Virginia Sorensen: Pioneering Mormon Author

In the 1940s she was a New York Times bestselling author—of Mormon novels. In the 1950s she won a Newbery Medal, the highest honor in children’s literature. But today, hardly anyone knows her name.

Who is Virginia Sorensen? How did a girl who grew up in a tiny Utah town in the 1920s become a globetrotting, award-winning author? And why has she been forgotten?

Though she wrote them four generations ago, Sorensen’s novels are more urgent today than ever, addressing issues both Mormons and for...