The Giant Joshua is a 1941 novel written by Maurine Whipple, considered to be one of the most important works of Mormon fiction. The work portrays pioneer life and polygamy in nineteenth-century Utah Dixie. The idea for the novel started as a short story submitted to the Rocky Mountain Writer's conference in 1937. There Ferris Greenslet encouraged Whipple to apply for Houghton Mifflin Literary Fellowship, which she won in 1938 in advance of her first novel. She completed the novel over the course of three years.