Should John D. Fitzgerald be "Utah's Author"?

Our one day Great Brain event ended Friday night in the Price Library. The walking tour had been a great afternoon activity, but the focus was really about learning about John Dennis Fitzgerald, and that is what our evening event was all about. 

One of our Facebook fans is Aaron Nelson, head librarian at Nightingale College,in Logan Utah. He is a world traveler (he has been everywhere - Greece, Russia, Switzerland), and hobby historian. He has access to many early Utah documents and is a great fan of John D. It was a privilege to welcome him as one of our speakers. 

Aaron believes John Dennis Fitzgerald should be considered as "Utah's Author". I agree. He supported his premise by what I think is a great and important concept. That John D, used an unbiased presentation approach to presenting Mormonism in contrast to how most Utah authors treat the religion. In Aaron's view,  the usual tendency of Utah authors is to let their biased feelings about Mormonism be easily seen in their fictional writings. I have not seen any other author from the region approach religious tolerance and community fellowship the way that John D was able to.  

In addition, he also explained how accurate John's portrayals of Adenville matched Price's history. It is rare to see a fictional author represent small-town Utah in such an accurate way. So much of the history of Adenville is accurately represented in the actual history of Price Utah. 

Last of all Aaron shared with us some news clippings from John's life. This was a clipping I'd never seen before and I was excited to get a copy. Thanks Aaron!