{"id":1553,"date":"2023-12-20T14:55:09","date_gmt":"2023-12-20T19:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/reporter\/?page_id=1553"},"modified":"2024-02-08T12:09:21","modified_gmt":"2024-02-08T17:09:21","slug":"from-roommates-to-writers","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/reporter\/winter-2024\/features\/from-roommates-to-writers\/","title":{"rendered":"From roommates to writers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Story by Mary Howard<\/em><\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t obvious during their time as Trinity College students that Peter Wheelwright \u201972 and Bill Miller \u201972 would become writers. Wheelwright chose to major in studio arts because he \u201cdidn\u2019t want to write a paper ever again.\u201d Miller, an English major, dropped out of his creative writing class with celebrated poet Hugh Ogden. \u201cI regretted it later,\u201d he admits.<\/p>\n

\"coverBut in 2022, the former Trinity roommates published well-received novels. Wheelwright\u2019s The Door-Man <\/em>(Fomite) was listed as \u201cOne of the Best Books of 2022\u201d by The New Yorker. <\/em>The book combines fact and fiction as it tells the story of three generations of families and their connection to a paleontological discovery. He also is the author of As It Is on Earth<\/em> (Fomite, 2012).<\/p>\n

\"SteelMiller\u2019s book, Steel City: A Story of Pittsburgh <\/em>(Lyons Press, 2022), <\/em>examines growth and brutality in the author\u2019s hometown, when Pittsburgh was in its golden age as the country\u2019s leader in steel, food processing, and electricity. A reviewer on BookTrib.com says, \u201cSteel City<\/em>\u00a0enthralls readers of historical fiction from the first page with an immersive plot set in the industrial sprawl and black smoke of Pittsburgh in the 1890s.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two met during their first year at Trinity, introduced by Will Whetzel \u201972, who grew up with Miller in Pittsburgh and attended boarding school with Wheelwright at St. Paul\u2019s School in New Hampshire. \u201cWe all came from very structured, traditional backgrounds,\u201d says Whetzel. But against the backdrop of the 1970s, their college years were less so.<\/p>\n

Wheelwright, who grew up in Lenox, Massachusetts, admits to being a bit of a \u201crascal.\u201d Kicked out of St. Paul\u2019s as a senior\u2014\u201cI busted every rule\u201d\u2014he spent a year studying in England before arriving at Trinity, where his older brother, George, was a student. Wheelwright had an appetite for mischief and distinguished himself on campus by driving an old Jaguar while wearing goggles and a white scarf. \u201cI was restless and fun loving,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\"BillMiller also had his wild side, taking many crazy road trips to nearby women\u2019s colleges. \u201cBut somehow, we protected each other from going too far out,\u201d says Wheelwright.<\/p>\n

During their sophomore year, they lived in a former office in Seabury Hall, with Whetzel and Hugh Mohr \u201972, who passed away last May. \u201cThere were two great big rooms for the four of us,\u201d recalls Miller. Wheelwright created his own den out of soundproof panels in an alcove, and a friend painted a giant image of the Hulk on one of the walls. There was even a dog, Poco, whom Wheelwright brought home from the garage where he worked part time. \u201cShe died six weeks after my first child was born,\u201d he notes.<\/p>\n

Wanting to stay connected, all four roommates pledged to St. Anthony Hall. It was a difficult choice for all of them, but particularly hard for Wheelwright, whose brother wanted him to pledge to his fraternity, Psi Upsilon.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember that we all were in tears at different times that week,\u201d says Miller. \u201cIt seems silly, in retrospect, but it shows how close we were.\u201d<\/p>\n

During their junior year, Miller and Wheelwright lived together in Ogilby. \u201cThere were a lot of fun and games, but it wasn\u2019t all<\/em> fun and games,\u201d says Miller, who recalls spending hours in the library, \u201cgrinding out papers.\u201d He also enjoyed English professor Richard Benton\u2019s \u201cFive Popular Fictional Forms\u201d class, where he delved into Zane Grey, Robert Heinlein, and Raymond Chandler. \u201cThey resonated with me more than Jane Austen,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\"PeterWheelwright admits, \u201cWe probably had too much fun.\u201d Though his class rank was consistently in the bottom 10 percent, he \u201cstopped playing around\u201d when he discovered architecture in the fall of his senior year. Professors Terry La Noue and Dieter Froese from Trinity\u2019s Fine Arts Department organized an independent semester in SoHo, where students could apprentice with artists or architects. Wheelwright spent the semester with celebrated architect Charles Gwathmey. \u201cIt was a fabulous opportunity,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

After graduation, he spent a year studying architecture at Cornell University before earning a master\u2019s in architecture from Princeton University in 1975. He began PMW Architects in New York City shortly thereafter, and his work has been published in Architecture, Metropolitan Home<\/em>, and the Journal of Architectural Education, <\/em>among other publications. <\/em>His pieces Kaleidoscope Dollhouse<\/em> and Poolhouse<\/em>, which he co-created with Laurie Simmons, are in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art.<\/p>\n

Wheelwright also taught architecture at Parsons School of Design, The New School, from 1983 to 2017, serving as chair of the Department of Architecture from 1997 to 2007. It was there that he started to think seriously about writing. Influenced, in part, by his uncle and namesake, Peter Matthiessen, a novelist and recipient of three National Book Awards, Wheelwright began taking creative writing classes at The New School and penned a few short stories. \u201cI can\u2019t think of many better trainings than architecture to help one write a story\u2014how to structure it, move through it, create the space of it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

One of those stories became his first novel, As It Is on Earth, <\/em>which centers around a young college professor, Taylor Thatcher, who wrestles with his religious legacy and complicated family history. The campus described in the book is a \u201cthinly veiled\u201d Trinity, and Thatcher\u2019s office is in a building reminiscent of Seabury, says Wheelwright. The book received an honorable mention for the 2013 PEN\/Hemingway Award for Debut Fiction, \u201cwhich was validating,\u201d says the author, who is working on his third novel.<\/p>\n

Miller was so delighted when Wheelwright published his first novel, he threw his friend a book party in Manhattan, where they were both living. It also got him thinking. \u201cIf Peter could do it, maybe I could, too,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\"Miller
Photo by Nick Caito<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Miller\u2019s first job out of college was as a reporter for The Day <\/em>newspaper in New London, and he owned a summer weekly newspaper in Rhode Island for two years. He also wrote a successful blog, Who\u2019s Your Favorite Beatle?<\/em>, where he shared his film and theater reviews. But much of his professional career was spent at Time Inc., where he worked in the consumer marketing division for more than 30 years. He retired as a director of the department in 2016.<\/p>\n

For Miller, writing Steel City <\/em>was a labor of love. A native of Pittsburgh, he has been fascinated by the city\u2019s past since he was a child. \u201cI lived on the same street as steel man Henry Frick\u2019s daughter, Helen,\u201d he says. \u201cIn Pittsburgh, the history is all around you.\u201d<\/p>\n

The book took Miller almost five years to complete. \u201cIt was a year of research, a year to write, and then three years to find an agent and get published.\u201d He says he chose to tell the story through a historical novel because it offered him more freedom. \u201cI could shape the story the way I wanted within the bounds of historical fact,\u201d says Miller, who has begun working on a sequel.<\/p>\n

Wheelwright says, \u201cBilly and I both share in our books an interest in research and history, imagining the inner lives of these real characters in history.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though they don\u2019t see each other often\u2014Miller and wife Warren travel between their homes in Rhode Island and North Carolina, and Wheelwright and wife Eliza divide time between their loft in Manhattan and a home in Upstate New York\u2014theirs is a relationship of fondness and respect, says Wheelwright.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd whenever we do get together,\u201d notes mutual friend Whetzel, \u201cwe\u2019re right back to where we were the first time we met.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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