Idaho Commission for Libraries

Lives of the Saints in Southeast Idaho: An Introduction to Mormon Pioneer Life Story Writing (1990) is a study of the ways that Mormons tell the life stories of their pioneer experiences in biographies and autobiographies—what they emphasize and omit and organize, how they interpret events, what sort of language they choose. Using many extended direct quotes from an archive of over 6000 pages of original written material by LDS writers, it argues that not only do the works present rich insights into particular culture in a particular place, but they also deserve to be more widely known because of the enjoyable reading they provide.