A new friend wrote and asked this question: what are the 30 essential works of Mormon literature? He knows and loves The Backslider, and has also read Doug Thayer's Under the Cottonwoods. What are some other works we could recommend? I'd start with Margaret Young's Love Chains, and her novels. The Standing on the Promises novels are must-reads, as is Heresies of Nature, House without Walls, and Salvador. My favorite Phyllis Barber is And the Desert Shall Bloom--what else would we recommend? Bela Petsco's Nothing Very Important, Levi's Aspen Marooney. Some Sam Taylor seems like a must, especially Nightfall at Nauvoo and Heaven Knows Why. The Giant Joshua would be essential, I think. What else do you guys think?

I would add some of the groundbreaking plays, but it's hard to find them in print. Maybe after that book comes out (who was it--Mahonri?--who is editing it?).

I would add Mary Clyde's Survival Rates. And something from John Bennion--Falling Toward Heaven was good but his short stories are what make my hair stand on end (Breeding Leah).

And there is my personal favorite, Benediction, a collection of short stories by Neal Chandler.

Okay, so I'm the new friend that wrote to Eric. I'm pleased that I did because he pointed me here. I'm not going to post too much just yet, as I want to read all the past posts and catch up before I start posting things that have already been hashed over. However, I do want to post to this thread and discuss this a little.



I wrote to Eric to see if he still had a bibliography of Mormon novels that he mentioned in an old Sunstone symposium that ended up on my iPod recently. He didn't but he started this thread, and invited me here...so you can all blame him. So I've been soaking up Mormon literature for several years now, and have been seeking after the essential works of Mormon fiction, i.e. those serious (not preachy) works that any LDS writer must read in order to understand the tradition. I like, a lot, Eugene England's introduction to Tending the Garden with its historical breakdown, and A Believing People's chronological piecing together of some of the tradition's works. But I realize that I can't collect everything (I'm currently limited to two bookshelves that currently have books stacked on top, and in every available space). So until I can find another shelf that matches these (bought at auction), I need to be a little more discriminating.

My list of essentials currently includes (please continue to help me add to it):

Levi Peterson
1. The Canyons of Grace
2. Night Soil
3. The Backslider

Douglas Thayer
4. Under the Cottonwoods

OSC
5. Folk of the Fringe

Anthologies:
6. Bright Angels and Familiars
7. Harvest
8. Greening Wheat

I've only read a few stories by Margaret Blaire Young, and House Without Walls is on my bookshelf so I'll need to get more of her books. I've read portions of Refuge, and have Terry Tempest Williams' Red and like it a lot. I asked for Todd Robert Peterson's Long After Dark and Levi Peterson's Aspen Marooney for Christmas, but didn't get them. I've never read Jack Weyland, but I know my sisters have, maybe I could borrow Charlie from one of them. I haven't read anything by Chris or Brady Udall, but I've received multiple recommendations from friends for both of them.

I won't ramble on anymore. I'm just fishing for recommendations. Parting note: I have read The Work and The Glory and Lund's Fishers of Men trilogy, and although they are different than the type of writing I do and usually seek out, I really enjoyed reading them. *ducks away from flying objects*

Thanks everyone for your recommendations.

Darlene,

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll look into that. I listed Harvest, which I think is a fine anthology.