Literary Birthday – 1 February – Reynolds Price

Reynolds Price was born 1 February 1933 and died 20 January 2011.

Reynolds Price Quotes

1. Strength just comes in one brand – you. Stand up at sunrise and meet what they send you and keep your hair combed.
2. A need to tell and hear stories is essential to the species Homo sapiens-second in necessity apparently after nourishment and before love and shelter. Millions survive without love or home, almost none in silence; the opposite of silence leads quickly to narrative, and the sound of story is the dominant sound of our lives, from the small accounts of our day’s events to the vast incommunicable constructs of psychopaths.
3. The only thing more destructive than a tornado is a family.
4. Writing is a fearsome but grand vocation—potentially healing but likewise deadly. I wouldn’t trade my life for the world.
5. We crave nothing less than the perfect story.

Reynolds Price was an award-winning American poet, novelist, dramatist, and essayist. He won the William Faulkner Award for a best first novel for A Long and Happy Life. He won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Kate Vaiden. He completed a memoir called A Whole New Life in 1994 which chronicled his journey after the discovery of cancer in his spine. Over his career, Price produced 38 total novels, short stories, and memoirs. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Source for image: Fair Use https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Reynolds_Price.jpg

by Amanda Patterson

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