Dates

• Majority of material found within 1927 - 2000

Extent

1 box Linear Feet (Agnes McConnell Sligh Turnbull (October 14, 1888 – January 31, 1982) was born in New Alexandria, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. She was the daughter of Alexander and Lucinda McConnell Sligh. In 1910, she graduated Phi Beta Kappa and was the Valedictorian of her class at Indiana State Normal School in Indiana, Pennsylvania. After finishing her education at the University of Chicago, she began teaching high school English. She resigned from teaching in 1918 when she married an Englishman named James Lyall Turnbull just before he left for military service during World War I. In 1922, the Turnbull family moved to Maplewood, New Jersey. Agnes and James Turnbull adopted a little girl, Martha Turnbull O’Hearn (May 21, 1921 – August 27, 2006), who married James Paul O’Hearn on December 30, 1949 in Maplewood. Agnes Sligh Turnbull began writing short stories in the 1920s, but her most successful work came in 1936 with a novel titled The Rolling Years. Her other novels included Remember the End (1938), The Day Must Dawn (1942), The Bishop’s Mantle (1947), The Gown of Glory (1952), The Golden Journey (1955), The Nightingale (1960), The King’s Orchard (1963), The Wedding Bargain (1966), The Flowering (1972), The Richlands (1974), and The Two Bishops (1980). Her juvenile works included Elijah the Fish-bite (1940), Jed the Shepherd’s Dog (1957), George (1964), and The White Lark (1968). Agnes Sligh Turnbull wrote her memoir Dear Me: Leaves from the Diary of Agnes Sligh Turnbull (1941). All of her books were published by Houghton Mifflin. In 1966, Agnes Sligh Turnbull appeared in Who's Who. Her alma mater, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, conferred upon her the honorary Doctorate of Letters during their Centennial Convocation on September 13, 1974. Throughout her life, Agnes Sligh Turnbull maintained close ties to her hometown and many of the fictitious towns in her novels are based on New Alexandria, Pennsylvania. In 1982, Agnes Sligh Turnbull passed away at Saint Barnabus Medical Center in Livingston, New Jersey at the age of 93. The Agnes Sligh Turnbull Collection at the IUP Special Collections and University Archives is housed in one archival box. The collection includes correspondence, and early drafts of Turnbull's novels. The collection contains a file of biographical information including various newspaper articles and an article written by Mrs. Turnbull concerning the adoption of her daughter Martha. Several notebooks, which are the handwritten copies of Agnes' books, can also be found in the collection. Notebooks of The Rolling Years (1936), Remember the End (1938), The Bishop's Mantle (1947), and The Gown of Glory (1952) are included. In addition to the handwritten notes for The Gown of Glory, galley proofs and page proofs have been donated for this book. A letter written by Agnes relates a short story which is titled A Belated Easter Tail. All of Turnbull’s novels housed in the IUP Special Collections & University Archives have been cataloged and are listed at the end of this collection finding aid. In this collection, there is also an early inventory of the Agnes Sligh Turnbull Collection at the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center in the Special Collections Library at Boston University. The Turnbull Collection at Boston University consists of 8 linear feet of manuscript materials.)

Language of Materials

English