My parents have this great library in their house. While I was in college and could not afford to really buy books I would ‘borrow’ books from them. One of the authors that I happened upon was Reynolds Price. My dad had his trilogy, A Great Circle, which includes– The Surface of Earth, The Source of Light and The Promise of Rest. I was completely sucked into this saga of the Mayfield family. This past week I was sad to learn that Reynolds Price had passed away from complications due to a heart attack.
Price was a wonderful Southern writer. His books were mainly let in North Carolina where he was from. Once when asked why North Carolina was were he lived he said “It’s the place about which I have perfect pitch.” Eudora Welty was one of his mentors early in his writing career in face she helped him get his first books published by sending some of his work to her own publisher. Reynolds Price was often compared to William Faulkner which annoyed him greatly because he always considered himself a literary heir to Miss Welty. In 1984, Price was diagnosed with cancer which left him paralyzed for the rest of his life. He continued to teach and to write including his memoir, Clear Pictures in 1989 which he was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. There is no question that the literary world lost a giant last week and that Reynolds Price will be missed but his work will continue to please generations from now on.
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