Piper Bulletin December 2008

Have you ever written a biography before this one? How does Virginia Piper's biography compare with other works you've written?

I primarily write novels and short stories, non-fiction essays and the occasional journalism piece. Virginia Galvin Piper's was my first biography, and the most surprising constraint I found myself working under after the research was done, was being accountable for precise facts. In fiction, imagination reigns, one constantly works to make things up, to get at the truth with lies. With a biography, facts reign, and suppositions, interpretations, serve those facts. I knew this, going into the project, but still, when I sat down to write the first pages, I was jarred by the imperative to hold to the known facts of Virginia Piper's life, that any imaginative elaboration on my part would have to be based on a foundation of biographic truths. It was nothing I was used to.

How long did you work on Virginia Piper's biography?

I worked on Virginia Piper's biography for three years, from face to face interviews with over a hundred people who knew or worked with Virginia, to writing, revising and editing the text. I tape-recorded each of those interviews, transcribing them by hand. I also selected from among hundreds, most of the photographs appearing in the book. Finally, I revised the manuscript a number of times. So many people helped, designers Diana Hickman and Neill Fox, Jewell Parker Rhodes, my editor, the Trustees who knew Virginia personally, others - as we neared the completion of the biography, it became more of a collaborative process.

What is your favorite story about Virginia Piper?

I heard so many marvelous stories and of course, not all of them found their way into the book. Two of my favorites did. One is the story of Virginia Piper surprising her first husband, Paul Galvin, on Christmas Eve, 1948. She had quietly undergone conversion to the Catholic faith without him knowing, and in church that night, her Christmas gift to him was to stand up and walk beside him to receive communion, whispering, "Happy Christmas, Darling," the title of the third chapter.

The second story concerns a young medical student Virginia took a CPR class from, after her second husband, Ken Piper died. The student instructor failed her in the course, yet they became friends, and she financed his years of medical school. In her final illness, Dr. Jim Dearing, her friend, was her attending physician. The young man she had believed in and helped through medical school, was with her at the end.

What is your favorite picture used in Virginia Piper's biography?

I have three favorites, two of Virginia Piper as a child in Wendell, Idaho.

My third favorite is of Virginia and Paul Galvin in a car. He is at the wheel, talking on a phone, and she is leaning over his shoulder with this great, radiant, beaming smile.

What is the most interesting thing you've learned in the process?

I've learned what a tremendous impact Virginia Piper had and still has upon people, both personally and philanthropically. She altered and uplifted so many individual lives as well as all of Maricopa County with her vision, loving intelligence and working philanthropy. I learned by her example that one person saying an active yes to God, can uplift and inspire countless others, that what you choose to do with the gift of your own life matters a great deal. And I learned that joy, a spirit of fun, does not contradict a life of faith or good works, that in fact true joy and cheerfulness spring from these.

What are you taking forward from this project that will stay with you?

Virginia Piper's example. Virginia's life has inspired me, transformed my perspective. I have always been fascinated by heroes, by saints, by those who have stepped beyond the small perimeters of self to serve others. In spending three years of my life studying Virginia Piper's, I received a model, a mentor, a living gift.

About the author

Melissa Pritchard is the author of three short story collections, The Instinct for Bliss, Disappearing Ingenue, and Spirit Seizures, as well as three novels, Late Bloomer, Selene of the Spirits, and Phoenix. She is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards, among them the Flannery O'Connor Award, The O. Henry Award, The Pushcart Prize, The Janet Kafka Prize, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Hawthornden and Howard Foundations. A professor of English, she teaches in the Virginia G. Piper Creative Writing Center at Arizona State University. Her author website is www.melissapritchard.com.