Reynolds Price (born February 1, 1933, as Edward Reynolds Price) is an American novelist, poet, dramatist, essayist and James B. Duke Professor of English at Duke University. Apart from English literature, Price has had a lifelong interest in ancient languages and Biblical scholarship. He is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Life
Price was born in Macon, North Carolina and, after attending public schools of his native state, went to Duke University, where he graduated summa cum laude in 1955. Afterwards he went to Merton College, Oxford for three years as a Rhodes Scholar and wrote a book about life at Oxford, called 'The Source of Light'. After his return in 1958, he started teaching at Duke University, which he has been doing ever since. His first short stories were published in Duke's student literary periodical, Archive. Eudora Welty also helped Price get his first couple of books published; she sent one of his early stories, "Michael Egerton" to her own publisher, but Price's first book was not a collection of stories; it was a novel entitled A Long and Happy Life. His other books include his memoir Clear Pictures, and his novels The Tongues of Angels, Blue Calhoun, Kate Vaiden, Roxanna Slade and The Great Circle. The recent The Good Priest's Son is an account of a 9/11 experience.
Career
Price is a Southern writer. All his books are set in the South and more particularly in his native North Carolina. Price once replied when asked why he chose to remain in North Carolina: "It's the place about which I have perfect pitch." Price has cited Southern writer Eudora Welty as one of his early influences. He has also been noted for his sexually frank writing, and the ambiguous nature of his own sexuality; Price did not write publicly about being gay until his third memoir, Ardent Spirits: Leaving Home, Coming Back, published in 2009. He began teaching at Duke shortly after completing his Rhodes Scholarship in the late 1950s. For more than forty years he has taught a class on Milton, and former students include the writers Josephine Humphreys and Anne Tyler, along with the actress Annabeth Gish.
Price is a favorite author of Bill Clinton, who invited him to dinner at the White House early in his first term. Price wrote the lyrics to two songs by James Taylor: "Copperline" and "New Hymn". Price has received numerous literary honors, including the National Book Critics Circle Award, the William Faulkner Foundation Award, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for his memoir Clear Pictures (1989). He is also a member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. Price's book, Feasting The Heart (2000), is a collection of controversial and personal essays, originally broadcast to great acclaim on National Public Radio's All Things Considered.
Books
- A Long and Happy Life (1962)
- The Names and Faces of Heroes (1963)
- A Generous Man (1966)
- Love and Work (1968)
- Permanent Errors (1970)
- Things Themselves (1972)
- The Surface of Earth (1975) (part one of the A Great Circle trilogy of novels aka The Mayfield Trilogy)
- Early Dark (1977)
- A Palpable God (1978) (translations from the Old and New Testaments, with an essay on the origins and aims of narrative)
- The Source of Light (1981) (part two of the A Great Circle trilogy)
- Vital Provisions (poems, 1982)
- Mustian (1983)
- Private Contentment (a 1984 television play)
- Kate Vaiden (1986)
- The Laws of Ice (poems, 1986)
- A Common Room (1987)
- Good Hearts (1988)
- Clear Pictures (his 1989 memoir)
- The Tongues of Angels (1990)
- The Use of Fire (poems, 1990)
- New Music (a 1990 trilogy of plays)
- The Foreseeable Future (stories, 1991)
- Blue Calhoun (1992)
- Full Moon (a 1993 play)
- The Collected Stories (1993)
- A Whole New Life (1994 memoir describing his survival of spinal cancer that started in 1984 and left him paralyzed)
- The Promise of Rest (1995) (part three of the A Great Circle trilogy)
- Three Gospels (1996) (contains Price's translations of the Gospels of Mark and John, with introductory essays)
- The Collected Poems (1997)
- Roxanna Slade (1998)
- Letter to a Man in the Fire: Does God Exist and Does He Care? (an epistolary essay, 1999)
- A Singular Family: Rosacoke and Her Kin (1999)
- Feasting the Heart (2000) (52 of the essays he regularly broadcasts on National Public Radio's news program All Things Considered [1])
- Learning a Trade: A Craftsman's Notebooks, 1955-1997 (2000)
- A Perfect Friend (Price's first children's book, 2000)
- Noble Norfleet (2002)
- A Serious Way of Wondering: The Ethics of Jesus Imagined (2003)
- The Good Priest's Son (2005)
- Letter to a Godchild : Concerning Faith (2006)
- Ardent Spirits: Leaving Home, Coming Back (2009 memoir about his time at Oxford University and his first three years teaching at Duke University)
External links
