After contributing two essays to The New Yorker on Fitzgerald at La Paix in 1956,[2] Turnbull began work on a full-length life based on "firsthand experience, painstaking research, and extensive interviews."[5] In contrast to Arthur Mizener's earlier biographical work, Turnbull sought to emphasize "Fitzgerald's character and personality over purely objective documentation of Fitzgerald's life."[5]
In 1962, Turnbull published his acclaimed biography, Scott Fitzgerald, which the Associated Press lauded as "the best biography of the novelist."[4][5] 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]
At the time of his death, Turnbull was suffering from depression and had sought psychiatric help.[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 Joanne T. and Frances L. Turnbull.[2]
^ abThe 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."