halls were rented and lectures advertised in the papers. In Arbeiderforeningens Hall in Tromsø "an audience of from three to four hundred listened attentively" to the two missionaries.42 But very few conversions resulted from these and from the smaller meetings held in members' homes. Yet Nephi could record a few convert baptisms in each place he labored. A typical instance was the baptism of twenty-year-old Helga Bjerke on May 18, 1892, in Akerselven. As was often the case, the ceremony was held at midnight to avoid interference from hecklers and law officials.
If prejudice made it hard to baptize converts, it was no easier task to bury them decently when they died. One of Nephi Anderson's first experiences in Christiania was the refusal by a sexton to let him hold "any ceremony" in the Aker Church-yard at the burial of an old faithful sister who had died in the poorhouse without relinquishing her "Mormon" faith.44 Anti-"mormon" activities were real enough. Nephi attended one of Pastor Andreas Mortensen's many lectures on Utah ("the usual thrash")45 and witnessed the ordination ceremony of five new ministers in the Lutheran State Church, one of whom was "going to Utah to convert the Norsk Mormons."46
In accordance with missionary habits of those days, Nephi took considerable time free for sightseeing in the areas where he labored. His diary is full of descriptions from these visits.47 In Christiania he enjoyed the Fall Art Exhibition and attended Kunstnernes Fest in Tivoli. He went to hear lectures at the University on Norwegian history and on the progress of Christianity. He witnessed the opening of the Norwegian Parliament and listened to it in session. He enjoyed Ibsen's A Doll's House at the Christiania Theatre but was unimpressed by the World Championship race at the crowded Frognerkilen skating rink. He saw Botsfengslet, "a prison of the most severe kind," and he visited the Nydalen cotton mills as well as a horseshoe factory in Maridalen. Naturally he went to see his birthplace Malerstuen at Vestre Aker, and he also paid visits to some of his mother's relatives, who received him well. He must have felt a certain heaviness in Norwegian personality for even the 17th of May celebration "lacked the vim and enthusiasm displayed in America."
When heading for North Norway with A.M. Israelsen, another Norwegian-born missionary, Nephi Anderson stopped in Trondheim to visit the Cathedral before continuing by coastal steamer to Tromsø. This mode of transportation was not always pleasant in the third-class section to which the young missionaries were referred because of meager budgets. Anderson later joked: "A traveler once asked one of our Elders why the Mormon missionaries always traveled third class. 'I suppose it is because there's no fourth class,' was the reply."48 Their situation clearly set them apart from other Americans travelling in Norway. "We poor Mormon Americans are suffering on account of the rich American tourists as of course all Americans are rich and must be able to pay a good price for everything."49
The summer months in North Norway provided the background for rich and varied experiences. At Kasfjorden, the birthplace of his companion, A.M. Israelsen, Nephi learned about Lofoten codfishing from experienced sea-captains.
He greatly enjoyed fishing in the Tromsøsund under the Midnight sun. Less pleasant was a visit to the old Trondenes Kirke—"gloomy, cold and full of bad air," due to "tobacco spit, dirt…and stacks of coffins containing embalmed bodies" in the anterooms.50
People were not easy to convert here. "This whole country is dead to the Gospel and it seems sometimes as if we can make no headway," he wrote to Asenath from Tromsø.51 Prejudice ran deep. "Oh, excuse me," a "fine" lady once exclaimed when she realized she was conversing nicely with a pair of "Mormon" missionaries, "I don't wish to be found talking to such horrible people."52
As winter approached, Nephi Anderson was assigned to the Arendal branch, which really covered the Vestfold and Telemark areas as well. His residence was at Laurvig (Larvik) to which city he came November 11, 1892. One of his first activities was to pay a visit to Nansen's ship Fram which was being built for its North Pole expedition. He left his Article of Faith card with name and address in a crack by one of the bunks.53 Some months later he witnessed the launching of the ship in Sandefjord. ("The crowd gave a weak Norwegian cheer and then dispersed.")54
In Porsgrund he visited the China and the Glass factories and recorded detailed descriptions of the production processes. He also found time to inspect the Ulefoss Woodpulp Factory in Telemarken. The mountains impressed him: "One can hardly imagine more delightful…beautiful scenery… The air reminds me of some of Utah's higher valleys.55
He made notes of social customs which differed from his Utah background, for instance that it was "somewhat a 'lowering' for a man to do "certain kind of farmwork designated for the "budeie" [dairy maid].56 The Protestant Confirmation practice intrigued him. "The boys can now smoke their cigars and pipes and carouse like their older brethren… Such is modern Christendom."57
On June 23, arriving tired and dripping wet from rain on the island of Ono, he was amazed that the Church members who were to be their hosts "had no accommodations for us, as it was their intention that we should be up all night, it being St. Hans evening [midsummer night's eve]."58
All in all, Nephi Anderson seems to have enjoyed his mission experience. He never revealed any doubt or discouragement in his diary. His only note on homesickness was on his fifth wedding anniversary, when he recorded: "A little lonesome tonight when I think of it."59 In contrast he often wrote about missionary conferences as "a splendid time" or "a week of enjoyment and activity." He evidently gained a deeper appreciation for his native land and a greater knowledge of its people and culture. When he returned to the U.S., he had material for several books which he would write in the years to come.
Nephi Anderson left Christiania, on September 9, 1893, by boat via Christiansand to Hull, England, and then to Liverpool by train. He visited some of his wife's relatives in Bradford before continuing on the S.S. Alaska with 876 other passengers to New York. In Chicago he stopped to visit the World's Fair and some of his mother's relatives. On October 5, 1893, he arrived at Ogden and "found the folks all right!60

5. Educator and Author
The following years were to be extremely busy and full of events. On his return from his mission to Norway in 1893, Anderson took his family back to Brigham City, where he had taught school before he left. Ronella was then six, Gerald was three. From his journal it appears that he was somewhat reluctant about starting where he left off before his mission. "I went to inquire and at last accepted the school. It is but the intermediate department with a salary of $40 per month."61
He enjoyed teaching, however. For two years he attended summer school and in the fall of 1895 his efforts were rewarded by his appointment as principal of the Fourth Ward School, which assignment he found very satisfactory. These were happy and successful years. The year 1895 is full of pleasant entries in his journal: riding to Ogden in a sleigh with his family to watch Shakespeare's Henry the IV; attending general conference in Salt Lake with Asenath; helping his father and brothers paint and do farm work; baptizing Ronella when she turned eight; attending Scandinavian Conference meetings in the Salt Lake Tabernacle.
In the summer of 1896, he spent four months as substitute editor and manager of the Brigham City Bugler. Then in 1897, after four years in a rented home, the Andersons bought a two-roomed brick house for $445. With the addition of baby Laurine, born in 1896, the family must have been quite pleased to finally have their own home.
Nephi Anderson passed the State Teacher's Examination the summer of 1898 and "got 92%”.62 Then in 1900 he was elected County Superintendent of Schools in Box Elder County, being reelected in 1902.63
But there were disappointments and sorrowful moments as well. His baby son Arnold died in 1894, Joseph Henry in 1899, and Charles Roscoe in 1901. In addition, his brother, Carl, died of typhoid fever in 1897 and his mother, Petronelle, passed away in 1903.
Then on Christmas Day, 1903, Asenath became ill with heart trouble, from which she had been suffering for a few years. Laurine recalls how her father had made her pedal her mother's sewing machine in order to save Asenath's strength.64 But this time such measures were in vain. "She grew worse from day to day until the morning of Jan. 26, 1904 when she passed away.65 While watching his wife approach death after seventeen years of marriage, Nephi may have read to her a poem he had recorded in his journal a few years earlier, which perhaps indicates something about their relationship:
Darling, for thy unmurmuring task imposed,
For thy unswerving faith and steadfastness, For thy unceasing love for me and mine,
I bless thee and thank our Father kind For such as thee.
Ah, yes; that love that deepens more with age, And mellows to a sweeter thing --
As years roll on -- that love, Asenath, dear,
Has taken us both captive in his arms,
And bears us on to nobler things and joy,
As the river flows forever in its course
And bears its waters onward to the sea.66

But Nephi Anderson had done more writing during these years than recording poems in his journal. As he had started before his mission to Norway, he continued to use his summer and Christmas vacations to write stories for The Contributor. In 1894 he received first prize ($25) for his story "The finding of the Pearl", taken from the Norwegian mission field; and second prize for two other stories, "Tallie" and A Conscience from "Carthage". The following year the Contributor gave him $50 for "Beyond the Arctic Circle", reminiscences from his mission in North Norway. It was serialized November 1894 - May 1895, but it seems that he had originally planned it as a book.67 In 1896 he wrote "Children of God", which was published in book form by the Deseret News Press in 1898 as Added Upon. Part of the story is set in Norway. "A Daughter of the North" appeared in 1897 in the Juvenile Instructor, the Church Sunday School Journal. This Norwegian love story was later revised and appeared in book form in 1915. In 1897 he wrote Marcus King, Mormon which was serialized in the Juvenile Instructor in 1899 and published as a book in 1900 by the Deseret News Press. The same year he also reprinted A Young Folks' History of the Church with George Q. Cannon and Sons Co. "The Castle Builder," another novel in a Norwegian setting, was published in The Improvement Era in 1901 and appeared in book form the following year. In 1903 he wrote "The Higher Law," where he with great idealism presented the challenges of contracting plural marriages at the peak of the persecutions in the late 1880's. But the subject was still too controversial: the novel was never published.68
During these years of increased book publications, he continued to write short stories, poems and articles for such Church Magazines as The Contributor, The Improvement Era, Juvenile Instructor, and Women's Exponent.69

6. Missionary and Editor in England
Nephi Anderson's talents as educator, author, and faithful Church leader did not pass unnoticed at Church headquarters. His journal records frequent visits with B.H. Roberts70 of the Improvement Era, John Q. Cannon of the Juvenile Instructor,71 and John Evans72 of the Deseret News in connection with his literary production. Joseph F. Smith, who had once ordained him a High Priest, was now President of the Church. Apostle Heber J. Grant, who remembered him as "one of the most capable and faithful and energetic of all the stake superintendents in the Church,"73 was President of the European and British Mission, and when he needed a new Associate Editor for the Millenial Star,74 Nephi Anderson, now 39, was called on a two-year mission to fill that assignment. He should have left January 27, 1904, but his wife's sudden death put off his departure date. The children were placed in the care of "Aunt Belle and Uncle Dave."75 Ronella was seventeen, Gerald fourteen, and Laurine eight. It was probably not easy to leave the children right after their mother's death, but to Nephi, in his grief, the grave was "not the limit of thought and hope, but merely an incident on the onward march, an experience in God's school of immortality."76
On March 22 Nephi received his "second endowments" (the highest sacred ordinances available to "Mormons") in the Salt Lake Temple, and the following day he was on a train bound eastward.77 He stopped in Washington D.C. to visit Congress and see Apostle and Senator Reed Smoot, whose Norwegian mother had crossed the plains half a century earlier. On April 9, 1904, he landed at Liverpool from the S.S. Critic. Until his departure on August 31, 1906, he would be stationed at the Church headquarters at 40, Holly Road, Liverpool, except for the first three weeks when he was assigned to London. He would see many other parts of Europe, however. In 1905 he visited Ireland, Holland and Germany with President Heber J. Grant and his family, and from April 1906 till the end of his mission he travelled extensively in Europe, visiting well known placed in Holland, France, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Scotland, and England.
Nephi Anderson's first assignment in London was that of public relations work among newspaper editors. "There has been considerable newspaper agitation in this city of late against the Latter-day Saints and it was thought best for me to come here and do what I could if there was any chance for replies." There was. The London Daily Sun printed an article that he wrote a week after his arrival. He visited the editors of Daily Mirror, Morning Leader and Reynolds Newspaper, being "pleasantly received", though some were more receptive to his articles than others.78
At the same time, he was also initiated into the business of street meetings while working with the proselyting missionaries. Street meetings could be quite exciting in London. Once "a young man interrupted [him] continually with expressions such as 'Dirty dogs from Salt Lake City,'" and another time "my conversations with a young man…drew such a crowd that the police told us we had to cease."79
Back in Liverpool he commenced his assignment as associate editor of the Millennial Star while at the same time engaging in other kinds of missionary activities. He spoke at street meetings, town halls, and missionary conferences, lectured on "Mormonism" to the Liverpool Secular Society, attended baptisms at midnight in the Brighton River. On a special assignment to a conference in Holland he spoke in place of Heber J. Grant, who was sick.80 He found time to educate himself culturally by seeing most of the famous places and points of interest in England and on part of the Continent. He was a faithful theatre attender and enjoyed some of England's finest actors. Also in Paris, Berlin, and Zurich he sought out and enjoyed famous plays, operas, concerts, and museums. In the spirit of "Mormonism" he made a genuine effort to absorb and digest the best of what European culture had to offer.
In Stockholm, he was with a party that was granted audience with King Oscar of Sweden.81 In Norway he revisited his former birthplace and home.82
But his concern and preoccupation with social and human problems was more profound than his interest in art and culture. To him the most impressive sight in Germany was not the Kaiser riding by in his brilliant uniform on a prancing steed, but "the sight of four poor, old women, following the body of some dear one to the grave."83
In England, he made several visits to the Liverpool Police Courts and the city slums to observe the darker side of English life. 84
All these experiences, sights and insights gave him more material for his literary production as well as refined him both as a human being and as an author. While in Liverpool he wrote very little fiction. But he did find time to update his Young Folk's History of the Church,85 and he wrote a preface to the third edition of Added Upon. He cannot have given up the hope of someday publishing his other great love story "The Higher Law," because he went through it again and made some corrections.86
His family was often on his mind. He took time to write letters to each of his children.87 He had enlargements made of Asenath's picture, one of which he hung over his bed; the other was shipped to his children with a poem about their mother. On her 37th birthday he recorded:
Dear Lord, to her who lives with thee
My birthday gift confer
That she today may think of me
As I now think of her.88

Judging by his letters to his children, he made a real effort to be a good father to them in spite of the geographical distance.
When in August of 1906 he left Europe, it would be for the last time. A poem he wrote upon the occasion, "The Home Call," reveals where his roots were:
A grey-sage reach of barren plain,
A wild aroma of the hills,
A gentle murmur of the rills --
These draw me westward once again. 89

7 Educator in Salt Lake City
Back in Utah in the fall of 1906, Nephi Anderson settled with his children in Salt Lake City where he obtained a position as teacher at the Latter-day Saint University -- really a high school. Here he taught English and missionary classes.90 He enjoyed this assignment very much and stayed in it for the next three years when another mission call came to him.
In the summer of 1907, he met Maud Symons whom he married one year later in the Salt Lake Temple. They moved into a house they had built on 722nd East 400 South, a lot given to Maud by her parents. Maud gave birth to a son, Dean, the year after (1909).91
In his church activities Anderson served as a guide on Temple Square and alternate High Councilor in the Liberty Stake, as well as member of the General Priesthood Curriculum Writing Committee.92
He did not publish any books during these years, only one longer story, "Romance of a Missionary," in Improvement Era, 1908, which would appear in book form eleven years later. Not surprisingly, it was a novel in the English setting which was so fresh in his memory. In addition, he wrote a few short stories on gospel themes for the Church magazines.

8 Mission Editor in Missouri
In July 1909, Nephi met Apostle Heber J. Grant in the Era office, who told him that he was wanted on another mission to edit Liahona, the Elders' Journal in Missouri. Again, he responded willingly, but this time his family came with him, that is, his wife and the two youngest children, Laurine, and baby Dean.93
In Independence, Missouri, once designated by Joseph Smith as the Center of Zion, Nephi Anderson came in close contact with the history of the Church. He visited Joseph Smith III, son of the Prophet who was still living. He also attended an annual conference of the Reorganized Church94 and a Hedreckite95 conference on the temple lot.96
In the year he spent in Missouri he worked on his fifth and enlarged edition of Added Upon and completed another novel, "Piney Ridge Cottage," which was published as a serial in the Juvenile Instructor in 1911.
In his journal, Nephi made frequent complaints about the hot and humid weather. He was probably quite happy when he was called back to Salt Lake City in August of 1910 where he was offered the position of Librarian of the Utah Genealogical and Historical Society.97

9. Editor, Librarian, and Author in Salt Lake City
When Nephi Anderson was assigned as Editor of the Utah Genealogical and Historical Magazine and Librarian for the same society, it was to relieve Joseph Fielding Smith of some of the work he had as secretary of the organization after his call as apostle in 1910.98 The magazine had been founded the same year. Nephi remained in this job until his death. His office was located in the Church Historian's Office, which in 1917 was moved into the new Church Office Building together with the First Presidency and the Council of the Twelve. 99
He travelled extensively for the Society, holding workshops and seminars on genealogy work in the western states and Canada. At a time when the young Genealogical Society of Utah was small compared to other similar societies in the United States, he foresaw that Utah would one day have the "largest and best equipped" genealogical library in the world.100 He was also engaged in the preliminary planning stages of indexing all temple work done in the Church.101
In addition to his travel for the Genealogical Society, he also travelled for the Church as a member of the General Board of the YMMIA,102 a position to which he was called in 1911. He visited the various stakes of the Church, giving instructions and encouragement to local youth leaders. In 1920 he wrote a junior lesson manual for the MIA entitled "Campfire Stars."103 In his own stake he was recalled to his previous position and served as alternate High Councilor.104
In the mornings and during vacations, he still found time to write. Another six books were published before his death, while Added Upon continued to be reprinted; in 1912 came the fifth and enlarged edition. Piney Ridge Cottage, which he had written in Missouri, was published by the Deseret News in 1912. It was adopted as a reading course for the MIA.105 Its sequel, The Story of Chester Lawrence, was printed the year after, also by Deseret News. In 1915, Nephi published A Daughter of the North at his own expense, his "first venture into the publishing business.106
The book was an improved and rewritten version of a story in the Juvenile Instructor of 1897.107 His following three books were printed by Zion's Printing and Publishing Company in Missouri: John St. John in 1917, Romance of a Missionary in 1919, and The Boys of Springtown in 1920. His last book, Dorian, was published by Bikuben in 1921, a Norwegian-Danish newspaper and publishing company which had issued Added Upon in Danish in 1917 as Kroned med herlighed.
During the last thirteen years of his life, Nephi Anderson's family grew by another five children: Ruth Arzella in 1911, Grant in 1913, Harald in 1916, Charles in 1918, and Mary in 1921. Meanwhile, two children of his first marriage had married, Ronella in 1912 and Gerald in 1913, but Gerald died in California two years later. Nephi was with Gerald when he died and brought his son's body home.108
From 1917, he took a number of auto trips with his family. Laurine remembers he owned a Model T-Ford which he purchased second hand from Joseph Fielding Smith. She "never heard him swear, even when it would not start."109
Nephi's last journal entry is from December 23, 1922. "In the morning was feeling very well. Went to the office. Came home about one o'clock after trying to do some Christmas shopping. Was very sick when I came home, headache and sick to stomack (sic)"110
He died January 6, 1923, in the LDS Hospital following an appendectomy.111
The funeral services in the Tenth Ward were attended by an impressive number of Church leaders who spoke in remembrance of the deceased: Heber J. Grant, President of the Church; Rudger Clawson, President of the Council of the Twelve; George A. Smith, apostle and later President of the Church; Joseph Fielding Smith, apostle and later President of the Church; A.W. Ivins of the First Council of Seventy; and John A. Widsoe, apostle, prominent educator, scientist, and also a Norwegian-born immigrant. Repeated praise emphasized his faith, his devotion, his modesty and humility, and his ability to make the principals of the Gospel appealing to young people through his fiction. Added Upon was particularly praised. One speaker suggested that Nephi Anderson in his own life had acted out the story of Added Upon.112


















CHAPTER TWO
"MORMON" IMMIGRANT THEMES IN NEPHI ANDERSON'S WORKS
PART I: DESCRIPTION OF LIFE IN NORWAY1

Unlike Norwegian immigrant writers in the Middle West who wasted little effort in describing the Old-World background to fellow immigrants who already knew it well, Nephi Anderson furnished detailed descriptions of the Old Country for his Utah reading audience, who for the most part did not know much about Norway. Two of Anderson's books are laid entirely in Norway, The Castle Builder (1901) and A Daughter of the North (1915), and these together with Added Upon (1898) describe many aspects of life in Norway at the end of the nineteenth century.

1. Geography and Economic Life
Most of Anderson's characters come from the rural districts in Vestfold and Telemark. Some of them, like Harald Einersen in The Castle Builder and Atelia Heldman in A Daughter of the North, have relatives whom they visit along the coast in North Norway. This allows Anderson to depict life in this part of the country also—areas where he had labored as a missionary in the early nineties. He describes for his readers the whole spectrum of Norway's high mountains, narrow valleys, dark forests, shining lakes and fjords, and rocky islands. The description is often more romantic than accurate. Heimstad, for instance, the Telemarken family estate of Atelia Heldman, is situated beside a lake amid fields and dark, green forests; in the distance the lofty Dovre mountains dim and blue against the sky.2
However, the land of the Midnight Sun is also a country of snowstorms and cold winters which kill fishermen, isolate communities and shorten the growing season for the farmers. The severe climate and poor soil affect adversely the economy of the people. The Gundersen family faces a daily battle for survival in The Castle Builder, which includes experiences partly drawn from the childhood recollections of Nephi Anderson's parents.3 Einar Gundersen is a small farmer who has to hire out on other farms and earn additional income to buy the food that his own soil cannot produce. Harald Einersen, the hero of the story, remembers being constantly hungry as a child. In order to stretch the food supply, reindeer moss, rye straw, cooked bones, and the inner bark of the fir tree are dried and ground into flour. Harald's fourteenth birthday is made memorable because his grandmother to celebrate the day uses half wheat flour in their porridge for dinner.4 The situation is much the same for Signe Dahl's parents in Added Upon, who try to wrest a living from a rock-ribbed island in Nordal, while Signe spends the summer months herding cows for their landlord in mountain pastures.5
In Anderson's novels, the fishermen in Lofoten and North Norway seem to be somewhat better off economically than small farmers and cotters. Harald Einersen from Opdal is glad when he is old enough to join his uncle for a few years up north in the Lofoten fishing adventure. There he is able to make enough money for himself and his grandmother back in Opdal, as well as start a small savings account in the bank. Fishing is a tough life, however, and the sea keeps permanently many of the men who come after her treasures. Thus, Harald's best friend, John Bernsen, freezes to death on a tragic stormy night at sea, leaving his wife a widow. 6
Isolation does not seem to be a problem in the Norway Anderson knew and described. Coastal communities have contact with the outside world through regular boat arrivals, although in some rare instances the mail comes only once every three weeks.7 Tourists and businessmen travel frequently along the coast: Thora Bernard's father in The Castle Builder is a prosperous merchant who travels all over Norway on business trips. Halvor Steen in A Daughter of the North is also a travelling businessman. In the inland rural districts people can always get by horse and carriage to the nearest stopping place for train or ferry if they want to go far. Since it is only nine miles from Opdal to Vangen in The Castle Builder, people like Harald's grandmother think nothing of setting out to walk that distance to go shopping.8

2. Social Classes
Just as climate and geography affected the economic life of the people, Anderson maintains that it also influenced their personality. Atelia Heldman in A Daughter of the North, who visits her Uncle Lars in a fjord-bygd on the north-west coast, thinks that "he was like the ruggedness about him; and it seemed improbable that he had ever laughed aloud."9 As for Atelia herself, "the still waters of the lakes and fjords, the pine-clad hills of her home land had nourished her soul and helped to make her what she was."10 Waldemar Larsen, young American missionary, has his own theory, that the beauty of nature must have a compelling influence on the people surrounded by it. "How can ugliness within stand the pressure of such beauty without?" he reasons.11 Halvor Steen claims that the Norwegians' love of liberty is "inspired by mountain and sea.”
However, liberty-loving, the people were quite conscious of belonging to different social classes. We have glimpsed the poverty of the rural smallholders, and Anderson also portrays upper-class characters. Fru Steen, Halvor's mother in A Daughter of the North, is for instance "of the few 'best' families of democratic Norway who prided themselves on not belonging to the common people."13
To her house Pastor Fjelbo, the minister, comes for dinner, "a very fine man, and so learned."14 A small gathering of the prominent men in the fishing village of Aanes shows the kind of people constituting an upper class: the parish priest, the schoolmaster, a ship captain, and Harald Einersen, former school master.15
Wealth and education separate Henrik Bogstad, rich young landowner in Added Upon who has studied at the University of Christiania, and Signe Dahl, beautiful daughter of one of his tenants. Henrik is criticized by his friends for showing so much interest in a girl below his social class. Signe, on the other hand, feels very uncomfortable in his presence and prefers the company of poor fishermen's sons. Her behavior annoys Signe's father, who sees her possible union with Henrik as a chance to get out of their poverty. To escape from this conflict, Signe emigrates to America.16
A good illustration of the social classes of Norway is given in The Castle Builder in the story of Harald Einersen, who climbs from the bottom to the top of the social ladder -- at least in the rural district society. As the son of a small farmer, he feels uncomfortable and inferior in the company of Thora Bernard, daughter of a wealthy merchant. However, his ambition makes him excel in school and in confirmation instruction, because he hopes one day to become a schoolmaster or a learned minister and thus be worthy of Thora. His grandmother has taught him that "it matters very little what our forefathers were, but it matters very much what we are…what you amount to will depend upon your own endeavors."17
Confirmation day is a setback for him as the local pastor fails to place him as number one in the line-up on the church floor although he had led the class all year, but rather puts him behind some sons of wealthy parents. Later he joins his uncle in the Lofoten fishing adventure, saving money for his planned education. Then he attends the University for four years, fishing in Lofoten during vacations. He becomes a teacher, then a schoolmaster (principal). However, he soon after comes into conflict with the local pastor because what he teaches in a physics class is contrary to the church catechism. Harald is forced to resign as a school principal, but with no regrets he goes into politics and runs for Parliament. His conversion to "Mormonism" puts an end to that career. Later he becomes Merchant Bernard's business manager and friend, thus at last reaching a position equal socially to that of the woman he loves. Her conversion to "Mormonism" resolves the final conflict, and they marry and emigrate.

3. Attitude Toward Women
A few words ought to be said about the position of Norwegian women. There is nowhere evidence of great injustice towards women, but Nephi Anderson must have experienced Norway as somewhat backward when he found in 1891 that Norwegian women could not yet vote. In Utah women had had their suffrage since 1870. In his stories, Anderson continually shows women just as capable as men both in working skills and management. Atelia Heldman, heroine of A Daughter of the North, wins the National Regatta for large boats, and the official who announces the prize winners pays a glowing tribute to the women of Norway:
They are capable and they are worthy to be our equals in every good thing. After a while, all you good women will cast your ballot with your brothers and some of you will sit with them in the law-making body of our land.18

4. The Lutheran State Church
Anderson shows that the pastor was more influential than the school principal in the Norwegian rural district. He represented both Church and State, and his superior education set him apart. But the fact that he was associated with the upper class alienated him from the common people. In The Castle Builder Harald Einersen thinks that the minister is cold and formal in his instruction, and like many characters in Norwegian literature, he prefers school to catechism. Remembering the unfair treatment he received from the local minister on his confirmation day because of his social rank, 19 a few years later Harald takes direct action against clerical injustice. In the fishing village of Vagsund, he opposes the local pastor who tries to refuse his cousin Johan a Christian burial. The pastor claims Johan had not been a Christian because he had disagreed with a few Lutheran doctrines. However, the group pressure Harald is able to mobilize, forces the pastor to perform the ceremony after all. 20 Harald also accuses the state-church ministers of being insincere. He dislikes the "sanctimonious smile so characteristic of so many preachers."21 Another complaint he has is that they never appeal to reason or good sense, only to the Bible or the catechism.22
Lutheran theology is not satisfactory to the heroes and heroines of Anderson's books either. "I believe in God, I believe in Jesus Christ," says Johan Bernsen in The Castle Builder, "but I do not believe much of the stuff that is preached now-a-days. It seems that the religion of the preachers is so unreal, so unreasonable, so out of harmony with everything else in life… [Religion] should not be apart from nature, from science, or from any known truth, but should harmonize with them all."23
Harald Einersen cannot accept that millions of good people who have lived without knowing Christianity in this life, will all go to hell as the ministers teach, and that there is no hope for them beyond the grave. He cannot reconcile such doctrines with his own vision of a just and merciful God. "What a small place heaven must be and how immense must be the borders of hell!"24 Johan Bonden in Daughter complains that people "have been so grounded in the doctrine of being saved by faith alone that they think it is a sin to do anything for their salvation. It's against all sense and reason. Do we ever get anything in this life without working for it?"25

5. The "Mormon" Church
To such people the missionaries of the "Mormon" Church as well as their message have a great appeal. Anderson portrays the "Mormon" elders as common people, who look other people straight in the eyes and do "not have a clerical air."26 They stand clearly apart from the upper-class Lutheran ministers as well as from the Haugeans and other Christian dissenters. Harald Einersen is impressed when Elder Olsen in The Castle Builder listens to him, reasons logically with him, and gives satisfactory answers to all his questions about God's purposes with man. Although his speech is broken (the problem of most second-generation missionaries from Utah), it is simple and natural.27 Henrik Bogstad in Added Upon, who calls back a young smiling American missionary whom he at first had given a rough treatment, is surprised to discover that the missionary is neither offended nor aggressive in his behavior. He lets Henrik ask whatever questions he wants and gives good answers.28 Captain Heldman in Daughter evidently appreciates that Elder Waldemar Larsen goes to boat races and joins their company at the ball at Brevik, although he is a missionary and a preacher.29 Harald Einersen's father in The Castle Builder immediately takes a liking to the two missionaries who help Harald in the hayfield before a meeting. For the missionaries this is only natural: Farming is their occupation back in America.30. For the majority of the Norwegian population, however, prejudice keeps them from ever becoming acquainted with the "Mormon" missionaries and their message. For one thing, the basic attitude of "what was good enough for our fathers, is good enough for us" which Halvor Steen warns Waldemar Larsen about,31 makes most people suspicious about any "new-fangled religion imported from America."32 For instance, in Daughter when Atelia Heldman gives a Book of Mormon to a young cousin to read, the girl comes crying back, explaining that her mother had "jerked the book out of [her] hand and [thrown] it in the fire…"33 Henrik Bogstad in Added Upon is accused by his relatives of "bringing the whole family into disrepute," because he is seriously investigating the message of the "Mormon" elders.
"You associate with a people known everywhere as the scum of the earth -- you are disgracing us."34 The same label—"the scum of the earth"—is used in Daughter by Fru Steen, who is surprised to see her potential daughter-in-law defend the "Mormons" to Pastor Fjelbo.35 Atelia's Uncle Sande admits openly that he has treated Elder Larsen like a tramp "because that's just what he is, no more, no less..."36 Similar treatment is given to Elder Olsen in The Castle Builder when he is invited in for lodging on a stormy night and then sent back into the storm when the host discovers he is a "Mormon."37 These attitudes might be expected in a country where for the previous four decades, imprisonment had been the official reaction to the activities of "Mormon" missionaries. Of course, this did not make it more appealing to join the church.36
Whatever one's social status before joining, it was always a step down the ladder to convert to "Mormonism," the religion at the very bottom of the prestige scale.38
Harald Einersen in The Castle Builder, who before his conversion had climbed from the bottom to the top in social status, finds himself after his conversion "homeless in his native land, and friendless in the midst of hundreds of friends."39 He can never again become a schoolteacher in Norway. He deliberately chooses "contempt, degradation in the eyes of friends, the loss of honor and respect and living all your life in common poverty."40
When Thora Bernard joins the church, her wealthy father disowns her, and he no longer wants to see her or hear her name mentioned. Harald Einersen even notices that the pictures of Thora are hanging with the glass to the wall in the merchant's home.41 It is hard for relatives and friends of converts as well. Henrik Bogstad's fiancée in Added Upon exclaims after his baptism, "Could you but hear the talk -- I hear it, and people look so strangely at me, and pity me… I can't stand it!"42
In Anderson's stories most converts to the "Mormon" Church come from the middle and poorer classes, but probably most Norwegians belonged to these classes.43 For the few upper-middle class people who are converted, the sacrifice of social status is shown as especially hard. Atelia Heldman, mistress at Heimstad in A Daughter of the North, who had many influential friends both in Christiania and Telemark, confesses after her conversion to the Nordøs, poor working-class ',Mormons", that "you are about the only friends I have left."44 Conversion to "Mormonism" has a tendency to level all barriers of wealth and position or learning between the converts.45 Thora Bernard and Harald Einersen in The Castle Builder "found keen pleasure" in meeting the members in Christiania, "many of whom were of the poorer classes; but the love that went with each firm handshake testified that they were indeed brethren and sisters."46 It is mentioned that Henrik Bogstad after his conversion in Added Upon "mingled more freely with his tenants" than he had done before. He gives them better treatment and they notice and appreciate the change.47 For cotter Einer Gundersen in The Castle Builder, his conversion means that he stops using his wages for drink, quits smoking, and becomes a better husband and provider for his family. His self-confidence is further strengthened when according to "Mormon" practice, he is ordained an elder in the Priesthood soon after his baptism.48

6. Emigration
The love and unity among the Church members in Andersons's stories as well as the fact that they are encouraged to gather to Zion from a spiritual Babylon of sin, prejudice and persecution, makes it relatively easy for the converts to emigrate. This correctly reflects the actual situation according to the historian William Mulder.49 Harald Einersen's non-"Mormon" uncle in Nordland could state about America that "that's where we all ought to go,"50 and then still remain in Norway, but for the converts to the Church in Anderson's stories it is really not a great sacrifice to leave Norway. As already indicated, the sacrifice had been made when joining the "Mormons." That was when they had become homeless -- which they remain until they reach Zion or Utah, their real home.51 The desire to gather with the saints of God grows as a natural part of their conversion. In Added Upon Henrik Bogstad discovers that "America" had new meaning for him now. Before it had been simply a new wonderland with untold possibilities in a material way. But added to this there was now the fact that in America the Latter-day Zion was to be built; there the people of God were gathering, were building temples, preparatory to the glorious coming of the Lord."52 He remains in Norway as long as he can to care for his mother and sister. Then
the westward call became so strong that [he] disposed of…his interests in Norway and moved with his family to America…Here he enjoyed the association of the saints and his children of the faith.53
For young couples like Thora Bernard and Harald Einersen in The Castle Builder and Atelia Heldman and Halvor Steen in Daughter, it is only natural to leave. They want to marry, not only for this life, but according to "Mormon" belief and practice, "for time and all eternity." This ceremony must take place in the holy temples of God, which at the time of the novels exist only in Utah.54

PART II: DESCRIPTION OF THE IMMIGRANT JOURNEY

Historians Mulder and Seljaas show that once the "Mormon" emigrants had left Norway, they merged with and were absorbed in the larger Scandinavian and British migration. They were not really strangers to each other, nor to the Saints in Utah, but emigrants from the same spiritual Babylon and co-citizens of the Kingdom of God.55 It is therefore useless to search for traditional immigrant themes of journey and settlement in Nephi Anderson's fiction. The assimilation of European "Mormons" into a "Mormon" culture in the American West was evidently less painful than that of ordinary Europeans into an American culture. The "Mormon" culture was in many ways so different from that of the rest of the United States that even the Yankee "Mormons" had become strangers in their own country. The absence of ethnic awareness in Anderson's fiction when he deals with journey and settlement, is additional evidence of the marked difference between the "Mormon" migration and the general migration from Europe.
The process of assimilation started in Norway. Skandinaviens Stjerne, a "Mormon" periodical printed in Copenhagen for the Scandinavian Saints, admonished in 1869 that
after persons have obeyed the Gospel and made the interests of the Kingdom their own…teach them the importance of quickly gaining a 'knowledge of the English language, so that they can receive the knowledge and instructions which can only be received through that source.56
The missionaries from America operated English-language schools for converts and interested non-members. In Christiania in 1869 there were two such schools.57 It was not uncommon to find converts, like Atelia Heldman in Daughter, reading the Bible in English because "I want to learn the language..."58 The language instruction continued on board the ships across the Atlantic. The historian Andrew Jensen wrote about one crossing in 1857 that "schools were organized for the purpose of giving the Scandinavian Saints instructions in English."59 With that kind of preparation the "Mormon" emigrants were in quite a different situation than for instance Ole Rølvaag, who after three years in South Dakota at the turn of the century "had picked up only a smattering of English."60
Nephi Anderson has little to say about the crossing of the Atlantic in his fiction. Travel had become quite easy and already a tourist activity when he reached his twenties in the late 1880's. At that time the organized "Mormon" emigration was coming to a close. It may be of interest, however, to include a description which Charles Dickens gave after visiting a "Mormon" emigrant ship around 1860 where he pointed out how it differed from other immigrant ships:
Nobody is in an ill-temper, nobody is the worse for drink, nobody swears an oath or uses a coarse word, nobody appears depressed, nobody is weeping… Now, I have seen emigrant ships before this day in June. And these people are so strikingly different from all other people in like circumstances whom I have ever seen that I wonder aloud, "What would a stranger suppose these emigrants to be!"… They had not been a couple of hours on board, when they established their own police, made their own regulations, and set their own watches at all the hatchways. Before nine o'clock, the ship was orderly and as quiet as a man-of-war… Some remarkable influence had produced a remarkable result which better known influences have often missed.61
Although his stories omit the Atlantic crossing, in one of his books Anderson describes a crossing of the plains from Iowa City to Utah in the mid-1850's. As several hundred Norwegian "Mormons" pushed handcarts or drove ox-teams the same way before the railroad was completed, it may be worth looking closer at this journey. Marcus King, "Mormon" convert and ex-Protestant minister in Marcus King, Mormon, joins a wagon train in Iowa City, quickly learning to drive an ox-team and swing his buckskin whip with a "gee" and a "haw."62 The distance travelled daily is between ten and twenty miles.63
One of the first things Marcus notes about his fellow converts is the absence of the long-faced seriousness which he was used to as a minister. Henrik Bogstad in Added Upon discovers the same in his "Mormon" cousin, Marie, whom he describes as "the most religious and yet the merriest girl I have ever met. That seems a contradiction, but it isn't."64 Marcus King has some difficulty accepting dance at first. "Why should religious people dance, especially on such a journey? After the hard day's toil, out would come a violin, a space on the grass could be cleared, and a dozen couples merrily whirled into the strains of a weird music."65 A teamster explains that "it was a good thing to drive away the blues."66 It does not take long before Marcus joins the merry dancers.
On Sundays the train rests for religious services. "Marcus was interested in the strange sermons often delivered, and he could not help contrasting them with the smoothly-flowing, logically-arranged discourses which he and his fellow ministers had been trained to give."67
As is still custom in the "Mormon" Church, all members in turn are called upon to speak. Soon Marcus, "dressed in a blue 'jumper,' and his corduroy trousers tucked into the tops of long boots, mounted the dry-goods box and did the best he could under his changed environment."68
According to the historian William E. Berrett, Indians were rarely a problem to "Mormon" immigrants, who continued to follow Brigham Young's advice that it was better to feed them than to fight them.69 Marcus King's company does not see any Indians at all in Anderson's Marcus King, Mormon.70
Toward the end of the journey, the wagon train catches up with a poorly equipped handcart company. As it is late in the season, winter storms are already threatening from the north. Marcus gives his ox-team to a suffering family in exchange for their handcart, pushing it through the Rocky Mountains with British and Scandinavian Saints. The tragedy which follows in the novel had real-life background in the experience of the Willis and Martin companies of 1856, where 225 "Mormons" died crossing the plains.71 "Every day someone gave up the struggle and was laid under the frozen sod by the wayside and there left. Husbands left wives, wives left husbands, parents left children and children left parents --and the broken remnant still struggled westward."72
Later immigrants had a far easier journey, so easy that Anderson in his other novels dispatches them from Europe to Utah in one or two sentences. In the case of William Wallace Jones from Liverpool in The Boys of Spring-town he arrives one year ahead of his mother at the age of ten or eleven by steamer, rail and wagon.73 By the turn of the century there was no longer any organized "Mormon" group migration.74

PART III: DESCRIPTION OF "MORMON" LIFE IN UTAH

1. Geography and Economic Life
In several novels and stories, Nephi Anderson gives glimpses of the difficult early years of "Mormon" immigrants to Utah, their situation gradually improving as the land is settled and its economic life develops. Not all these immigrant characters are Scandinavian, to be sure, but their experience is common heritage for all "Mormon" converts who came west. In Marcus King, Mormon, Anderson describes the experiences of a former Protestant minister in pioneer Utah in the 1850's and 60's. Two novels are set a few decades later: Added Upon and "The Higher Law," though the former may be laid a Rocky Mountain state other than Utah. Piney Ridge Cottage contrasts rural and urban life in the 1890's and The Boys of Springtown deals with boys' life around 1910. Dorian, Anderson's last novel, is laid in a rural setting in the second decade of the twentieth century.
The scenery of Utah is exceptional for the newcomers Anderson portrays, Americans and Europeans alike. In Marcus King, Mormon, the title character, arriving in 1856, marvels at the strangeness of the country: "the grand, rugged, treeless mountains; the wild, bare bench lands; and the marshes near the lake."75 Young William Wallace Jones from Liverpool in The Boys of Springtown drinks eagerly from the "clear, cool, and invigorating air. What he sees "differed from anything he had ever seen before": a town consisting of only a few houses, a valley with spots of brush and trees, rugged pineclad mountains patched with snow, and the bluest sky possible. 76
Housing is very primitive for the first settlers. In Anderson's fictional settlement of Hemla, Marcus King on his arrival, counts seventeen small, low log huts, none more than five years old. "They stood on both sides of a broad straight street, along . . . which rows of trees had already been planted."77 Marcus keenly feels the contrast from his former life in the East: "I a college educated man, a respected minister, and now here…living in a log house with a dirt roof and a mud floor…"78 and roofs are of course not waterproof. During a heavy rainfall young Rupert Ames in Added Upon has to hurry out and get clay in his wheelbarrow and patch the leaking roof as pans and buckets inside can no longer protect the furniture.79 Newcomers live with acquaintances or hospitable members till they are able to build their own house.
Marcus King receives help in constructing a "two-roomed house, of good proportions with a 'lean-to' at the back" from a brother Wood, an experienced pioneer who had built for himself and then abandoned two log houses in Missouri and one in Illinois.80
Anderson's description of early Utah settlements is accurate enough as far as housing goes. Historians James B. Allen and Glen M. Leonard point out that "the first arrivals lived for several months in crude dugouts or lean-tos while they laid out city plots, assigned the surrounding farmland, and began to build houses or cabins."81 Besides, Anderson came to Utah early enough to see for himself; the "Mormon" pioneer experience was repeated many times throughout the nineteenth century as the Church continued to establish new settlements till the number exceeded five hundred by 1900.82 However, Anderson omits much information about the unique features of economic cooperation in the "Mormon" settlement of the Rocky Mountains. Historians Allan and Leonard summarize that the "Mormon" Commonwealth, as opposed to the general American settlement, was the result of careful economic planning by Church leaders, authoritative direction in carrying out the plan and the willing cooperation of members. First exploring parties identified the best sites for settlement. Then Church authorities called a leader and other colonists, making sure that various skills were represented so the colonists could create a smoothly functioning community. The group travelled together from Salt Lake City or another major center. Upon arrival at their selected site, the settlers dedicated the land and immediately began working. The planning was often done in priesthood meetings and all the men held offices in the priesthood. The bishop, or colony leader, distributed land according to each man's needs and abilities, and until the area was all assigned, newcomers were assured of property. The grazing lands and timber and water resources were considered community property, and everyone had equal access to them. In most cases each family head was considered owner of the property he had been assigned, but it was understood that the land was not to be held for speculative purposes. The land was free, and it was for the benefit of all. In some cases, if the man did not use the land it was transferred to someone who would. Technically, no one held legal title until after the federal land office was set up in Utah in 1869 at the coming of the railroad.83
Most of Anderson's characters are farmers, while mining is looked upon with some suspicion. "Oh, a miner" is Glen Curtis' skeptical reaction in Piney Ridge Cottage when learning about the mining prospects of Chester Lawrence. Hugh Elston tells Lawrence that "we Latter-day Saints have been censured for not doing more mining; but I believe it was good policy to develop our agricultural resources first, for without that there could be very little success in mining."84 This view is consistent with the directions of early Church leaders who wanted stable communities in order to avoid the boom-and-bust cycles of Western mining towns. Anderson also shows that the Utah desert was difficult to cultivate. Potatoes are valuable for survival in Marcus King, Mormon. They are carefully cut in pieces with "no more than two eyes in each piece" and planted.85 A treat like rice pudding in the early years is nearly unheard of.86 In the story "Cat-tail farm" the harvest consists of three loads of lucerne; one half load of wheat which the chickens thrashed; ten bushels of corn with fodder enough to feed the cows for a few weeks; six bucketsful of small potatoes which Frank dug for the pig; a dozen eatable watermelons; twenty three…half grown radishes; a few bunches of lettuce, "salted, ready for the table," remarked Nora. Yes, salt grass and cat-tails [rushes] were still the chief products.87
However, this was still better than the most pessimistic predictions. The explorer Jim Bridger told Brigham Young in 1847 that he would give him a thousand dollars if he could grow a bushel of corn in the Salt Lake Valley.88
Anderson shows that women carried their part of the load in the difficult early years. Well educated Janet Harmon from the East says in 1857 in Marcus King, Mormon: "Who would ever have dreamed two years ago that I should spin yarn, knit stockings, sew carpet rags, wash, bake, scrub, drive cows, milk, churn, and delight in buttermilk… But now that's my life as though I had been born and raised to it."89 Other stories by Anderson set in later years show that women continued to do farm work well beyond the pioneer era. In "Mary: A Story of Sage-brush Bench" set in the 1880's, the title character, a nineteen-year-old daughter of a farmer widower, is represented as general housekeeper, advisor for her brothers and sisters, cook, washwoman, seamstress, and dairymaid.90 And as late as 1920 Carlia Duke in Dorian explains she had to quit high school
to save mother. Mother was not only doing her usual housework, but nearly all the outside choring besides. Father…seems to think that the only real work is the plowing and the watering and the harvesting, and he would have let mother go on killing herself. Gee, these men.91
But this is evidently an exception and limited to rural life. In Piney Ridge Cottage where Anderson contrasts urban and rural life, returned missionary Will Summerville from Salt Lake City exclaims: "One day in Germany I saw eight women abreast hoeing in the field… I have never seen a woman do farm work here."92
The pressures of poverty in pioneer Utah are sensed both by women and children. Janet Harmon in Marcus King, Mormon is quite embarrassed when, chasing a cow in a patched calico dress and shabby shoes, she suddenly runs into the man she loves.93 Nine-year-old Charley Jensen in "The Barefoot Boy," who has just earned enough money to buy himself his first pair of shoes, feels so sorry for his younger sister that he buys a pair for her instead. "It would hardly look right for him to come stalking into Sunday School tomorrow in a pair of brand-new shoes and his sister in bare feet."94 In "How the Spirit of Christmas Came" Gilbert Hilman recalls a Christmas Eve in a poverty-stricken home by a rusty stove when he had hung up his stockings in anticipation of Santa Claus' visit… The father and mother, lacking in understanding of children as well as in power to provide gifts, had permitted his older brother to stuff his stockings full of coal and potatoes… How he had sobbed out his heart that cold, grey Christmas morning.
The two latter episodes seem set in the 1880's.
Most of Anderson's characters, however, have the sense of building God's Kingdom. In Marcus King, Mormon the title character proudly says: "Here are no crumbling walls overgrown with ivy… If we want grass, we must sow it and then water it. If we want a tree, we must plant it. If we want a house, we must build it. But, Janet, we are empire founders. There will be some glory in that."96 And like farmer Dolphs in Mary they are "strong in their determination to conquer the sterile soil."97 Those who keep at it and learn the secret of irrigation, are able to "unlock from earth her hidden treasures."98 Economic improvement is evidenced for pioneers Marcus King and Janet Harmon in details like sugar in the cake and a new dress, although made of cheap cloth.99
In Added Upon which is set in the 1870's or 80's, Rupert Ames experiences a real breakthrough when he secures an irrigation reservoir by homesteading 160 acres of government land, and his farm prospers:
Dry Bench had undergone a change. A neat frame house stood in front of the log hut, which had been boarded and painted to match the newer part. A barn filled with hay and…horses and cows stood at a proper distance back. A granary and a corn crib were near. On the left was the orchard, a beautiful sight. Standing in long symmetrical rows were peaches, apples, pears, and a dozen other varieties of fruit, now just beginning to bear. At the rear, stretching nearly to the mountains, were the grain and alfalfa fields.100
The same Rupert Ames later goes east in the Rocky Mountains and teaches the Jansons, a Scandinavian couple "who had much to learn about farming," how to farm successfully in the arid West. The Jansons, acting on Rupert's advice, purchase a whole valley of seemingly valueless bench-land from a Chicago real estate dealer for a small sum and then, when they have brought it under irrigation, sell it at good profit to other farmers.101
Sometimes it is hard for newcomers to start out from scratch while seeing their neighbors harvesting the fruits of many years of labor. So, it is for Thomas Brown in "Almina,"story set in the 1880's and portraying Brown as a miner from England working in the coalmines of Weber:
He was a little disappointed at times. The people were kind enough in their way, but it caused the mother not a little astonishment, for instance, to see her neighbors give their milk to pigs and calves when they would have considered a bucket full a luxury. So it was hard at first.102
Later newcomers and immigrants often find other occupations than farming in the growing cities. Halvor Steen from A Daughter of the North settles in Salt Lake City around the turn of the century as a salesman of the-Enterprise Mercantile Company.103 In the story "The Home Field," we are briefly acquainted with the Danish shoemaker Jakobson.104 The historian Helge Seljaas reports that most Norwegian immigrants settled in the urban areas as there were more craftsmen among them than farmers and as the arable land was quickly taken up anyway.105 Most of Anderson's characters, however, prefer to stay in the country, and they view the growing cities with considerable reservation. For Julia Elston in Piney Ridge Cottage, who comes to Salt Lake City while her father goes on a mission to Great Britain, "the view of the city was disappointing. The city at her feet was covered with a black cloud which even hid the distant mountains and the sparkling lake. She wondered how people could be satisfied to breathe such blackness which poured from the chimneys and spread into the air."106 Dorian Trent is of the same opinion in Dorian when he says he cannot live in the city. "I don't seem able to breathe in the city, with its smoke and its noise and its crowding together of houses and people.107 Utah, as much as any other state, had to pay the price of economic growth and industrialization.

2. Marriage
Marriage among the nineteenth century "Mormons" has interested historians and sociologists as well as the general public for many years. Nephi Anderson deals with "Mormon" family life in many of his novels and stories, giving interesting examples of "Mormon" values and beliefs during this period. Marcus King, Mormon, for example, demonstrates that marriage "for time and all eternity" is a prerequisite for entering the highest degree in the Celestial Kingdom,108 and that leaders in the Church are expected to set an example. In the novel Brigham Young calls Marcus King as bishop of Helma and challenges him in front of the whole congregation: "I understand that Brother King is not a married man. It is hardly the proper thing for your bishop to set you such a bad example; and Brother King…I charge you to get a wife, or two if you like, as soon as possible."109 The idea of an eternal union beyond the grave is a comfort to several of Anderson's characters in trying times. After the accidental death of Rupert Ames in Added Upon, his Norwegian wife Signe simply says: "God knows best. He has but gone before… His mission is there, mine is here. In the morrow, we shall meet again."110 The eternal marriage ceremony, in fact as in fiction, can even take place by proxy after one of the parties is dead. In Lester Amsden's Love the title character, who follows his true love, Verna Chase, toward the Salt Lake Valley, finds her grave on the desolate prairie. However, he continues to the valley, is converted to Verna's religion and "some years after Verna Chase was married to Lester Amsden; startle not kind reader, if, as was the case, a world separated the bride and the bridegroom; for it was solemnized by one who had the authority from God, and whatever he sealed on earth was sealed in heaven."111
"Mormon" leaders have always put great emphasis on marrying within the faith, and Anderson, using his fiction to prove the rightness of their counsel, shows in several of his stories disasters following from marrying outside the Church. Anderson often warns "Mormon" girls against polished gentlemen from the East. Glen Curtis in Piney Ridge Cottage expresses the frustrations of some when, referring to Chester Lawrence from Chicago, he says: "We clodhopping country boys aren't in it when an Eastern dude comes along."112 The title character in Almina, who hoped to convert the gentlemanly Victor Garnett after the civil marriage ceremony, finds to her horror that she has married a gambler who cares very little about family life once he has achieved his aim. After a few years he leaves her to rear her children alone.113 In Exceptions Nora Barth marries a very kind non-"Mormon" husband but experiences much loneliness and frustrations in her faith when he becomes totally indifferent to the Church.114
Within the Church it is a challenge for some to live up to the moral standard necessary for obtaining a temple recommendation so they can contract an eternal marriage rather than marry for this life only.115 In "Mary: A Story of Sagebrush Bench" the title character rejects a marriage proposal from Oscar Wilson, whom she loves, when he is denied a temple recommendation for neglecting church duties. Her sacrifice is rewarded when Oscar mends his ways, so that they are able to marry in the temple anyway.116
Premarital relationships are of rare occurrence in Anderson's stories except in a few cases to demonstrate the wages of sin. Twenty-one-year-old Dorian Trent, the title character of Anderson's last novel, is numbed by shock when he learns that the reason for Carlia Duke's mystical disappearance is an unfortunate pregnancy.
Had he found her dead in her virginal purity…but this… As far back in his boyhood as he could remember, he had been taught the enormity of sexual sin, until it had become second nature for him to think of it as something very improbable, if not impossible, as pertaining to himself. And yet, here it was right at the very door of his heart, casting its evil shadow into the most sacred precincts of his being.117
However, Dorian is able to bring the girl home and help her forgive herself and forget. She finds peace, and together they plan their eternal union. "The red glowed in Carlia's lips again, and the roses in her cheeks."118 Less fortunate is Dick Thompson in "Forfeits" who, having lost his purity in Chicago and contracted V.D., believes himself cured and returns home to Utah to marry and start a good life. But alas, the disease is still with him, and his first child is born blind. "That little innocent thing in the cradle is paying the debt…When I look on that child…I suffer the torments of the damned."119 However, these are exceptions in Anderson's fiction, and it may be significant that both these stories are set after World War I when Utah was no longer isolated from the rest of the USA.
The "Mormons'" practice of plural marriage has probably made them more widely known than any other aspect of their faith. Anderson shows in his fiction that the puritanical Saints were slow to adopt the practice. In Piney Ridge Cottage the visiting Chester Lawrence from Chicago "had been led to believe that the 'Mormons' were closely akin to the heathen…and that the chief principle of their religion was polygamy. Why, he had not even heard polygamy mentioned, let alone seeing it in full swing in practice.120 Hugh Elston tells his daughter in the same novel that his first wife "knew that I believed the principle theoretically at least, but I was not so sure of her, and I did not want to trouble her mind; for truth to say, I had never thought of taking another wife."121 Henry and Ruth Angelin in "The Higher Law" "both accepted the law of plural marriage as right. Ruth
took the responsibility of selecting . . . but Henry always declined."122 Both these men, however, overcome their hesitancy.
The challenge is evidently greater for the women. Hugh Elston's wife Anna in Piney Ridge Cottage finds the practice more difficult than the theory. She has agreed with her friend, Agnes, that if her husband should ever consider taking another wife, Agnes is to be the one. Thus encouraged, Agnes falls in love with Elston, but Anna flies into a rage when she understands the young woman's feelings. Agnes runs away, and Anna leaves her husband in bitterness. After a year Hugh and Agnes are married, and Agnes writes Anna asking her to come back, but in vain.123 A more ideal attitude is displayed in Marcus King, Mormon by Janet Harmon who understands that Marcus can love two women at the same time:
We must give Alice a chance. She loves you, and you love her. I'm used to that thought now, so it does not hurt me. You can marry Alice first, I'm willing. It is her right. I will come in afterwards and be a help to you both.124
Alice dies, but still "Marcus King got two wives in one day. True, one of those wives were [sic] in the spirit world, but the feeling that Alice was to be his was proved to be true."125 In another instance plural marriage is definitely a successful solution. The title character in John St. John was spared the agony of choosing between two lovely sisters, Dora and Jane Fenton. Twenty years after their marriage, "These two comely, well-preserved mothers, one a little older than the other, but looking very much alike, with the same blue eyes and the hair yet golden, presented the picture of happy contentment.126
The mounting pressures of the anti-polygamy crusades in the 1880's are evident in Anderson's unpublished novel "The Higher Law,". (The reason it was never published, was no doubt the fact that it was too favorable in its description of plural marriage at a time when the Church was anxious to prove to the world that it had abandoned the practice for good.) In the novel it has become more difficult to practice plural marriage; many polygamists are forced to go into hiding and they and their families experience trying times. Mr. Ashland, US Deputy Marshall, whose job is to round up polygamists and their wives, has the depressing experience of indirectly causing a baby to die.127 But the pressure seems to have its effect. Polygamist John Wilkens in the same novel gets so tired of constantly hiding that he gives himself up to serve his standard prison term.128 And Lydia Hazen, Henry Angelin's second wife-to-be, leaves for Idaho because she feels that her planned marriage to Henry will be an added burden of persecution for Henry and his first wife. Ruth and Henry on their part insist that she must join them. Anderson solves the problem just before the planned marriage by the historical issuing of the Manifesto by Church President Wilford Woodruff, abruptly ceasing the practice of polygamy among the Latter-day Saints.129
Historians confirm the glimpses that Nephi Anderson gives of "Mormon" marriages. Because of the great emphasis "Mormons" have always put on marriage, there was in Utah a tendency for fewer people to remain single and for more people to marry younger than in other states.130 Despite the gossip of outsiders about polygamy, "Mormon" moral standards were strict. No sexual double standard was allowed; men were held to the same requirements of chastity as women. "If the refined Christian society of the nineteenth century will tolerate such a crime" (as fornication by men), Brigham Young stated, "God will not; but he will call the perpetrator to an account."131 To church members polygamy was not an expression of sexual permissiveness, but an ancient religious practice restored by divine command to multiply and replenish the Latter-day Zion.132 In The Story of the Latter-day Saints "Mormon" historians Allan and Leonard point out that most members accepted this as a correct principle but did not practice it, probably only between ten and fifteen percent of the families in pioneer Utah were involved. Some plural marriages were successful, others were not.133 Nephi Anderson himself was very well acquainted with the practice, living at a time when he himself could have married more than one wife. His fiction reflects his own view as identical with the Church position; that plural marriage was "a higher law" given by divine command and terminated when the laws of men made it impossible to practice in this life. Members of his family have indicated that the contemplated second marriage in "The Higher Law," may well have had some background in his own life.134 As Anderson does not treat marriage in immigrant terms, it may be well to add that according to Helge Seljaas in Norwegian-American Studies and Records, there was a tendency for Norwegian "Mormon" immigrants to marry people of their own nationality or other Scandinavians. They also seem to have been more hesitant than Yankee "Mormons" to enter into plural marriages.135 But there were of course historical cases like Norwegian Goudy Hogan from Telemark who married two sisters from Denmark and a few years later yet a third sister, thus confirming Mark Twain's comment that "an elder or a bishop, marries a girl—likes her, marries her sister—likes her, marries another sister… 136

3. Children and Parental Authority
In his stories Nephi Anderson does not give evidence that he supported the "Mormon" emphasis on large families as his fictional families are no more than average in size. In one story, however, he deals with a couple, Phil and Mary, who have postponed childbearing for social reasons. In the diary of Phil's deceased father after his funeral they read about the visits he had had from their son- and daughter-to-be. The children had appeared to him in their premortal spirit-state, expressing their longing to be born and their sadness at not yet being wanted. Phil and Mary realize their great sin, and the story ends with their determination to set things right.137 The story illustrates "Mormon" belief that all men, as literal offspring of God from a premortal life, have immortal spirits which, through birth, are given physical bodies according to a divine plan. This "Mormon" conviction that many of God's spirit children are still waiting to come to earth, has resulted in an emphasis on large families. Brigham Young said that "this is the reason why the doctrine of plurality of wives was revealed, that the noble spirits which are waiting for tabernacles might be brought forth."138 As far as the Norwegian "Mormons" in Utah are concerned, the historian Helge Seljaas points out that they do not seem to have had particularly large numbers of children. A census report in 1930 showed that Norwegian families in Dakota on an average had more children than Norwegian "Mormon" families in Utah.139
For the pioneers in Utah as in the Midwest children were a valuable and inexpensive labor force. In his fiction Anderson reveals how this situation gradually changed from early days to his own time. Nine-year-old pioneer boy Charley Jensen in "The Barefoot-Boy",for example, is happy to be able to work so that he can earn enough money to buy himself a pair of shoes.140 In The Boys of Springtown, however, laid in later years, Mrs. Fisher and Mrs. Jones have to do considerable planning and maneuvering to get their boys to do chores every day "with something of encouragement at the close."141 And Aunt Jane, a Salt Lake City woman of the 1890's in Piney Ridge Cottage, "had made the mistake . . . of thinking she was doing her duty by waiting on her children. For years she had done everything" for her daughters, until now they had come to look upon what their mother was doing for them as something just due."142 As her children reach their late teens and start working, they never help out in the home. "Typewriting and measuring ribbons are all they know how to do."143 Another story from 1915, "The Home Field", deals with the problem of youth and leisure time. Returned missionary Wentworth Jones turns an old meeting house into a gym for sports and scouting activities, drawing all the young people off the street and forcing a newly established saloon to go out of business.144 Evidently most parents in Utah by then no longer expected their children to fill their lesure time with work.

4. The "Mormon" Church
If the institution of the church played an important role among the Lutheran settlers in the Midwest, it was even more inseparably connected with the daily life of the "Mormon" settlers in Utah. Religious zeal and conviction were the main forces behind the "Mormon" settlement, and the Church and community came together in a unique theocracy. In Marcus King, Mormon Brigham Young is shown travelling "from settlement to settlement among the people, setting the Church in order, organizing quorums, laying out townsites, selecting sites for tabernacles and temples, and planning irrigation canals."145 Young calls the former Reverend King to be "Mormon" bishop in Hemla, and King soon discovers that the bishop status among the "Mormons" is quite different from what it had been in his former church: "He was simply the ecclesiastical head of possibly a hundred souls, poor and struggling in a new country to make a living; and he was one of them, working daily in the fields for his own support."146 As an unpaid bishop Marcus King has counselors to help him and, since all men or family heads hold priesthood offices in various "quorums,"147 their different projects, such as erecting a new Church building, are both church and community work.148 To encourage individual growth among all members, and also prevent social classes from developing, Church positions rotate in "Mormon" congregations. In Dorian Uncle Zed, old pioneer, explains that the authority in the Church is so widespread that anything like a 'ruling family' would be impossible. In a town where I once lived, the owner of the bank and the town blacksmith were called on missions. They both were assigned to the same field, and the blacksmith was appointed to preside over the banker. The banker submitted willingly to be directed in his missionary labors by one who, judged by worldly standards, was far beneath him in the social scale.149
In Marcus King, Mormon Anderson gives a glimpse of a semi-annual general conference held in Salt Lake City where, after the meetings, calls are issued for serving various missions. Some leave to settle new areas, others to proselyte in the East or in Europe. Marcus King is unexpectedly called on a proselyting mission to the Eastern states and leaves without complaining.150 The gathering of the Saints has a high priority, and Anderson shows that most members submit willingly to their mission calls. It does not seem much of a sacrifice for young, unmarried people like Glen Curtis and Will Summerville in Piney Ridge Cottage to leave, but middle-aged John Elston becomes pale and thoughtful when he learns of his call to Great Britain. It was not exactly what he had expected at his age.151 Young George in "The Home Guard" has problems and returns without permission to his wife Amanda and their little baby "because he can't stand it any longer." Amanda lets him know, however, that he is not wanted till he has-completed his mission, and she sends him back after feeding him a meal.152 The fact that a few missionaries fail in their mission is recognized in "How the Lord Was Good to Aunt Johanna" where young Seaton is dishonorably discharged from his mission in Great Britain and sent home to Salt Lake City.153
Some missionaries like Robert James in Marcus King, Mormon, who converted the title character, get into problems after their return. Robert James finds faults with Church leaders and is finally excommunicated for his opposition. Eventually his former convert, Marcus King, helps him back into the Church again.154 In the bulk of his fiction, however, Anderson shows that the missionary experience strengthens future Church leadership. Young Wentworth Jones, who on his return from his mission field is put in charge of the young people in his congregation, can reflect on quite a leadership experience:
Six weeks ago, he was "President Jones" and had twenty elders to direct in the mission field. There were nine branches in his conference [district] to be properly officered and looked after. A large number of Church members and many investigators [baptismal candidates] looked up to him as their leader and then went to him for advice. Mothers brought their problems in child-rearing to him, old men came to him for counsel. He preached two or three times each week, and frequently as many times each Sunday. He was stake president, bishop, teacher, business manager of the affairs of the Church in his conference—all rolled into one.155
In Piney Ridge Cottage Nephi Anderson gives a description of a Sunday School session and a regular Sunday service in a combined meetinghouse-schoolhouse in the country. People come to church in wagons and buggies and on horseback, all dressed in their Sunday best. The Sunday School begins by singing a hymn, accompanied by an organ. Then someone is called to offer a prayer. Another song is sung; a young lady reads the minutes of the previous session, approved by a raising of hands. Following the joint reading of some Bible passages and practice of a new hymn, two curtains are drawn across the room, making three compartments for Sunday School classes. The children in the Primary section learn about Samuel in the Old Testament; the youth in the Intermediate department study the life of Christ, and the adults are engaged in a Book of Mormon course—all according to outlines from Church headquarters. The Sunday School teachers emphasize how to apply Christian values and ethics in everyday life. After Sunday School and a ten-minute intermission, the regular Church service begins. The first speaker here is a young missionary recently returned from the Southern states. He reports about mob violence against the missionaries there. The second speaker shows the necessity of faith, repentance, and baptism for salvation. The last speaker is an old pioneer who tells of his conversion in England and the hand-cart trek across the plains. Chester Lawrence, a non-"Mormon" visitor from Chicago, is disappointed in not hearing "the real thing"—only Christian concepts and ethics from the Bible and the Book of Mormon. From what people had told him in the East, he had expected a vile service teaching a hateful religion.156

5. Social Life
The social life of the Saints in Utah is described in several of Nephi Anderson's stories, giving ample evidence that the "Mormons" did not suffer from the artificial restraints upheld by European pietism in many Lutheran immigrant settlements of the Midwest. The "Mormon" characters of Anderson's fiction enjoy parties, celebrations, dancing, outings, theatricals, and also the movies when they come. Piney Ridge Cottage gives a glimpse of a farewell party for a departing missionary in the old schoolhouse. "None missed such gatherings. Many friendly 'outsiders' came, while some Church members who couldn't see the advisability of attending the usual church services, thought it their 'bounden duty' to be present at all gatherings of a social character." People bring their own share of the food to the party. At the entrance there is a box available for contributions to the departing missionary. Brother Peterson, the presiding elder, welcomes the party and announces the program.
First there was congregational singing, then prayer, following which came duets, solos, recitations, instrumental music, and short speeches by prominent members of the community… Brother Binks always spoke at all social gatherings…because he had crossed the plains in early days with one of the handcart companies… Yes, he had done his valiant deed—and then…he had done nothing ever since. 157
Then the departing missionary, Hugh Elston, speaks, after which they put the school desks together to form tables, cover them with tablecloths and the picnic food is served. At the party there are natives of Utah, Yankees, Southerners, Danes, Swedes, Germans, Irish, Australians, and one Icelander. Despite plenty of ethnic jokes which circulate around the room, the people get along fine. After the meal, the floor is cleared, swept and waxed, and with two violins and the church organ as orchestra, the dance starts with a plain Quadrille. Thus, the evening proceeds with dancing, small gossip, and laughter till midnight, but according to "Mormon" pietism, with neither drinking nor smoking.158
In The Boys of Springtown Anderson related that "one of the events in Springtown was the annual ward [church] outing to the hills…which lasted two or three days… Food and tents and bedding were loaded into the big farm wagons…and as they travelled up the road, the mountains echoed with songs and glad shouts." At the destined camping grounds, they pitch their tents in a green meadow by a creek and prepare supper. Afterwards they build a "community fire" and the whole company gather around singing songs, telling stories, and relating experiences of the old pioneer days. "Then about ten o'clock, the Bishop led in prayer, a wonderful prayer it seemed to Will Jones, there in the quiet of the hills, with the breeze in the tree tops, the soft, splashing of the creek as a tuneful undertone, and the stars overhead."159 In the same novel Anderson writes that there were two nights at least each summer when the boys of Springtown did not sleep in their beds indoors. These were the nights before the coming of the circus and the night before the Fourth of July, or the night before Pioneer Day if that day was chosen for observance. On the nights before these local celebrations, the boys made their beds on the top of some haystack, from which they could hear the first stirrings of celebrations.
At the schoolhouse "a veteran soldier saluted the rising sun by the aid of a keg of powder and a pair of Blacksmith Goodall's anvils."160 Pioneer Day was on the 24th of July to commemorate the entrance of the first pioneers into the Salt Lake Valley. In A Conscience from Carthage, set in 1857, hundreds of vehicles and thousands of people are gathered in the Big Cottonwood Canyon to celebrate Pioneer Day. "Carriages and wagons and prancing steeds; cavalry and artillery; bands of music and uniformed companies of young men. ... After the program of songs, orations, etc., was carried out, the day was spent in dancing, boating on the lake, picnikcing, and climbing the mountains."161
In Dorian there is an account of a Christmas Eve celebration in an isolated cottage far up in the Utah mountains. Everything is homemade including candles, decorations, candies, and popcorn. There is singing and dancing around the Christmas tree combined with stockings for Santa Claus, indicating that "Mormons" preserved traditions of both Scandinavian and English origin. 162
Drama was also encouraged among the "Mormons." In The Boys of Springtown, the Springtown Dramatic Company is mentioned as putting on "Black-eyed Susan" and "Box and Cox" in the meetinghouse. A travelling troupe visits the village with "Rip Van Winkle". These events inspire the village boys to stage two plays for their parents and the public in Mr. Rankings hayloft, the "Corsican Vandetti" and "The Coal Heavers' Revenge."163
Historians confirm the insights Anderson gives into social life among the "Mormons" in Utah. Allan and Leonard state that visitors were often impressed by the good humor and enjoyment of life that marked every community. Brigham Young himself regularly led the dancing at parties held by the Saints wherever he went. Holidays were times of special celebration, characterized by picnics, parades, dances, and good times in general. In 1852 the Deseret Dramatic Association was organized and the following year the Social Hall in Salt Lake City was constructed.164
What Anderson fails to mention are the annual gatherings of the Scandinavians in Utah, the Scandinavian Dramatic Association, The Norwegian Literary Society, "The Norwegian Players" (drama group), the annual celebrations of the 17th of May and Midsummer night's Eve. Nor does he even mention the existence of Norwegian or Scandinavian papers although Bikuben printed two of his novels. The historian Helge Seljaas points out that the first-generation Norwegian immigrants were very active in these organizations, which played an important role in their social lives.165 These societies were kept alive by the continual influx of new first-generation converts to Utah which really did not decline till the 1960's. Even today there is a separate Norwegian congregation of first-generation immigrants in Salt Lake City. The second generation, however, to which Anderson belonged, were effectively and rapidly assimilated in the "Mormon"-American melting pot, not continuing their parents' association with immigrant organizations. There is no trace of "a divided heart" in Anderson's fiction.

6. Education
A recurring theme in Anderson's novels is the importance of intellectual improvement and growth through both formal and informal education. His own background as a teacher and school administrator in Utah probably made it natural for him to emphasize this idea. He shows that already the first settlers were concerned with education. In Marcus King, Mormon the community of Hemla organize two school departments the second winter, and Janet Harmon is appointed to teach the primary department whereas Marcus King is given charge of the more advanced one. Many adults participate in his class. In addition, he teaches advanced evening classes. When spring comes, the adults and older children have to dissolve the class and go back to work, but the younger children continue school.166
In The Story of the Latter-day Saints Allen and Leonard confirm that the "Mormons" did not wait for the government to establish schools in the territory. By 1854 every ward or church unit had an elementary school.167 Brigham Young liked to point out that religion was not the only subject to be taught:
Shall I sit down and read the Bible, the Book of Mormon and the Book of Covenants all the time? says one. Yes, if you please, and when you have done, you may be nothing but a secterian after all. It is your duty to know everything upon the face of the earth, in addition to reading those books.168
The first free public school in Utah was established in 1869. 169 In Piney Ridge Cottage Anderson describes an early elementary school out in the countryside, "the latest to be set in operation in the country." The building
was made of logs smoothed on the inside, the chinks filled with plaster. The roof was laid with slabs, the rough surface-being up, which was covered with clay. There were two windows and a door. The floor was of planed lumber. The room was furnished with a dozen second-hand desks; three large charts . . . a piece of blackboard three by six feet; two maps; a rusty stove . . . a box of crayons; six erasers; a water-bucket and a tin dipper.170
In the novel the older generation of school-trustees, anxious that the children be given the best possible instruction, have problems understanding some "modern" teaching methods. Trustee Sanders, who is suspicious about the new teacher, Julia Elston, visits a family with schoolchildren for a check. "His worst fears were realized. Little Jennie Smith could read from a book, and yet she could not repeat the alphabet… The board decided to pay the school another official visit."171 Unfortunately they arrive on a very hot day when Miss Elston has taken all the children outside and down to the spring for a geography lesson. They are so absorbed forming islands, peninsulas, lakes and streams in the mud that they do not notice their visitors.
‘Well,’ began Trustee Sanders, ‘What do you think you're doin'?’
‘We're having a lesson in geography,’ Julia replies, her hands dripping with dirty water.
‘Geography: Huh! It seems to me you're makin' mud pies.' The trustee was angry. ‘Why aren't ye in school studyin' yer lessons?’172
As County Superintendent of schools in Box Elder County, the author undoubtedly knew from personal experience of similar prejudices from rural school trustees.
The hunger for books and learning is a main theme of Dorian. In the first part of the novel sixteen-year-old Dorian Trent, who was sent to town by his mother to buy himself a pair of shoes, returns without shoes but with Prescott's Conquest of Peru, Dickens' David Copperfield, and Wallace's Ben Hur. 173 A bookstore had proved too much of a temptation for him. Dorian, who is facing a future of farming, has a great desire to become a schoolteacher "because I'd then have the chance to read a lot of books."174 His acquaintance with the cultured and educated Mildred Brown from the city, as well as old philosophical Uncle Zed, further sparks his desire for learning. Besides thriving in his winter high-school curriculum, he spends many nights by his kerosene lamp, reading Darwin, Ingersoll, Paine, Drummond, and Huxley. He seeks to understand their reasoning and dreams of becoming a great scholar and scientist who can unify the truths of science and "Mormonism." The novel ends with Dorian's decision to attend the University and his hopes of someday going to Yale or Harvard.175
In the same novel Anderson is evidently concerned about the cultural-educational dimension of life of many fellow "Mormons" when he compares the Duke home with Dorian's own home:
There were the same straight-backed chairs, the same homemade carpet, more faded and threadbare than ever, the same ugly enlarged photographs within their massive frames which the enterprising agent had sold to Mrs. Duke. There was the same lack of books or music or anything pretty or refined; and as Dorian stood and looked about, there came to him more forcibly than ever the barrenness of the room and of the house in general. True, his own home was very humble, and yet, there was an air of comfort and refinement about it. The Duke home had always impressed him as being cold and cheerless and ugly . It was a place to work.176
Anderson lets Hugh Elston in Piney Ridge Cottage express his ideal of home and family culture. The Elston house far away in the countryside is tastefully furnished and the garden well kept:
This little home of ours is only an example of the predominance of mind over matter… We have forced back the desert, not allowing its disintegrating power to encroach upon us. That is the usual trouble with isolated dwellers like us, they let the wilderness get the upper hand, and their lives become as wild and uncouth as their environment.177
Elston and his daughter Julia subscribe to first-class Eastern magazines like The Atlantic and Harper's in addition to the semi-weekly Deseret News. Julia also likes reading love stories and subscribes to Ladies' Home Journal. Their religious convictions do not prevent this: "Her father thought it part of wisdom not to forbid her reading stories, but to furnish her with the best. These would do no harm and would give her outlook on the world's thoughts and feelings."178 It may be well to remember that the Church adopted Piney Ridge Cottage as a reading course in its youth organization, 179 indicating
official approval of Anderson's portrayal of ideal "Mormon" family culture.
As opposed to the situation in the Midwest where
Lutheran immigrant schools attempted to preserve the
language and culture from the Old Country, in Utah both
Church-sponsored schools and state-supported public schools
quickened the assimilation process of the immigrants.
There is little direct evidence of this in Anderson's fiction except a few lines in "The Finding of Olga" about Horace Lusk whose mother "had a volume of Hans Christian Andersen's stories which she had been so fond of that she had carried it with her across the plains; but the book was written in Danish and Horace could not read his mother's native tongue.180 Nephi Anderson himself had experienced the same cultural assimilation. Although he had lived the six first years of his life in Norway and later returned for a two-year mission there, he never wrote a story or novel in his first language. In fact, his most popular novel, Added Upon, was translated into the Scandinavian languages by others. 181



PART IV: EVALUATION OF NEPHI ANDERSON AS AUTHOR
Since this study has focused on the elements of social history in Anderson's fiction in comparison with Norwegian—American immigrant literature, it is not the purpose here to make a final assessment of Anderson's artistic achievement as an author. However, some kind of evaluation seems appropriate. Anderson's books are simplistic and naive, but he was nevertheless the first productive and popular author of "Mormon" fiction in Utah. He wrote the first "Mormon" novel ever published—Added Upon (1898)—which continues to sell between six and seven thousand copies a year. 182 An estimated 160,000 copies have been printed since the first edition. 183 Anderson subsequently wrote ten other "Mormon" novels, of which nine were published, several of them in more than one edition. Moreover, various Church magazines printed forty-nine of his stories, seven of his poems and at least forty articles. It is definitely of interest that a Norwegian immigrant should occupy this pioneer literary position among the "Mormons" in Utah.184 Anderson was also the first "'Mormon" writer to use immigrant materials in his fiction, although in limited quantity. 185
As a young schoolteacher in Ogden in 1888 Nephi Anderson must have read the following challenge in the Contributor by Orson F. Whitney, "Mormon" bishop, educator, writer, and later apostle:
Write for the papers, write for the magazines—especially our home publications—subscribe [to] them and read them. Make books yourselves that shall not only be a credit to you and to the land and people that produced you, but likewise a boon and benefaction to mankind… We will yet have Miltons and Shakespeares of our own. God's ammunition is not exhausted… In God's name and by his help we will build up a literature whose top shall touch heaven, though its foundations may now be low in earth. 186
Anderson responded immediately; his first writings started to appear the next year. For the following thirty years he kept up a steady literary production in his leisure time. He never tried to conceal his didactic purpose in writing. In an article in the Improvement Era in 1898, he clearly opposed the "art for art's sake" trends noticeable in contemporary writers. He claimed that "a good story is artistic preaching," referring to the example of Thomas Hughes in Tom Brown's Schooldays.187 As a faithful member of the "Mormon" Church, well liked and approved of by his Church leaders, Anderson used his fiction as a vehicle for demonstrating the truthfulness of Gospel principles as taught by the Church, the rewards of the honest and righteous, as well as the punishment of the disobedient and unfaithful.
Most of Anderson's stories and all but one of his novels have romantic love as a major theme. In his most popular novel, Added Upon, one of the purposes of earth-life is presented as finding one's true love from the pre-mortal life and marrying that person. It is a popular belief among many "Mormons" that true love develops between a man and a woman as a recognition of "past glories."188 The novel itself has obviously appealed to many "Mormons", and even today popular musical plays in Utah like My Turn on Earth and Saturday's Warrior have borrowed ideas of structure, plot, and themes from Added Upon, which follows characters from premortal through mortal to immortal life.
One would have expected an immigrant author, who came to America with his family at the age of six and later returned to Norway for two years, to have been more concerned with questions of Norwegian cultural heritage. Norwegian-American authors of comparable age at emigration like Dorthea Dahl, Waldemar Ager, and Simon Johnson wrote in Norwegian, reflecting the divided heart of many immigrants. Nephi Anderson wrote only in English, and when he deals with Norwegians, it is almost always in a Norwegian setting. When the story is laid in Utah, Norwegian themes are completely ignored. One reason may be, of course, that Anderson simply wanted to reach as wide an audience as possible and not limit his audience to only one immigrant group among the "Mormons." However, Anderson as a typical example of Norwegian "Mormon" immigrants obviously did not experience the divided heart of the Scandinavian settlers east of the Rocky Mountains. His religious roots were deeper than his cultural roots and were firmly set in Utah's "Mormon" soil.
Nephi Anderson must therefore be classified as an American "Mormon" author, rather than an immigrant author. As such his fiction belongs to a literature clearly outside the mainstream of American literary tradition, one which has been described by critics as "enthusiastic mediocrity."189 The "Mormon" view of the universe, where God is still a reality as an almighty loving father, is strongly at odds with the humanistic tradition prevalent in American literary history from transcendentalism through realism and naturalism to the existentialism predominant in twentieth-century literature. A "Mormon" professor of literature has pointed out that "in America 'great literature' has almost invariably grown out of the religious failure of a group (e.g., The Scarlet Letter) or the religious despair of an individual (e.g., Moby Dick)."190
He claims that "Mormonism answers well so many basic questions and provides such a satisfying way of life for most of its people that there is not sufficient tension or tragedy"191 for a great literature. An independent literary critic and historian, Robert Scholes, in comparing the great tradition of Midwestern writing with the less materialistic pioneering vision of the "Mormons" in particular, ventures the conjecture that the latter did not produce such a successful literature as the Midwestern, precisely because they were more successful religiously.192
In any case, Nephi Anderson cannot be classified as a great or even a good artist by ordinary literary criteria. He is clearly an amateur like most other immigrant writers. His plots are simple, often melodramatic. There is very little psychological depth in his characterization, and his style is often too colloquial or downright clumsy. However, Anderson is a good storyteller when he does not let doctrinal exposition, moral preaching, or historical accounts slow him down, and on occasion he reveals an excellent sense of humor. An instructor of English at Brigham Young University recently expressed the opinion that Nephi Anderson could have been a good regional writer if he had not chosen the didactic form.193 At any rate, his simple and straightforward accounts of "Mormon" history, ethics, and doctrine in fiction still appeal to many readers who are religiously and psychologically attuned to his thinking.
This is perhaps the main significance of Anderson's work for present-day students. His fiction preserves and illustrates widely accepted attitudes toward ethics, values, and doctrine held by "Mormons" of his time and since.
Popular literature has in recent years received serious attention from social historians as source material that reflects and preserves widespread popular views recorded but poorly in traditional historical sources.194 In its own time, of course, when it was popular, it also served to reinforce basic values and beliefs within the group which read it. Since all but one of Nephi Anderson's works were published by "Mormon" concerns, we may deduce that the lessons taught by his stories were in accord with official "Mormon" doctrine and viewed by the Church as desirable teaching aids. Moreover, their popularity is evidence of harmony within a religious group between its leaders and the general membership.
Seen from this viewpoint, Anderson's one unpublished novel in clear sympathy with polygamy as a higher law of marriage, gains historical importance as indication of a lack of popular support of a nineteenth century "Mormon" doctrine. Even before the general membership of the Church had unanimously sustained the decision in 1890 to cease the practice of plural marriage, ninety-five percent of all Utah males had voted with their feet in the previous decades by choosing not to establish polygamous households.195 However, the extremely difficult question of how much any one book reflects widespread popular views as well as the opinions of its author remains unanswered—and unanswerable at the present stage of research.
At any rate Nephi Anderson's writings, however poor in literary artistry, should definitely be better known to students of "Mormon" social history. Together with other fiction about "Mormon" life by authors who lived through what they described, Anderson's books are a record of what large numbers of his readers believed about their history, their doctrine, and their destiny. And finally, as present "Mormon" literary critics reluctantly admit, Nephi Anderson, the main pioneer of early "Mormon" home literature, is still being read, and the influence of his type of fiction remains strong in the Church even today.196

CONCLUSION
The brief account of Nephi Anderson's life presents a completely assimilated second-generation "Mormon" immigrant who achieved success in Utah around the turn of the century as educator, energetic Church worker and amateur writer of "Mormon" fiction in the mainstream of "Mormon" orthodoxy. Both his life and fiction confirm what historians already have pointed out: that the "Mormon" melting pot worked successfully in turning immigrants into Americans within one generation.
Anderson's fiction also shows that the uprooting of Norwegian "Mormons" took place in connection with their conversion to the "Mormon" Church in Norway before they ever left the country. To most "Mormon" immigrants, leaving for Utah was like going home, and once settled there, they saw no reason to try to retain their Norwegian heritage like their Lutheran countrymen did in the Midwest. The scarcity of Norwegian immigrant themes in Anderson's stories of Utah setting is a strong indication that there were few divided hearts among "Mormon" immigrants. For Norwegian students of the immigrant experience, Anderson's books should therefore afford an interesting insight into the little-known chapter of "Mormon" migration from Scandinavia as seen from the "Mormon" perspective.
Aside from ethnic concerns, Anderson's fiction seems definitely to be of value as source material for students of the social history of Utah "Mormons." Although incomplete by itself, his literature mirrors a number of characteristic "Mormon" values, beliefs, and practices from the pioneer days into the first decades of the twentieth century. For the most part, Anderson portrays "Mormons" as a religious people of whom a few once practiced polygamy with puritanical restraint. With few exceptions they are presented as optimistic, happy, and down-to-earth people with a surprisingly active social life and with few or no class distinctions. As shown, their quest for and initiative in education has been exceptional and comparable to that of Norwegian Lutherans in the Midwest, but without the ethnic conflicts.
Although Anderson is didactic and illustrates and teaches instead of creating a fiction that lives by itself, his popularity makes him important insomuch that his works reflect widespread popular views held by "Mormons" of his own time and also since.

FOOTNOTES
CHAPTER ONE
1. Andrew Jensen, Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia, 4 vols. (Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1901-26), III, 295,
2. Nephi Anderson, "Malerstuen", Improvement Era, 14 (May 1911), 595. Since the official name of this church is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I will follow the practice of using quotation marks around the word "Mormon."
3. Hilmar Freidel, Under Nordlysets Himmel (Oslo: Skrivestua. A/S, 1971), pp. 3-8.
4. Anderson, "Malerstuen", p. 594.
5. Ibid., p. 594.
6. Jensen, p. 295. The name Christian Nephi is interesting. A Supreme Court decision in Norway in 1853 had ruled that "Mormons" were not "Christian" because of their belief in additional scriptures to the Bible: The Book of Mormon. Nephi is one of the great prophets of the Book of Mormon.
7. Ibid., p. 295.
The "Mormon" Church has no paid clergy. All male members are usually ordained to the Priesthood. A congregation or "branch" is presided over by a president who is called to that position by higher Church officials and sustained by the vote of the local congregation. He serves in his free time.
8. Anderson, "Malerstuen", p. 594.
9. A mission call in the "Mormon" Church as opposed to member work normally involves full time service for a certain period of time. It also means leaving school or work, family and friends for that period to preach the gospel. Everyone is expected to cover his own mission expenses.
10. Jensen, pp. 295-296.
11. Anderson, "Malerstuen", p. 596.
12. Nephi Anderson Journal, Church Archives, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, July 8, 1905. Subsequent references to this Journal will all be from a typescript in my possession. Also consulted are Dokumenter fra Munthes gade 39, III - blad 351, Byskriverens Panteregister III, folie 3, 351, Statsarkivet, Oslo. 197 specidaler equaled about 900 kroner.
13. Jensen, p. 295.
14. Anderson, "Malerstuen", p. 596.
15. Ibid., p. 596.
16. Skandinaviens Stjerne, 20 (December 1871), p. 184.
17. Dokumenter fra Munthes gade 39, III - blad 351, Statsarkivet, Oslo.
18. Anderson Journal, biographical summary.
19. Ibid.
20. Deseret News, June 18, 1878, as quoted in Helge Seljaas "The Mormon Migration from Norway", Master's Thesis, Department of History, University of Utah, 1973, pp. 197-198.
21. Anderson Journal, biographical summary.
22. There are several offices in the so-called Melchizedek Priesthood: elder, seventy, high priest, patriarch, and apostle.
23. In each stake (diocese) of the "Mormon" Church a high council composed of twelve high priests is organized to serve as a judicial and administrative body. Their work is to aid the stake presidency in administering church affairs. See note 24.
24. A stake is comparable to a diocese. In prophetic imagery Zion is pictured as a great tent upheld by cords fastened securely.to stakes. A stake numbers from two to four thousand members organized in congregations called wards and branches. It is presided over by a stake president with two counselors who comprise the stake presidency.
25. Anderson Journal, biographical summary.
26. Ibid.
27. See note 22. A seventy is mostly involved in missionary work in his own stake.
28. Jensen, p. 296.
29. Letter from Grant Allen Anderson dated Salt Lake City, Sept. 20, 1978, in my possession.
30. Jensen, p. 296.
31. Anderson Journal, biographical summary.
32. Letter from Grant Allen Anderson dated Salt Lake City, Sept. 29, 1978.
33. A basic "Mormon" concept is that of eternal marriage which must be performed in a sacred Temple where only faithful members may enter.
34. Anderson Journal, biographical summary.
The "Mormon" Sunday School involves all members of the Church, not only children.
35. Nephi Anderson, A Young Folks' History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City: George Q. Cannon & Sons, 1906), p. 1.
36. The Liberal Party's anti-"Mormon" crusade was just beginning to gain ground as some twelve thousand Utah citizens had lost their suffrage due to their unwillingness to support the anti-polygamy laws enacted by Congress. See Anderson Journal, biographical summary.
37. Anderson Journal, biographical summary.
38. Ibid.
39. Christiania conference (later called district) was one geographical part of the Scandinavian Mission, headquartered in Copenhagen. The conference president, usually an experienced missionary, often served as president of the Christiania branch (or congregation) as well.
40. Anderson Journal, Dec. 7, 1891.
41. Helge Seljaas, "Norwegians in 'Zion' Teach Themselves English," Norwegian-American Studies and Records, 26 (1974), 224.
42. Anderson Journal, June 28, 1892
43. Ibid., May 18, 1892.
44. Ibid., October 9, 1892.
45. Ibid., March 26, 1892. Andreas Mortensen (a seaman's priest from New York who had made a tour to Utah in the 1880's) published in Christiania 1887 Fra Mitt Besøg blandt Mormonerne as part of his anti-"Mormon" crusade in Norway. The book is still found in most libraries here.
46. Ibid., May 12, 1892.
A pastor Skabo. See "Counter Mission" in Helge Seljaas, "The Mormon Migration from Norway," pp. 241-246.
47. The information in the following paragraph is taken from Anderson Journal, Sept. 1891 - May 1892.
48. Nephi Anderson, "Beyond the Arctic Circle," Contributor, 16 (November 1894), 28.
49. Anderson Journal, Oct. 20, 1892.
50. Ibid., July 20, 1892.
51. Letter from N.A. to Asenath, dated Tromsø, Norway, August 12, 1892. A copy is in my possession.
52. Ibid.
53. Anderson Journal, Nov. 23, 1892.
54. Ibid., February 14, 1893.
55. Ibid., July 9, 1893.
56. Ibid., April 7, 1893.
57. Ibid., April 9, 1893.
58. Ibid., June 26, 1893.
59. Ibid., December 23, 1891.
60. Ibid., October 5, 1893.
61. Ibid., October 27, 1893.
62. Ibid., July 4, 1898.
63. Ibid., August 6, 1900 and July 5, 1902.
64. Told to me by Laurine Ensign in an interview in Salt Lake City, April 8, 1977.
65. Anderson Journal, March 23, 1904.
66. Ibid., May 20, 1895.
67. Ibid., May 7, 1894.
68. The handwritten manuscript is part of the Nephi Anderson Collection in the LDS Church Archives in Salt Lake City, Utah.
69. The Improvement Era replaced the Contributor in 1897 as the official youth (YMMIA) publication of the Church. Women's Exponent (1872-1915) was the forerunner to the Relief Society Magazine, a "Mormon" women's magazine.
70. Member of the First Council of Seventy, prominent Church historian, and Democratic politician.
71. The Church Sunday School magazine.
72. Church owned Daily and printing office.
73. "Funeral Services of Nephi Anderson," p. 10 in Nephi Anderson Collection in the LDS Church Archives in Salt Lake City. Typescript copy in my possession.
74. The Latter-day Saints' Millenial Star was a monthly periodical which served the Church members in the British Isles for 130 years.
75. Letter from Nephi Anderson to Gerald C. Anderson, dated Liverpool, Sept. 29, 1905. Original with Laurine Ensign in Los Angeles, California. Copy in my possession
76. Nephi Anderson, "From Faith to Faith", Improvement Era, 2 (March 1899), 333.
77. Anderson Journal, April 12, 1904.
78. Ibid., April 19, 20, 21, 22, 25, and 28, 1904.
79. Ibid., April 28, 1904.
80. Ibid., September 16, 1905.
81. Ibid., July 4, 1906.
82. Anderson,"Malerstuen", pp. 594-595.
83. Anderson Journal, September 7, 1904.
84. Ibid., December 11, 1905.
85. Ibid., July 4, 1905.
86. Ibid., May 5, 1905.
87. Copies of some of this correspondence are in my possession. Most of the originals are in the possession of Laurine Ensign, Fresno, California.
88. Anderson Journal March 1, 1905.
89. Nephi Anderson, "The Home Call", Improvement Era, 9 (October, 1906), 965.
90. Anderson Journal, October 12, 1905.
91. Ibid., April 17, 1909.
92. Ibid., June 26, 1908. Such a committee writes lesson manuals for Church Priesthood classes.
93. Anderson Journal, June-September 1909.
94. The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints refused the leadership of Brigham Young and appointed Joseph Smith's son as their president in 1860.
95. A splinter group organized by Granville Hedrick in 1864, who claimed to be the true successor of Joseph Smith.
96. The Hedreckites still own part of the land which Joseph Smith designated as temple ground for the center of Zion in the last days.
97. Anderson Journal, August 19, 1910.
98. "Funeral Services of Nephi Anderson", p. 6.
99. Anderson Journal, March 1, 1917. James B. Allen and Glen M. Leonard, The Story of the Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1976), p. ..47-1.
100. Nephi Anderson, Added Upon (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1976), Foreword.
101. Anderson Journal, October 6, 1921.
102. Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association -- the male half of the "Mormon" youth organization.
103. Anderson Journal, July 30, 1920.
104. Ibid., October 27, 1910.
105. Ibid., July 8, 1912.
106. Ibid., June, 1915.
107. Ibid., October 29, 1914.
108. Ibid., June, 1915.
109. Information from Laurine Ensign in an interview with me in Salt Lake City, April 8, 1977.
110. Anderson Journal, December 23, 1922.
111."Nephi Anderson," Utah Genealogical and Historical Magazine, 14 (1923), 62-64.
112."Funeral Services of Nephi Anderson," p. 8.

CHAPTER TWO
1. Dorothy Burton Sk&rdal, The Divided Heart: Scandinavian Immigrant Experiences through Literary Sources (Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 1974), p. 53.
2. Nephi Anderson, A Daughter of the North (Salt Lake City: De Utah Nederlandes Publishing Co., 1915), p. 30. It is difficult to see the Dovre mountains from Telemark.
3. Nephi Anderson, The Castle Builder (Salt Lake City: Deseret News Publishing Co., 1952), p. 3.
4. Ibid., pp. 23-24.
5. Nephi Anderson, Added Upon (Salt Lake City, 1898), Chap. IV.
6. The Castle Builder, p. 82.
7. A Daughter of the North, p. 198.
8. The Castle Builder, p. 26.
9. A Daughter of the North, p. 195.
10. Ibid., p. 31.
11. Ibid., p. 32.
12. Ibid., p. 40.
13. Ibid., p. 141.
14. Ibid., p. 142.
15. The Castle Builder, p. 147.
16. Added Upon, Chap. IV.
17. The Castle Builder, p. 29.
18. A Daughter of the North, p. 15.
19. The Castle Builder, p. 40.
20. Ibid., pp. 83-84.
21. Ibid., p. 120.
22. Ibid., p. 140.
23. Ibid., pp. 76-77.
24. Ibid., p. 132.
25. A Daughter of the North, p. 60.
26. The Castle Builder, p. 154.
27. Ibid., Chap. 6.
28. Added Upon (Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1939),
Chap. XI. Subsequent references will be from this edition.
29. A Daughter of the North, p. 23.
30. The Castle Builder, p. 193.
31. A Daughter of the North, p. 42.
32. Added Upon, p. 107.
33. A Daughter of the North, p. 200.
34. Added Upon, p. 112.
35. A Daughter of the North, p. 147.
36. Ibid., p. 82.
37. The Castle Builder, p. 150.
38. Helge Seljaas, "The Mormon Migration from Norway" (unpublished Master's Thesis, University of Utah, 1973), p. 31.
39. The Castle Builder, p. 183.
40. Ibid., p.170.
41. Ibid, p.206-207..
42. Added Upon, p. 117.
43. Seljaas, p. 25.
44. A Daughter of the North, p. 67.
45. Ibid., p. 69.
46. The Castle Builder, p. 217.
47. Added Upon, p. 120.
48. The Castle Builder, p. 193-194, 230.
49. William Mulder, Homeward to Zion. The Mormon Migration from Scandinavia (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, -1957), pp._126-127, 130. The title of the book is significant in itself.
50. ibid., p. 100.
51. Mulder, Chap. 4.
52. Added Upon, p. 120.
53. Ibid., pp. 137-138.
54. The Castle Builder, p. 234, and A Daughter of the North, 254. A "Mormon Temple” is a unique and holy place for the members and very different from the ordinary chapel where.the congregation assemble on Sundays and weekdays. Only members in good standing are allowed to enter the temples where for instance "eternal marriages" are performed.
55. Mulder, Chap. 7, and Seljaas, Chap. V.
56. Skandinaviens Stjerne, XIX (1869), 43-44.
57. Seljaas, p. 274.
58. A Daughter of the North, p. 186.
59. Andrew Jensen, History of the Scandinavian Mission (Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1927), pp. 12G-121.
60. O.E. Rolvaag, Giants in the Earth: A Saga of the Prairie (New York: Harper and Row, 1927), pp. xvi-xvii.
61. Charles Dickens, The Uncommercial Traveller (New York: Books Inc., 1861), pp. 202-211, cited in Seljaas, p. 106.
62. Anderson, Marcus King, Mormon (Salt Lake City, 1916), p. 37.
63. Ibid.
64. Added Upon, p. 129.
65. Marcus King, Mormon, p. 40.
66. Ibid., p. 40.
67. Ibid.
68. Ibid.
69. William E. Berrett, The Restored Church (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1973), p. 252. John A. Widsoe, Discourses of Brigham Young (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1975), p. 123.
70. Marcus King, Mormon, p. 46.
71. Berrett, pp. 281-282.
72. Marcus King, Mormon, p. 54.
73. Anderson, The Boys of Springtown (Independence Missouri: Zion's Printing and Publishing Co., 1920), p. 7.
74. Mulder, p..302.
75. Marcus King, Mormon, p. 56.
76. The Boys of Springtown, p. 12.
77. Marcus King, Mormon, p. 56.
78. Ibid., p. 63.
79. Added Upon, p. 34.
80. Marcus King, Mormon, p. 66.
81. James B. Allen and Glen M. Leonard, The Story of the Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1976), pp. 248-249.
82. Ibid.
83. Ibid., pp. 249, 268-269.
84. Nephi Anderson, Piney Ridge Cottage: The Love Story of a "Mormon" Country Girl (Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1912), p. 113.
85. Marcus King, Mormon, p. 57.
86. Ibid., p. 59.
87. Anderson,"Cat-tail Farm," Juvenile Instructor, 29 (December 15, 1894), 771.
88. Anderson, A Young Folk's History of the Church (Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1906), p. 129.
89. Marcus King, Mormon, p. 64.
90. Nephi Anderson,"Mary: A Story of Sagebrush Bench," Contributor, 12 (November, 1890), 25-26.
91. Nephi Anderson, Dorian (Salt Lake City: Bikuben Publishing Company, 1921), p. 89.
92. Piney Ridge Cottage, p. 176-177.
93. Marcus King, Mormon, p. 62.
94. Nephi Anderson,"The Barefoot Boy," Juvenile Instructor, 51 (October, 1916), 653-655.
95. Nephi Anderson,"How the Spirit of Christmas Came," Juvenile Instructor, 51 (December, 1916), 794.
96. Marcus King, Mormon, p. 64.
97. "Mary," Contributor 12 (November, 1896), 25.
98. Ibid., 25.
99. Marcus King, Mormon, p. 81.
100. Added Upon, p. 40.
101. Ibid., pp. 87, 92-93.
102. Nephi Anderson, "Almina," Contributor, 13 (November, 1891), p. 41.
103. A Daughter of the North, p. 254.
104. Anderson, "The Home Field," Improvement Era, 18 (January, 1915), 195-197.
105. Seljaas, p. 197.
106. Piney Ridge Cottage, p. 183.
107. Dorian, p. 30.
108. The Doctrine and Covenants of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1977), 131: 1-3.
109. Marcus King, Mormon, p. 72.
110. Added Upon, p. 107.
111. Anderson, "Lester Amsden's Love," Contributor, 11 (January-1890), 94-95.
112. Piney Ridge Cottage, p. 141.
113. Anderson, "Almina," Contributor, 13 (May 1892), 317.
114. Anderson, "Exceptions," Improvement Era, 26 (January 1923), 251.
115. A "temple recommend" is issued by the "'Mormon" bishop and signed by the Stake president after thorough interviews with the applicant as to his or her worthiness.
116. Anderson,"Mary,"Contributor, 12 (1890), 28-29, 56-57.
117. Dorian, p. 173.
118. Ibid., p. 218.
119. Anderson,"Forfeits," Improvement Era, 21 (April 1918), 521.
120. Piney Ridge Cottage, pp. 72-73.
121. Ibid., p. 67.
122. Anderson, "The Higher Law," Chap. 2. Unpublished novel in Nephi Anderson Collection, Church Archives, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah.
123. Piney Ridge Cottage, p. 68-71.
124. Marcus King, Mormon, p. 86.
125. Ibid., p. 128.
126. Anderson, John St. John (Independence, Mo.: Zion's Printing and Publishing Co., 1917), pp. 225-226.
127. "The Higher Law," Chap. 2.
128. Ibid., Chap. 10.
129. Ibid., Chapters 13-16.
130. Seljaas, "The Mormon Migration from Norway," p. 200. Brigham Young's counsel was: "Let every man in the land over eighteen years of age take a wife…" John A. Widsoe, Discourses of Brigham Young (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1975), p. 194.
131. Widsoe p. 194.
132. Helge Seljaas, Polygamy among the Mormons, Norwegian-American Studies and Records (Northfield, Minn., 1977), 27: 151-162.
133. Allan and Leonard, p. 278.
134. Told to me by his daughter Laurine Ensign in Salt Lake City, April 8, 1977.
135. Seljaas, "Polygamy among the Mormons,"156-157.
136. Mark Twain, Roughing It (New York: Harper & Row, 1871), pp. 123-127., as quoted in Seljaas, p. 157.
137. "Unbidden Guests,"Improvement Era, 18 (May, 1915), 572-579.
138. Widsoe, p. 197.
139. Seljaas, "The Mormon Migration from Norway," p. 200.
140. "The Barefoot Boy," Juvenile Instructor, 51 (October, 1916), 653
141. The Boys of Springtown, p. 47.
142. Piney Ridge Cottage, p. 155.
143. Ibid., p. 154.
144."The Home Field," Improvement Era, 18 (January, 1915), 195-208.
145. Marcus King, Mormon, p. 70.
146. Ibid., p. 73.
147. A "Mormon" priesthood quorum is a group of men who hold the same priesthood offices. For instance, twelve deacons comprise a deacon's quorum.
148. Marcus King, Mormon, p. 73, 92-93.
149. Dorian, pp. 60-61.
150. Marcus King, Mormon, p. 95.
151. Piney Ridge Cottage, pp. 127-128.
152. "The Home Guard," Improvement Era, 14 (March, 1911), 431-437.
153. "How the Lord was Good to Aunt Johanna," Improvement Era, 13 (December, 1909), 109-116.
154. Marcus King, Mormon, pp. 88-89, 131.
155. "The Home Field," p. 198.
156. Piney Ridge Cottage, pp. 52-57.
157. Ibid., pp. 131-132.
158. Ibid., pp. 136-139.
159. The Boys of Springtown, p. 119.
160. Ibid., p. 93.
161. "A Conscience from Carthage," Contributor, 15 (July, 1894), 575-576.
162. Dorian, pp. 192-193.
163. The Boys of Springtown, pp. 114-115.
164. The Story of the Latter-day Saints, p. 175.
165. Seljaas, pp. 216-224, 288.
166. Marcus King, Mormon, p. 69.
167. Allen and Leonard, p. 276.
168. Widsoe, p. 256.
169. Allen and Leonard, p. 276.
170. Piney Ridge Cottage, pp. 29-30.
171. Ibid., pp. 46-47.
172. Ibid., pp. 48-49.
173. Dorian, pp. 4-9.
174. Ibid., p. 31.
175. Ibid., pp. 71-76, 81, 157. Anderson may have had another Norwegian "Mormon" immigrant in mind who realized this ideal, John Andreas Widsoe. Seven years younger than Anderson, he went to Harvard, graduated summa cum laud, took a Ph.D. in Gottingen and became a famous agricultural scientist as well as President of Utah State University 1909-16 and University of Utah 1916-21. After Widsoe a real tradition was created. A recent study published in Science 185 (9 Aug 1974) concluded that Utah was the most productive of all states with regard to social origins of American scientists and scholars for all fields of learning combined. See Leonard J. Arrington and Davis Bitton, The Mormon Experience: A History of the Latter-day Saints (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1979), p. 319.
176. Ibid., p. 86.
177. Piney Ridge Cottage, pp. 19-20.
178. Ibid., pp. 20,26.
179. Anderson Journal, July 8, 1912.
180. "The Finding of Olga," Improvement Era, 4 (February, 1901), 280
181. William Mulder, "Utah's Nordic Language Press: Aspects and Instruments of Immigrant Culture," unpublished Master's Thesis (1947), Department of English, University of Utah, pp. 90-91.
182. Interview with Marv Wallin in Bookcraft Publishers, Salt Lake City, Utah, April 1977.
183. In The Deseret News, August 13, 1923, Nephi Anderson estimated that 30,000 copies had been printed and sold. Marv Wallin in Bookcraft informed me in 1977 that 75,000 copies had been sold since they started publishing it in 1958.
184. Despite their numerical inferiority, several Norwegian "Mormon" immigrants became prominent in Utah: Dan Weggerland, immigrant of 1862, became known as "the father of Utah Art"; John Andreas Widsoe, immigrant of 1884, became an internationally well- known scientist and president of two universities; Thorleif Knaphus, immigrant of 1902, became a prominent "Mormon" sculptor; Grant Johannesen, internationally famous concert pianist, is the son of Norwegian "Mormon" immigrants of 1904.
185. Mulder, "Utah's Nordic Language Press," pp. 90-91.
186. "Home Literature,"first published in the Contributor, July 1888, reprinted in Richard A. Cracroft and Neal A. Lambert, A Believing People: Literature of the Latter-day Saints (Provo: Brigham Young University Press, 1974), p. 206.
187."Purpose in Fiction,"Improvement Era, 1 (February 1898) , 269-271.
188. Anderson, Added Upon, p. 86. Arrington and Bitton, p. 187.
189. Eugene England, book review in BYU Studies, 15 (Spring, 1975), 365.
190. Ibid., p. 367.
191. Ibid., p. 367.
192. Ibid., p. 368.
193. Interview with Bruce W. Jorgensen at Brigham Young University, Utah, in April, 1977.
194. Lawrence Stone, "The Disenchantment of the World,"The New York Review of Books (December 2, 1971), p. 17.
195. Arrington and Bitton, p. 203.
196. Edward A. Geary, "The Poetics of Provincialism: Mormon Regional Fiction," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought XI (Summer, 1978), 15.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
PRIMARY SOURCES INCLUDING A COMPLETE LIST
OF NEPHI ANDERSON'S PUBLISHED WRITINGS

Novels
Anderson, Nephi. Added Upon, A Story. Salt Lake City: Deseret News Publishing Co., 1898.
The Boys of Springtown. Independence, Mo.: Zion's Printing and Publishing Co., 1920.
The Castle Builder. Salt Lake City: Deseret New Publishing, 1902.
A Daughter of the North. Salt Lake City: De Utah Nederlander Publishing Co., 1915.
Dorian. Salt Lake City: Bikuben Publishing Co., 1921.
John St. John. Independence, Mo.: Zion's Printing and Publishing Co., 1917.
Marcus King, Mormon. Salt Lake City: George Q. Cannon & Sons Co., 1900.
Piney Ridge Cottage: The Love Story of a "Mormon" Country Girl. Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1912.
The Romance of a Missionary: a Story of English Life and Missionary Experiences. Independence, Mo.: Zion's Printing and Publishing Co., 1919.
The Story of Chester Lawrence: Being the Completed Account of One Who Played an Important Part in "Piney Ridge Cottage." Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1913.
"The Higher Law," manuscript story, 372 pp., written in 1903, filed in the Nephi Anderson Collection, LSD Church Archives, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Other publications
Anderson, Nephi. The Ancient Prophets. Salt Lake City: General Board of the Y.M.M.I.A., 1903-04.
The Dimmed. Vision, a Genealogical Story. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1938.
The Place of Genealogy in the Plan of Salvation. Salt Lake City: Skelton Publishing Co.,, 1911.
A Young Folks' History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Salt Lake City: George Q. Cannon & Sons, 1923.

Articles
Anderson, Nephi. "Are We Americans?" Improvement Era, 3 (October, 1900), 933-36.
"The Best Tract." Liahona, 7 (February 19, 1910), 560.
"Beyond the Arctic Circle." Contributor, 16 (November, 1894 to May, 1895), 25-31; 73-81; 139-45; 222-27; 267-72; 331-35; 414-17.
"Current Comment." Contributor, 17 (Sep-tember, 1896), 677-78.
"A Day in June." Improvement Era, 8 (May,
1905), 567-68.
"A Day with Carry Nation." Improvement Era, 14 (July, 1913), 1000-8.
"Educational Value of Missions." Improvement Era, 16 (July, 1913), 944-52.
"Evidences of Immortality." Millenial Star, 67 (November, 30, 1905 ), 753-56.
"Follow-up Work in the Mutuals." Improvement Era, 16 (August, 1913), 994-99.
"The Fram," Contributor 17 (October 1896) pp 699-701.
"From Faith to Faith." Improvement Era, 2 (March, 1899), 332-34.
"Give the Saints a Chance." Liahona, 11 (August 19, 1913), 122.
"Giving and Getting."Millenial Star, 72 (February 17, 1910), 102-3.
"A Gospel Outline…Scrapbook of Mormon Literature." Vol. 1, n.d.
"The Heart's Eternal Tenderness."Young Women's Journal, 18 (August, 1907), 337-42.
"How to Obey the Gospel." Liahona, 8 (March 14, 1911), 610-12.
"The Importance of Genealogy Among the Latter-day Saints." Liahona, 8 (January 3, 1911), 456-60.
"The 'Larger Hope' for the Dead." Millennial Star, 75 (December 18, 1913), 817-23.
"The Leavening of the Lump, a Comparison between Gospel Principles and Some Modern Teachings." Millennial Star, 67 (March 30, 1905), 193-97.
"Life and Character Sketch of Lorenzo Snow." Improvement Era, 2 (June, 1899), 561-70.
"Malerstuen." Improvement Era, 14 (May, 1911), 592-96.
"Modern Testimonies to a Falling Away." Liahona, 8 (October 18, 1910), 273-75.
"Nannie Tout in London."Young Women's Journal, 15 (September, 1904), 401-4.
"The Personality and the Omnipresence of God." Liahona, 7 (March 5, 1910), 590-91.
"The Pictures on the Wall." Liahona, 7 (October 9, 1909), 259-60.
"Pilgrims and Pioneers." Improvement Era, (July, 1900), 641-44.
"Pride." Contributor, 10 (September, 1889), 411-12.
"Purpose in Fiction." Improvement Era, 1 (February, 1898), 260-71.
"The Returned Elder." Improvement Era, 3 (November, 1899), 26-29.
"Seeing the Midnight Sun." Improvement Era, 1 (July, 1898), 645-47.
"Seven Sermons." Contributor, 17 (September, 1896), 646-68.
"Show Us the Father." Liahona, 10 (November 5, 1912), 305-8.
"Spirit and Element." Liahona, 10 (February 18, 1913), 545-47.
"The Spirit of Christmas." Liahona, 7 (December 25, 1901), 430-31.
"Sunny Days in Ireland." Improvement Era, 14 (November, 1910), 32-34.
The Test of Efficiency. Improvement Era, 22 (August, 1919), 897-98.
"Twelve Reasons for Not Drinking Whisky." Liahona, 9 (May 21, 1912), 756-57; 62.
"What is a Saint?" Liahona, 7 (March 19, 1910), 622-23.
"What Shall We Do: an After-revival Talk on an Interesting and Important Subject." Millennial Star, 67 (June 22, 1905), 385-89.
"Wisdom of God--Agency of Man." Contributor, 11 (August 1890), 366-69.

Stories
Anderson, Nephi."Almina." Contributor, 13 (November, 1891 to May, 1892), 39-44; 71-77; 112-16; 169-71; 240-43; 282-87; 313-17.
"At Saint Peter's Gate." Improvement Era, 21 (November, 1917), 45-50.
"The Barefoot Boy." Juvenile Instructor, 51 (October, 1916), 653-55.
"Because I Love You." Liahona, 5 (1907), 217 and Millennial Star, 68 (June 21, 1906), 435-38.
"By This Shall All Men Know."Millennial Star, 67 (January 26, 1905), 61-63.
"Cat-tail Farm." Juvenile Instructor, 29 (December 15, 1894), 737-40; 771-74.
"A Conscience from Carthage." Contributor, 15 (July, 1894), 575-83.
"Distance Lends Enchantment." Improvement Era, 25 (September, 1922), 1061-66.
"Double Tragedy." Young Woman's Journal, 26 (June, 1915), 331-36.
"The End of the Rainbow."Improvement Era, 13 (June, 1910), 694-703.
"The Essential." Relief Society Magazine, 5 (February, 1918), 87-89.
"Exceptions." Improvement Era, 26 (January, 1923), 249-53.
"The Finding of Olga." Improvement Era,, 4 (February, 1901 to March, 1901), 280-88; 326-32.
"The Finding of the Pearl." Contributor, 15 (January, 1894), 177-84.
"Fisherman Knute's Christmas Gift." Improvement Era, 7 (November, 1903 to December, 1903), 9-17; 93-99.
"Forfeits." Improvement Era, 21 (April, 1918), 519-23.
"The Freedom of Donald Gray." Improvement Era, 9 (April, 1906), 484-92.
"The Girl."Improvement Era, 24 (October, 1921) , 1103-5.
"Gold Mines and Riches." Improvement Era, 21 (July, 1919), 759-62.
"Grandmother's Rocking Chair." Contributor, 11 (May, 1890), 242-48.
"The Home Field." Improvement Era, 18 (January, 1915), 195-208.
"The Home Guard." Improvement Era, 14 (March, 1911), 431-32.
"How the Lord was Good to Aunt Johanna." Improvement Era, 13 (December, 1909), 109-16.
"How the Spirit of Christmas Came." Juvenile Instructor, 51 (December, 1916), 789-95.
"The Inevitable." Improvement Era, 10 (August, 1907), 776-82.
"John Engleman and the Spirit of Christmas." Improvement Era, 15 (December, 1911 and January, 1912), 126-36; 210-17.
"Lester Amsden's Love." Contributor, 11 (January, 1890), 90-95.
"The Letter from Mary". Improvement Era, 8 (December, 1904), 81-87.
"The Lewellen Family's Christmas Present." Millennial Star, 67 (December 14, 1905), 794-99.
"A Little Child Shall Lead Them." Improvement Era, 13 (October, 1910), 1105-17.
"The Lonesome Christmas." Liahona, 7 (December 25, 1909), 427.
"Mary: A Story of Sagebrush Bench." Contributor, 12 (November and December, 1890), 25-29; 53-57.
"Mother's Christmas Story." Relief Society Magazine, 5 (December, 1918), 687-90.
"Mother's Day." Relief Society Magazine, 3 (July, 1916), 347-77.
"On the Border-land of Light." Juvenile Instructor, 29 (September 1, 1894), 538-42.
"Out of the Abundance of the Heart." Improvement Era, 13 (February, 1910), 356-62.
"The Ridge Between." Juvenile Instructor, 54 (February, 1919), 76-77.
"Salvation of Souls." Improvement Era, 3 (March, 1900 to April, 1900), 329-34; 412-20.
"The 'Selfishness' of Jacob and Rachel." Relief Society Magazine, 2 (September, 1915), 403-06.
"The Silent Protest." Juvenile Instructor, 51 -(April, 1916 and May, 1916), 224-28; 290-301.
"The Straw." Improvement Era, 25 (September, 1922), 969-73.
"Tallie, Bill White's Girl." Contributor, 15 (March, 1894), 285-92.
"Tendrilla." Improvement Era, 20 (September, 1917 to October, 1917), 1007-12; 1067-74.
"The Testing of Gilda." Improvement Era, 19 (June, 1916), 729-37.
"Unbidden Guests." Improvement Era, 18 (May, 1915), 572-79.
"The Welding Link." Relief Society Magazine, 5 (May, 1919), 247-50.
"When the Stove Smoked." Improvement Era, 10 (September, 1907), 882-88.
"The Word of Wisdom Party." Juvenile Instructor, 42 (October 1, 1907), 588-91.

Poema
"Died in the Field." Improvement Era, 4 (February, 1901), 266.
"Consolation." Improvement Era, 3 (December, 1899) , 109.
"Home Call." Improvement Era, 9 (October, 1906), 965.
"Love's First Conquest." Improvement Era, 7 (September, 1904), 832-34.
"True Riches." Improvement Era, 15: 349.
"A Visit of the King." Contributor, 17 (December, 1895), 118.
"A Vision." Improvement Era, 4 (April, 1901), 458.

Letters (unpublished)
To Asenath Anderson, 12 August 1892, in the LDS Church Archives (Salt Lake City, Utah).
To his family, 16 September 1904, owned by Laurine Ensign (Fresno, Calif.).
To Ronella Anderson, 16 December 1904, owned by Laurine Ensign (Fresno, Calif.).
To Laurine Anderson, 16 February 1905, owned by Laurine Ensign (Fresno, Calif.).
To Laurine Anderson, 27 April 1905, owned by Laurine Ensign (Fresno, Calif.).
To Laurine Anderson, 1 June 1905, owned by Laurine Ensign (Fresno, Calif.).
To Gerald C. Anderson, 29 September, 1905, owned by Laurine Ensign (Fresno, Calif.).
To Reverend O.R. Miller, 31 December 1912, owned by Laurine Ensign (Fresno, Calif.).

Journal (unpublished)
Anderson, Nephi. Journal, written in English, MS, part of Nephi Anderson Collection in LDS Church Archives, Salt Lake City, Utah.

SECONDARY:SOURCES
Books
Allen, James B. and Leonard, Glen M. The Story of the Latter-day Saints. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1976.
Arrington, Leonard J, and Bitton, Davis. The Mormon Experience: A History of the Latter- day Saints. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1979.
Berrett, William E. The Restored Church. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1973.
Blegen, Theodore C. Norwegian Migration to America: The American Transition. Northfield, Minnesota: Norwegian-American Historical Association, 1940.
Cracroft, Richard H. and Lambert, Neal A. A Believing People: Literature of the Latter-day Saints. Provo: Brigham Young University Press, 1974.
The Doctrine and Covenants of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1977.
Freidel, Hilmar. Under Nordlysets Himmel. Oslo: Skrivestua A/S, 1971.
Hauge, Alfred. Gjennom Amerika i emigrantspor. Stavanger: LU-MI Forlag, 1975.
Jensen, Andrew. History of the Scandinavian Mission. Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1927.
Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia. 4 vols. Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1901-26.
Mulder, William. Homeward to Zion: The Mormon Migration from Scandinavia. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1957.
Qualey, Carton C. Norwegian Settlement in the United States. Northfield, Minnesota: Norwegian-American Historical Association, 1939.
Rølvaag, O.E. Giants in the Earth: A Saga of the Prairie. New York: Harper and Row, 1927.
Skardal, Dorothy Burton. The Divided Heart: Scandinavian Immigrant Experiences through Literary Sources. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 1974.
Widsoe, John A., ed. Discourses of Brigham Young. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1975.

Articles
England, Eugene. Book Review of A believing People: Literature of the Latter-day Saints. Brigham Young University Studies, 15, No. 3 (1975), 365-372.
Greary, Edward A. "The Poetics of Provincialism: Mormon Regional Fiction." Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, XI, No. 2 (1978), 15-25.
Mulder, William."Image of Zion: Mormonism as an American Influence in Scandinavia." The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, VIIL (June, 1956), 18-38.
"Nephi Anderson." Utah Genealogical and Historical Magazine, 14 (1923), 62-64.
Sande, Lars Chr."Malersønnen fra Vats som ble Mormonenes store skulptør." De som dro ut. Stavanger: Dreyer Bok, 1975, pp. 239-244.
Seljaas, Helge. "Norwegians in 'Zion' Teach Themselves English." Norwegian-American Studies and Records, 26 (1974), 220-228.
"Polygamy among the Mormons." Norwegian-American Studies and Records, 27 (1977), 151-162.
Stone, Lawrence."The Disenchantment of the World." The New York Review of Books (December 2, 1971), 17-2Y.

Unpublished Material
Anderson, Christian, Journal, written in Norwegian, MS, in Nephi Anderson Collection, LDS Church Archives, Salt Lake City, Utah.
"Funeral Services of Nephi Anderson," 13 pp., typescript in Nephi Anderson Collection, LDS Church Archives, Salt Lake City, Utah.
Mulder, William."Utah's Nordic-language Press: Aspects and Instrument of Immigrant Culture." Unpublished Master's thesis, Department of English, University of Utah, 1947.

Newspapers and Periodicals
The Deseret News. Salt Lake City, 1850-date. Official Church daily.
The Latter-day Saint's Millennial Star. This was published at Manchester, Liverpool and London, 1840 to date. Church periodical.
Skandinaviens Stjerne. Copenhagen, 1851-1935. Church periodical.
Varden. Salt Lake City, 1910-1911, Norwegian monthly. LDS Church Archives.

Interviews
Ensign, Laurine. Personal interview, Salt Lake City, April, 1977.
Jorgensen, Bruce. Personal interview, Salt Lake City, April, 1977.
Wallin, Marv. Personal interview, Salt Lake City, April, 1977.


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