Trimpi, Helen A. Pinkerton

Placeholder Show Content

Abstract/Contents

Abstract
In this oral history, the writer Helen Pinkerton Trimpi recounts the path that led her to study English and poetry at Stanford University in the late 1940s and describes her experiences as a student of Ivor Winters and a lecturer in the Stanford Department of English. She reads her poem Autumn Drought (1976), which she wrote about Stanford and Winters. Trimpi begins with an account of her childhood in Butte, Montana and Mount Vernon, Washington. She recounts how Ray Cowell, her high school teacher and a Stanford alum, sparked her interest in journalism and encouraged her to apply to Stanford. Trimpi describes how her interest in English and creative writing, especially poetry, evolved at Stanford as she studied with the poets Ivor Winters and J. V. Cunningham. She describes being a student in Winters’ classes and speaks about the early days of the Stanford Creative Writing Program, which was founded by Wallace Stegner. Trimpi also describes student life at Stanford during the post-WWII period, including her experience writing columns for both the Stanford Daily and the Palo Alto Times while an undergraduate. Trimpi talks about meeting fellow Stanford student, Wesley Trimpi, whom she married in 1950. She recounts details of their travels in Europe, attending graduate school at Harvard, and their return to Stanford when Wesley joined the faculty of the Stanford English Department. Trimpi describes the culture of the department and talks about being a faculty wife and a lecturer in the English Department from 1962 to 1975. She discusses her opinion of curricular changes at Stanford and the women’s movement of the 1970s.

Description

Type of resource mixed material
Date created March 17, 2016

Creators/Contributors

Author Trimpi, Helen A. Pinkerton
Contributing author Humburg, Judee
Publisher Stanford Historical Society

Subjects

Subject Stanford Historical Society
Subject oral histories
Subject interviews
Subject higher education
Subject professors
Subject pioneering women
Subject Autumn Drought
Subject by Helen Trimpi
Subject 1976
Subject Bailey
Subject Margery
Subject 1893-1963
Subject Cunningham
Subject James Vincent
Subject 1911-1985
Subject oral histories
Subject Stanford University > Department of English
Subject Stanford University > Creative Writing Program
Subject Trimpi
Subject Helen P.
Subject 1927-
Subject Trimpi
Subject Wesley
Subject 1928-2014
Subject Winters
Subject Arthur Yvor
Subject 1900-1968
Subject women college teachers

Bibliographic information

Related item
Title
Finding Aid
Location https://purl.stanford.edu/jq658sf7600

Access conditions

Use and reproduction
The materials are open for research use and may be used freely for non-commercial purposes with an attribution. For commercial permission requests, please contact the Stanford University Archives (universityarchives@stanford.edu).
Copyright
Copyright © The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. All rights reserved.

Preferred citation

Trimpi, Helen A. Pinkerton
(2016). Oral History. Stanford Historical Society Oral History Program Interviews (SC0932).
Department of Special Collections & University Archives, Stanford University Libraries,
Stanford, Calif. Available at: https://purl.stanford.edu/jq658sf7600

Collection

Stanford Historical Society Oral History Program interviews, 1999-2022

View other items in this collection in SearchWorks

Contact information

archivesref@stanford.edu

Also listed in

View in SearchWorks

Loading usage metrics...