Christian Nephi Anderson (January 22, 1865 – January 6, 1923) was a prominent Utah novelist and member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). A prolific writer of the "Home Literature" period of LDS fiction, Anderson published ten novels including the bestselling Added Upon (1898), as well as short stories, poetry, essays, and a history of the Church for young people.
Family and church life
Anderson was born in Christiania (modern Oslo), Norway on 22 January 1865. His parents, Christian and Petronella Nielson, had joined the LDS Church only a few years before his birth and in 1871 they emigrated to Utah Territory, United States. They settled first in Coalsville and later in Ogden.
In 1886, Anderson married Asenath Tillotson and began a teaching career in Ogden and Brigham City. From 1891 to 1893, he served a mission for the LDS Church in his birth country of Norway and resumed teaching upon returning. He served as Superintendent of Schools in Box Elder County, Utah, from 1900 to 1903.
Asenath died in January 1904, having borne six children with Nephi (three of which survived to adulthood).
Just two months after his wife's death, Anderson left on his second mission for the church, this time to Great Britain, where under the direction of Heber J. Grant he became assistant editor of the LDS periodical Millennial Star. Returning to Utah in 1906, Anderson moved his family to Salt Lake City and secured a position as instructor of English and Missionary Studies at Latter-day Saints High School. In 1908, he married Maud Rebecca Symons, with whom he would have six more children.
