John Taylor was an English-born religious leader who served as the third president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1880 to 1887. He is the first and so far only president of the LDS Church to have been born outside the United States.
Thomas Spencer Monson was an American religious leader, author, and the 16th President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As president, he was considered by adherents of the religion to be a prophet, seer, and revelator. Monson's early career was as a manager at the Deseret News, a Utah newspaper owned by the LDS Church. He spent most of his life engaged in various church leadership positions and public service.
Gordon Bitner Hinckley was an American religious leader and author who served as the 15th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from March 1995 until his death in January 2008 at age 97. Considered a prophet, seer, and revelator by church members, Hinckley was the oldest person to preside over the church in its history until Russell M. Nelson surpassed his age in 2022.
Leonard James Arrington was an American author, academic and the founder of the Mormon History Association. He is known as the "Dean of Mormon History" and "the Father of Mormon History" because of his many influential contributions to the field. Since 1842, he was the first non-general authority Church Historian for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, from 1972 to 1982, and was director of the Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Church History from 1982 until 1986.
Mormon fiction is generally fiction by or about members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who are also referred to as Latter-day Saints or Mormons. Its history is commonly divided into four sections as first organized by Eugene England: foundations, home literature, the "lost" generation, and faithful realism. During the first fifty years of the church's existence, 1830–1880, fiction was not popular, though Parley P. Pratt wrote a fictional Dialogue between Joseph Smith and the Devil. With the emergence of the novel and short stories as popular reading material, Orson F. Whitney called on fellow members to write inspirational stories. During this "home literature" movement, church-published magazines published many didactic stories and Nephi Anderson wrote the novel Added Upon. The generation of writers after the home literature movement produced fiction that was recognized nationally but was seen as rebelling against home literature's outward moralization. Vardis Fisher's Children of God and Maurine Whipple's The Giant Joshua were prominent novels from this time period. In the 1970s and 1980s, authors started writing realistic fiction as faithful members of the LDS Church. Acclaimed examples include Levi S. Peterson's The Backslider and Linda Sillitoe's Sideways to the Sun. Home literature experienced a resurgence in popularity in the 1980s and 1990s when church-owned Deseret Book started to publish more fiction, including Gerald Lund's historical fiction series The Work and the Glory and Jack Weyland's novels.
James Edward Talmage was an English chemist, geologist, and religious leader who served as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1911 until his death.
Deseret Book is an American publishing company headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, that also operates a chain of bookstores throughout the western United States. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Deseret Management Corporation (DMC), the holding company for business firms owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Deseret Book is a for-profit corporation registered in Utah. Deseret Book publishes under four imprints with media ranging from works explaining LDS theology and doctrine, LDS-related fiction, electronic resources, and sound recordings such as The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square albums.
John Holbrook Groberg has been a general authority of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since 1976. He is the author of The Eye of the Storm, and was the protagonist in the movie made from the book titled The Other Side of Heaven.
Minerva Bernetta Kohlhepp Teichert was a 20th-century American painter notable for her art depicting Western and Mormon subjects, including a collection of murals depicting scenes from the Book of Mormon. Teichert received her art education from the Art Institute of Chicago and the Art Students League of New York. Teichert was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Other religious-themed artwork she is known for include Christ in a Red Robe, Queen Esther, and Rescue of the Lost Lamb. Additionally, Teichert painted 42 murals related to stories in the Book of Mormon which reside in Brigham Young University's (BYU) Museum of Art. She was the first woman invited to paint a mural for an LDS Church temple.
Sharlene Wells is a Paraguayan-American author, singer, and reporter from Salt Lake City, Utah who was Miss America 1985. She worked with ESPN from 1987 to 2002 and was appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Defense to the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Armed Forces in 2015.
Marion Isabelle Sims Spafford, known as Belle S. Spafford, was the ninth Relief Society General President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from April 6, 1945, until October 3, 1974. She served longer in this capacity than any other woman in the history of the Relief Society. Spafford also served as president of the National Council of Women from 1968 to 1972, traveling and speaking both nationally and internationally in that position.
Bruce Clark Hafen is an American attorney, academic and religious leader. He has been a general authority of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since 1996.
Mary Ellen Wood Smoot was the thirteenth Relief Society General President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1997 to 2002.
Adele Morris Cannon Howells was the fourth Primary general president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1943 until her death of rheumatic heart disease. She contributed to The Children's Friend magazine, as well as the fundraising for the Children's Primary Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Frank Chester Robertson was an American author best known for his western novels. He published over 150 hard cover books and countless other short stories, serials and newspaper articles. In later years, he also wrote a column for the Provo Herald called "The Chopping Block".
Lynn Mathers Hilton was an American politician who served as a member of the Utah State Legislature. He was also known as an academic professor, businessman, Middle East explorer and author of many books related to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Linda Buhler Sillitoe was an American journalist, poet and historian. She is best known for her journalistic coverage about Mark Hofmann and the "Mormon forgery murders." Her subsequent book Salamander, coauthored with Allen Roberts, examined Hofmann's creation of an industry for forged documents, the 1985 bombing murders of two people, and the police investigation, arrest and conviction. The murder investigation eventually revealed Hofmann's documents, initially seen as undermining the early history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, were forgeries. Sillitoe’s published works also included fiction and poetry.
Peggy Fletcher Stack is an American journalist, editor, and author. Stack has been the lead religion writer for The Salt Lake Tribune since 1991. She and five other journalists at the Salt Lake Tribune won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting. She won the Cornell Award for Excellence in Religion Reporting—Mid-sized Newspapers from the Religious News Association in 2004, 2012, 2017, 2018, and 2022.
Martha Sonntag Bradley-Evans is an American academic who is a professor in the College of Architecture and Planning at the University of Utah. She was the president of the Mormon History Association. Bradley-Evans is also the author of several books, and is known for her history of Mormon feminism.
Josi S. Kilpack is an American novelist. She has authored 26 books, including a 13 book culinary mystery series. She is the recipient of a Whitney Award from LDStorymakers, a guild for authors who are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and has been awarded the Best of State in fiction in the state of Utah.
