A treasure from the ETV tape vault, this episode of Writer's Workshop introduces us to renown author Reynolds Price. The author of A Long and Happy Life and The Surface of Earth explains his own writing methods, from work schedules and revision. He writes page by page rather than to draft by draft. Reflecting on the nature of subtlety in writing, Price declares that the whole concept has been overemphasized. The author decries the absence of letter writing in contemporary life and the richness and levels of understanding that it used to bring. He notes that when he writes, he incorporates vastly rearranged life experiences and that his writing does not match the linear course of his own life. Price said that writings were influenced by his literary aunts who gave him books like The Arabian Nights, Alice in Wonderland and noted that he was immersed in both sides of the family with ceaseless narrative, tale tellers, some of whom were very funny. As regards style, he doesn’t think of it or the conscious development of it.
Side Notes
- February 1, 1933 - January 20, 2011
- Publication of his first novel A Long And Happy Life January 1,1962.
- Edward Reynolds Price was an American poet, novelist, dramatist, essayist and James B. Duke Professor of English at Duke University.
- After graduating from Duke University in 1955, Price received a Rhodes Scholarship and attended Merton College, Oxford
- Price is classified as a Southern writer, as his works are often especially associated with his lifelong home of North Carolina.
- Less well known is Price's work as a lyricist: He collaborated on two songs with his friend and fellow North Carolinian James Taylor, the best known being the 1991 hit, Copperline.
The Writer's Workshop features 15 major talents in contemporary literature who met in a one-on-one forum with well-known author William Price Fox and University of South Carolina creative writing students. Each writer discussed his or her personal writing methods, furnishing insights into the highly individualized process of literary creation. Other authors include George Plimpton, James Dickey, James McPherson, John Gardener, John Hawkes, John Irving, Kurt Vonnegut, Nora Ephron, Pauline Kael, Reynolds Price, Stephen Spender, Susan Sontag, Tom Wolf, William Price Fox, and William Styron.
