A probing collection of personal essays by the author, biblical scholar, and National Public Radio commentator covers a wide range of interesting, controversial topics, including family, racial tolerance, and religion. 50,000 first printing.
Reynolds Price was born in Macon, North Carolina in 1933. Educated in the public schools of his native state, he earned an A.B. summa cum laude from Duke University; and in 1955 he traveled as a Rhodes Scholar to Merton College, Oxford University to study English literature. After three years and the B.Litt. degree, he returned to Duke where he continues in his fifth decade of teaching. He is James B. Duke Professor of English.
In 1962 his novel A Long and Happy Life received the William Faulkner Award for a notable first novel and has never been out of print. Since, he has published more than thirty books. Among them, his novel Kate Vaiden received the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1986. In 1989 he published the memoir Clear Pictures. His Collected Stories appeared in 1993, his Collected Poems in 1997; in 1995 he completed his trilogy A Great Circle, which consists of the novels The Surface of Earth, The Source of Light, and The Promise of Rest. He has recently published his first novel for young readers, A Perfect Friend. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and his books have appeared in sixteen languages.