Eugene England

George Eugene England, Jr. (July 22 1933 – August 17 2001), usually credited as Eugene England, was a Mormon writer, teacher, and scholar. He founded "", the oldest independent journal in Mormon Studies, with G. Wesley Johnson in 1966 and cofounded the Association for Mormon Letters in 1976. He is also widely known in the LDS Church for his many essays about Mormon culture and thought. From 1977-1998, England taught Mormon Literature at Brigham Young University.cite web|url=http://mormonlit.lib.byu.edu/lit_author.php?a_id=85 |title=Biography of Eugene England at the Mormon Literature Database |accessdate=2008-02-14] England described the ideal modern Mormon scholar as "critical and innovative as his gifts from God require but conscious of and loyal to his own unique heritage and nurturing community and thus able to exercise those gifts without harm to others or himself."cite web|url=http://www.signaturebookslibrary.org/dialogues/foreword.htm#gene |title=England's foreword to "Dialogues with Myself," a collection of his short stories |accessdate=2008-02-14] This charitable, tolerant, and faithful approach to scholarship was a hallmark of his career and life.Fact|date=February 2008

Biography

England was born July 22, 1933 in Logan, Utah to George Eugene England and Dora Rose Hartvigsen England. He grew up in Downey, Idaho, where his father owned a wheat farm. At age 20, he married the former Charlotte Hawkins, with whom he was soon called to serve an LDS mission to Samoa.

After serving as a captain in the U.S. Air Force, England entered graduate school at Stanford University, where he was both influenced by the 60s-era campus movement and the LDS Church as an active member and a leader in his student ward. While at Stanford, England met Wesley Johnson and together the two men conceived of and announced the formation of an academic journal on Mormon culture, "Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought".

Leaving Stanford, England taught at St. Olaf Lutheran College in Minnesota, while completing work on his Ph.D., awarded in 1974. But he was forced to leave when some of his students expressed interest in Mormonism and their parents complained. He then taught at the University of Utah's LDS Institute of Religion for two years, before receiving a professorship at Brigham Young University.

At BYU, England was able to teach classes in Mormon literature and in 1976 he helped found the Association for Mormon Letters in order to raise the visibility of the study of Mormon literature. He also explored religious themes in important literary works. During his years at BYU England was at his most prolific, writing books of essays such as "Dialogues with Myself" and "Why the Church Is as True as the Gospel," poetry, a biography and numerous articles.

In the last decade of his life, England felt increasingly under fire for his work, which led him to retire from BYU in 1998.Fact|date=March 2008 He was then offered the position of writer in residence at Utah Valley State College in Orem, Utah. There he started the Center for the Study of Mormon Culture, as part of the college's religious studies program. Before England could fully develop the Center, he suffered a debilitating case of brain cancer. Despite an operation that removed two golf-ball sized cysts and a portion of a tumor, he died on August 17, 2001.cite web|url=http://www.mormonstoday.com/010824/A2EEngland02.shtml |title="Remembering England" Obituary on Mormon News, August 25, 2001 |accessdate=2008-02-23]

Publications

* "A Teacher's Faith and Values" (edited with Erling Jorstad). St. Olaf College, 1973
* "Brother Brigham". Bookcraft, 1980. ISBN 0-88494-394-1
* "Dialogues With Myself". Orion Books (a division of Signature Books), 1984. ISBN 0-941214-21-4 [http://www.signaturebookslibrary.org/dialogues/foreword.htm "Full text"]
* "Why the Church Is As True As the Gospel". Bookcraft, 1986; Tabernacle Books, 1999; Mormon Arts & Letters, 2007. ISBN 0-85051-101-1
* "The Best of Lowell L. Bennion: Selected Writings, 1928-1988" (edited with Lowell Lindsay Bennion). Deseret Book, 1988. ISBN 0-87579-184-0
* "Converted to Christ Through the Book of Mormon". Deseret Book, 1989. ISBN 0-87579-268-5
* "Harvest: Contemporary Mormon Poems" (edited with Dennis Clark). Signature Books, 1989. ISBN 0-941214-80-X
* "Beyond Romanticism: Tuckerman's Life and Poetry". State University of New York Press, 1991. ISBN 0-7914-0791-8
* "Bright Angels &Familiars: Contemporary Mormon Stories" (edited). Signature Books, 1992. ISBN 1-56085-026-4
* "The Quality of Mercy: Personal Essays on Mormon Experience". Bookcraft, 1992. ISBN 0-88494-830-7
* "An Open World: Essays on Leslie Norris" (edited with Peter Makuck). Camden House, 1994. ISBN 1-87975-182-8
* "Making Peace: Personal Essays". Signature Books, 1995. ISBN 1-56085-069-8
* "Tending the Garden: Essays on Mormon Literature" (edited with Lavina F. Anderson). Signature Books, 1996. ISBN 1-56085-019-1
* "Proving Contraries: A Collection of Writings in Honor of Eugene England". Signature Books, 2005. ISBN 1-56085-190-2
* "Eugene England: essays on values in literature" (edited by C. Jay Fox, Steven C. Walker, Jesse S. Crisler). Center for the Study of Christian Values in Literature, Brigham Young University, 2006. ISBN 0-939555-08-5

Notes

References

* "The Battle for England: LDS writer's journey traces his struggle between church and cultural criticism" by Peggy Fletcher Stack. Salt Lake Tribune, January 29, 2000, page A2
* "Wordsmith takes up residence at UVSC: Eugene England is the college's first Writer in Residence" by Jerry Johnston. Deseret News January 30, 2000, page A4
* "Works of restless writer tap into faith" by Marden Clark. Provo Daily Herald January 29, 2000, page A2

External links

* [http://mormonlit.lib.byu.edu/lit_author.php?a_id=85 Biography of Eugene England at the Mormon Literature Database]
* [http://mldb.byu.edu/progress.htm Mormon Literature: Progress and Prospects by Eugene England]
* [http://www.uvu.edu/philhum/religious/england.html Eugene England Lecture Series at Utah Valley University]