“From
the age of six I wanted to be an artist. At that point I meant a painter, but
it turned out what I really meant was I was someone who was very interested in
watching the world and making copies of it.” – Reynolds Price
Widely admired as an acute observer
of family life in small Southern towns, he won the William Faulkner Award for
his very first novel, A Long and Happy
Life, which might also have served as a great title for his own life
despite fighting medical trauma for decades.
Stricken with a rare tumor that left
him a paraplegic at age 51, Price nonetheless went on to 25 more years of
amazing writing, turning out reams of novels, essays, short stories, plays and
poems. Over a nearly 50-year writing
career, complimented by his work as a teacher, Price produced 38 books, 14 of
which were novels. Among them were
numerous best sellers, including The
Surface of Earth and The Source of
Light.
All of Price's novels are set in his
native North Carolina, 
where he spent nearly his entire life. Born on this date in 1933, he attended Duke
University on a full scholarship, and then was named a Rhodes Scholar, studying
at Oxford before returning to Duke to teach for the next 53 years. As a professor he was lauded by students and
faculty alike. Among his students was
the great Ann Tyler, who started her writing while still in his classes. In 1987, Duke gave Price its highest
honor: The University Medal for Distinguished
Meritorious Service.
“Writing is a fearsome but grand
vocation — potentially healing but likewise deadly," he said in a
late-in-life interview. “I wouldn't
trade my life for the world."
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