Mark Twain (1835-1910), the famous American writer, earned a place in the history of Mormon literature as a humorist about nineteenth-century Mormon culture and as a minor critic of The Book of Mormon. In chapters 12-16 of
Roughing It, Twain describes his visit to Utah and provides, among other commentary, a humorous defense of Mormon polygamy (Mormon women were so ugly that polygamy was an act of charity). Twain is (in)famous in Mormon circles for having said that the Book of Mormon is "chloroform in print" (
Roughing It, chapter 16). See Richard H. Cracroft,
"Distorting Polygamy for Fun and Profit: Artemus Ward and Mark Twain Among the Mormons," and
"The Gentle Blasphemer: Mark Twain, Holy Scripture, and the Book of Mormon."
Mormon author Lee Nelson has written a completion to Twain’s unfinished sequel to
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,
Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer Among the Indians