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.Jalowitz, Alan. "Turnbull, Agnes Sligh" (biography). University Park, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania Center for the Book, retrieved online March 4, 2016 and again on June 23, 2023.

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.Jalowitz, "Turnbull, Agnes Sligh."

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.Waggoner, Walter H. "Agnes Turnbull, Novelist, 93, Dies", The New York Times, February 2, 1982. Accessed October 24, 2007. "Agnes Sligh Turnbull, a popular and prolific novelist and shortstory writer, died Sunday at St. Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, N.J. She was 93 years old and had lived in Maplewood, N.J., for 60 years."

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.Jalowitz, "Turnbull, Agnes Sligh."

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. These early novels have been identifies as offering subtle critiques of religious legalism, patriarchy, and industrial excesses. Over the span of her six-decade writing career, Turnbull's later works were increasingly regarded as having old-fashioned morality, which she and others attributed it to a hopeful outlook on life.Jalowitz, "Turnbull, Agnes Sligh."

Novelettes In The Garden. New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1926 The Wife of Pontius Pilate. New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1928 The Colt That Carried A King. New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1933 Once To Shout. New York: Macmillan, 1943 Little Christmas. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1964

Novels The Rolling Years. New York: Macmillan, 1936. Remember the End. New York: Macmillan, 1938. The Day Must Dawn. New York: Macmillan, 1942. The Bishop's Mantle. New York: Macmillan, 1947. The Gown of Glory. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1952. The Golden Journey. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1955. The Nightingale. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1960. The King's Orchard. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1963 The Wedding Bargain. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1966 Many a Green Isle. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1968 Whistle and I'll Come to You. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1970. The Flowering. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1972. The Richlands. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1974. The Winds of Love. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1977. The Two Bishops. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1980.

Collection of short stories This Spring of Love. New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1924 Far Above Rubies. New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1926 The Four Marys. New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1932 Old Home Town. New York: Fleming H.Revell, 1933

Juvenile works Elijah the Fish-bite. New York: Macmillan, 1940. Jed, the Shepherd's Dog. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1957. George. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1964. The White Lark. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1968.

Memoir Dear Me: Leaves from the Diary of Agnes Sligh Turnbull. New York: Macmillan, 1941. Out Of My Heart. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1958

References

Sources DeMarr, Mary Jean. "Agnes Sligh Turnbull and the World of the Pennsylvania Scotch-Irish Presbyterians." Journal of Popular Culture 19 (1986): 75–83. Halula, Edward K., "Old Home Town", The Sentinel, October 2002. Halula, Edward K., "A Nightingale Sang: A Story About Agnes Sligh Turnbull", The Sentinel, Feb. 2003. Halula, Edward K., "Two 'Girls' From New Alex", The Sentinel, June 2003. Richards, Samuel J. "Middlebrow Bestseller Obscured: Reconsidering Agnes Sligh Turnbull's Westmoreland Novels," Appalachian Journal 52:1–2 (2024–2025): 78–95.