Andrew Turnbull
Born
Andrew Winchester Turnbull

(1921-02-02)February 2, 1921
Baltimore, Maryland
DiedJanuary 10, 1970(1970-01-10) (aged 48)
Cambridge, Massachusetts
NationalityAmerican
Alma materSt. Andrew's School
Princeton University
Harvard University
OccupationBiographer
Years active1956–1968
Notable workScott Fitzgerald (1962)
Thomas Wolfe (1968)
SpouseJoanne Johnson
Children2

Andrew Winchester Turnbull (February 2, 1921 – January 10, 1970) was an American biographer, scholar, and essayist who wrote acclaimed biographies of novelists F. Scott Fitzgerald and Thomas Wolfe.[1][2] Turnbull grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, and he met Fitzgerald while the author resided on his family's estate in the 1930s.[3] After graduating Princeton University and serving in the United States Navy during World War II, Turnbull obtained his doctorate from Harvard University. He taught literature at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Brown University. He committed suicide at age 48.[2][4]

Biography

Born on February 2, 1921, in Baltimore, Maryland, he was the son of architect Bayard and Margaret Turnbull.[5][6] In 1932, an 11-year-old Turnbull met novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald when the author rented the La Paix estate from his father Bayard.[3][5][6] As a young man, Turnbull attended St. Andrew's School in Middletown, Delaware. Later, he graduated from Princeton University—Fitzgerald's alma mater—in 1942, where he was a member of the Colonial Club. He served in the United States Navy during World War II.

After the war, Turnbull worked with the Economic Cooperation Administration (ECA) in Paris for several years. He earned his doctorate in European history from Harvard University in 1954.[2][4] He next pursued an academic vocation and worked as an instructor in the humanities at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1954 to 1958.[4] He also taught at Trinity College in France.[4]

In his later years, Turnbull taught American literature at Brown University. During this period, he conducted further research on Fitzgerald's life while in Paris and on the French Riviera, contributing several pieces to The New Yorker on the subject in the late 1950s.[2]

In 1962, Turnbull published his acclaimed biography, Scott Fitzgerald, which the Associated Press lauded as "the best biography of the novelist."[4] He followed this work with The Letters of F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1963. After receiving a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1964, he produced another highly praised biography about Fitzgerald's acquaintance and fellow novelist Thomas Wolfe in 1968.[2][4][1]

Turnbull battled with depression throughout his life and often received psychiatric assistance.[2] At age 48, while a visiting professor at Brown University, he committed suicide via carbon monoxide poisoning in a closed garage at his Brattle Street home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on January 10, 1970.[2][4] He was survived by his wife, Joanne Johnson Turnbull, and their two daughters.[2]

Publications

Volumes

Articles

See also

References

Citations

  1. 1 2 The Miami Herald 1970, p. 44: "The biography of Wolfe, published in 1968, was met with critical acclaim, as was the biography of Fitzgerald, published in 1963."
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 The New York Times 1970, p. 76.
  3. 1 2 Turnbull 1956, p. 98.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 The Record 1970, p. 3.
  5. 1 2 Bruccoli & Baughman 1996, p. 4.
  6. 1 2 Turnbull 1962, p. 207.

Works cited

  • "Andrew Turnbull, Biographer, 48, Victim of Suicide". The Miami Herald. Miami, Florida. January 12, 1970. p. 44 – via Newspapers.com.
  • "Andrew Turnbull Is Dead at 48; Biographer of Scott Fitzgerald". The New York Times. New York City. January 11, 1970. p. 76.
  • Bruccoli, Matthew J.; Baughman, Judith S. (1996). Reader's Companion to F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender Is the Night. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 978-1-57003-223-3. LCCN 62-14379 – via Internet Archive.
  • "Death of Andrew Turnbull, Scott Biographer, A Suicide". The Record. Hackensack, New Jersey. January 12, 1970. p. 3 – via Newspapers.com.
  • Turnbull, Andrew (March 30, 1956). "Scott Fitzgerald at La Paix". The New Yorker. New York City. pp. 98–99.
  • Turnbull, Andrew (1962). Scott Fitzgerald. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. LCCN 62-9315 – via Internet Archive.
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