Presented to: Eugene England
For: "The Dawning of a Brighter Day: Mormon Literature after 150 Years"
[First delivered as a Charles Redd Lecture. Also published in After 150 Years: The Latter-day Saints in Sesquicentennial Perspective, ed. Thomas G. Alexander and Jessie L. Embry, (Midvale, Utah: Charles Redd Center for Western Studies, 1983. 97-146).]
In awarding this citation, the awards committee stated, "Speaking as one having authority and not of the scribes, England outlines, in this landmark article, the significant accomplishments of Mormon literature through three distinctive periods and suggests, if not a credo, the a near-credo for writers--and readers--of Mormon literature; and his attached bibliography has become a point of departure for all who would be knowledgeable in Mormon literary scholarship and England's article is a milestone in Mormon literary scholarship and yet another milestone in his career of major contributions to Mormon literature, a career which has thus far led him from founding and editing Dialogue to the presidency of the Association for Mormon Letters and his profession as a teacher of Mormon letters at Brigham Young University. In this article, as in so many of his works, England again reminds us why his name has become synonymous with Mormon literature."