Welcome to Alice Trupe's autobiography . . .


The Blue Ridge

   Chapter 1
I'm a transplanted Pennsylvanian. I spent my childhood in a farmhouse built in the 1880s on a 7-acre farm bordering Hell's Hollow, about 4 miles from McConnell's Mill State Park. (Hells Run is a tributary to Slippery Rock Creek.)  What bordered our property was just woods, waterfall, and vestiges of old mines, the iron furnace, and the lime kiln then--no trails, no people, but an enchanted forest where a child could be a pioneer or a buccaneer at will.  I felt a lot like Peter Pan some days . . .
  but on other days, I was Alice passing through the mirror . . .

 

   In short, I had a bookish childhood.
Chapter 2
I spent most of my life in Pittsburgh, after leaving the farm at age 13.

 

  

After a lot of life happenings, with my M.A. in British literature (and most of my reading focusing on the 14th through the mid-19th century), I became a "roads scholar" to support my two daughters as a single mom and taught composition, basic writing, composition, basic writing, and composition for nine years.


Community College of Allegheny County, North Campus


Alice's Reading Page

 

 Chapter 3
My education had not brought me career opportunities that would reward my reading 18th and 19th century novels, so in 1993, the girls and I started back to school--

first I returned to good old IUP

for my Ph.D.,

then Mary went to Oberlin, then Bennington, then Hollins, then University of the Arts in Philadelphia,

and Natalie graduated from Mary Baldwin College, after trying out Marlboro College and taking a few courses at my workplace.

Chapter 4

Today we are happily and variously employed as English professor (me), paper conservator (Mary), and Equity assistant stage manager (Natalie). Bridgewater College is my professional home.

But I live in a farmhouse built in the 1880s on an 8-acre farm along the North River (tributary to the South Fork of the Shenandoah), "kitty corner" to Natural Chimneys Park, where I lead a bookish life.


Bridgewater College Mall--photo by Dr. Michael Hill

Alice's personal pages updated Nov. 1, 2006