Reynolds Price Biography

American author, born in North Carolina, educated at Duke University. His first novel, A Long and Happy Life (1962), set like almost all his fiction in his native state, centres on a young girl of small-farming background who discovers she is pregnant by her errant boyfriend. The girl's family reappears in the long story ‘A Chain of Love’ in The Names and Faces of Heroes (1963) and in A Generous Man (1973), a ritualistically constructed novel about young Milo Mustian's loss of virginity. The Surface of Earth (1975) is a novel of enormous scope and emotional depth centring on Rob Mayfield, son of a brief, doomed union, and his quests for his parents, for himself, and for spiritual rest. A Palpable God (1978) contains an essay on, and translations of portions of, the Bible, including St Mark's Gospel, with reflections on the art of narrative. The Source of Light (1981) continues the story of Hutch Mayfield, Rob's son, taking him to Oxford and Europe. Kate Vaiden (1986) is a moving account of both the destructive and restorative powers of love in a woman conditioned by the tragedy of her parents' love. Good Hearts (1988) returns to the Mustian family, now in middle age. Later novels include The Tongues of Angels (1990) and Blue Calhoun (1992). Other works include Things Themselves (1972), a collection of essays; Clear Pictures: First Loves, First Guides (1989), an autobiographical memoir; The Use of Fire (1990), a collection of poems; New Music (1990); a trilogy of plays, Full Moon and Other Plays (1993), and The Collected Stories of Reynolds Price (1993).