Agnes Sligh Turnbull (October 14, 1888, New Alexandria, Pennsylvania – January 31, 1982, Livingston, New Jersey) was a bestselling American writer, most noted for her works of historical fiction based in her native Western Pennsylvania.

Biography

Turnbull was the youngest of two daughters born to Alexander Halliday Sligh, an immigrant from Scotland, and Lucinda Hannah McConnell, whose family was among early Scotch-Irish settlers in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. Turnbull attended the village school, a boarding school called Washington Female Seminary in 'Little Washington', then enrolled at Indiana State Teachers College (now Indiana University of Pennsylvania or IUP). Turnbull graduated from IUP Phi Beta Kappa and as valedictorian for the class of 1910. She also attended the University of Chicago before starting her career as a high school English teacher. In 1918, she married James Lyall Turnbull, just before his departure for Europe during World War I. He returned, and they were married for 40 years and had one child, a daughter named Martha. The family moved to Maplewood, New Jersey in 1922, where she lived for the rest of her life. Turnbull had her first short story published by The American Magazine in 1920, and published further short stories regularly until 1936, when she published her first novel, The Rolling Years.

Death and interment

Turnbull died on January 31, 1982. She is buried in New Alexandria, Pennsylvania.

Works

Turnbull's earliest novels, sometimes called her "Westmoreland Novels", are heavily influenced by Scotch-Irish ethno-religious culture that dominated her upbringing in rural Western Pennsylvania. While some critics regarded the morality of her writing as old-fashioned, she and others attributed it to a hopeful outlook on life.

Novelettes

Novels

Collection of short stories

Juvenile works

Memoir

Sources