Nephi Anderson

Born in Norway in 1865, he emigrated to Utah with his family as a child and grew up in the Latter-day Saint community there. He later worked as a teacher, school principal, editor, missionary, and church writer, experiences that fed directly into his fiction and nonfiction.

He became one of the best-known authors of the Latter-day Saint "Home Literature" movement, a period that encouraged uplifting fiction for church readers. He published ten novels along with short stories, poems, essays, and a church history for younger readers, but is most remembered for Added Upon (1898), the book that brought him his widest audience.

His writing is often noted for blending romance, moral choices, and religious belief in a direct, readable style. He died in Salt Lake City in 1923, and his work remains an important window into early Mormon literary culture.