author
Ben. E. (Benjamin Erastus) Rich
1855–1913
A lively early Mormon writer and speaker, he mixed fiction, religious debate, and public advocacy in a career that reached from Utah to mission fields in Britain and the American South.
1 Audiobook
Mr. Durant of Salt Lake City, "That Mormon"
by Ben. E. (Benjamin Erastus) Rich
About the author
Born in Salt Lake City in 1855, Benjamin Erastus Rich became widely known as Ben E. Rich. Reliable biographical sources describe him as a missionary, publisher, novelist, and public spokesman for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and note that he was a son of apostle Charles C. Rich.
He served a mission in Great Britain in the 1880s and later held leading missionary roles in the Southern States and Eastern States. Alongside that work, he wrote and published books and pamphlets, including fiction and religious argument, which helped make him one of the more visible Mormon voices of his era.
Rich died in 1913. Today he is remembered both for his church service and for a body of writing that captures the tone of Latter-day Saint debate, preaching, and popular literature at the turn of the twentieth century.