Children of God and the Golden Age of Mormon Literature

Abstract

This chapter focuses on Children of God, Fisher’s 1939 epic novel of the Mormon migration that won the Harper Prize and reached #2 on the New York Times best seller list behind John Steinback’s Grapes of Wrath. Children of God used both Joseph Smith and Brigham Young as characters in a novel that neither sensationalized nor sanitized the Mormon story. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was very upset about the book’s publication, but they chose to ignore it publicly while working behind the scenes to make sure that it did not influence the script of the 1940 20th Century Fox movie, Brigham Young. The chapter argues that Children of God had a profound influence on Americans’ understanding of Mormonism and created an important market space for other works of Mormon-themed literature.